DAVID WARD - Host of CKUA’s Sounds Live and Time for JazzMusic that I would love to receive:1) Don Bradshaw and Rhonda Withnell–Once WasA soon-to-be-released tour de force. An acoustic bass and a voice, that's it. But prepare yourself to be overwhelmed by the power, intimacy, and the delightful twists and turns of this beautiful musical conversation between two friends.” - David Ward

— See Magazine

ENTERTAINMENT Fri, January 28, 2005 Jazz singer mines new musical territories MIKE ROSS, EDMONTON SUN A man is stranded on a desert island. Day and night, he hears drums. When he asks the natives why, they say, "Drums stop, very bad." This goes on for months. The natives keep saying, "Drums stop, very bad." One day, the drums stop. The village is in a panic. People run for their boats. The man is confused and shouts to a fleeing tribesman, "What's happening?" The native replies, "Drums stop, very bad! It's time for the bass solo!This is a very old musician's joke. Perhaps it speaks directly to our topic today: the debut album released by local jazz singer Rhonda Withnell and her bass-playing partner Don Bradshaw. Unveiled with a show at the Varscona Theatre Sunday night, it's called Once Was and was originally planned as an instrumental album of bass solos. It turned out to have been a good idea to include some singing. You know, just so it wouldn't have all been bass solos.Withnell says, "Don decided a duo would be neat. He and I had started doing a couple of things together and it turns out we came out with all these ideas of tunes to do.Once Was contains a jazz treatment of Madonna's Beautiful Stranger, which might take Madonna fans a while to identify, nestled near the bluegrass standard Don't Kneel at My Graveside, to give you an idea of the variety of music included here.Withnell and Bradshaw stopped short of going whole hog on the wacky covers - which could've sold CDs on novelty alone - but they seem more concerned with artistic merit than commercial appeal. They just wanted to do something different. You will not hear songs like Don't Get around Much Anymore or All of Me or My Funny Valentine or any number of hoary old standards in the big jazz fake book that is the bible of the Grant MacEwan College music program, where Withnell happens to have been trained. People still want to hear them. They're just not going to hear them from this particular jazz singer.That's been the problem with me, that I don't choose the standard tunes," she says. "I'm always looking for something different to do and it's great because I have an interesting book of music. Sometimes people say, 'Don't you do this tune?' Yeah, I could sing it, but I'd rather not. It's been done eight billion times. How could I possibly improve upon it?There is enormous potential with a project like this. Live, it's different than the usual piano lounge act, and could make an intimate opening act. A jazz duo is flexible. Withnell could sing any of the hundreds of songs she knows through her various projects, and the bassist can follow along because he's a jazz musician and that's what jazz musicians do.For recordings, a sequel is definitely in the works, Withnell says, the working title Once Again being obvious. The wacky cover potential is limitless. The Bad Plus earned attention for jazzifying Iron Man and Heart of Glass. Withnell and Bradshaw are already getting attention for Beautiful Stranger and the album isn't even out yet. Can Like a Virgin be far behind?Withnell says, "So far people seem to be fascinated by it. We've had people request Beautiful Stranger at the gigs. And we've been getting requests for Persephone, the weird little one we wrote. So people seem really surprised, which is fun.All they need now is a catchy name for the duo. How about Drums Stop, Very Bad? ” - \mike \ross

— Edmonton Sun

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