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Notable Number Nine

Jen Gillmor

Gary Diggins

Yuri Gorbachow

Jen

My musical exploration has covered vast territory. I have performed and recorded in projects ranging from funk to folk, rock to reggae, music influenced by traditions of African, Indian and Celtic cultures as well as experimental projects than can draw few comparisons. My ever-growing family of instruments began with flute at age nine which I studied classically for about five years. I discovered percussion in my teens, played alto sax in high school band, took up the bass guitar at 23, the kamel n'goni and the cello at 36. I've been immersed in music since birth, thanks primarily to my father, a musicologist and audiophile.

I have composed and recorded for film, video, dance, theatre and multimedia projects. I adore the alchemy of creative teamwork in these media, though I do have a solo album in the works. I've got a trove of road stories from having toured internationally and have appeared in nationally broadcast music videos and on various local and national television shows.

Music is my greatest joy, my therapist and longest-standing passion. Engaging in improvisation with fine musicians such as Yuri and Gary is often a transcendental experience. It is my favourite form of meditation. When we are lucky, we tap into a truly blissful realm and there is a wild mix of diamond-pointed concentration and utter abandon. I am delighted and honoured that we have a steady stream of listeners keen to enter this place with us. The more the merrier on Triund's musical magic carpet ride!

This is the most vulnerable I have felt with the release of an album I've played on. Offering uncensored sonic emissions from the heart is not always pretty. But it is always authentic and original.

It is through music that I feel I can offer most to the world. I aim to give back to others the supreme emotional and spiritual highs that music has given me. I seek to re-express beauty and universal experience (positive as well as challenging) through sound. I sincerely hope you enjoy this particular musical adventure.

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Gary

I was blessed. I grew up in a musical family surrounded by instruments that could be joyfully struck, plucked, or blown. My ear, from early childhood, grew curious about language - human speech or the natural calls and cries of living things. Threading it all, however, was the mystical and magical weave of all things musical. When I was eight years old, my father rented me a coronet - the smaller version of a trumpet. Doors opened slowly but, with practice and patience, I eventually found my place in the sonic community of school orchestras, concert bands, and brass ensembles. In my adolescence, though, the structure of playing composed music gave way to creating improvised music. Growing up on the Canadian side of the Detroit River, I was exposed to soul music, jazz, gospel, and Motor City Rock. I loved it all and, for several years, I worked with an eight piece horn band that opened for artists ranging from Alice Cooper to Sly Stone. At one level I achieved a young man's dream and yet my exposure to the entertainment industry clarified that what I was searching for was not to be found in the performing arts. I wanted a deeper connection to the healing arts. I knew, from first hand experience, that music holds medicine and allows us to explore or express regions of our inner life.

Decades later - after studying psychology, spirituality, counselling, and world music - I have generated a process called 'soundwork as soulwork' that combines my expressive arts background with a psycho-spiritual approach to human challenges. I help people through major transitions and thresholds. Improvised and impressionistic music is integral to this process as it invites us to befriend the tensions, emotions, chaos, and re-shaping that comes with significant change. Shamans and healers, down through time and across world cultures, have made intentional and improvisational sound as a means of summoning up the healing resources within an individual or group. Today, I am seeking to apply those ancient principles and processes in a contemporary context, be that in a therapeutic space, a performance space, or even the joyful space that happens when a group literally 'plays' together. My work has taken me to African countries affected by war (Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, and Nigeria). My work has taken me around the world to organizational boardrooms and international conferences. I continue to be blessed by the teachings of music.

My premise is simple: I believe everyone contains some degree of musical intelligence. When I gather a circle of individuals together, I bring us into the moment and trust that something significant and meaningful will happen as we elicit a collective wisdom and employ mindful listening. My musical outings with TRIUND, and other bands of bards, is about knowing that something profound will emerge when we gather in interactive spaces that crackle with intention, improvisation, and imagination. A musical dialogue happens when a handful or roomful of individuals engage to make something meaningful, practical, or soulful. The size of the circle doesn't matter. What happens in the space will always be wilder, bolder, and deeper than anything a single individual could dream up.

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Yuri

Music is a profound motivating force for me. I can’t remember not ever being in a group. I have been a music-recording engineer and music editor for the television and film industry since 1985. (professional bio) I not only make a living in music during the day but I also consider it my hobby, health care system and spiritual vehicle. I would not be the first to say that music in all of its forms Is my religion. As musicians, Gary, Jen and I have learned to go beyond our principal instruments. We don’t rehearse any “parts” together as we rely on inspired playing. However, we do spend a lot of time playing and getting to know instruments from around the world.

Unlike my musical colleagues, I have no credentials in the healing arts. No certificates, no diplomas, no degrees. Since 1994 I have merely hung out with people who do. I have taken countless workshops, intensives and weekend retreats. Like a sponge I have soaked up the knowledge. I have a library of books some of which I have read once, some twice. Some of these authors have had a profound effect on choices that I would ultimately make yet I have never met them.

I still get caught in a rut sometimes. It sucks. The stress response kicks in out of nowhere. When that happens, I save it and then “play it out”. I like to play for others and usually not more than a few weeks will go by before the next gig.

If I were asked to help someone, I would probably just sit with him or her in silence. Maybe I would ask a question. Most likely, I would pull out a couple of drums and offer to play. It would be fun. And with almost certainty, after a short time we would be playing complex rhythms. I know that the ability to play a drum well already exists within us. The metaphor is universal. Your well-being relies on choices that you make based on a wealth of inner information, a veritable first aid kit that exists within all of us. The trick is to coax it out. This is the essential nature of my service to others.

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