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But Wyckham Porteous is quick to set the record straight about this new Vancouver-based trio, which plays at the Rotary Centre for the Arts on Friday. The name, he explains, comes from the first letter of each musician‘s last name – Bill Bourne and Jasmine Ohlhauser are the other two – and their sound is folk, not jazz. “There‘s only one person in the band that could ever play well enough to be in a jazz band and it‘s not me,” says Porteous. “It‘s just a playful kind of title.” The group formed only a year ago, after Bourne, a long-time blues and folk musician with multiple Junos, dropped by to jam with Porteous, bringing along 26-year-old Ohlhauser, originally from Alberta. “We kept going,” says Porteous. “It was a very organic kind of process.” He compares the ensemble‘s sound to a cross between The Byrds, The Mamas and the Papas, and Peter, Paul and Mary. “It‘s steeped in a folk tradition in that there are only three instruments – two guitars and a bass – and voices,” he says. “The voices are the big deal in the sound. The three of us all have fairly unique voices.” The Kelowna audience can expect to hear a range of songs. “We do everything from Bob Dylan‘s song, Blood on the Tracks, to a Mamas and a Papas‘ song. We do our own songs and we do traditional songs, Bob Marley songs.” While the line-up seems linked to the past, Porteous emphasizes that the sound appeals to everyone. “My kids and their friends are in their mid-20s, and they love the band,” he says. “And boomers – people that are in their 40s, 50s, 60s – also love the band. If you‘re younger, you can go with your family and really enjoy it. It‘s cross-generational.” The Bop Ensemble has been busy, logging some 20,000 miles across North America in the past year. “We‘ve been really moving around and that‘s starting to take its toll a bit,” says Porteous, whose family lives in Vancouver. Porteous, like Bourne, is working on a new solo album. For Porteous, it will be rock-style offering that follows up on his last album, 3 a.m., which earned him nominations for three Canadian Folk Music Awards in 2008. “That was a folk orchestration – very acoustic, but very lush, thick. Lots of instrumentation and pretty mellow in terms of its sound. Previous records before that have been a lot more rocking.” He worked on 3 a.m. with a seminal rock figure, Andrew Loog Oldham, a former manager of the Rolling Stones. Oldham has described Porteous as “Leonard Cohen meets Harry Dean Stanton” with a voice “like a bottle of wine.” Porteous has his fingers in many pots, although writing is usually at the core. “I‘ve done a million things,” he says. “Mostly within music and theatre. I wrote plays for the Arts Club and I did six albums on my own. I just write a lot, that‘s what I do. I spend long periods of time at home writing.” Porteous is working on a book, Song and Dance Kid, which uses his two weeks with Oldham as a path into his own musical memoirs. “It‘s sort of my life story, but through doing this particular album project,” he says. He is also writing a series of songs “to incite people not to vote for (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper.” He says the Bop Ensemble songs are not overtly political although some are politically inspired, like Deep into the Water, which reflects on Canada‘s involvement in Afghanistan. “But if you listen to it, you wouldn‘t go: ‘Oh that‘s an anti-war song‘,” he says. Still, Porteous says he‘s discouraged by the growing disconnect between people and their governments. “It disturbs me that my kids are growing up extremely cynical and completely uninterested in voting,” he says. “They do vote because everyone in the family does, but it‘s not something they think has any impact on their lives. And I think that‘s a shame.” What: Bop Ensemble Where: Rotary Centre for the Arts, 421 Cawston Ave. When: 7:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 22. Free preshow with Jane Eamon at 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $30 adults, $10 students, online through selectyourtickets.com Info: 250-717-5304 Top of Page |
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September 7, 2010, 6:20 am |