Gordon Grdina Plays Tim Berne Originals

Photograph of Gordon Grdina by Genevieve Monro (courtesy of Braithwaite & Katz Communications)

Last month prolific Vancouver-based guitarist, composer, improviser, and master oud player Gordon Grdina released two new albums on his Attaboygirl Records label. One of these, Oddly Enough, drew my attention for its innovative approach to making music under pandemic conditions. It began when Tim Berne sent a new composition to Grdina. Berne himself is a saxophonist; and readers may recall that, in April of last year, he contributed to the Newvelle Live series of videos of live jazz performances presented by Newvelle Records.

Grdina responded to the music that Berne sent by recording a performance of it. This performance was a “studio creation,” bringing together tracks of both solo acoustic and electric guitar accompanied by samples of instruments synthesized through MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) technology. Berne responded to Grdina’s recording by sending him another chart for another original composition. This back-and-forth engagement continued for almost a year, by which time Grdina had accumulated seven compositions, each an interpretation of a Berne composition. Oddly Enough is the recording that compiled Grdina’s seven interpretations of charts he had received from Berne.

Grdina took a diversity of approaches to interpreting each of these scores. For example, his performance of the second track, “I Don’t Use Hair Products,” sounds like a solo guitar interpretation without any post-processing. On the other hand “Oddly Enough” is the opening track; and it explores an engaging diversity of “oddities” emerging from both selective capturing and inventive post-processing. I suppose my own personal soft spot can be found in “Lost in Redding,” which evokes (for me at least) a driver having made a wrong turn while trying to find his way back to the Bay Area.

While these exchanges were taking place, I was just beginning to familiarize myself with Grdina’s work, first through the debut release of his Nomad Trio album and then through a septet album entitled Resist. Both albums involved performances and recordings that pre-dated the COVID-19 pandemic. As they say, “things changed” after the onset of the pandemic. Had it not been for the constraints of those conditions, the processes through which Oddly Enough was created might never have happened. This is not so much a matter of trying to make an excuse for a medical catastrophe as it is an acknowledgement that music makers tend to find a way to make their music even under severe restrictions.