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Kenny Kirkwood,
Richard Brown, Bill Grove
Photograph by Gary Armstrong
Starting in 1986 I began a group in which I would play
guitar. Prior to that my public performing had been
exclusively on saxophone, with the
band Whitenoise,
despite having played guitar almost since the beginning
of my involvement
with music in 1971 at the age of nineteen.
I felt that if I was to continue putting time into
practicing
the guitar then I should play it in public; That or shelve it.
Mind you, I'm no
great shakes as a guitarist but the feeling
still applied anyway, and since I write all
the material
I thought I'd just find some mid-range / rhythm guitar
kind of niche, have my
fun, and let all the hot shot
soloists in the band have all the glory.
Selflessness, it's
always been my greatest fault.
Hence the creation of Not King Fudge (1986-1990),
which
mutated into Noise R Us (1990-1996) which begat
The Grove Group, which produced a CD and
hence the need for this website.
The Grove Group, for whatever reason, has been more
a
"rehearsing project with aims at recording" rather than
a live band. We love to
play live and we're great at it
(e.g. the CD was recorded live in the studio.) but
frankly,
in Canada in the late 90's, the rewards for performing
live are so pathetically
slim (the door divided six ways
is usually the case) that I personally find it
off-putting.
I don't think the others feel that way nearly as
strongly so I try to arrange
2 or 3 performances a year,
sort of like throwing a steak to a group of lions eyeing you
hungrily.
At any rate, our performing history and personnel can be
summed up thus: The core group is myself and
Howie Moscovitch on guitars, Richard Brown on
bass
and Barry Romberg, drums. Our first gig was at the
Toronto Jazz "Festival",
June 28, 1996, in the City TV
parking lot with Jerry Berg, trumpet and Ron Allen, sax.
We
played next at the Rivoli, twice, on May 4 and
November 2 1997, with Kenny Kirkwood
replacing Ron
on sax. We next played at The Rex Hotel, Feb. 5 1998,
as a quintet without
Jerry. By the next two gigs (Bamboo,
Oct. 15 1998 and The Rex on Apr. 8, 1999) the current
line up had solidified with the addition of Kevin Turcotte
on trumpet. Actually Kevin had
been in the band since the
spring of 1998 because he was present at the recording of
the
CD, which took place in May 1998 (2 days) and
May 1999 (2 more days).
Six gigs in total and there are CD's available of each
one, originally recorded live-to-DAT. Obsessed, huh?
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