Petr Cancura - Musician

June 12th

I just started a week-long tour with Matt Newton's band and I am very excited. We had our CD release yesterday at Toronto's The Rex Hotel and it was great. What a good worn down jazz club. We got a week left to go so please check it out if you can.

Some other exciting news: new entry on the picture blog I am excited about, and the new Joe Morris "Wildlife" CD is comming out soon on AUM Fidelity and we are getting some great reviews czech this one out: All Music Review

See you soon,
Petr

June 1st, 09

Life is beautiful. Just got the new record in the mail with Joe Morris and Jason Nazary. Sounds and looks great. Fine Objects - check it out.

http://roots2boot.blogspot.com/

May 19th

I have started a new blog under the name roots2boot - it is devoted to the exploration of life and photography. Please check it out:

http://roots2boot.blogspot.com/

May 18th,

Well the summer is here and some exciting times. This year marks two trio records coming out with Joe Morris. One came out on a Polish label called Not Two Records and here is a review you can check out about it.

Also I am excited to be doing some work with Scott Kettner and a couple of his amazing projects Nation Beat and Forro Brass Band. Nation beat will be in Washington DC and Chatanooga TN next weekend... YEEHAAA!

May 4th, 2009

Hi everyone, the summer is here and with it I can't wait to go to the beach, take some pictures of the summer heat, play music outside and come up with some new stories. I also have some exciting news:

Joe Morris/Petr Cancura/Jason Nazary new album "Fine Objects" is now out and available on NotTwo Records This is a beautiful album with songs and loose forms played with good heart. Please check it out!

April 28th, 09

A long celebration of my birthday the last half a week lead to some amazing times, good stories, food and songs. From Zlata Praha - the great czech restaurant/disco parlour that we occupied on thursday night, to the 'down home' hang in Ditmas Park on Saturday night. Thanks everybody. And mostly thanks to my love and inspiration, Liz:

April 20th, 09

Summer is here and with it comes a new drive, new enrgy, new stories all to be told this summer through music and otherwise. Stay tuned for many new picture stories and music stories.

April 3rd, 09

PeopleMusic is now available on itunes - yeehaaa! I played a really fun gig last night with Avi Fox-Rosen and a bunch of great musicians. It made me realize the fun of spontaniety in music.
On another note, here is a picture from Lake Minewaska near New Paltz. There is a great water fall there a few hundred feet tall and is a real gem!

April 2nd, 2009

We had a n intimate and incredible gig friday night in the East Village with PeopleMusic featuring the magical sounds of Garth Stevenson, Greg Ritchie and Brad Shepik. Listen to this song keeping in mind the colony of wild Quaker Parrots that have been involuntarily brought from Argentina and now make Brooklyn their home. The song is called Awake - The Parrot Song.

March 31st, 2009

Oh the end of a fiscal year makes you think...
Here is me thinking about my taxes on the top of a scramble of the Trapps, the hills of New Paltz, New York. What am I thinking about?

March 19th, 2009

Canto de Ema with Richie Barshay at The Studio in Hartford, CT

March 18th, 09

New Rakalam Bob Moses record is out on Sunnyside Check out the record:

March 16th, 09

PeopleMusic ablbum available at Compact Music stores.

March 8th, 09
Ceck out new tunes from PeopleMusic tour on the media player!

Back in Brooklyn, new music is abode and new and exciting shows are in the works. Among these include a show at 5C Cafe in East Village on March 27th, featuring guitarist Brad Shepik.

March 3rd, 2009

Back in our respecitve cities PeopleMusicians are stiring the creative pots... plotting the next adventure. Here is Chris Bartos's iphone portrait of Petr Cancura:

March 1st, 2009

I walked into the alley following the fading arrow. Beyond a metal door, an akward step and a couple of turns later I found myself at the Beatniq, Calgary's jazz club and our last stop on this tour. I was anxious: more then on this whole tour. I think it was because it was coming to an end - our north-western adventure. After all the gruntwork was said and done, we gone in an exhausting groove that quickly becomes hard to give up. The stimulus, the places, the music getting better, and of course the people, make touring like a drug! I made some great friends and the music was such a joy to play. See you soon.

P.S. check in the next few days, tour videos are coming!

Feb 28th, 2009

So the last two days we stayed with a good friend of ours in Winnipeg Tamara Kater. What an incredible woman - a true facilitator as a musicians once said. We met some great musicians while at her house and hence played music right until we had to go play our gig and followed that by a relaxing, wouldn't you know it; jam session. Here is how our morning started today:

Feb 27th, 2009

Holy moly it's so cold in winnipeg. Here is the band putting on extra gear in the airport to warm up. Thanks to some amazing folks that we met and jammed with all night, we're all warmed up for our show tonight at The CYRK at 9:30pm

Feb 26th, 2009

Playing the oldest jazz club in Canada, Hermann's Jazz Club, we had played our first show of this tour with Richie Barshay after our good friend Greg Ritchie went back to New York. As you can see we have a pre-requisite for drummers to have the word "richie" in some shape or form. Here we are at the Vancouver Airport yet again. We have come to know the great bar and grill by boarding gate C33. If you are ever there, you must have the salmon burger - it's to die for.

Feb 25th, 2009

I am again reminded this morning of the power of friends and family. We stayed with Garth's parents the last two nights and they are so generous that I don't really know how to thank them... maybe I'll find some way one of these days. Thanks! Likewise, on friday and saturday we were hosted by the Jeromes in Edmonton and it was unbelievable. The dinner turned into a jam session and then back to dinner - eventually into a plethora of tales told from all sides. Thanks Jim, Allison, Syd, Wyatt and Jake. We are on our way to Visctoria this morning to meet up with drummer Richie Barshay. This leg of the tour is the end (for now) with our great friend and drummer Greg Ritchie. Here is a great pic of the band with Greg:
I thought I'd also show you what we do... our routine before we play:

Garth's dad Milt Stevenson... thank you so much for the good times!

And here is the one and only Jim Jerome - Thanks and don't ever change Jim!

Feb 24th 2009

PeopleMusic just played the Kelowna Secondary School and got the students jumpin'. Tonight we play at St. Michael's Cathedral in Kelowna, BC
I made a new friend today between shows. Peyto is Milt Stevenson's horse - what a fabulous animal.

Chris has been on an iart kick and this is one of his latest creations.

Feb 23rd

Oh Canada!!! is amazing
As we fly over the mountains from Edmonton to Vancouver the mountains are just breathtaking. Vancouver is a tease of weather asit feels like spring, with the lush vegetation green grass and jacket-less weather. Oh Canada. We played at Edmonton's Yardbird Suite and Vancouver's Winterruption festival - both shows were incredible and the people were great. The best stories happen away from the music however and here are some picture stories:

the band waiting in the airport in Edmonton. Long and behold, thanks to the lack of travelers that day we had a jam on the plane:

Oh but as we land it gets cold and Mr. Bartos is the only one well equipped:

Greg's got some Canadian gear to show off too:

This is a great pick of the rhythm section learning new tunes:

Which leads us to Garth's new bass. He loves that thing. Here is Garth going to bed with his new bass:

And some other moments so far:

Feb 11, 2009

A great day n Brooklyn. As I get ready for our PeopleMusic tour I am getting very excited. today Brooklyn was an especially insiring day as the weather allowed me to do this. Thank you Brooklyn... I am abetter person!

Feb 10, 2009

PeopleMusic's Karifa is featured today on allaboutjazz.com as a featured download - so get it while it's HOT!
We are conuting down to our west coast tour - there'll be lots of goodies, new tunes and guaranteed good times so come on out, listen to music, take pictures and hang out with us.

Feb 2nd, 2009

Check out PeopleMusic album featured on All About Jazz.

Jan 26th, 2009

It's been a long time waiting, but I have updated my photos page and I think you should take a look. I have many more pictures that I have collected over the years and I will be posting them in the upcomming days so STAY TUNED!
NEW PICTURES

Jan 13th, 2009

A great friend Mimi Tompkins has made an incredible video for PeopleMusic which I am so excited to share with you. Check it out below - a look into many worlds with beauty everywhere. Thanks Mimi!

Jan 8th

I am very excited to let you all know that the new PeopleMusic album, some of which you are listening to right now is now available. Check it out on any of the links on the left.

Love
Petr

Dec 31st

I wish you all a happy new year. 2009 will be a year to remember, new stories and adventures. Oh the beauty of Cape Cod!

Dec 22nd, 2008

Last night I had the fortune to play the 55Bar with a good friend Noah Preminger and an amazing band including Ben Monder, Ted Poor, Frank Kimbrough and John Hebert. Wow!!! what a band, what a thrill, what an adventure.

Dec 10th, 2008

I just returned from London, Enlgand where I met my old friend Tom Arthurs for a BBC recording session. Tom has had the unique opportunity to be a resident artist for the BBC... amazing. Joining us were two other fabulous musicians Julie Sasson and Rudi Fischerlehner. Yeehaaa! We played in the last studio that Bing Crosby recorded at and I think his ghost might have been watching us. The trip was elegant and British (whatever that might mean) from the start to end as the vibe was so strong, warm and festive the whole of my stay. see some pics:

Heathrow in that magical time of day before the sun comes up and the night has ended.

Juli, Rudi, Tm and I

Alexandra Palace

I stayed in London with my good friend Jim Hart a great vibes player and owner of a great scarf.

Tom, the mastermind of the entire event. Thanks Tom.

Dec 1st, 2008

Hi everone,
I haven't written in a while mostly because it's been really busy. But alas I am back for a little bit and getting ready for more adventure. I just spent three weeks touring west coast in the states and it was quite incredible. Carmel By The Sea was a personal favorite as it was the setting of many John Steinbeck books. However probably my favorite thing that happend was running into an old friend Kathleen Edwards in Eugene, Oregon. It was one of our few nights off, and Kathleen sounded amazing. I hope I can play some more music with her, that would be amazing.

I am getting ready to go to London for a short but exciting visit to record for the BBC next weekend with another dear friend Tom Arthurs. I'll tell you how that all went. Meanwhile I am confirming western tour dates so stay tuned for that and more.

Best,
Petr

Oct 30th, 2008

The day before Halloween, holds great creative energy. The warmth of excitement arests, the coolness of November approaches and life continues. I am today working of this picture and maybe you can too, I think this picture holds a lot of possibilities.

Oct 13th, 2008

Ok, have you ever been to a festival of carnival fun, where the wierd is normal and the normal is dissapointingly dissatisfying? A place where strange-looking flying machines make the real world feel imaginary. Time stands still here, where bands upon bands of duelling brass are overlooked by tall, tall, tall short people on stilts... where marching is a chaotic journey from one place to no place. Come and see the Honkfest. Mike Winograd and I drove to Boston last weekend to play with the Himalayas, and here are some memories.

Here's to the honkfest in your life!

Oct 10th, 2008

Yesterday we did a video shoot for PeopleMusic song Karifa with the amazing help of the talented Mimi Tompkins and her crew. It was a really great excrecise to think objectively from a visual point of view. Enough of that - it was sheer fun and I can't wait for you to see the end result: I am very excited about the concept of it. It's going to be these hip urban shots combined with... I won't ruin the surprise. Stay tuned for it we'll shoe you soon. Here is a picture of Clay Ross and Richie Barshay on set.

Oct 7th, 2008

Saturday was the Independece Day celebration for Czech Republic. For the event the Czech Center New York set up a street festival with an amazing program of music, theater food and drink. PeopleMusic was lucky enough to get a spot in theis festival and rocked the house. The atmosphere was festive and warm despite the brisk cold slap of autumn: one of the first reminders we've had that says "it's coming, the cold is coming! Are you ready?". Well clearly I was not having spent the next two days in bed with a fever. It always sucks but I also always emerge feeling stronger then ever and ecstatic about life.

See you soon,
love
Petr

Oct 2nd, 2008

The inspiration of working on the artwork of a new album as well as playing lots of new music brings about a pretty amazing. Get out of the comfort zone and love it. As I work on this artwork, I've come across a series of images that I want to show you so I'll start with this one from Poland. It is a picture I took from a train at dusk. It was still light enough that the lively colors of flowers gave light to the scene, butd ark enough that the candles brought upon the yard a warm, haunting glow.

Sept 18th, 2008

Here are some amazing photos of the Ottawa Folk Festival Cross Cultural Project from a talented photographer David Haggart

Sept 14th, 2008

Travel story Part I
So I've told a number of people this story and I feel I might as well share it with you. Part one takes place on a bus from Ukraine to Prague. I decided to take this bus alone because we had a few days of between gigs and jumped at the opportunity to see my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in southern Czech. I was warned about the bus: watch out, keep your belongings close, don't fall asleep! "Ha!" thought I. Well we'll get back to theft later, but for now; I took the bus. Well we got to the border, where we were told to stay on the bus., About three hours later a Ukrainian border guard came on (you have to pass through both borders). He took our passports and dissapeared. The bus slowly, very slowly, moved on in the line. In another two hours or so, a Polish border guard came on to find an elderly woman who had something wrong with her documents and proceeded to grill right on the bus, bringing her to tears. He came on strong and mean, like a bulldog, right from the start. This turmoil died down and we're still on the bus for another couple of hours with nothing happening. The bus driver turned of the bus and lights to save energy so I could not read and was left alone ith my thoughts. Not a single person talked, I sensed fear from everyone. Knowing there was no reason for this I was starting to see spots: I mean I was getting quite angry. I took it as a personal offense: a theft of my already limited time with my family. I wanted to have a word with that young punk who made the poor woman cry. Something in me knew though, that they would just love that opportunity, in fact they would relish at the exotic proceedure to detain a westerner! So I kept quiet.
Finally a man came on a distributed our passports, the bus turned on and heart leaped with the thought of continuing my journey. Well the bus only drove to the opposite side of the building where we were told to get of the bus line up with all of our stuff and get ready for a search. This is ridiculous, I thought. You can't possibly keep people on a bus at a border for eight hours and then top it off with a search, not to mention in a clinical room that had the air of a prison camp... it was quite eerie. Nothing was found, in fact I became the center of attention when they asked if I had papers for this, my saxophone. Papers? you mean like a birth certificate?

Travel story part II
After a great trip to southern Czech, I had to take an overnight train from Prague to Warsaw. Standard affair, except upon standing at the ticket counter I found out all the sleeping compartments were sold out. Well that sucks, I thought. I later found out they were all bought out by a soccer team taking the same train. So the regular compartments it is, I resolved, seeing I had no other alternative. Luckily it was just me and another guy whom I quickly befriended since we were going to be sharing the same space. I had carefully kept my bag by my head as I fell asleep. Well at about four in the morning I suddenly woke up and somthing in me quickly checked for my bag. It was gone!!! No way... I was caught in a quick panick. I woke up my new friend who didn't know what was happening. So I quickly ran out into the aisle where I saw a ticket collector. I started talking quickly in a broken combination of czech, english and the little polish that I knew. She started to sympathize and describe how I'll have to get off at the next station and fill out police report. Well that's great, I said, but that bag had my computer, passports... everything! I already started to process the pain this was all going to put me through, when a collegue of the ticket collector came around and said there was a bag in the bathroom. So I ran over there and sure enough, my bag was thrown on the floor of the bathroom, with nothing gone: I mean nothing. Explanation? I leave it to you. Needless to say for the rest of the trip I used my bag as a pillow and didn't get much sleep.

Sept 10th, 2008

I have returned from a tour in Ukraine, Poland and Czech. The adventures: from wonderful concerts in Ukraine's Rivne and Ludsk at the JazzArt Festival - to the hills and lakes of Gizycko in Poland and the rolling hills of Bohemia. The travels always teach me to be of so patient. I like the scenery and the people, I met some beautiful people along the way. The Ukrainian festival gave us a welcome that was nothing short of amazing, with a smoking quartet (Jacek Kochan, Garth Stevenson, Dominik Wania and myself) we played some great music. I also got to visit my homeland (Ceska Republika) see my family, tour the places of my youth; including my first music school pictured below in Jindrichuv Hradec. Love music, love your family and love life!

August 25th, 2008

A while ago I was on an exciting session lead by the legendary drummer Bob Moses. I am excited that the album is finished and will be released on Sunnyside Records in late October. The session was titled Fathers Day Session, dedicated to Rakalm Bob Moses's father. What a sound, what a blast, what a thrill. The album is a collective of about seven people and it sounds pretty amazing. I can't wait for you to hear it.

Louis, Nick and Nicole watching the master!

The energy of the full moon has brought out the animals of the world and the Ottawa Folk Festival has captured them in a room for a week and voila:

August 11th, 2008

On my way from Montreal to Ottawa last week I found a little piece from heaven in the town of Alfred. This is a great transition into a week of Ottawa Folk Festival that is about to start. The Cross Culutural Experiment will be a great adventure no doubt and my good friend Chris Bartos and I will attempt to do a documentary of it. See you there!

Aug 5, 2008

The luxury and adventure to emerse oneself in a musical project for an intire week is beautiful. I am in the middle of a recording with a long-time friend and drummer Mike Essoudry. Awesome band and lots of personalities. The music is tough...I mean tough!!! And it makes me feel alive.

Yeeehaaaa!

July 30, 2008

Well it looks like an album I made with a great friend Joe Morris and a fantastic drummer from Boston Luther Gray will be released on AUM Fidelity. I am really proud of this album - everybody played incredibly well and I feel we had something to say as a trio. I can't wait for us to play more.

July 26th, 2008

Flying feels something like this:

At a gig on top of the Czech Embassy in Manhattan.

July 20th, 2008

The magic of summer has unleashed itself in all its glory. My brother and I embarked on a canoe trip down the Ottawa River from Pembroke to Renfrew. With no map, we decided to tackle whatever came and as a result I now have no arms (just kidding). Here is me after four days on the water:

July 4th, 2008

On my way to Atlanta Georgia, I passed by the great Shenandoahs: the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Oh what a sight.

June 30th, 2008

Well what a week it's been. Incredible time with the Composers Collective in Ottawa. In brief I felt like we spent a week re-composing and I learned so much. As Canada Day approaches and the madness of the fabulous un-named marching is to commence I am busy preparring for that. However I feel it important to express what we did all week as part of the composers collective so I will collect my thoughts and post something in the next couple of days. Ottawa Composers Collective this year is Jean Martin, John Geggie, Roddy Ellias, Chris Bartos and Megan Jerome. That's Chris below making sweet sounds like he always does.

June 22nd, 2008

If you asked me right now what music I want to play I wouldn't know where to start. No single genres includes all I love about music. I want it to feel, I want to smell and see the music. Today though I am just going to find an adevnture and play it! Tomorrow the Ottawa Composers Collective starts our rehearsals and I am very excited.

posted at 11am

June 20th, 2008

Hi everyone,

And so begins my cyber journey with y'all.
I am now in Ottawa and pretty excited to be here for the whole week of the Ottawa Jazz Festival. I am here with the Ottawa Composers Collective. Our goal: make beautiful and interesting music. I'll let you be the judge of that on friday when we do the show.

The rehearsals however are open to the public and I'd love to see you there. We are at the National Library and will be there pretty much everyday from 12:30pm - 3:30pm. To y'all (I love that word) that can't make it out for the workshops, I am going to try and describe our journey as best I can.

And so it begins - what's going to happen; I have no idea, but I know it'll be a blast!