Tone Dogs were formed in 1987 as a collaboration between bass players Fred Chalenor, Amy Denio and recording engineer Drew Canulette. Denio and Chalenor thought a 2-bass band would be great, and began writing music together. Soon, they roped in other great musicians and friends on the recording - Matt Cameron of Soundgarden, Fred Frith and Hans Reichel from the European improvising scene, and others. Superbly recorded by Drew Canulette, this album received a nomination to be nominated (sic) for a "Best New Recording" Grammy award.

Fred Chalenor: basses, guitars, keyboards, percussion, voice, violin, bowed guitars;
Amy Denio: guitars, basses, saxes, drums, hubcaps, voice, cows;
Matt Cameron: drums, voice;
Fred Frith: guitars, rhythm violin;
Hans Reichel: daxophone, guitars, camera;
Courtney von Drehle: saxophones on 'The Wandering Guru';
Bob Bain: monster battle guitars on 'The Wandering Guru';
Drew Canulette: recording engineer

From Johann Sebastian Bach's Suite for the cello No.1, BWV 1007 Romualdo Barone brings his interpretation of Bach's masterpiece, richly textured, clean and clear, emotional, and technically precise.

Romualdo has arranged and transcribed for the solo clarinet.

Artwork courtesy of Bart Hoevenaars at Flickr http://tinyurl.com/prrr4wf

Mike Goudreau launches his 16th album, "T.G.I.F." (Thank God It's Friday), comprising 12 new compositions from the Eastern Townships blues and jazzman.

For the occasion, Goudreau sings, plays bass, guitars and 6-string banjo, as well as being the composer and writer on all 12 tracks. He's accompanied by long-time cronies, brilliant saxophonist Dany Roy (Garou, Bet.e and Stef, Susie Arioli), Maxime St Pierre on trumpet (Michel Cusson, Alain Caron, Pagliaro ), Serge Arsenault on trombone, Stéphane Jetté on drums and the fleet-fingered Nino Fabi on keyboards.

For "T.G.I.F.", Goudreau pulls out all the stops with an eclectic mix of styles and grooves on this album. The title track "T.G.I.F'' is a dynamic jump blues, a signature style that has set Goudreau apart from many of his peers with that contagious swing that he's become so well known for these past 20 years! Other surprises are blues rock songs "Ain't No Guitar Hero", "Don't Get Close To You", influenced by the music of Stevie Ray Vaughn, Robben Ford and Eric Clapton. We find other influences such as Dixieland jazz on "Jack's Place", country blues on "I Got Your Letter", jazz on the instrumentals "Swingin' The M and M" and "Blue Note Shuffle", a touch of gospel on "Give Me Faith" and funk on "Chillin' The Funk", all of which showcase that Goudreau remains much more than a one-trick pony.

Recorded and mixed in his hometown of Stanstead at Studio Bleuciel, and mastered at Sage Audio in Nashville, Tennessee, this recording sounds like a big blues production from the USA, which is a great testimony of how Mike's production skills have blossomed over the past 20 years. That's another reason why Goudreau's music has been heard on dozens of US network TV and films as well as web commercials and Youtube videos, something not many other Canadian blues artists/writers have achieved. Yet despite these successes, he still remains one of Canada's best kept blues and jazz secrets!

Anton Reicha (1770-1836) was a Bohemian-born composer whose music covered a vast array of genres and forms, from opera and string quartets to piano etudes and fugues. He is perhaps best known today for his 25 wind quintets. As an accomplished music theorist he wrote several treatises on various aspects of composition. Some of his theoretical work dealt with experimental methods of composition. He was ahead of his time, advocating the ideas of polyrhythm, polytonality and microtonal music. Virtually none of these concepts were accepted or employed by his contemporaries.

Reicha's 36 Fugues for Piano, published in 1803 was conceived as an illustration of his new system for composing fugues. Without delving into the theory of fugues, it can be said that Reicha's widening of the possibilities of fugal composition created a freer, more flexible musical form. Naturally some of his contemporaries didn't approve of his stretching the traditional boundaries, but today these pieces sound wonderfully musical.

Much of Reicha's music remained unpublished and unperformed during his life and nearly all of it fell into obscurity following his death. This is explained in part by his own decisions, which he reflected on in his autobiography: "Many of my works have never been heard because of my aversion to seeking performances. I counted the time spent in such efforts as lost, and preferred to remain at my desk." Reicha's life and work has yet to be intensely studied to this day.