The Play Ethic is available from Brian Cram by emailing:    briancram@mail.com
Or send $20.00 to:
Brian Cram, 711 Bay St., Apt. 421, Toronto, Ontario, Canada    M5G 2J8   Ph:  (416)  599  5863.

SHICKENDANCE     5:50      Shickendance was a name I gave to the imaginary music I heard when I would live out my exhibitionist whims as a child. The thirteen-eight melody is based on the Hindustani Purvi scale. Brian Cram- trumpet   Dan Salvendy- rhodes Joe Phillips- double bass
FILL MA'NIMMONS     6:56      Fill Ma'Nimmons is my bow to the great educator, Philip Rista Nimmons Phil reminded us to play with genital conviction and use our ears. Brian Cram- trumpet   Dan Salvendy- rhodes Joe Phillips- double bass
IN YOUTH     8:16      In Youth was performed as the overture to Fredrick Durrematt's play The Visit. Directed by Kelly Thornton, it was staged in November and December of 1997 at the Alumni Theatre in Toronto. Brian Cram- trumpet   Dan Salvendy- rhodes Joe Phillips- double bass Jason Clarke- guitar   Blake Howard- drums
BLACK HARVARD      7:08      Black Harvard and Gangrenous are two of the many compositions recorded for Alex Poch-Goldins' play, This Hotel, staged at Fringe Festival of Toronto from July 2-12, in 1998. Black Harvard, based on an Armenian folk melody, was used as pre-show music to prime the audience. Brian Cram- trumpet, piano   Blake Howard- percussion
GANGRENOUS     7:15      Gangrenous with its' mournful bass trumpet intro, was used to accompany the heros melancholic journey. Brian Cram- trumpet, bass trumpet   Dan Salvendy- piano Joe Phillips- double bass
BRIDGETOWN BUST     7:42      Bridgetown Bust is based on Caribbean mystery plays. Spirited testaments are separated by instrumental passages reminiscent of pastor and congregation. Brian Cram- trumpet, bass trumpet, tuba, clay whistle   
Blake Howard- percussion
VANDALS' DAY     9:18      Vandals' Day is a festival and parade held in Ghana every year. Marching bands and traditional ensembles perform together in reverence and celebration. Brian Cram- trumpet, flugel horn, bass trumpet, tuba Blake Howard, Jesse Baird, Mike Dixon- percussion
POST FACTO     :50      Post Facto was composed for the closing credits to Rick Palidwor and Demetri Portellis' comedy short, Schmooze. A kookie twist of fate occurs when instead of hitting the snooze button, a tierd man hits "Schmooze". Brian Cram- trumpet, bass trumpet
All selections composed and arranged by Brian Cram. Shickendance and Fill Ma'Nimmons were engineered in the Dog House by Chris Roskelly. In Youth was engineered by Keith Power, and the rest by Brian Cram at the University of Toronto. Artwork by Peter Campbell, photography by Ladan Behbin, and layout by Implosive Media.


REVIEWS

• EXCLAIM MAGAZINE, March, 1999. James Keast
• NOW MAGAZINE, January 7-13, 1999. Matt Galloway
• EYE MAGAZINE, January 7, 1999. Jonathan Patrick
  
  
  
  • EXCLAIM MAGAZINE, March, 1999.
  • Author:   James Keast
  • Section:   Orderly Chaos
  
       Guh trumpeter Brian Cram's first solo project is an example of words being completely inadequate when it comes to illuminating the beauty of music. Descriptions that will inslude 13/8 time signatures, Armenian folk melodies, Caribbean mystery plays, and the marching band traditions of Ghana all make The Play Ethic seem much more like school, and less like fun. It is however, a remarkable show of compositional genius full of simple haunting melodies. Given the complexity of Guh (whose numbers range from eight and up), what's deceptive about this music is its simplicity. Often featuring not more than two or three people, sometimes just Cram himself, these compositions sound huge, hinting at, rather than revealing their ipic grandeur. With these pieces, Cram has proven himself a composer to watch with subtle touch of grace and remarkable talent.
  
  
  
  
  • NOW MAGAZINE, January 7-13, 1999.
  • Author:   Matt Galloway
  • Headline:   Guh's Brian Cram blows up local theatre
  
       From shouting out unintelligible choruses and marching enmasse through airports to composing an entire set's worth of music around various obscure military skirmishes, drama has always been central to the music of unwieldy Toronto compositional ensemble Guh.      Perhaps the decidedly theatric slant to Guh trumpeter Brian Cram's new solo disc, The Play Ethic, isn't that significant a departure, then.
       Title aside, though, the connection between the recording and the stage is a real one. One track, Bridgetown Bust, draws inspiration from Caribbean mystery plays, another was written for the closing credits of a television comedy short, and several of the songs on the disc were originally commissioned for stage productions steered by local theatre director Kelly Thornton.
       Cram's resulting tunes do have a filmic, visual quality to them, but not in the big-budget, hit-oriented way that we tend to think of sound track music these days. The trumpeter is more interested in tracing the links between the fringes of Toronto's creative music makers and the city's "lo-fi" theatre scene, even going so far as smearing on some face paint and climbing onto the boards himself.
  
  Cinematic Sounds
       "The theatre community has happily discovered the music of Guh," Cram offers from his downtown apartment. "I guess they're interested in our brand of cinematic and theatric music.
       "In a way, we are coming from a similar place. We're both searching for something new or different, and we come out of a similar independent position. For them it would cost way too much to go to the Canadian Opera Company to produce a play or get one of those real soundtrack guys to do the music.
       "For me, doing this music is really an extension of Guh. I can't imagine writing for a band without some motivating idea, and theatre provides a similar focus. It demands that you comment on the action, or at least add an emotional boost to what's going on stage, and that's a challenge.
       "The whole idea of The Play Ethic is to play, and that's what both of us really want to do. For Kelly Thorntons' play The Visit, there was a group of three of us in costume, full makeup and on stage maybe 40 times, singing, acting and playing the tunes, and we were surprised every night. Theatre is a very interesting world."
       With live action providing a solid focus, it's no surprise that The Play Ethic is considerably less overwhelming than your average Guh epic. Where Guh thrives on orderly chaos, with upward of a dozen people playing apparently conflicting parts simultaneously but somehow emerging unscathed. Cram's disc follows a less hectic and indeed filmic design.
  
  Odd arrangements
       Several of the tunes feature uncommon instrumentation, from a trumpet/Rhodes/bass arrangement and a striking horn/percussion duet reminiscent of Don Cherry's sparring sessions with Ed Blackwell to Vandal's Day, a marching song featuring three drummers and Cram on trumpet, bass trumpet, flugelhorn, and tuba.
       All are unpredictable, shifting moods and styles to suit the action, and while they could have ended up being performed by Guh, there apparently just wasn't space on the music stand.
       "I was writing a lot of tunes, and these really needed to be recorded before they were lost," Cram laughs. "Guh is writing and recording all the time, but we just had too many songs for one band- even a band that releases three CDs at once.
       "There's a lot less going on here than in most Guh tunes. A couple of these are just duets, and the first two don't have any drumming at all. In a way I was trying to do something different, but the drumming thing was just an accident. We were recording, and (percussionist) Blake (Howard) said, "See you in half an hour." Three hours later he wasn't back, so we just went ahead and recorded anyway. They started off as huge drum tunes but really took on lives of their own."
       Fans of Cram's more raucous compositions should get their fill with a new Guh recording, We Are Sunburning, due out in March. Beyond that, however, Cram is sticking to the stage, at least for the time being.
  
  Opera future
       "I want to work on larger projects," Cram remarks. "I've been doing some soundtracks to the films of Rick Palidwor, a crazy filmmaker who does comedy shorts. More things like that would be nice.
       "Right now I'm working on two operas as well as a CD-ROM to be released next summer. It's a mixture of words, art, and music. Actors I've worked with in the past are coming in and doing monologues, and I'm putting the music to them. They'll be like little radio plays.
       "Hopefully, more of that kind of work will come my way. This CD is really just a way to try to get other people interested in using live music in their productions. It's a tough thing because of the cost, but if you've got the nerve and wit, there's nothing like it."
  
  
  
  
• EYE MAGAZINE, January 7, 1999.
• Author:   Jonny Dovercourt
• Headline:   The play's the thing      GUH's Brian Cram gets theatrical

     Musicians get no respect from the art world, and deservedly so. They're smelly, crude and inarticulate, goddammit. Their vice-infested nightclub shenanigans cannot possibly kount as kulture. Notes and chords alone tell us nothing about the world, unless of course, they accompany... the thee-ah-tah!
     To get around this problem, the members of GUH have embraced it. Shamelessly, they have sold the controlled chaos that is their music as High Art to the various governmental funding bodies that maintain the elite standards of civilized society, in return for mad bills. To this end, Toronto's "compositional ensemble" has begun to fracture, with the individual players striking out on their own for the sake of the whole. Behold The Play Ethic, a CD chiefly composed of music commissioned for locally produced stage plays by GUH trumpeter Brian Cram- a project that came to fruition with funds from the Ontario Arts Council.
     "It seems to be easier to get grants if the projects have an interesting direction," says Brian. "What they're looking for is some quality that sets it apart from a straightforward music project, and which, I hate to say it, looks like it'll have some economic gain"
     This idea- of nurturing the creative health of the group through the independent projects of its members- was concocted by GUH guru, manager and mountain bike marauder Craig Barnes. "Craig wants to present GUH projects through different people and spread around the work," explains Brian. "He's got the idea of turning his label, Unmanageable, into a sort of Knitting Factory-style collective."
     And Brian Cram Presents The Play Ethic is a fine place to start. Brian's compositions here remain within the wide realm that is the GUH style (members Blake Howard, Jay Clarke and Jesse Baird are featured), but in a mellower, more contemplative mood. Two pieces composed for This Hotel, a play directed by Kelly Thornton for the Fringe Festival, are especially outstanding. The brooding "Black Harvard" is "based on an Armenian folk melody," according to Brian's extensive liner notes, while "Gangrenous" has a Monk-like melancholy feel. And "In Youth" served as the overture to Thornton's Alumnae Theatre production The Visit, a performance in which Brian participated.
     "At the beginning of the play," says Brian, "the other musicians and I were dressed in drab, dilapidated gray. And as the play progressed, everything became finer, as we became wealthy. It's the story of a woman who offers a billion dollars to a town to kill a guy who was mean to her. They accept the money but are unsure wheather they can commit the deed."
     One would think such an ethical dilemma would be similar to that of musicians when getting paid to deal with- ugh- actors. But no, says Brian, doing music for theatre has been a joy. Except for the actors.
     "Theatres are quite interested in involbing live music in their porformances, but commisssioning composers can be quite expensive. They're often at the same level as indie bands, so they've discovered a whole outlet of people at the grassroots level of with whom they can work."
     The non-theatrically commissioned material on The Play Ethic is also solid. "Bridgetown Bust" was inspired by "Caribbean mystery plays" and sees Brian exploring some surprisingly restrained Barbadian jazz. And the chromatically sliding "Fill Ma'nimmons" is his tribute to Phil Nimmons, Brian's old music professor at U of T and renowned dirty jokester.
     "In class," Brian reminisces, "if we got tired playing the trumpet, he would say, 'Hey, man, do you ever get tired when you're necking with a girl?'"
     Nimmons in fact gave my Grade Eight music class a guest lecture back in the day. Explaining proper embouchure, he told us: "You gotta use all your lips. Except for the girls, you don't have to use all four.."
     GUH celebrate the release of Brian Cram Presents the Play Ethic with eye darlings Do Make Say Think on Saturday Jan. 9, at the Rivoli.
     See Brian's website at: webhome.idirect.com/~briancram