It’s a Friday night in Denare Beach, and the music echoes out on the water. Another jam session is well underway.
Every Friday, musicians from around Flin Flon and surrounding communities meet up at a prearranged location in Denare Beach and play whatever comes to mind. The exact spot changes from week to week.
Songs, stories and the occasional joke are shared. It’s a casual atmosphere – no one here is looking for the glitz and glamour of a main stage. The pleasure of playing is payment enough.
The session doesn’t really have an official name or title – sometimes, they’re referred to as “Deck to Deck,” since the show’s locations rotate and are often outside.
The Aug. 17 session did take place on deck, in a manner of speaking – on the roof and deck of Murray MacDonald’s houseboat, moored in Shwaga Bay not far from the main beach.
“We go from one person’s deck to another. This happens to be our deck this time,” said MacDonald.
About eight years ago, the jam sessions began at the New Horizons seniors’ facility in Denare Beach. Each Thursday night, the centre hosted an arts and crafts night.
MacDonald said Elfriede Reimer, who came to the centre every week as an artist, first had the idea to add some musical accompaniment.
“By degrees, the crafts were slowly taken over by music. People would jam there Thursday night and the crafters would listen,” said Edgar Wright, a long-time musician who helped get some of the sessions going. Wright was at the houseboat on Aug. 17, bringing a trombone.
Later on, as more people got involved, the shows were moved from Thursday to Friday night.
“Friday night is a good night. You can sleep in Saturday morning,” said MacDonald.
When suggested that the session was also a good excuse to stay up late with friends, MacDonald feigned innocence. “Stay up late? Would I do that?”
Players
On any given Friday, there are about a dozen musicians at the sessions. They aren’t professionals, but feel earnest about the music. Most are retired and worked various different jobs in their past years – some were prospectors, others engineers, some in the trades. Jamming is a hobby, a way to pass the time with friends.
The personalities are what make the jam special. Alistair Callegari and MacDonald share chuckles about their days as prospectors, with MacDonald strumming a few chords and Callegari poised to play a fiddle he made himself.
Nearby, Dave Clement plays his own guitar. Dave is blind, but like other musicians before him, he makes his way through pieces by the feel of his instrument. Ann Ross plays the bass, with her instrument connected to a Bluetooth speaker. It’s not too loud, but it’s positioned just so everyone can feel a low rumble whenever she hits a note. Doug McGregor brings out a banjo, a guitar and a harmonica nestled in a holder. In the back, Wright growls out a bass line with his trombone. John Taylor, Ivan Conley, Mary Wright and others play acoustic six-strings. The sun sets over the island to the west.
Many of the typical players perform around Flin Flon, but some keep their talents more hidden.
“It’s not like we’re all expert musicians. We’re pretty good, but we’ve been playing for a long time,” said MacDonald.
He points over at Clement. “He knows a thousand intros and a thousand extros and a thousand ways to follow the chord,” said MacDonald.
“When you’re playing a tune, yeah, you may stumble a bit, but…”
He shrugs his shoulders.
Nobody here cares if it’s not perfect.
Roots
To further trace the roots of the jam session, McDonald said one has to go back to the roots of the arts in the Flin Flon area – the musical traditions brought to the region from workers who moved there.
“The history goes way, way, way back,” he said.
“When the mining companies first started, they had an actual policy that they had to provide entertainment to people who were living 500 miles north of Winnipeg with no means of communication, no road, no highway.”
In the older days of Flin Flon, when mining companies hired workers, executives would reportedly show increased interest in an applicant if they could play music. That led to the creation of various musical groups and productions, including pipe bands, vocal groups, choirs and the original Flin Flon Glee Club, regaling the locals with Gilbert and Sullivan numbers.
MacDonald also threw back to times he spent in Cape Breton, his family’s original home. He said after dinner someone would typically produce a fiddle.
“The whole damn kitchen was full of people, playing the fiddle, playing the guitar. A dulcimer came out. I just thought, ‘Oh wow, this is really cool.’”
That culture of music has grown in recent years, with continued work by Crystal and Mark Kolt to encourage arts and culture and more arts-based events, including Culture Days, Community Choir events and the recent Blueberry Jam Musical Gathering.
“Not only do they work their asses off, they love it. They love the music, they love the concept,” said MacDonald, referring to the Kolts.
“They have this base in this community, the whole thing, they have that base where they can draw off,” replies MacDonald.
“When I lived in Kenora, I would brag about Flin Flon.”
