Spar and Automatic
Mary Margaret O’Hara voice Aidan Closs percussion Larry Potter vibraphone
Vocalist Mary Margaret O’Hara is adored by a legion of fans for her songs and fierce independence. It’s freedom she seeks and freedom she finds in improvising with her voice. Her duo project Spar and Automatic with multi-instrumentalist Aidan Closs finds O’Hara at the height of her powers as an artist, as they have developed such short-hand, such rapport with one another, so as not to let anything stop their dialogue of exploration through the abyss… joined by vibraphone master Larry Potter.
(Toronto)
Ronley Teper and Her :ipliners
Ronley Teper vocals, guitar, stories, songwriting Tim Posgate guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle Alexis Marsh various instruments Chris Banks bass Chris Pruden keyboards Ben Bowen trumpet Beth Washburn cornet, alto tuba Aly Livingston flute D Alex Meeks drums Peter O’Neill projections
“The Ronley is quite a peculiar creature”… read her bio. We love The Ronley around here! A brilliant mish-mash of roots, folk cabaret, world, jazz, blues & electronica… like an old pair of silk slippers, Hamiltonians will slip into this sweet-voiced, inventive Toronto artist’s creative work, … of this, we’re certain… what exactly will happen on stage that night, we’re not so sure, as every night she creates a thing of one-off beauty!
Ronley Teper is one of Canada’s most unique and interesting musical artists. At once a storyteller, a performance artist, and a singer/songwriter, she combines these disciplines into provocative stage shows as a ringleader with the help of her improvisational band, The Lipliners. The Lipliners began as a monthly residency at the legendary Tranzac club in Toronto. Teper invited some of Toronto’s finest musicians to publicly improvise around her storytelling and songwriting. Over the past decade this process has developed a body of work that listeners often compare to Tom Waits, Frank Zappa and Laurie Anderson. This Summer Solstice the Lipliners will bring together the concept of space and time in an interactive, improvised stage show creating and contrasting the stories of the solstice experience from a series of modern times, pagan times, roman times, to just who knows what time… earth, water and fire. the coming of the Lipliners Circus of Solstice.
Born in South Africa, Teper grew up in Toronto. A self-taught musician, sheʼs been an active composer and member of the Toronto arts scene for over a decade. Sheʼs toured extensively through the US, Europe, and Canada, and receives airplay on CBC, BBC and college and university radio programs. In 2010, she was invited as a guest speaker at the first TEDx talks in Bangkok, Thailand. Here, she organized vocal improvisation music workshops for children in Bangkok International Schools, and performed throughout the country. She recently returned from an artist residency and tour in Reykjavik, Iceland and is composing music in collaboration with the puppet company ‘Quality Slippers Productions’ which will unveil its latest show, Exit, Pursuit By A Bear as part of the Summerworks Festival on Theatre Passe Murailleʼs Main stage
On this Solstice evening Ronley’s Lipliners will include:
Tim Posgate plays guitar, banjo, mandolin and fiddle. He has recorded seven CDs (latest one is called Banjo Hockey) and toured in support of them internationally as well as performing at most of the major Canadian Music festivals. He is a member of many groups including The Oolong 7, The Cluttertones and The Lipliners,. Tim has also performed with Jane Bunnett, Jerry Douglas, the Shuffle Demons, Andrew Downing and Jaron Freeman-Fox among others. He lives in Little Italy with his wife and two sons.
Alexis Marsh is a composer and multi-instrumentalist living in Los Angeles. She studied USC’s Scoring For Motion Picture & TV graduate program, She is a composer, producer, session musician and has provided unique original music for a multitude of projects ranging from short films and animations to commercials and corporate promotional videos.
Chris Pruden (piano) born in Edmonton, Alberta, after attending the jazz diploma program at Edmonton’s Grant MacEwan College. Chris was then accepted into the prestigious jazz program at the University of Toronto where he completed his undergraduate degree in jazz performance studying with Geoff Young, Gary Williamson and Chris Donnelly. Chris feels at home in a wide variety of genres and has performed in venues across Canada such as Edmonton’s Winspear Centre, the Rex Jazz Bar in Toronto, the Trane Studio, Koerner Hall and many more. His playing is mainly jazz based, but also includes many outside influences, allowing for a refreshing stylistic approach to the piano that showcases his sensitivity, creativity, and energetic spirit all at once. Now at the age of 25 Chris is beginning to make a name for himself in the Canadian jazz scene and is collaborating with and learning from some of the best musicians in Toronto.
Brass generalist, composer, arranger, and singer-songwriter Ben Bowen studied jazz trumpet at York University and Humber College, and completed his Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at York in 2009. An in-demand player with a 10-year history of working primarily in pop and folk in the Toronto area, he has played and recorded as a trumpeter with a number of notable Canadian musicians, including Great Aunt Ida, Old World Vulture, Bellewoods, Ronley Teper, Lily Frost, Brian MacMillan,Drew Smith, A Northern Chorus, and Tamara Williamson. As of 2011, he had been involved in 29 studio albums, with a number of other projects still somewhere in the pipes. Recently, Ben returned to his roots as a guitar-player and began working as a children’s educator and entertainer, opening for the legendary Fred Penner in August of 2011. He plans to go into the studio to produce an EP of traditional kids’ folk songs in November of 2011. As a horn player, Ben also remains actively involved in the Toronto music scene, continuing to play with the Book of Gnomes, Great Aunt Ida, and Ronley Teper, and sitting in with Hamilton’s Trio Arjento as well as an upcoming collaboration with the inimitable Tiny Bill Cody.
Beth Washburn has been playing brass for 28 years and now plays cornet and alto tuba with Ronley Teper’s Lipliners and amelie et les singes blues. She is known for her dapper tie and hat collection.
When not accompanying her favourite band, The Lipliners, flutist Aly Livingston can be found creating stories for children or frolicking along the trails of Dundas with her faithful canine companion, Lottie.
D.Alex Meeks is a percussionist by common distinction. His hands make the clatter in tintinnabulist parade duo King Weather, bastard chamber ensemble Clarinet Panic, and the rock and roll group Hooded Fang. He is a friend of the word, the foremost living performer of the vernacular compositions of American musician Holiday Rambler, and the defacto proprietor of Dust, the quietest big band in the known world.
Hamilon Artists Inc.
Tickets $18+s/c at Dr. Disc, Hammer City Records, Picks & Sticks and online at brownpapertickets
Contact: cem [at] zulapresents [dot] org
