Canadian Musician - September/October 2020 | Page 51

For Rayannah it’s the Dave
Smith Instruments Sequential
Prophet 6, “a beautiful instrument,”
she says, describing it as her
“gateway to getting into synthesizers”
and incorporating them
into the ever-evolving system of
looping devices she deploys when
writing and playing live.
Some players, however, found
themselves parted from their main
instrument – notably U.K.-based
Canadian expat Rachel Mahon,
the newly-minted director of music
at Coventry Cathedral – home to
the pipe organ on which she recorded
her recent album, Canadian
Music on the Organ of Coventry
Cathedral, for the Scottish label
Delphian.
Mahon is in a unique situation.
She’s on furlough in the U.K.,
which provides her with a partial
salary but requires her to forego
working at the cathedral or with
her colleagues entirely. “Early
on, we thought this would last a
week or maybe three, at most,”
Mahon says. “Then we thought,
worst case scenario, six weeks.”
Initially, she and her husband (also
a professional organist) began
putting together theory videos for
students to work on, “But because
of the furlough conditions, we had
to stop working on those. I have
been practicing every day, but
I don’t have an organ at home.
That’s tricky, but I do have multiple
keyboards and I’ve also been
gathering some ideas for what I
want to do when I’m allowed back
at work.”
Aquakultre’s Nick Dourado
& Jeremy Costello
When it came to geeking out
about gear and music with members
of our panel for this piece,
however, my lengthy conversation
with Costello’s Aquakultre bandmate,
keyboardist and saxophone
player Nick Dourado, was the
widest-ranging.
It begins with the recording of
Legacy at the NMC and Dourado’s
unmitigated joy at having access
to so many vintage keyboards
over the band’s 10-day album session.
“We were so lucky to make
our record there. On the song ‘Wife
Tonight,’ I’m actually playing a
real [Hohner] Clavinet,” he says
enthusiastically. “Even though I’m
a full-blown, card-carrying Stevie
Wonder fanatic, it’s the first time
I’ve played a real Clav. Three of the
greatest Clav masters, and specifically
Clav masters, are Stevie,
Herbie Hancock, and Sly Stone.
They were obsessed with the Clav,
and I get why now: because the
actual instrument, when you’re
touching it and igniting the mechanism,
it just feels so intuitive and
sounds so cool.”
From there we move on to
Dourado’s wide-ranging musical
background, as well as the music
and musicians that have inspired
him over time.
Since he began studying
classical piano as a child in his
hometown of Calgary, Dourado
has delved deep into rock, jazz,
and – while living in Halifax –
heavy-duty improvisational tech-
“I think that’s the power of
music – being able to touch
people … so people listen
and have empathy and understanding
of what others
go through.”
-Ruth B.
PHOTO: MING WU
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 51