Simon Fisk and Robin Tufts
As you reach the top of the stairs, you are met by the musical offerings of bassist Simon Fisk and percussionist Robin Tufts performing original and fully improvising ambient music to welcome you sweetly and softly to the Vigil.
Robin Tufts
Robin is a drummer, percussionist and dance accompanist. Robin is very active in the Calgary jazz community, playing and recording with his own Trio Velocity, The Keith Smith Trio, The Lorna MacLachlan Group, The Northern Lights Jazz Quartet, Mapl, Andrea Petrity, and Mark DeJong. Other performing and accompanying credits include, the celtic group Seanachie, the klezmer band Klezmerovitz, flamenco guitarist Peter Knight, poet Sheri-d Wilson, Lynn Miles, Bob Day, Guido Basso, Alberta Ballet, Decidedly Jazz Dance, Dancers Studio West and Stage West. For 20 years, Robin has been the group leader of accompanists for the Program of Dance at the University of Calgary.
In the past five years, Robin has begun a re-exploration of his life-long passion for spontaneous improvisation. This has lead to “Music for Soup”, a series of house concerts featuring performances of spontaneous duets with musical guests Keith Smith, Simon Fisk, Raulito Tabera, Peter Clark, Mark DeJong, Bill Horist, Austin Tufts and Jeremy Brown to date. The Music for Soup project has resulted in the release of seven self produced limited edition CDs.
Simon Fisk
Simon Fisk has recorded and performed extensively since 1995. In the 2000s, Fisk toured frequently with his own trio, as well as with Juno award-winning Canadian pianists David Braid and Micheal Kaeshammer. His trio collaborations have featured Vancouver pianist Chris Gestrin, Halifax drummer Jerry Granelli and Toronto saxophonist Danny Oore with performances in Scotland, Germany, China, Mongolia, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Kathmandu, Nepal.
Fisk’s consistent output is due to his rapport and the constant creative inspiration he receives from his fellow musicians. Since his debut recording in 2002 Fisk has released CDs as a leader on his independent label Plunge Records. His debut outing Trainwrecks (2002) and his fifth outing You and Yours (2007) were both nominated as the outstanding jazz recording for the WCMA awards in their respective years. Fisk followed up with Vague Hotels (2007), Calm abide (2008), Unless (2009), Great Vehicle (2010), and Where everything is music (2013).
As a sideman Fisk has appeared on stage and in studio with Jerry Granelli, David Tronzo, Paul Wertico, Dan Weiss, Gordon Grdina, David Braid, amongst many others. He has collaborated on four albums with Nova Scotia drummer Jerry Granelli.
The two sides to his musical personality lead his free spirit and search for uncharted territory into spontaneous musical expression, freely improvised transitions, and diverse solo forms. He maintains a deep fascination with the art of the song, and his music shows two sides to his creative personality – the improviser and the songwriter- each playing off each other while allowing his band-mates the necessary space to express themselves without formal boundary.
Fisk’s performances convey a wide range of expression; from an emotionally direct spiritual hymn to dense, abstract and hard driving grooves. Fisk has always favoured the juxtaposition of the extremes of freely improvised music with formal composition. He has attracted a sizeable and dedicated following over the years, a following that has grown to expect emotionally charged and intense performance from Fisk and his band mates.
