Niagara-on-the-Lake resident and renowned jazz pianist Paul Tobey promises at least one patriotic surprise number at his Canada Day evening performance for Music Niagara Festival.
“It’s a Canadian number that everyone will recognize,” hints the affable improvisational genius. “It’s definitely not Oh Canada, but I don’t think there would be a Canadian that wouldn’t know this song.”
Whatever that number might be, it is not on Tobey’s new release, an eight-song collection of his angle on mostly standards called It’s Time. The album is the primary focus of his 7:00 p.m. CD release show at Spirit in Niagara Distillery on Lakeshore Road.
Tobey is looking forward to his first official performance for Music Niagara.
“They usually do one or two jazz concerts a year,” Tobey says of the festival run by Atis Bankas. “They called and asked me to perform and said they wanted to do it at a different venue than St. Mark’s. I suggested Spirit in Niagara, as it has a piano and is a big enough room. I asked Arnie (owner Lepp) and he was all for it.”
It’s Time marks a first for Tobey. The 2004 Juno Award nominee recorded the album, including his improvisational take on such well-known numbers as Over the Rainbow, Take Five, Nancy with the Laughing Face and My Foolish Heart, at the new studio he built in his Old Town home. It also includes his own composition, Caminar (The Walking Song), inspired by his spiritual trek along Spain’s Camino de Santiago.
“The goal was to put out an album on my own piano,” says Tobey, who plays a German-made Ibach grand piano that looks as impressive as it sounds. “All my other albums were recorded in someone else’s studio on someone else's piano. The album is a project that lasted a couple of months, and the music was actually chosen by fans, including other musicians.”
Tobey regularly connects with many of those musicians via his Jazzmentl YouTube page, where he offers lessons on improvisational techniques. Part of his decision-making process for song choices hinged on which videos received the greatest number of views.
Tobey won’t have his own piano at Spirit in Niagara. Instead, he will be playing a shiny, beautiful Samick baby grand piano, acquired by Lepp with the help of a local piano tuner and consultant in 2022. Tobey is familiar with the instrument and the location - he was one of the first musicians to perform on it at a concert there last June.
For the Canada Day show, he’ll be joined by Clark Johnson on bass and Ted Warren on drums.
“Clark was referred to me by my jazz instructor at Mohawk College more than 40 years ago,” says Tobey. “This is actually my first time getting to play with him. And Ted Warren, I’ve known him since my university days (Tobey attended both Mohawk and Montreal's Concordia University).”
Besides the songs from It’s Time and the Canadian number whose title he won’t yet disclose, he promises a Chick Corea composition, a few blues numbers and an improvisational take on Bach’s The Goldberg Variation Number One.
“Basically, what I do is I play it as if (late Canadian classical pianist and renowned Back interpreter) Glenn Gould was playing it,” Tobey promises. “Then I switch it to jazz and improvise over the same chord structure. It’s in 6/8 time, so it’s like a swing waltz.”
Tobey will have copies of the CD for sale at the show and promises that vinyl copies will be available in the near future. The performance begins at 7:00 pm, but there is a dinner option. Tobey suggests a reservation for 5:00 pm for those intending to stay for the concert.
For tickets, visit musicniagara.org.
