Seats will be scarce when Big Band Theory hits the stage Friday

WATERLOO, ON., Oct.  20, 2014 --- A hard-driving, loud and joyous celebration of complex music comes Friday night to The Jazz Room with the return of Big Band Theory.

The Musical Director and Conductor, Robin Habermehl, wants you to know the group sounds nothing like the big bands of the swing era.

"We are talking big band jazz like Buddy Rich from the Seventies, Maynard Ferguson, stuff like that," Robin says in an interview with New City Notes. "So it's not a dance band."

This Kitchener-Waterloo based 18-member jazz orchestra includes several talented writers and arrangers. With help from the Waterloo Region Arts Fund, the band recorded a CD earlier this year during a concert at The Registry Theatre.

That recording, which was mastered by Rick Hutt of Cedar Tree Studios, includes the legendary Canadian jazz master Don Thompson on vibes.  The CD will be on sale Friday, and Big Band Theory will play the music from that CD during the show. It is all original and was written by band members Rob Gellner and Bruce Gordon, who both play trumpet. The Friday show will also include pieces by The Big Phat Band out of Los Angeles.

The show at The Jazz Room will have 17 musicians --- five trumpets, four trombones, four saxes, piano, bass, drums and guitar. The band usually has 18 members, but one can not make the show.

"So it gets a little exciting," Robin says.

Don Thompson is a recipient of the Order of Canada, and plays piano and bass in addition to vibes.  He has a long, long list of recording credits as both sideman and leader.  He toured with George Shearing for years, and played all of the famous venues in the U.S. with that great man, including Birdland and Carnegie Hall.

When Big Band Theory asked Don to play a show with them that would be recorded, Don agreed to provide a couple of charts, and do one rehearsal before the show.  Turns out Don was so impressed with the musicians in Big Band Theory, he did seven rehearsals and an extra show at Cameron Heights Collegiate in downtown Kitchener. Don drove in from Toronto for each of the dates.

"It's unbelievable the support we are getting ," Robin says.
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Big Band Theory was formed three years ago out of a pool of busy, gigging musicians who wanted to maintain their music-reading skills.

"Everybody is saying: 'Oh man, we only play in trios and quartets, I don't read anymore. That is the hardest skill to keep going, your reading," Robin says. "So it's that ensemble to be able to play very difficult, complex music at lightning speeds and making it all work."

Big Band Theory rehearses every Sunday at the Waterloo Naval Association, and does an annual fundraiser for the venue in return. Don Thompson says he will come back to play that fundraiser with the band. Big Band Theory played the Uptown Waterloo Jazz Festival in July with Don Thompson on vibes, and last played The Jazz Room about a year ago to a sold-out house.

"The guys don't do this for money, this is passion.  We've got one guy who comes in from Mississauga, guys coming in from all over the place.  And everybody is loyal to it, it's unbelievable,  because there is nowhere else to play this kind of stuff."

Robin laughs about the last time big Band Theory played The Jazz Room.

"There is so much sound coming out of all these horns there are only three mics on stage just for soloists, 99 per cent of it is just acoustic," Robin says.  "People will sit three feet in front of us and say: 'Geez it's kind of loud.' I said: 'Well there are 18 guys up here. Like, what was your first clue?'"

In addition to conducting and singing, Robin plays tenor, alto, and soprano sax. The other sax plays are: Ken Hadley (flute, soprano, alto sax), Mark Laver (soprano, alto sax), Ryan Cassidy (tenor sax), Taylor Ellingham (baritone) and Tim Moher (alto).

The trumpet plays are: Bruce Gordon, Rob Gellner, Randy Brown, Chris Alcantara and Kevin Kalbfleisch. The four trombone players are Paul Ellingham, Ron Schirm, Robin Jessome and Steve Hagedorn.

The rhthym section: Andriy Tykhonov on piano, Andy Macpherson on drums, Greg Prior on bass and Stephen Zurakowsky on guitar.

The Jazz Room opens at 6:30 p.m. Friday. If you want a seat, get there early because the club will be packed with fans and jammed with waves of sound from blasting horns.

Haruka-Ettun Project from NYC plays two gigs in Waterloo this weekend

WATERLOO, ON., OCT. 15, 2014 ---  Ehud Ettun played the double bass and spoke Hebrew. Haruka Yabuno played piano and spoke Japanese. But the two classically-trained musicians instantly found a common language in jazz.

Ehud traveled from his home in Israel four years ago to do a Master's Degree in jazz at the New England Conservatory in Boston.  Haruka was coming from Japan to study jazz at the Berklee School of Music, also in Boston. Shortly after they both arrived a mutual friend organized a jam session, and the two met for the first time.

Musical sparks started flying during the first piece they played together, "Green Dolphin Street," and their musical collaboration was born.

"I think there was some kind of musical connection in that jam session," Ehud says in a telephone interview with New City Notes.  "So we had this musical click in Boston four years ago, and we have been playing together ever since."

On Saturday, Oct. 18, Haruka and Ehud play The Jazz Room.  They will play pieces from their CD, released in July, called "BiPolar." They will play some standards, and some jazz arrangements of Israeli and Japanese songs. On Sunday, Oct. 19, Ehud and Haruka play The Music Room on Young Street in Waterloo, featuring pieces of by Bach.

After finishing his jazz studies at the New England Conservatory, Ehud headed for the World Capital of Jazz --- New York City.  He lives in the South Bronx, and gigs regularly on the New York scene.  He plays Smalls, Cornelia Street Cafe, the Bar Next Door, Blue Note and Kitano. He loves playing the ShapeShifter Lab in Brooklyn too.

After playing the classical guitar for years Ehud picked up a double bass when he was 16. He studied at the Jerusalem Music Academy with Michael Klinghoffer.

"I had a very, very good classical bass teacher in Israel," Ehud says.  "Ironically, most of his students are jazz-based players."

The Israeli jazz musicians Avishai Cohen, Omar Avital and Gilad Abro all studied under Klinghoffer.  At the New England Conservatory, Ehud's teachers included Dave Holland and Donald Palma.

Ehud's first CD, "Heading North," featured seven original compositions.  Haruka played on that CD. So did Tal Gur on sax, Hatti Blankett on drums and Hagal Perets on guitar. The CD release party for his second recording, BiPolar, was held at the Cornelia Street Cafe in the West Village in July.

Living and playing in New York City means Ehud is exposed to lots of different music.  He has several projects underway now.  In Waterloo this weekend we will hear the Yabuno-Ettun Project.

Ehud works with pianist Bert Seeger and his group The Why.  Ehud leads the Ehud Ettun Trio, which releases a CD soon, and the Boston-based Internal Compass Orchestra.

"There are some great, great musicians I am getting to play with," Ehud says.  "I am exposed to so much different music from so many different places.  I have a band with a Peruvian drummer, another band with an American saxophone player and an American drummer. Another band with Haruka, who is Japanese.  And just all of this together makes New York really, really special musically."

The show on Sunday in The Music Room is a return to their classical roots.

"We will be playing some of the Viola de Gamba Sonatas of Bach, which are pieces he wrote for the Viola de Gamba, which is an early version of the cello.  So Haruka and I both come from classical music backgrounds, but mostly working as jazz musicians.  So it was a very interesting journey for us to go back to the music of Bach and prepare for the concert.  We are very excited about this."

In addition to composing, performing and touring, Ehud runs his own recording label, Internal Compass Records.  Next year, Ehud plans to return to his native Israel for a while to set up an educational program.

"So all that together is going to keep me busy for a while," Ehud says.

AA

KOGGING Returns With Songs of Every Day Life.

WATERLOO, OCT. 14, 2014 --- In a small Dutch village near the German border a boy picked up a saxophone, and started a musical journey many years ago that brings him back to The Jazz Room on Friday, Oct. 17th.

The composer, lyricist and vocalist Norbert Kogging begins a six-city tour of Canada with his gig at The Jazz Room with a pocketful of new recordings from his latest CD, "Sketches of Ordinary Life."  The young Dutch jazz artist has a deep affinity for Canada and Canadians.

"You have a beautiful country and it really is a pleasure for us to travel around, so it's really beautiful," Norbert says in a telephone interview with New City Notes from his home in the Netherlands. "And you have beautiful venues, and the people are really warm, and they welcome the music very much, actually, that's the main reason."

After learning the alto, tenor and baritone saxophones, Norbert played in a big band in his home town. but he soon fell in love with the songs of Frank Sinatra. After discovering Old Blue Eyes, the horns stayed in their cases and Norbert learned to sing.

"I still like Sinatra a lot, but it's slightly different than what I do with my group, but it is one of the basics of where it came from for me."

Norbert did a Master's Degree in Jazz Vocals at the Conservatory of Amsterdam in 2009.  Part of his Conservatory studies included the Banff Centre's Creative Music Winter Residency.  Norbert has fond memories of working in a hut nestled among the peaks of the Rocky Mountains at the Banff Centre.

"You get up, you take your coffee, you go to your hut, you practice, you write, you do whatever you want to do there, but you just work, work your ass off, which I really, really liked and enjoyed,"  Norbert says. "It has been tremendously important for me."

He wrote several songs at the Banff Centre.  Back in Amsterdam he was drinking with his friend and pianist, Folkert Oosterbeek.  They decided to form a band, develop the songs Norbert wrote in Banff.  They signed up drummer Felix Shlarmann and bass player Tobias Nuboer. The quartet is called KOGGING,

The foursome returned to Banff and recorded the debut CD "Daydreaming." The first club they played afer recording that CD was Yardbird Suite in Edmonton. Norbert and his bandmates maintain a special affection for the Edmonton club, one of the longest-running jazz venues in North America. They will return to Yardbird Suite during the upcoming Canadian tour.

Norbert moved to Amsterdam years ago to study jazz at the Conservatory.  He loves the city, and its vibrant scene.  Earlier this month, the 33-year-old singer and composer moved his wife and one-year-old daughter to Harlem,  a very old and beautiful town 15 minutes by train from central Amsterdam.  They bought a house there.  Norbert rides the train in and out of the Amsterdam where he keeps a studio for teaching students, and reharsing with KOGGING inbetween gigs.

Folkert is his constant musical collaborator.  Norbert will write the words for a song, and have a melody in mind as well, before bringing the material to Folkert.

"We are good friends as well, so we work a lot together," Norbert says.  "I always come up with all the ideas, and when I get it to the point where I think it is good to work with somebody, a different look at it, then I go to Folkert."

KOGGING's second CD is intensely personal for Norbert.

"What I found important for now was that I just wrote about actually myself, and what kept me going for the last couple of years," Norbert says.

The birth of his daughter in 2013 was a big influence on the band's second CD.  As well, the influence of social media on our 21st Century lives, especially Facebook and Twitter, informs "Sketches of Ordinary Life."

"That was the whole, main theme of the CD," Norbert says.

KOGGING's music can be hard to label.  It is vocal jazz, for sure.  It is also influenced by indie, pop and singer-songwriters.  KOGGING calls the music "singer-songwriter jazz."

You can see at a glance how important non-profit jazz societies are becoming in Canada.  Four of the six gigs KOGGING plays on this visit will be hosted by jazz societies.

*  The Jazz Room (the Grand River Jazz Society) in Waterloo, Friday Oct. 17th.

*  The Rex Hotel and Jazz Bar in Toronto, Saturday  Oct. 18th.

*  The Avalanche Bar (Georgia Straight Jazz Society) Courtney, B.C., Thursday Oct. 23.

*  The Basement (Saskatoon Jazz  Society) Friday Oct. 24th.

*  The Yardbird Suite (Edmonton Jazz Society) Saturday Oct. 25tth.

*   The Arts Station, Fernie, BC, Oct. 26.

The latest CD features Michael Moore on alto sax, clarinet and bass clarinet.  Unfortunately,  Michael will not be on this Canadian tour because of his busy schedule.

Sweet Sounds of Sweet Shadow

OCT. 8, 2014 --- After Pete Mills finishes teaching a class Wednesday morning on Duke Ellington the tenor- saxophonist chats about his coming show at The Jazz Room, marking a rare appearance in his home country.

"I have spent much of musical career in the U.S., teaching at various universities, and also performing," Mills says. "I am just grateful for the opportunity to play music, particularly back home."
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The Saturday show at The Jazz Room follows wide-spread acclaim for his fourth and latest CD, Sweet Shadow.  (www.petemills.com). It was recorded live in the now-closed Cellar in Vancouver.  That club was operated by the tenor-saxophonist Cory Weeds, who also played The Jazz Room twice in the past

Mills says he recorded Sweet Shadow on Cory's label, in part, because he wants to bring his music back to Canada more often.

"I was very excited about how the project turned out," Mill says. "The music turned out better than I deserve."

Mills made Sweet Shadow with Matt Wilson on drums, New York guitarist and composer Pete McCann, New York bassist Martin Wind and Columbus-based pianist Erik Augis. Mills is not bringing this group to The Jazz Room for the Saturday gig though.  He will be playing with first-call musicians familiar to club regulars, David Braid on piano, Ted Warren on drums, John Maharaj on bass.

"I have played with John Maharaj, actually in Michael Occhipiniti's band, recently here in the United States," Mills says.  "I have followed Ted's career and I have followed David Braid's career, and admired him from afar for many years.  I am so excited to play this music with them because they are fantastic."

Mills says he learns new things about his own music when he plays it with different musicians.

"New stuff happens, and it's always fun.  I think these guys are open, open to whatever happens in the moment, and that's the way I am trying to live my musical life these days," Mills says.

When the guitarist Pete McCann heard that Mills was coming to The Jazz Room, McCann praised the venue.

"He spoke highly and fondly of it as one of the greatest places to play," Mills says.  "I have caught wind of the The Jazz Room, and I have heard Ted Warren play many times, and I approached him recently with this project, and asked him if he would be interested in playing with me and interested in booking me."

The Guelph-based drummer Ted Warren is The Jazz Room's artistic director.

After growing up in Toronto, Mills attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. Coincidentally, Mills roomed with the local tenor saxophonist Dave Wiffen while studying in Rochester. Then Mills did graduate work at North Texas State.

These days, Mills lives in Columbus, Ohio and teaches jazz at Denison University, a small, private school. Mills plays in mid-western jazz clubs, and as a soloist and member of a big band called the Columbus Jazz Orchestra.  He also anchors a quartet that hosts a long-running jam night at the Park Street Tavern in Columbus.

Mills plays The Jazz Room on Saturday, and then it's over to Toronto to play The Rex on Sunday. He will visit his mother on Thanksgiving Monday, and then head back to Columbus for his weekly jam.  For 10 years his Columbus quartet hosted the weekly Tuesday-night jam at the Park Street Tavern.

"They are important," Mill says of jam sessions.  "They are a great opportunity to develop the sound of the band, and as important to share and learn from everyone else too."

Growing up in the North York section of Toronto, Mills studied saxophone with Peter Schofield and Pat LeBarbera, one of Mill's heroes.

Mills father was a huge jazz fan, and took young Pete to George's Spaghetti House to hear the great tenor saxophone player Scott Hamilton.

"I remember it vividly because my dad took me there for dinner," Mills says.  "We heard Scott play, and the next day was a Saturday morning and I got out my saxophone and I think I played in bedroom for three or four hours trying to figure out what was up."

Mills dad was a member of the Toronto Chapter of The Ellington Society. Ellington's music was played in the house a lot, along with Louis Armstrong.

"One of the things with this record, Sweet Shadow, in all my records now I  record something by Strayhorn.  In addition to Ellington, Strayhorn was my dad's favourite composer, Billy Strayhorn," Mill says.

Among Mills' most beloved possessions are three autograph books his dad owned.

"I have Louis Armstrong's autograph, James P. Johnson's, Fletcher Henderson Band from the Palais Royale dated in the 1940s. Yeah, it's nuts," Mills says.

His dad attended one of the most famous jazz concerts in history --- the 1953 Massey Hall show with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Bud Powell and Charles Mingus.  The recording of that show -- "The Quintet" -- is one of the best selling jazz records of all time.

"He was there, he went back stage, he told Bird how much he liked his tie, and Bird gave it to him," Mills says.  "Nobody remembers where the tie is, but I have Charlie's autograph from that evening. It's in pencil. It's in the autograph  book that also contains Louis Armstrong's autograph, James P. Johnson's.  And it says: 'I remain Charles Parker.'"

The Bird's autograph was photographed and included in the liner notes of Sweet Shadow, in part, as a tribute to Mill's dad.

"I'm proud of that," Mills says.

Legendary Jazz-Blues Pianist Johnny O'Neal Amazes and Charms

SUNDAY, OCT. 5, 2014 --- The legendary Johnny O'Neal plays the Yamaha C-7 piano that dominates The Jazz Room stage and breaks into a wide, toothy grin.

“This is a great piano,” the 57-year-old jazz master says.

The club is quiet.  There are just a few people around.  Johnny has arrived early for the gig.  He tries out the piano.  He chats with the sound engineer. In less than an hour O'Neal will give a performance that has some new fans weeping, others calling for a return engagement and everyone on their feet clapping and hooting.

Johnny played Art Tatum in the 2004 Ray Charles biopic -- Ray.  Johnny opened for Oscar Peterson at Carnegie Hall in 1985. In fact, it was Oscar Peterson who recommended Johnny for the role as Tatum. Simply put, Johnny is one of the world's best practitioners of mid-20^th Century jazz piano technique. He does not read music, but has a repertoire of 1,500 songs.

Joining Johnny for the gig are Dave Young on bass and Terry Clarke on drums.  The trio just finished three nights at The Jazz Bistro in Toronto.  It is a wonderful, joyous re-union for the three.  In 1984 this trio cut a studio album in Detroit, Johnny's hometown, and a live album at one of the most famous jazz clubs in North America, Baker's Keyboard Lounge on the edge of the Motor City. They did not play together again until O'Neal's gigs in Toronto and Waterloo.

Now, three decades later they give a performance no one in the club will soon forget.  The show instantly became the stuff of Jazz Room lore.

O'Neal starts the show with “Put on a Happy Face.”  It is a rollicking, foot stomping performance.   Everyone is captivated before the first song is half done. 

“We don't have a planned set, so we don't know what we are going to play,” Johnny says.  “If you have any requests keep 'em to yourself.”

The rest of the first set: Too Close for Comfort, One Hundred Years From Today, Tomorrow Night, A Beautiful Friendship, L'il Darling, Saving All My Love for You, Come Back Baby Blues, My Ship, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, She Doesn't know, Deed I Do, Come Sunday, All of My Life and Please Don't Talk About Me When I am Gone.

In between songs O'Neal lays on charm as beautiful as the music.

“We are dedicating this to all the lovers out there, hope you enjoy,” O'Neal says as he introduces Saving All My Love for You.

Before finishing the first set with Come Sunday, O'Neal says: “I like this place. I'm going to come here every night.  I thank for you for being in Waterloo at The Jazz Room, you are wonderful people.”

After complimenting the audience, he praises the club.

“This is a great venue.  I play all over the world, and this is in the top five.  And this piano is great, I give it a 10,” O'Neal says.

The second set: I'm Born Again, Where Can I Go Without You?, On the Trail, Over Joyed, Homeboy Blues, Make Someone Happy. After a loud and long standing ovation, O'Neal played Night Mist Blues for an encore.

“I am over-joyed to be in The Jazz Room and hope to be back again soon,” O'Neal says.

While introducing Make Someone Happy, O'Neal says: “If you love life, life will love you back.  If you make someone happy, you will be happy too.”

O'Neal was born and raised in Detroit.  He first sang and played gospel in the Bethany Baptist Church.  He maintains connections to his hometown, playing the Detroit Jazz Festival in 2013.

The re-union of O'Neal with Young and Clarke was 30 years in the making. After making the two albums with Young and Clark in Detroit, O'Neal returned to New York City.  After arriving in New York in 1980 O'Neal made a name for himself playing int the bands of Art Blakey, Milt Jackson and Clark Terry.  In 1986 he was mugged outside his Harlem apartment, and he left New York.

He spent the next 25 years out of the spotlight, playing mostly in Detroit, Atlanta and St. Louis.

“I thought he was dead,” Clarke says as he sips a beer after the Sunday gig. “When I heard Johnny O'Neil was coming to Toronto to play, I thought it must be a younger relative of Johnny's. Not the Johnny we played with in the Eighties.”

Clarke moved to New York City in 1985 and stayed until 1999. He was there through the worst of the crack cocaine scourge.  The murder rate peaked in New York in 1990.  Clarke had no idea O'Neal had fled the violence, and the two never re-connected --- until last week in Toronto and Sunday in The Jazz Room.

In 1998 O'Neal contracted HIV.  He lost a lot of weight, but returned  to New York City four years ago.  With the help of friends he got his health back, regaining 40 pounds. Among those friend are Spike Wilner, the manager at Smalls in the West Village.  Last year, Wilner released a CD of O'Neal on the Live at Smalls label. It is O'Neal's first recording in a dozen years.

Every Saturday O'Neal plays a midnight gig in Smoke at 105 Street and Broadway. Every Sunday O'Neal plays a Smalls, the basement club on West 10^th Street that has near-religious status in the West Village jazz scene.  Mondays O'Neal plays at Mezzrow, the new club Wilner opened last month just across 7^th Ave from Smalls. This masterful artist is rebuilding his career one gig at a time.

The response of the audience to Sunday's show in The Jazz Room ensures O'Neal will play there again. It is just a matter of when.

“I had tears in my eyes,” Denise Baker, a local jazz singer, says of that show..

The Grand River Jazz Society wants to start a recording label called Live from The Jazz Room.  It would be great to issue a CD of O'Neal's show, and then give O'Neal the CDs to sell.  O'Neal could use the money to help pay for his medical expenses.

Square founder Jack Dorsey believes in the power of the commons.

KITCHENER — The 37-year-old founder and chief executive officer of Square, Jack Dorsey, officially opened his Canadian offices in downtown Kitchener Wednesday.

The mobile payment company was founded in 2010, processes more than $15 billion in transactions annually and employs 1,000 in San Francisco, New York City, Atlanta, Tokyo and . . . downtown Kitchener.

From the ninth floor offices at 305 King St. West in Kitchener, Dorsey talked for 30 minutes about why he located his Canadian operations in Kitchener, big trends in technology and how he stays grounded after becoming a billionaire technology entrepreneur in his early 30s.

Dorsey is worth an estimated $1.3 billion. He walks to work, or takes a bus.  He was wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans and slip-on running shoes. He has an athletic build, a full head of hair and a beard. There is a tattoo on his left forearm, a large f-hole. The f-hole is found in the sound boards of violins, violas, cellos, double basses and some guitars. It is homage to his violin-playing days, and his university studies in math because the f-hole looks a lot like the integral symbol in calculus.

Nobody has an office at Square.  Information is shared with all employees. That levels the company and reinforces this visionary entrepreneur’s belief in the power of the commons.

Your first trip to Kitchener-Waterloo was last September to speak with University of Waterloo students about entrepreneurship. What were your first impressions of this area, and what are your impressions today?

“We have the good fortune of having some pretty amazing engineers who hale from Waterloo-Kitchener, have made livelihoods here, families here, want to stay here.  I was introduced to the area by them first and foremost.  When I actually saw the college and university, and the community that is being built around it, I felt there are a lot of parallels to what we see in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. By that I mean there is a sense of real community, and support and mentorship, and these are definitely things that have made the area where we have started the company and built a company important to us, because you can very quickly learn from others’ failures, others’ successes, and there is a support network to help you as you progress through that.  You can literally walk up to anyone and ask them as question about what has worked for them, what has not worked for them, from building actual code to building teams, to managing people and policy, and people are very apt and likely to share it. Just in conversation with a number of students and the professors, it felt like there is something similar here, and then digging deeper and getting a better sense of the area from our engineers and our people, I think that’s proven to be the case. We are attracted because of that, because there seems to be a lot of parallels, and the support network and community, but also just the massive amount of talent coming out of the University of Waterloo and the area.  It has been a focal point for building pretty innovative technologies, something nobody can really ignore, and something we want to invest heavily in.”

All the tech entrepreneurs I speak with say talent attraction and retention is probably there number one challenge.  What has been your experience as you build Square?

“It is really a function of what people are working on.  Our Waterloo office right now is focused on building an app we call Cash, which is a peer-to-peer money transfer product, which allows people to quickly split the bill at a restaurant or request money from their friends, or send money to their friends, all for free.  And we have some really amazing engineers who have reached out through their networks and attracted like-minded engineers because the purpose of the service is compelling to them and something they want to take on as a challenge.  I think the attraction and hiring and retention is all about the challenges you put in front of people.  If they align with that purpose it is easy to keep them interested.  If they don’t then it’s probably best for both parties for them to go elsewhere.  I think these things naturally work themselves out, as long as you have alignment of purpose and you have something that is really challenging people and people really wake up excited about every day.”

The CEO of OpenText, Mark Barrenechea, calls the Kitchener-Waterloo/Toronto corridor Silicon Valley North. What are you big-picture thoughts on that?

“I think from a big picture, I hear a lot, I have travelled, a lot of cities are trying to recreate Silicon Valley and what happened there. I think that’s a wrong direction, absolutely.  I think it minimizes the natural character found within each locale.  I think that local character is extremely important.  We see it in our own sellers and merchants, something we want to see surface more is that character.  So the comparisons, the parallels and the drive to be, or to replicate what happened there over here, I think is always something, takes the energy away from what is really magical about this place that has its own unique blend of people and perspectives, companies and university and teachers and that is what we should focus on, as something unique unto itself, rather than try to replicate something over here.  So that is the broader topic.  I do agree that this corridor is rich with amazing talent and the theme, if I were to peg one theme around what it is, it seems like it is more mobile focused.  It seems like it’s the intersection of  mobile and really big applications, and maybe that is due in part to RIM, maybe it’s because of the University of Waterloo, maybe it is a number of other things.  If I had to pick one thread it seems like there is a lot of attention on mobile and a lot of expertise around that.  And maybe we should be talking about that instead of how we look more like Silicon Valley.  I think New York has a similar thing.  We spend a lot of time in New York, we have an office in New York, it is growing in the same that way we are growing Waterloo, and New York has applied the term Silicon Alley to itself.  And they also have a very unique perspective on technology because of the density of the city.  It is not just a horizontal consideration; it is a vertical consideration too, which not a lot of cities in the world have.  So there is something very unique about that, that I think other cities, including Silicon Valley, can learn from.  So I would ask the question more: How does Silicon Valley and the area where we are based learn more from Waterloo and Kitchener and learn more from New York.”

I know it has  been only 24 hours since Apple’s event in Cupertino yesterday, but what are your thoughts on ApplePay and what if any impact will it have on Square?

“We are really excited about it. We’ve always held the philosophy of, we are going to accept every form of payment that comes across the counter.  And if you look at our history, five years ago we started the company because merchants were losing sales because they couldn’t accept a credit card.  They could accept cash, no problem. Accept cheques, slight bit of problem because they had to wait for the deposit and sometimes the cheque would bounce, but they couldn’t accept a card, a pre-paid card, debit card, credit card.  The problem is buyers want to use them everywhere because they are really convenient.  So when we made the reader we just enabled them to never miss a sale.  From that developed this philosophy that we need to make sure every form of payment that reaches mass, mainstream adoption, they are empowered to accept.  We have a very, very small start with Bitcoin for instance.  A buyer can pay with Bitcoin on Square Market. EMV is a huge movement in the world, not so much in the United States, but it will be next year.  We are building an EMV reader.  We will be ready for that transition in the United States and also around the world probably.  We have always held this philosophy and Apple is really exciting because yes, there will be a transition of paying more and more with this device.  The fortunate thing is it is backed by that same credit card.  To us, what it looks like is the swipe of a card, but it is another interesting feature, which is a tap and pay.  We hope to see a lot of activity.  It is really, really compelling and we will build what we need to build to make sure our sellers are empowered to accept that, and they don’t have to think about it.”

The tech community in Waterloo Region has made it a priority to have regular, all-day, fast train service between Kitchener and Toronto.  What are you thoughts on that?

“We think it is amazing. One of the great things about this office is that it is going to be close to that end point.  I think any time you make things easier for people to transfer great distances, things get better.  We see this with the Cal-Train in the Bay Area.  We have a lot of people coming up from South Bay.  There are a lot of companies in the South Bay and a lot of people live in San Francisco.  People get on those trains, there is Wi-Fi, they can work on the trains.  They get to live their lifestyle they way they want to, and it also might save some time.  They are not stuck in traffic, they get their very quickly, and they have all their attention on whatever they want it to be instead of honking their own and waiting for traffic to clear, so I think it is a fantastic move.”

What are your thoughts about what John Chen is doing to turn around BlackBerry?

“I like John a lot.  I am on the Disney board and he’s also a Disney Board member, so we talk every now and then.  I think RIM/BlackBerry has something that people love and it’s about doubling down on what that love is.  What I hear is around BlackBerry messenger, and what I hear is around the keyboard.  There is still something there that people love and drive for.  I still have a lot of friends who use their BlackBerry and won’t give them up.  And I think choice is a good option and we want to make sure competition is always thriving, so I think he has some good ideas, he’s got to really see them through.”

Where do you see this office and your company five years from now? 

“We have about 10 people today and we have enough space in this particular office for about 30, and we are hiring.  And we want to hire the best people we find in the area, bring hem here, work on all sorts of projects, including Square Cash.  Five years is always that question you get asked.  We really have to see where the market goes, we have opinions on where it should go, we have opinions and strong points of view on what we want to build and what we want to see, but ultimately it is all around making commerce easy for both sides of the counter.  So someone who is starting a business, or running a business, or intends to grow their business, can instantly download our software for free, and get insights about how to make decisions and how to grow their business, have tools necessary to accept every form of payment, have things like Square Capital, which allows them to capitalize their business, and invest more into it.  And then on the buyer side, giving them more super powers around more interesting experiences such as delivery, or such as pickup, and cash.  The very intent of communicating: ‘I am going to send you five dollars,’ actually sends five dollars.  We think there is a lot there.  It is a big part of what we are pushing in.”

Some of the big trends in tech today, the Internet of Things and Big Data. What in your opinion is the next big thing and where does Square fit in?

“I think we get lost in these terms.  We talk about Big Data, and we talk about technology, we talk about the Internet of Things, they are just turns of phrases.  They don’t really mean anything. They are very abstract.  When you have something that abstract it is very hard to approach and see and feel and do.  So I always appreciate when we can bring it back to common ground, and what are we actually building.  It’s not about Big Data, it’s about giving people information and insights they can use to make better decisions, whether it be about their health, whether it be about running their business, whether it be about how they communicate externally and internally.  These are all things that data feeds into, but is not something unto itself.  Our own position on that is, our job is to take all this data around a business, and everything that is happening around say a coffee store’s industry, and distill it down to an insight they can actually take action on.  So it is a lot of work.  We want to get really good at it so we can do it instantly. We have countless examples of people using our data, such as my mom’s favourite coffee store in St. Louis was looking at their Square Dashboard and they saw that they would get all these sales at 3:50 p.m., and they closed at 4 p.m., and they decided for the next two weeks we are going to close at 5 p.m. We are going to stay open one hour later, and they had a 20 per cent increase in their revenue.  It seems obvious, but it is not that obvious until you really see it in front of you.  So now our job is to make sure that we are telling people that before they even have to ask the question.  And that’s not easy to do.  As you said, there is a lot going on and it can be somewhat overwhelming.  And then in terms of all the other venues, it is just really about how can people get instant value from whatever they are using? They are the only one who can determine if it is valuable or not.  So I caution us about using these big terms, like technology or Big Data, or Internet of Things, because at the end of the day they are just tools.  And it it’s useful, it’s useful and people use it.  If it’s extremely useful, and it’s a great tool, not only is it useful and bring back value but it saves people time.  We want to build a tool that saves our sellers time, so they can focus on their customers. And saves buyers’ time so they can focus on their kids, their friends or what they are about to enjoy.  What they are about to partake in.”

Do you have any thoughts or observations Jack about what all levels of government in Ontario, the municipal, the provincial and federal could or maybe should do to help nurture the tech sector in southern Ontario?

“I don’t have a lot of context for this particular government and the surrounding area. I think generally and broadly, any time governments speak up about wanting to support this energy, it is a good thing. At Square we faced a lot of regulation in the early days from the United States government, indirectly through the banks and our banking partners, so being open to questioning old rules that don’t really scale any more to this time, to the future, and stating that we are open to that, and that we are working as quickly as possible to look at them, is a huge step forward.  I believe the government’s role, any government’s role, is a balancer.  It balances the concerns of the common with the concerns of the corporate and the concerns of the overall governance.  And it has to be that governor in between everything to make sure that everything is in constant balance. Sometimes things go way out of whack and to extremes and its job is to make sure that either everything is rising to that level or that is pushed back down.  In some cases there are regulations by governments that are resistant to change, and resistant to movements that people naturally want.  And the common good actually benefits from.  So it is just stating: We are supportive of this and we are going to look at this and we are going to move fast.”

Forgive me if this sounds too personal, but how do you handle and stay grounded and stay real when you have had such tremendous success at such a young age?

“I don’t consider myself that young (laughs).  I don’t know, I guess I just don’t think about the, I don’t think about my age, about my place and success.  I feel fundamentally that if we sit back and say: ‘Wow, we have succeeded.’ Then that is kind of overwhelming and it feels like: ‘Well, we’re done. We are finished. There is nothing else to do.’ Like, I don’t feel like we are finished at all.  I feel that Twitter is at one per cent of its potential.  I feel that Square is at one per cent of its potential. I mean, we have road maps five years out, we have ideas 10 years out, we have a sense of where we are going, we are excited about things, we are little bit impatient about getting those things out.  So I worry about feeling successful actually.  I would rather feel, and I do, that we are not doing enough, we are not moving fast enough.  And there is a point where you are like, slow down a bit.  But it is just a push, pull back in terms of what’s right for us, what’s right for the market.  Sometimes I think we are ahead of our time, sometimes I think we are behind where we should be, but we want to be precisely on time.  And the struggle goes back to that balancing factor, so I stay grounded by being on the ground.  I walk to work every day, I take the bus, try to talk to every single person in my company, don’t have an office, don’t have an assigned desk, we have a lot of practices within the company that stay very open.  No one here has an office, it is rare that these rooms are used or if the door is closed physically or on any information in the company.  And that really levels it, the company.  I am just a huge, huge believer in the commons and what that means.  It’s always what I want to try for personally and also everything I do.”

I read an article that said you are the next Steve Jobs. How do your react to that?

“I appreciate it, but I do not like the comparison.  I mean, I think every person has to be their own person.  I think the press has put a lot of this upon not just me, but other people.  so it is just this canon of well Jack is the next Steve Jobs, or Elon Musk is the next Steve Jobs, or this person is the next Steve Jobs.  Bill Gates is not the next Steve Jobs.  All these things just become noise ultimately.  And it’s distracting.  So I try not to pay attention to it.  That said, we have a lot of gratitude and appreciation for everything he did, everything Apple has done, and we owe that to them and I am deeply grateful for that.  I never met him, but far away, by just watching everything they are doing, there are a lot of successes and whole lot of failures and learn from each one of them.  We go through the same things, but in different ways, because if we are not going through them in different ways we are not actually learning anything at all, we are just repeating the old mistakes again and again.  I wish we would stop as a society, trying to make all these comparisons, I mean we are back to Silicon Valley versus the Waterloo concept, and make all these comparisons, and just let people be who they are and let the local character shine.  It’s really hard to do in our society, because we are always looking for: ‘That’s what I have to be, that person exactly, that’s cool, that’s not cool. I have to be exactly that.’ It takes away all diversity.”

Finish this sentence for me, Jack Dorsey is a man who . . .?

“(Laughs) That’s a great question. Jack Dorsey is a man who (pauses for a second or two)  is curious. I will just leave it at that, both active and passive.”

What do you like to do when you are not working?

“I have the great fortune of living in an area that has just outstanding nature, and really diverse nature.  I love New York as a city that has diversity of people, you walk a block and you see the world and it keeps changing.  I love San Francisco because you drive for an hour and you see a completely different eco-system.  You can drive an hour and you can be in 104 degree weather, or you can be in 64 degree weather or you can be on the beach, or you can be in the mountains.  The diversity and the intersection of all this is stunning and it’s really a question of where you get your inspiration more from.  I tend to do a bit of both.  I love the people but I also love the nature, so when I am in San Francisco, I walk, I hike, I sail, just be outdoors as much as possible. And in New York, it is dinner with people, drinks, conversation, music, that’s what New York is to me.” 

Keeping Jazz Alive: We Need Your Support.

WATERLOO, Ont. --- The Brenda Earle Trio from New York City.  The Johnny O'Neil Trio from New York City. The Andrea Marcelli Quintet from Italy.  The Norbert Kogging Band from the Netherlands.  The Joe Sullivan Quintet from Montreal.  The Peter Van Hufel Quartet from Berlin.

These are just a few of the amazing artists coming to The Jazz Room at the Heuther Hotel in Kitchener-Waterloo as the Grand River Jazz Society presents its fourth season.  (www.kwjazzroom.com).

There will be 80 shows, running from the first weekend in September to the end of June 2015.  Live jazz just about every Friday and Saturday night in a terrific venue.

The fourth season begins Friday, Sept. 5 with the Ray Podhornrik Sextet.  On Saturday,. Sept. 6 it is the Dave Young Quintet doing a Horace Silver Tribute. The not-for-profit, volunteer driven Grand River Jazz Society scheduled an incredible line-up for this fall. Go to www.kwjazzroom.com and see for yourself.

During the 2013-2014 season the society paid out $111,000 in artists fees, and about another $20,000 for sound engineers.  The not-for-profit model means musicians are paid first, and are paid well.  The club attracts more than 3,000 people a season into a historic hotel in downtown Waterloo.

A season pass is $350.  That works out to $4.37 a show.  The society will have passes on sale until the beginning of the fourth season.  You can buy one online at The Jazz Room's website.  This is one of the best ways to support the society, The Jazz Room and this great art form.  The society is also looking for new corporate sponsors --- $10,000 to sponsor a room, and smaller amounts for individual shows or weekends. Contact the founding-president of the jazz society, Stephen Preece (spreece@wlu.ca) to discuss details.

The Jazz Room is one of the best jazz clubs in Canada.  The society and the club are modelled after the Yard Bird Suite in Edmonton and The Cellar in Saskatoon.  Both are supported by not-for-profit, volunteer-driven societies.  Everyone is involved because they love the music.

The society and the Jazz Room enjoy a great reputation among the musicians. Every band is paid $300 per musician. The musicians are provided with a meal.  Talking during the shows is discouraged.  There us a wonderful Yamaha C10 piano on the stage, professional lights, and a sound engineer works the latest audio technology for every show.

The legendary New York City pianist Mullgrew Miller played one of this last shows in The Jazz Room. Help keep this art form alive.  Buy a season pass for yourself, and another for your friend.