Shadows and Light

It is not necessary to travel farther than Margaretsville to get regular glimpses of exciting places in the world. The latest performance brought both Iceland and Newfoundland to our door in the form of renowned jazz guitarists Bjorn Thoroddsen and Duane Andrews. See the photo gallery of the performance here or read on for my impressions of the performance.

This virtuosic pair teamed up to bring us a wonderful program in the afternoon that Sunday, with music blending jazz and folk, Icelandic traditional tunes, Newfoundland music with its French, Irish, Portuguese and English influences and Manouche (Gypsy Jazz). Duane’s style is heavily influenced by the music of Django Reinhardt whose Oriental Shuffle followed hot on the heels of Georgia Brown to start the program. His “Les Yeux Noirs”- (Dark Eyes) was one of my favourites of the afternoon, along with Bell Island, one of Duane’s compositions. Pieces by by Emile Benoit, Duke Ellington as well as variations on traditional Icelandic tunes performed by them were exhilarating and delightful.

Sadly these two have not recorded together yet, but the photo gallery of the performance features a track from Duane’s newly released CD entitled ‘raindrops’ on the photo gallery of their performance that you can see here.

Thanks very much for dropping by the Evergreen Theatre on your way to Jazz East festival on that inspiring Sunday afternoon, Bjorn and Duane. You gave us a great performance!

Ellie