David Woodhead's Confabulation

It’s all about interplay - musical conversations and fabrications from an imaginary coffeehouse where folk, jazz and poetry collide.

Multi-instrumentalist David Woodhead has been the go-to bassist for many of Canada’s top singer-songwriters, but this disk celebrates another side of him, as composer and Confabulation band leader. He is known for his work with everyone from Stan Rogers and James Keelaghan to Loreena McKennitt and Donné Roberts, and was a friend and collaborator with the influential violinist / composer Oliver Schroer, and a mainstay of Schroer’s Stewed Tomatoes.

It was a natural move to combine key players from the various worlds he inhabits, and with this album Woodhead and his Confabulators have recorded some of the most original “between the cracks” instrumental music to be heard in a while. The ensemble has been gathering momentum with regular gigs in Toronto for the past year, and have just returned from a Western tour which included the Vancouver Island Music Fest and the Vancouver Folk Festival.

The Players:
Featured at recent live gigs are stellar instrumentalists from both the roots and jazz genres, including the brilliant young Jaron Freeman-Fox (violin), the Shuffle Demons’ Richard Underhill (saxophone), and adventurous keyboardist Doug Wilde (Manteca, Nancy White), with sympatico drummer Rich Greenspoon (Stewed Tomatoes, Njacko Backo) as well as Woodhead who not only has a distinctive voice on the fretless bass but also explores new territory on finger-style ukulele. Special guest Perth County Conspiracy co-founder (and Gemini Award-winning actor) Cedric Smith frequently contributes spoken word.

The Music:
“Bozeny Parasy” is a ukulele romp inspired by a Malagasi 6/8 groove. “Nothing for Something” is a somewhat ominous comment on our times, building to a critical mass. “Coffee House Days” grows from a simple bass line to improvised madness under Cedric Smith’s spoken tribute to the 60’s coffee house. “A Balloon In Traffic” and “X Revisited” show the band in full flight as a tight and energetic ensemble, with room for concise but fanciful soloing by some of the most inspired players on the scene.