Vancouver Concert: An Evening Without Leonard Cohen

[efish22]

Barking Sphinx Performance Society presents

An Evening Without Leonard Cohen
featuring Talking Pictures & Guests
Friday, April 22nd, 2005, 8:00pm
Vancouver East Cultural Centre, 1895 Venables
Vancouver, BC, Canada

Tickets $15/$12 at Ticketmaster (604 280 3311/www.ticketmaster.ca)

On Friday, April 22nd, Talking Pictures and guest artists -- with the noted absence of Leonard Cohen -- will present a concert inspired by the work of this iconic Canadian poet and songwriter. Leonard Cohen is a brilliant and complex figure. His meditations on sex and love, Zen, Judaism, politics and death articulate, often with the blackest humour, the eternal dance between Apollonian austerity and Dionysian excess. Prose works like the visionary novel Beautiful Losers, countless poems and richly imagistic and confessional songs like “Suzanne”, “Sisters of Mercy”, and “Hallelujah” provide the impetus for an evening of music, words and images.

Artistic director, guitarist/composer Ron Samworth and his Talking Pictures cohorts, cellist Peggy Lee and drummer Dylan van der Schyff are joined by a stellar line-up of guest artists to pay homage to Canada's poet maudite. Singer/songwriters Kevin House and Elizabeth Fischer bring their poetic sensibilities and unique vocal interpretations to the table. Katy Harris-Mcleod is a sensual and compelling dancer and choreographer. Bassist Paul Blaney and violinist Jesse Zubot are two of Vancouver's finest musical interpreters. The evening's program will include arrangements of Cohen songs and original music inspired by his writings, improvisations based on his texts, visual images and rare NFB short films all woven into an entertaining and provocative montage.

Talking Pictures is an eclectic quartet that draws on a distinctive and wide-ranging sonic palette and reveals an empathy that Canadian writer Mark Miller describes as “a closely attenuated style of group playing, deliberate yet wholly responsive, with a wonderful sense of space.” Performing in Vancouver since 1992, Talking Pictures has been perennially featured in Vancouver’s International Jazz Festival and has toured across Canada and in Europe.

We gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts

[lizzytysh]

Welcome, Efish22 ~

Since being there to see it for myself is impossible, I hope you'll report back on it, or at least copy-and-paste the words of someone who does. Or, just give us the link. It sounds like it's going to be a great time. I'd love to see the dance. Will any audio or visual recordings be made of it, that you know of?

Thanks~!

~ Lizzy