Deb’s Blog

Back in 2001 when Dorothy McDonall, Mary Ellen Moore and I were singing soprano with the famed Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, we became friends, and ultimately decided to get together to learn some songs we bonded with from the “O Brother Where Art Thou” sound track – a movie we loved, and which gave us inspiration. We began rehearsing on Monday evenings in the summer – the night usually reserved for the choir during the year – just so we could continue our friendship, and explore uncharted musical territory!

We were all learning something new – I was learning to play guitar; Mary Ellen and Dorothy were learning to sing challenging harmonies, and we embarked on a journey together, that at first had modest and realistic goals which we set for ourselves. Our first “gig” was a house concert at my place, where we performed 12 songs we slaved over during 8 rehearsals, for our good friends from the Mendelssohn Choir. We felt, after that trial by fire (It was indeed a HOT summer night), that we should try and secure some gigs at retirement homes every few months.

Enter Peter Occhipinti – a guitarist from the famed jazz family in Toronto, I hired to paint my house. Peter heard ChoirGirlz rehearsing one night, while he was painting my powder room, and invited us to perform at a community event he co-ordinated in Scarborough. We jumped at the chance, and prepared even more new material, and seemed to go over well with the audience. Around the same time, 9/11/01 occurred, and I began writing songs for the ChoirGirlz to sing, inspired by the impact of these events.

Our Friday night rehearsals became etched in our calendars, and something we really looked forward to at the end of a busy week. We always began by sharing stories of our week – our frustrations, our joys – and our friendship grew deep as we each learned a lot from each other on how to deal with STUFF. After “Thai-ing One On” with delivered dinner, we’d work on new songs and familiar ones – and as we got better as musicians, I was inspired to write a lot of songs for us to learn. As my guitar playing got better – I opened myself up to learning more complicated chords that included more jazzy colours, and the vocal harmonies followed suit!

Our first recording of mostly original songs, was done in my little studio – vocals done in my living room, and mixing and mastering done out in Mississauga with dear friend, the late David Norris-Elye, who helped to put a bit of a professional “ping” to our sound. Our CD release that year was at Hugh’s Room, and we had a lot of good support from friends and family that night. We also met Greg King – http://www.gregking.ca – photographer extraordinaire – who took us under his wing, and came to nearly every show we performed from then on, and took fantastic pix of our journey. If you go to his website – you’ll find a page under my name – Debbie Fleming – and there are pages of Choirgirlz concerts to view.

We’d try and put on some sort of “show” every 2 months or so – to keep our material fresh, and find incentive to do new material. We became members of the OCFF, and attended the OCFF conferences in Ottawa every year – doing “Girlzilla Showcases” of our own – setting ourselves up in the halls of the hotel, and serenading people with our songs as they walked by, or joined in. We had many laughs, and met many fantastic people in the folk community through those conferences. The Good Lovelies, who are now Juno and Folk awards winners – found ChoirGirlz to be one of their inspirations as they were starting out – and we had planned to put a show together called “Songs of Bitches”, but life got in the way, and the show never happened. At one of those conferences, however, we met and jammed with John Jackson and Steve-Paul Simms, and had such a ball together – we ended up doing a show together at Gate 403.

From our yearly gigs at Free Times Cafe, Plein Air Salon (where we will do our final show July 7, 2010); to the ultimate peaks of our professional association -performing at Summerfolk and Winterfolk – we have had an incredibly rich journey in our 9 years together. We have released three recordings of our songs – each of us has contributed to the writing of our material. We’ve learned to be not only singers, but entertainers – and people who come to see our shows always end up leaving with a smile on their face, and a lighter step.

But as with everything – Change Gonna Come – and in order to stay viable and alive in this sometimes cruel music business – Change GOTTA Come – or you lose your audience. People who come out to live shows understandably want to hear new material, and have a new experience whenever they go and hear groups like ChoirGirlz. Yes, we have our original songs that we’ve recorded, that we feel we must perform at every concert we do. Some songs are a must – like audience favourites Angel Wings (written by Mary Ellen) and Vacuum Cleaner Tango (by moi) – but the demand for new material has become a demand that we can no longer easily accommodate.

Learning a new song involves a lot of practise and homework – learning vocal parts, getting guitar chords smoothly under the fingers, and more recently – -bringing in the new instrumental sounds of ukuleles as an extra colouring for my guitar accompaniment. I must confess, adding ukuleles to our sound was my idea of bringing our sound up a notch, and both Dorothy and Mary Ellen found a new love in being able to make their own accompaniment with these sweet little instruments. That being said – in order to impliment the new sound – there would have to be more effort put into practising, so we could keep our beautiful vocal harmonies, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME, playing uke. Not as easy as it looks. Unfortunately, Mary Ellen is performing the work of two people at her very demanding day job as a church accountant, and understandably, when evening comes, she has time only to eat and sleep. Dorothy is very busy with her writing, with her horse, her volunteerism, her involvement in her Chadora Club – not to mention the increasingly difficult journey from Aurora to Toronto in order to rehearse weekly – no time to practise.

We mutually decided that we’ve far surpassed where we originally intended to travel on this journey together. We’ve had some fantastic times together, laughter, tears, great songs, fabulous harmonies – and each of us has learned a whole lot. We decided we’ve “Gone about as far as we can go” in the present circumstances. We realize that it’s far too difficult an effort to continue to expand, grow, promote, publicize and face the frustration of dwindling audiences, with our schedules as busy as they are.

We look forward to singing some of our favourite songs for you at our Plein Air Salon concert – and hope the weather will be good for this lovely outdoor rain-or-shine concert. If it rains – well – I guess the universe will be crying just a small tear for the end of the ChoirGirlz most AMAZING journey. Hope to see you there. Check out http://www.choirgirlz.com for details.

ChoirGirlz, Plein Air,

For the past 5 years, around May, I travel to Niagara on the Lake to work with the award winning Niagara Rhythm Section led by Steve Goldberger.  The band is made up of Mr. Goldberger on bass and vocals, Steve Grisbrook on guitar, Penner MacKay and Sandra Marynissen on percussion, Dave Norris on drums and either Roger Nyznik, Denis Keldie or Herb Nelson on keys.

What BAND!  They get their groove on every time!  They were playing for years at the Anchorage, and later, Corks – and are now playing at the Old Winery Restaurant in Niagara On The Lake every Saturday evening with special guests!  I’m very privileged to be one of those special guests.

It’s always little bit of heaven for me to “loosen up the belt” on my favourite R&B standards for two long sets.  It’s quite a fun adventure using my big voice once again, since I’ve been used to mostly “blendy” group singing and sweet jazz for so long.   I love to get the audience grooving, and dancing their faces off.  Can’t wait ’til next year!

It seems 2007 was a blur of activity for me — not necessarily in the music area — but busy enough that I didn’t have the chance to do needed phoning and booking of gigs for my jazz trio or ChoirGirlz.  I was doing what a lot of people of our age-bracket are doing — moving my parents out of their home of 60 years, and into retirement care.   It was quite the journey, going through dusty memorabilia dating back years and years.  Good Will became my new best friend, and I became the Queen of Schlepping for a number of months.  Thanks to an expert in the field of Elder care, Ms. Pat Irwin, with whom I sing in the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, the move itself was smoothly implimented.  Visit her website at www.eldercarecanada.ca to find out more helpful information.  I wrote and recorded a song about the experience which you can click on.  It’s entitled Moving Day.

Earth Hour Lights Out at Trane Studio


SATURDAY MARCH 29TH, 2008

Trane Studio

964 Bathurst St. (just south of Dupont, West side)

Shows:  8 pm and 9:45

Admission:  $10

Excellent food!  Reservations recommended

Phone: 416.913.8197

Hosted by ChoirGirlz, and featuring Crabtree-Mills, Rosemary Phelan and Peter Verity.

Saturday March 29th was designated as Earth Hour throughout the world, and in order to do our very small part to conserve the rapidly depleting energy sources of our planet, we were all asked to simply turn off our lights between 8 and 9 pm on March 29th.  On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour. This massive collective effort reduced Sydney’s energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for one hour.

At Trane Studio, I assembled a stellar group of singer-songwriters to provide entertainment for this concert, where we all performed acoustically, with no PA, while our audience dined on great food, to the soft light of candles.
It was like a campfire — we were lit with battery operated lanterns, and we invited the SRO audience to sing along with our Earth Hour song.

Interesting how quiet an audience is when they’re not bombarded with the amped up sounds blasting from the stage.

ChoirGirlz got a large photo in The Toronto Star, advertising their successful Earth Hour show at Trane Studio

Listen to our version of  The Earth Hour Song– written to teach people how to conserve the energy we use (on our CD “Livin’ It)

                       September 2007 – In Memory of a wonderful man, and musical genius – by Debbie Fleming

Doug Riley, ueber-talented keyboardist from Toronto, passed on suddenly Aug.27, 2007 at the age of 62.  He set the bar so high! Excelling in R&B, jazz, classical, blues — playing Hammond B3 and piano — it will be very difficult for anyone to come close to his genius.   My association with Doug was a long one, having recorded hundreds of commercial jingles and recording sessions under his guidance.  I like to say that owning my house is thanks to Doug Riley (and Trudel Productions, for whom Doug plied his talents).  The hole that is left in all our hearts and souls, now that Doug is gone, is huge, and we are all grieving, and missing him so.

Two days after Doug died, while carrying him around in my heart and soul every waking minute, the chorus of a song came to me. By the end of the day, I had written a song for Doug, called “Song For the Doctor”.  I sang it for some of my friends, and we all agreed we had to record it in Doug’s memory.  The response was nothing short of mind-boggling.

The recording of the song took place on September 23rd at Phase One Studios.  With everyone, including the studio, donating their time, and Lou Pomanti at the helm as MD, we had 43 singers, 12 musicians and a very helpful number of people looking after catering, photography, video, and making sure everyone was taken care of.  By the end of an 11 hour day, we had it all in the can.
   Gary Gray  mixed it,  Charlie Gray mastered it and Accudub manufactured it.

We were so privileged that singers such as Jackie Richardson, Dione Taylor, Sharon Lee Williams, Shawne Jackson, Colina Phillips, Cal Dodd, Wayne St. John, Roy Kenner, George Olliver, John Finley, Molly Johnson, Danny B were there to add their voices to the rest of the choir.  All singers had worked with Doug over the years either in the studio, or on live gigs.  It was an amazing feeling among all of us, both vocally and spiritually,  and that translated to the recording, which was sold at the Memorial Concert in November.  The artwork was beautifully designed by Juno award winner, Michael Wrycraft — an 8 panel tribute in words and photos to Doug Riley.

Concert Details:
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 18th, 2007
4.pm A CELEBRATION CONCERT IN HONOUR OF DOUG RILEY

 (A musical benefit for the Doug Riley Scholarship Fund
in association with the Faculty of Music,
University of Toronto)

CONVOCATION  HALL,   31 Kings College Circle    
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

Soloists:   David Clayton-Thomas,  Cal Dodd,  Dione Taylor,
 Courtney Farquhar,  Danny B. &  Michael Burgess

Featuring voices of:
 Sharon Lee Williams,  Shawne Jackson,  Colina Phillips,
     Brenda Russell,  Jackie Richardson, Betty Richardson, Kim Richardson,    Sheree Jeacocke,
  Debbie Fleming,  Lynne Deragon,   Neil  Donell,  
Roy Kenner,  Wayne St. John,    Steve Kennedy and a choir of close to 40 handpicked singers, all of whom are singing on the recording “Song For the Doctor”  You will see Debbie’s Song For The Doctor around 4’17”.

Doug Riley Memorial Concert Part 3

The concert featured a  Classical Section,   Famous People Players,
 A Jazz Segment, featuring Don Thompson, Phil Dwyer, Guido Basso,
Mike Murley, Ted Quinlan and many others.  
A Doctor Music Section,  A Motherlode section,   A Gospel section,
An R & B section with Bernie LaBarge,
 David Clayton-Thomas and his band with Bruce Cassidy and Lou Pomanti,   Planet Earth With Ben Riley
.   Jesse Riley  provided a spectacular Police Honour Guard during the Concert.

_________________________________________________________

During this concert, Song For The Doctor was performed as the grand finale to the show, with the full monte of singers and horns, as it was recorded. The CD single of the song was sold during intermission and after the show.  All proceeds for the sale of this song  go towards The Doug Riley Scholarship Fund through the U of T Faculty of Music.   Song For the Doctor may be purchased through our shopping cart .

Song For The Doctor, CD Single, written by Debbie Fleming

Singers and Musicians – Toronto’s Elite – who played on this CD are all together at Phase One Studios.