Preview, buy and download the song "My Romance" from the album Vol. I for $0.99.
“Stuuuuuuuuuuu” #insidejokes
This guy. My first musical brother. Where do I start with this guy? Many moons ago, at National Music Camp of Canada, a young, naive (yet secretly self-confident trumpet player) from Scarborough heard one of the trumpet faculty at camp play Herbert L. Clarke’s [easier] Theme & Variations on a Carnival of Venice, and then decided it would be a great idea to play J.B. Arban’s [more challenging] Theme & Variations on a Carnival of Venice at the “talent show” on the last night of camp, that he’d just learned about. Unfortunately, it was my first time at NMC, so I didn’t know any pianists. I was SO naive (yet secretly self-confident), I actually had the audacity to ask the head of the jazz camp if HE would accompany me on piano at the talent show. He politely declined, but recommended I seek out a fellow camper named Stu Harrison, a great pianist who could probably help me out.
I found Stu after one of his classes or workshops at camp, and asked him if he was interested. He was interested, so we ran through Carnival. Stu figured out the chord progression as I played the theme, and then he would improvise his own interludes between the variations. You have to understand, the last time I played this piece with a pianist, I’d lost a competition because she had such a hard time with her part, my score was marked down for her mistakes. Now, here was this 16 year old pianist dude improvising interludes in the right style on the spot after hearing the piece for the first time. I was pretty blown away. THEN, he asked me if I improvised, and wanted to play a blues or something (I was there for the classical camp, he was there for the jazz camp). So, we played a blues, and I think we also jammed on the other few tunes I knew back then. I’m getting a little emotional typing this, because I remember being so happy to finally meet someone my age, who was as serious about music as I was back then. Almost every break between classes, rehearsals, and concerts, and every night for the rest of camp, we’d get together with a few of the other campers and just jam, while most of the other kids were being more social. I think Stu, I, and another couple campers even skipped out on the dance on the last night to jam one last time before going home.
Through my last couple years of high school, and my one year at the University of Toronto, we met up to jam, played a couple gigs together, and even played a recital at Casa Loma together. Stu accompanied me on the provincial brass finals for the Kiwanis Festival one year, and at one of my college auditions. He learned the BEJEBUS out of those piano reductions of orchestral scores, and the notoriously difficult Hindemith Sonata for trumpet and piano. He was still in high school. He called me right after I’d learned I was moving to NYC to attend MSM, to tell me he was going to U of T (but before I’d shared my news with him). Since then, we had one random corporate Christmas gig together in Toronto, but kinda lost touch over the years.
Fast forward to a few years ago, when I moved back to Ontario. I was getting back in touch with my Canadian roots, and started writing these arrangements of Canadian folk songs for trumpet and piano. Stylistically, they were all over the place, and I eventually realised it would be a challenge to find one pianist who could authentically play in every style these arrangements covered. But then, I remembered, I knew a guy…
I called Stu up out of the blue, and asked him if I we could get together for a short rehearsal to read through some arrangements. He sight read most of the piano parts so well, he probably could’ve recorded them in a couple days. I asked him if he wanted to record this music with me and he was game, so we’ve been rehearsing it since then. (while I save up the money to pay for the recording 😂😂😂). I’m really excited about how that recording will turn out, I just need to practice this music to get up to Stu’s level. Honestly, I’ve been SO excited about music since that first read through with him a couple years ago, I haven’t really taken a day off from my early morning practice sessions since then. It’s hard to convey how empowering and inspiring it is for a composer, to have a pianist who you know can play anything you throw at him. He may have perfect pitch, but his work ethic is also superhuman.
So, enough about me. This track (My Romance), is from Stu’s debut album, humbly titled Volume 1. It was an easy choice for me, just because this is one of those tunes we played together as kids, and hearing Stu play solo piano just takes me back to that optimistic time before I was “Lost in New York”. I’m pretty sure listening to it will put a smile on your face too.
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/my-romance/1168469007?i=1168469071&app=itunes
http://www.stuharrison.com/shop/cd-volume-1/
https://open.spotify.com/track/3hrApcYn2jjwGjZ8fYWtpN
http://www.stuharrison.com
