Toronto-based jazz musician and composer Justin Haynes first love was the guitar, but he's been flirting with another instrument in recent years- the ukulele. “I was couch-surfing at a friend's place a couple years ago I guess, and they had a ukulele. I was without my guitar so I just sort of starting playing it and developed an affection for it. My friends had a recording studio in their apartment, so I had this idea that we should try making a record with the ukulele.”
Haynes will be taking his ukulele to our city when he plays at the Ship on May 21. He'll be joined by “best friends” whom he also considers to his “favourite musicians,” Ryan Driver on street-sweeper bristle bass and Jean Martin on suitcase (these guys know how to travel light!). They're touring for their new album, Freedman, selected interpretations of Toronto songsmith Myk Freedman's work. They will also be joined by Newfoundland piano virtuoso Bill Brennan on melodica, during what will undoubtedly be an interesting, unpretentious night of music. How often do you get the chance to see someone playing a suitcase instead of a drum set?
Haynes has been romancing the guitar for 24 years now, and doesn't consider the ukulele much different from it. He also plays the piano and is currently working on an album where he plays it, joined by two friends, one playing a church organ the other, a balloon (yes, like a party balloon). “You know how you play blades of grass? Well Ryan Driver does that with a balloon, he's amazing at it. It sounds really glorious, he can sound like a whale, or a gospel singer. He's kind of a miracle of nature. Playing with him is always a unique experience, because you're often hearing sounds that you're just not used to hearing, so it's very exciting.”
There seems to be an experimental trend here. I ask if that's something he strives for in his music, to which he responds, “Well, I like the experimental spirit, I like trying things that are experimental in nature. In other words, like if you're not sure if it's gonna work or not, or if people are gonna like it or not. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But while I like experimental music, it's not a means to an end, I'm not that interested in making it for the sake of it. I like a lot of the same things in music that everybody else does, like melody and harmony, or whatever. Beauty, groove, humour, and all that stuff I love. I don't want you to think that I'm like a physicist or anything,” he laughs. “I do like when that experimental spirit can create something that's really beautiful.”
Whether musical experimentation is something that they strive for or not, their experimentation with Freedman seems to be working well in their favour. They're touring dates all across the country this month to promote the release and have received great reviews for the album. Haynes seems a little taken aback by the success, saying, “It's amazing, people have been really interested and generous, and it feel really good. I'm quite proud of this group. It just feels like such a privilege to be able to travel and see friends all the country, see these great places. I'm pretty grateful.”
Haynes has played with Driver and Martin in St. John's several times before, more recently at the Wreckhouse Festival last summer. They've performed in several musical outfits, including the quirky-named BlahBlah666. “We've probably played thousands of shows together with different bands. We've had our own groups together, we've played with singer-songwriters, we've done soundtracks together, we've played with dancers...we've done lots of gigs together. We're old friends, we've known each other for probably 20 years. There's a lot of familiarity, but there's also a lot of sort of pushing each other, because we know each others playing and each other so well. I like that about it, there's a lot of trust. We're playing this Freedman material very loosely, pushing our instruments to see what we can do, with themes of love, absurdity, and joy.”
Published in Current magazine, May 15-May 29 2009 Volume 11, Issue 13
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