Jaron Freeman-Fox, a violinist originally from British Columbia, will be making a stop in Thompson during the final Home Routes concert of the season. Freeman-Fox knew he wanted to play the fiddle since he was three or four, and received his first fiddle for his seventh birthday.
Freeman-Fox began to busk when he was eight years old, making $20 an hour at the local corner store, saying it was better than any summer job a kid could get.
For him, the violin is what he’s best known for. “I think even as a grew older I felt very lucky to be a violinist because I’m really into traditional music from all over the globe and the violin or a culture’s version of the violin is kind of in almost every tradition. It’s cool that way to play an instrument that’s already in the tradition when I’m studying it or jamming with people from different cultures.” Freeman-fox noted he plays multiple other instruments like guitar, bass, percussion and a lot of banjo, but that is mostly for fun. “I love playing other instruments and I try to keep them as my downtime. It’s like television for musicians. Sit on the coach, turn off your brain and play some guitar.”
During the performance in Thompson, Freeman-Fox will be accompanied by Derek Gray, a percussionist. “He has a wonderful encyclopedic knowledge of world rhythms.” This isn’t the first Home Routes tour Freeman-Fox has been on, and he loves the idea behind the concept. “I’ve played house concerts since I was a kid and I really think it’s one of the most important things happening in the musical fabric in the world right now. It’s nice when the people that get the most out of the show aren’t the beer companies but it’s the audience and other musicians”
Freeman-Fox is part of a band called The Opposite of Everything. The band includes a clarinetist, an electro pop Klezmer accordionist, a jazz bassist and a drummer. The band has travelled all over the globe in the past three years, and even stopped by the Winnipeg Folk Festival last summer to play.
The best memories Freeman-Fox says are playing the largest crowds, and then the smallest crowds. The musician says one of his favourite musical memories happened in India. “I had this big gig in India playing with T.V. Gopalakrishnan. I met him randomly, and he asked me to play with him. He used to play with George Harrison from The Beatles and Pandit Ravi Shanker. It was a festival gig playing jazz fusion with him.”
The two musicians are looking forward to the Thompson stop, says Freeman-Fox. “I would just say the Home Routes tour is actually going to be pretty exciting for us. I’ve played in a lot of musical combinations in my few short years on this earth, and this find of playing violin and percussion I think is really feels like it’s distilling down the instrumentation to something that is the most crucial and the most flexible.”
After Thompson, the musician will be returning to the west coast. “I’m flying to Vancouver to do this show with I’d say the best baroque violinist in Canada, and it’s presented by the chamber classical music society in Vancouver. Basically he’s going to play the baroque violin and I have to go on stage after each movement and play the same thing he just played, but with my own style.”
After Vancouver, the band will tour Ontario, Montreal and then spend the summer in Europe.
The concert will take place at 206 Campbell Drive in Thompson on April 12. Tickets are $20 at the door. For more information call Tim or Jean Cameron at 204-677-3574.
