Dave Laing Digital Portfolio
On this page you will find an assortment of audio and video samples of my work. The following selections span nearly my entire professional career and I believe also demonstrate my versatility as a performer and collaborator.
Joe Sullivan Big Band, Northern Ontario Suite, Perry Lake Records, 2010. Joe Sullivan, Joceyln Coture, Dave Mossing, Aaron Doyle, Jocelyn Lapointe, trumpets; Dave Grott, Bob Ellis, Jean Nicholas Trottier, Richard Gagnon, trombones; Al Maclean, Donny Kennedy, Jean Frechette, Remi Bolduc, Andre Leroux, saxes; Andre White, piano; Alec Walkington, bass; Dave Laing, drums.
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Jon Ballantyne, A Musing, 1991, Justin Time. Jon Ballantyne, piano; Dave Laing, drums. Saskatoon pianist Jon Ballantyne asked me to join him for two duet pieces on his 1991 CD. This session also featured Jon with Paul Bley and so the style of the album was loose and unstructured. This recording was one of my early studio experiences.
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Over the years I have worked on a number of NFB animated short films, usually playing drum set and assorted percussion. In this film, My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts, by Torill Kove, I'm playing mostly military percussion--snare drums, crash cymbals and so on. However, during the credits as the horsemen ride off, I suggested to Torill to add some whooping and hollering and she agreed and asked me to do it myself. So this is also my one and only voice credit.
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I'm particularly proud of my contributions to guitarist/composer Mike Rud's 2013 Juno winning CD, Notes from Montreal, featuring vocalist Sienna Dahlen. The music for this project was varied and drew on all kinds of styles including this R&B example from a tune titled "Lapointe's Beat".
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Another example of a jazz-rock crossover style is presented here in a session put together by Vancouver-based tenor saxophonist Ben Henriques on his tune, "Captain Awesome".
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I've maintained a long musical association with trumpeter/composer Joe Sullivan who writes for both big band and smaller formations. This video is from a studio session featuring the big band and invited guest, Toronto's Lorne Lofsky on guitar that was released as Northern Ontario Suite in 2017. A common feature with Joe's charts is the dynamic range--a single piece will often go from a whisper to a roar and that is a fun musical challenge for a drummer.
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Finally, I maintain a youtube channel and occasionally post short videos of material I've been working on including transcriptions. However, as opposed to drum solos, these are usually transcriptions of piano, horn, or, as in this case, guitar. In this video, I am playing along with Jim Hall's guitar solo from Without a Song, 1962, on just a snare drum with brushes.
I invite you to peruse my youtube channel for other such material: youtube.com/davelaingdrums |