Ryan Driver
The Stephen Parkinson Songbook
RYAN DRIVER singing, piano, celeste
MARTIN ARNOLD electric guitar
BRODIE WEST alto saxophone
ROB CLUTTON bass
NICK FRASER drums
All compositions by Stephen Parkinson
Recorded by Jeremy Darby and Jean Martin at Canterbury Music, Toronto
Mixed by Jean Martin
Mastered by Fedge
Painting of Stephen Parkinson by Meaghan LaCroix
Photograph by Vegar Samuelsen
The Ryan Driver Quintet gratefully acknowledges
the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts
www.barnyardrecords.com www.tinangelrecords.co.uk
This album is available on CD and double 180g vinyl.
The Ryan Driver Quintet Plays The Stephen Parkinson Songbook is the first official release by The Ryan Driver Quintet, a peculiar lounge-jazz group that has been performing monthly in Toronto since the turn of the millenium. This group breathes a strange new kind of life into popular ballads from the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s. They fill their renditions with psychedelic improvisational meanderings and intertwinings amidst rich tenderness, utter heartbreak, and doorways into other worlds.
But this album is a collection of new songs by Stephen Parkinson, a Toronto composer known for his academic contemporary, electronic, and improvisational endeavours. The songs are about love, and half of them have the word 'love' in the title. They were written especially for the quintet and are very much in keeping with the spirit of Tin Pan Alley.
