Guerrette Music

17/05/2024

Since the mid-eighties, I've created A LOT of music in my life. Hundreds and hundreds (surely over 1,000) of arrangements, most of them for the stage. Hundreds of hours of picture composed to, including commercials for global brands. Orchestrations big and small, from all-live in the best studios to virtual via computers and samples etc. in just about every genre, pretty much all of it commissioned by large corporations. Most of it pretty sophisticated and sometimes very complex.

I just listened to this song that actor Jeff Daniels wrote. It's musically simple. Rudimentary, really. But it's an homage to the thing that is a musical instrument and how it brings comfort, completion, and expression to the human soul. Nothing I could do -- nothing more I can say, here -- can improve upon what I just heard (believe me, things entered my head as I listened. Primarily, strings, and I went, "No. Not needed."). It is fundamental, deeply honest and beautiful. And it shows how there is NOTHING in this world like music, even from one instrument and a voice -- and especially when you're making it. Have a listen.

"What just happened?!" During a conversation about Jeff Daniel's love of music, Jeff shocks Kelly with a moving performance on the acoustic guitar of one of ...

08/05/2024

THIS is a fantastic enhancement somebody did to a great scene from one of my favourite films; Amadeus. The added video is just beautiful. I could watch it over and over again.

From Amadeus best clip ever. Mozart's Requiem is one of the most well-known musical compositions in the world, and Confutatis is a very good example of much...

07/02/2024

Well put, Mr. Shaw.

1) Find your purpose ✔️

2) Honour it 👷‍♂️ (I try)

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/AZ8G16VeHnZoPv2E/?mibextid=WC7FNe

23/01/2024

Had a wonderful first leg of Queen Mary 2’s world voyage with friends and clients, the lovely and amazing operatic duo and clarinet wiz Kenny Martyn. It’s always exciting to play the music I create for my friends on stage WITH THEM. Also had a great listening session with my new friend, Rat Pack singer as we watched the ocean roll by. Next stop, Namibia, where off they go and another friend comes on to entertain our guests, flautist (Suzanne Godfrey)! We’ll be doing an epic original crossover treatment of Scheherazade I created for her.

16/01/2024

These guys are delightful! Watching their choreography truly put a smile on my face. Enjoy them!

https://www.instagram.com/funkanometry_?igsh=MWd5OXFxMHZ6aXRoNQ==

25/10/2023

Up in Brampton just outside of Toronto doing a horns and guitar record for an arrangement my buddy Kenny Martyn commissioned. Used old pals David Harmsworth and Merlin Williams. At the post-session hang, David whips out his homemade wings hot sauce and wing spices. Check out the names of them!

“David’s Hold On To Your Ass” sauce, and “David’s Hot as F**k, shaky-shaky”. 🤣

ABSOLUTE 🔥

03/06/2023

Great crossing with great guest ent friends both old and new.

New friend #1; Jenelle Lynn Randall, a lovely jazz vocalist whom we backed up in the theatre. But things got really lovely when she and I sat in with the Mark Hodgson Jazz Trio in Queen Mary 2’s Chart Room. So fun! And, man, can this lady turn a phrase! 🎤 🎶

Next, my dear friend, flautist Suzanne Godfrey. I’ve just finished up an original epic crossover production of Scheherazade for her that will debut on QM2 in July.

And new friend #2, singer/guitarist, Peter Howarth, lead singer of The Hollies. Great guy — GREAT show!

29/04/2023

Way back in 2000 I did the theme for an animated series produced for the US PBS network, called Cyberchase. It also aired in probably well over a dozen other countries, dubbed into several languages. With many posts on YouTube by people of just the theme, I figured it had a lot of views over the years. But, I never thought to tally them up in the first dozen or so posts of it until now. The oldest post online at this point is from seven years ago — dubbed into Castilian Spanish, no less. Doing a rough mental tally of the first batch (I stopped adding them up after a while), the total number of views is currently at…

well over SIX MILLION.

Here it is in several languages:

https://youtu.be/vXL_Vsw4q5M

And, only a month ago, some guy did a pretty good original cover of it — including, unbelievably, a music video:

https://youtu.be/ygIL7TXPhXA

Oh. And a bass cover:

https://youtu.be/7LFs8m-rJ-8

Even a bloody BACKWARDS VERSION got 57,000 views!

https://youtu.be/-JI2SJBnPTk

I can’t believe it 😳

Enjoy! Requested by Sean Oof201List of languages:English (original) - Brazilian Portuguese - Castilian Spanish - European Portuguese (dubbed) - European Port...

16/03/2023

For my TV and commercial recording sessions over the years I’ve used the best session players in Toronto (and, by extension, in Canada, among the best in the world). Many of them were my teenhood idols, and it was an honour to have them playing my music. And I was usually more concerned over what THEY thought of my music more than I did my clients in the control room!

While they were all phenomenal musicians, there are other attributes that makes a great musician a session musician. Killer reading chops, of course, and a broad understanding of genre. But it goes even further than that to do it. There’s a fluid nature to adapt, an egoless air about them (perhaps despite whatever thoughts or opinions on the music or direction they may possibly held!).

While I often knew what I wanted out of them, there were times when a suggestion would arise. When this occurred I always let them do it. I can’t recall ever rejecting anything that came out of them!

A session I had around ‘93 or ‘94 with guitarist Don Ross comes to mind. It was a theme package for a gardening series. Theme packages require several variations of the theme in different lengths and perhaps instrumentation/orchestration (open theme, closing theme, bumpers, stingers, beds). After we had laid down all the charted stuff, I wanted Don to do a solo bed version. So, about a minute of music. I had no chart for him for THIS, as the bones of the theme was charted for the previous pieces and he’d have absorbed the core details by then. With him on the recording floor with his acoustic and I in the control room, I started working with him on this piece. Shortly into the process he asked if he could just work it out himself. Me being control-freak me, I hesitated inside for a second, worrying about the awkward possibility of me not liking what he would do. But I quickly said “Sure!”. And, man, what magic he pulled off, coming up with ideas I surely would not have thought of, and creating a cohesive piece right there on the spot!

It’s that kind of genius and calmness (at least on the outside — who knows what was going on inside Don, right there on the spot!) that is the mark of a true master of their instrument and creativity.

All of this came to mind when I stumbled upon a video short series about the three legendary session bands that were the sound of thousands of legendary hits: The Muscle Shoals Studio rhythm section of Alabama, The Wrecking Crew out of LA, and Nashville’s A Team. I slapped together a YouTube playlist of these videos that is fascinating to check out. It shows the incredible instinct within these people that brought to life the iconic sound of the music of our lives.

25/02/2023

Okay. HERE is the official release.

This is an original contemporary Latin/Orchestral Jazz big band interpretation of a classic 50s pop ballad I arranged, orchestrated and produced came out today. I’m a musician on Cunard Queen Mary 2. What’s kinda cool about it is that all horns and rhythm section (except drums and percussion) were recorded ON THE SHIP as we voyaged around the world. A little different!

The drums and percussion were tracked by a colleague of mine back home in Canada whom I and many consider to be the best in the country. It was mixed and mastered by a two-time Grammy winning engineer.

Julia Vari - What a Wonderful World

10/02/2023

SUPER-STOKED that this recording effort can finally be revealed! An original arrangement and orchestration of a classic pop ballad, warped into a Latin-jazz celebration of life for my dear friend and singer, Julia Vari. I recorded all the horns and most of the rhythm section with my ship colleagues while floating around the world — along with a couple of land-based friends shooting me their recorded parts (one being Mark Kelso, delivering the killer drums and percussion). Thank you to all! Coming out end of the month!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10161231544619237&id=648414236&mibextid=0cALme

17/11/2022

My great friend, John-Philip, shared a video for World Prematurity Day that he cut to an arrangement I did for him of Leanne Womack’s “I Hope You Dance”. It’s pretty nice that the very person who wrote the song, Mark D Sanders, praised the arrangement in the comments. 🙏

11/11/2022

My mom’s involvement in WWII, remembered here on Remembrance Day by JAZZ.FM91, Canada’s only 24-hour jazz radio station.

Factory worker Veronica Foster became a Canadian icon during the Second World War, and went on to have a family legacy in jazz that endures to this...

16/10/2022

Sonic waves in and out of my head as I travel to Queen Mary 2.

20/09/2022

Finally have time to post this video from May of a special arrangement I did of West Side Story’s “Somewhere” for Georgina Jackson, performed on trumpet and voice, on Cunard during a special transatlantic crossing in association with conducted by industry veteran Larry Blank. As I arranged and orchestrated it I thought, what the hell, throw in a bone solo for myself!

09/09/2022

A lovely time with a great person and fantastic cellist, Andrei Cavassi , an artist who brings a unique performance and presence to the stage. New to working on ships as a guest entertainer, he did four shows to four standing ovations. He was recieved very enthusiastically by the audiences. I look forward to our working together!

28/07/2022

Interesting story from the son of Miles Davis:

“People think of my dad as the prince of darkness (the name of a cut on his album Sorcerer), a moody performer who turned his back on the audience out of disregard for them. That wasn’t him at all. But this wasn’t something I truly realised until I stood onstage with him as part of his legendary band: Dad wasn’t turning away from the audience; he was turning toward the band. It wasn’t a sign of disrespect for those there to hear him; it was a sign of respect for those there to play. And I was lucky enough to be there to play.

“I knew he was a famous musician, but didn’t quite understand how famous. As a kid, I was always telling him I wanted to be a musician. Finally, when I was 14, he asked if I wanted to go on the road with him in the summer. Of course, I said yes.

“I learned a lot, not only about music, but about my father, during those summer tours. As I stood in the wings, I saw that playing the music live was the most important thing to him.

“Those tours were the first sustained amount of time I spent with my father. What I discovered about him was how he could break down what was going on in any musical performance – and find something to take away from it.

“I remember once watching a heavy metal show on MTV, and when Slayer came on, I thought, “Dad’s going to hate this.” He watched for a bit and then said, “Huh. That drummer is really laying it down, isn’t he?” Then he just walked away.

“He finally asked me onstage for a tour in 1990. He was giving me a chance and I was terrified of blowing it. I played electronic percussion, which was a genre my dad kind of invented.
I didn’t even get any rehearsals. I watched the guy who did it before me for a couple of shows, then I was just kind of on it, in the seat.

“It was nerve-racking for me, but at the same time, it felt wonderful to have my father turn toward me, to listen to me and to play with me as an equal."

Erin Davis

26/07/2022

This lady. Her insight. Hearing her sing THIS song at her age, after all her life, is pretty heavy. And yet, she giggles like she’s 16 again when they cheer at the end 🥰

I confess I came to Joni later in life. My siblings — all older than I — were into her when I was a kid. But I wasn’t drawn to the folk genre much. Although I liked the music of her 70s pop stuff (Big Yellow Taxi, Free Man In Paris etc.). When she moved into jazz in my early 20s and I heard her “Shadows and Light” live album she reeled me in. But it was still the music that drew me in. She had THE BEST jazz musicians backing her up. THEN, decades later, she released a double CD of her songs done for jazz orchestra by the great arranger Vince Mendoza. I was of course THRILLED by Vince’s work, and that caused me to listen to that album again and again… and only at that point, older, more wear on the tires of life, did I FINALLY come to understand Joni as a master lyricist. Sometimes, you’re just not mature enough quite yet to understand what’s being said to you. I’m glad I caught up.

So hearing her at her age now, her voice frail, sing this song about the entirety of life, is so deeply touching. It’s almost like God herself is answering everyone’s question about life and saying “I really don’t know life at all”. Grab a hanky and listen.

https://youtu.be/4aqGjaFDTxQ

Joni Mitchell “Both Sides Now” with Brandi Carlile Live at Newport Folk Festival, July 24, 2022

20/07/2022

My dear friend, John-Philip, laying it down at Warner Leisure Resorts on a burning show opener I did for him. This guy is pro, ALL THE WAY 🔥

16/07/2022

07/07/2022

Had a wonderful day with violinist/vocalist/pianist, VenusViolin(蔡佳蓉）, whom I met for the first time this voyage on . Lots of talks getting to know each other, listening to my work, and planning both a series of new productions as well as improving some of her existing material. And what a fun ray of sunshine she is which was handy, given the hard rain and low temperatures all day! I look forward to working together!

26/05/2022

Well, last week was a busy one on Queen Mary 2! Cunard staged a massive “London Theatre At Sea” crossing from NYC to Southampton with The Olivier Awards, the UK’s highest honour for stage performance. The week’s program was STACKED with Award winners and industry heavyweights; from performers to choreographers, designers and producers.

Among the week’s events was the gala Thursday night “The Oliviers in Concert”; a seventy-five minute array of incredible Oliver Award winning performers. The Oliviers brought on legendary Broadway/West End arranger/orchestrator/conductor, Larry Blank, to run our ship’s eighteen piece orchestra.

My dear friend, vocalist-trumpeter Georgina Jackson, commissioned an original arrangement of the legendary song, “Somewhere”, from West Side Story for her performance in the show (see video of rehearsal https://fb.watch/dbCS2nNeXQ/ ). The timeline was very tight for my copiest Ross Kratter and I. We received the score and parts PDFs just five minutes before rehearsal! But we pulled it off and all turned out fantastically.

It was an exciting week, and I met and worked with some beautiful and highly tenured professionals. A special BIG thanks to Ross for burning (pretty much ALL!) of his midnight oil to get the great looking charts and score into our hands 👏

11/05/2022

An exciting week coming up as Cunard hosts “London Theatre At Sea” on

Many of The West End’s brightest stars will be performing, with a 75 minute concert one evening in QM2’s Royal Court Theatre. My dear friend and client, trumpeter and vocalist Georgina Jackson Music, is on the bill. I’m currently cooking up a special arrangement and orchestration of the beautiful masterpiece, “Somewhere”, from West Side Story for her. With this lady’s beautiful flugelhorn and strong trumpet sounds, it’s gonna be “a blast”, and there’ll be many interesting ears in attendance to hear it
👂 🎶 🎺 Grateful for the opportunity!

04/04/2022

Great day at the beach in St. Kitts with fellow Canadian trumpeter/vocalist, Nathan Samuelson, who performed with us on

30/01/2022

St. Maarten. My office for the day ☀️ 💻 😎 🎶 🏖

21/01/2022

According to my clients, the pandemic pause was worth the wait!

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/indigomayduo_guestents-classicalcrossover-cruiseship-activity-6890285789478289408-bkOq