Blog - Page 3 of 3 - Scott Irvine

The Joan Watson Scholarship

May 28, 2023July 16, 2016 by Scott

VICTORIA, BC – Yamaha Canada Music has announced the Joan Watson Memorial Scholarship, for first-year students entering the University of Victoria. Beginning in the fall of 2016, and continuing for the next three years, a Canadian brass player accepted to the School of Music will be eligible to receive a $1500 cash award. Joan Watson, … Read more

Scallops a la Doug

May 28, 2023January 30, 2016 by Scott

Doug Purvis was a fellow tuba player in Toronto, and was quite the bon vivant himself. He played for over thirty years in the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra, and we performed together in the tuba section of the Hannaford Street Silver Band for around twenty years. This recipe is the result of hanging out … Read more

Linguine with White Clam Sauce

May 28, 2023December 19, 2015 by Scott

Before making this, you must say the following in a sotto voce Homer Simpson voice: “Ummmmmm. Linguine-with-white-clam-sauce. Aaghgahgahghgagh.” Yes, there’s nothing quite like it. I’ve had it in many, many establishments. My recipe search has taken me from the Toronto Star’s Chef Showcase, to an old Philadelphia Orchestra cookbook, and to places on the internet … Read more

H(ail)* Caesar!

May 28, 2023October 8, 2015 by Scott

Caesar Salad I’ve made this quite a lot over the years, and I now find that I’ve upped the garlic content quite a bit from the early days, but, from experience, I can say this; “Know your dinner guests before going nuts with the garlic!” By the way, my favourite Caesar salad that I have … Read more

Gazpacho

May 28, 2023June 16, 2015 by Scott

After years and years of making Gazpacho, from myriad recipes, I think I have come up with “the ultimate”. It combines the best from several recipes, plus a few of my own things thrown in for good measure. The “herbs and spices” tomatoes add a nice touch of seasoning not found in plain tomatoes. As … Read more

Joan Watson

May 28, 2023May 25, 2015 by Scott

On March 12th, 2015, I lost the love of my life, my best friend and my muse. Joan Watson was an exceptional person, teacher, musician, horn player, woman, mom and inspiration for some of my compositions. One of those compositions is Shapeshifter for French Horn and Brass Band. Check it out here in a recording … Read more

A Case for a New Ensemble: The Organ Sextet!

May 28, 2023October 21, 2014 by Scott

Brahms’ Horn Trio is a work for violin, French horn and piano, not a piece for three horns. Similarly, a Piano Quartet is not an aggregation of four pianos, it’s the combination of (or a composition for) violin, viola, cello and piano. And the Schubert “Trout” Quintet is not a …well… never mind, I’m sure … Read more

The Flintstones Tuba

May 28, 2023October 11, 2014 by Scott

Imagine getting to play Heifetz’ violin, or Rubinstein’s piano or Casals’ cello or…..

flintstone_tuba — Living the dream at Jim Self’s house in Los Angeles.

I have to admit that I really didn’t know what to think of playing the tuba after being first handed one in 1967, but one thing was clear – this was the instrument that I heard on my favourite TV show from my youth; The Flintstones!

. In fact, I have to say that watching the reruns of those Flintstones episodes from the early 60s afforded me the opportunity really pay attention to the background music. Whoever that tuba player was, was my inspiration! Many years later I would discover that the tuba player was an LA studio musician named George Boujie, who was the go-to guy for most stuff before Tommy Johnson began his legendary career. On a visit to LA in 2007, I got to fulfill a dream and play Boujie’s CC York tuba used on MGM movie scores in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s as well as on the original Flintstones background music. (a big thank you to tuba legend Jim Self, who now owns the horn.)

Kelpaphonics

May 28, 2023December 19, 2012 by Scott

True north brass members playing kelphorns Photo:alkayphotos.ca

Bull kelp is one of the largest brown algae. It grows attached to the sea floor by a specialized root-like structure called a holdfast. From this, a long stem-like stipe extends to the surface of the sea, terminating in an enlarged, spherical, hollow float from which the linear leafy blades emanate. It occurs on rocks in the upper sub-tidal zone to a depth of several fathoms throughout coastal British Columbia.

Al Kay: Friday, July 18th &emdash; — The kelp harvest

Al Kay: Saturday, July 19th &emdash; — Trying the new kelphorns

Never a group to miss a performing opportunity, True North Brass took the kelp challenge in beautiful Bamfield, BC during our residency there in the Summer of 2009. Trombonist Al Kay went out early one morning with local kelp harvesters and brought back a number of “instruments” for our concert.

Here are some pictures of our performance and even a post-concert photo with the harvesters. (BTW, Al Kay took these great photos. You should visit his site at alkayphotos.com – a great place to spend an hour or two!)

After selecting particularly good sounding horns, we experimented in finding some common notes and chords. We then worked out the form for the piece, and that was about it. It’s basically a TNB group improvisation — and it came off rather well!

But best of all, you can actually hear and see the performance right here. (Unfortunately, most of the camera time is focused on the portly tuba player. Note that hornist Joan is playing a “double kelp”!) Note also the “kelperidoo” at one point.

Kelpaphonics from MusicByTheSea on Vimeo.

Macaroni & Cheese (with tomatoes)

May 28, 2023May 30, 2012 by Scott

This is definitely survival/comfort food, and the recipe has sentimental value, as it’s the first main course that I learned to make as a kid. (It’s also WAY better for you than that Crap-in-a-Box!) I love it with a couple of boiled hotdog wieners and some Keene’s hot mustard (and a really cheap Italian red … Read more

If you enjoy these musings, there's more!