Due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the 38th edition of the TD Victoria International JazzFest will be held online next month. One of the performers playing at what has been coined Virtual JazzFest is local trombonist, bassist, and producer Nick La Riviere. And while the show is virtual, that doesn’t mean La Riviere isn’t going full-steam ahead with all that jazz has to offer.
“If I were to go the classical route, then… my job would be to play notes exactly as they are on the page and make them sound absolutely perfect, exactly as they are, and I’d be at the mercy of the composer,” he says. “In jazz, there’s more freedom to improvise.”
It’s been over a year of learning to play live music a little differently, but La Riviere hopes the end of pandemic life is in sight—he’s booking some outdoor patio gigs for the summer, and regularly plays at Pagliacci’s and the Bard and Banker’s patio with two of his band members. The catch? He has to play below a certain volume to remain within the provincial health orders.
“It’s still possible to play the notes and make them exciting,” he says. “I think a lot of people, when they get booked for a quiet gig, they think that just because it’s quiet it also needs to be slow and mellow, but I try to think of it as the same as if you just turn the radio down. It doesn’t change the song that’s playing.”
But being able to play at full volume still can’t quite be replicated, he says, because regardless of the instrument you’re playing, the tone of it changes at a lower volume.
“When you play it physically louder, there’s just no room to replicate that,” he says, “and there’s also more room for dynamics when you’re playing it louder.”
Crescendos and other dynamic choices are limited when volume is limited, but La Riviere isn’t complaining. He’s looking forward to the days when live shows can be played in full again.
“We would rather be playing these quiet shows than not playing at all,” he says. “We’re still happy to have the opportunity.”
Playing virtually, as La Riviere is for JazzFest, means that there is less going on around him: there are no people laughing, drinking, or having a good time. Instead, La Riviere thinks of the virtual shows as being more like recording in the studio.
“You still have to put all the energy you have into it because it’s going to be played back multiple times later,” he says. “As a musician, you always want to be putting your best sound out there, but it’s certainly a whole different thing when there’s not the audience right in front of you.”
Virtually JazzFest
Friday, June 25 to Sunday, July 4
By donation
jazzvictoria.ca