The more I meet and work with artists and musicians and creative people, the more I realize that success is not simply a matter of talent or skill or even determination. What really distinguishes the genius from the everyday is sheer ambition. Anyone can be in a band or draw a picture or even make a movie, but not everyone can be the greatest band or the most intricate drawer or make the most expensive movie. That ambition to be the One fuels all great art. Richard Marsella may not have the best band in the world (though it might be the best band in Brampton), but he does have one of the biggest. On this CD document, he’s got hundreds of kids playing homemade instruments, the musical saws of the Singing Saw Symphony, taiko drummers, Kid Koala, two fire trucks and two ice cream trucks (plus a whole bunch of friends). And the whole thing is/was a parade! Just reading the credits on this CD made me want to love it. And the music’s not half bad either. (Terence Dick)
CD, www.musicroots.org