Double Helix, two brothers and their guitars, will give three performances on the Sunshine Coast, July 10, 11 and 12.
Tony and Peter Chotem have been jamming together since they were kids growing up in a musical household. Their father was the acclaimed Montreal musician and composer Neil Chotem.
Tony Chotem has formal training in classical guitar, he told Coast Reporter, and he couldn’t decide at an early age whether he liked classical or jazz best.
“I can’t really give up either one,” he said, and he plays classical for weddings along with a flautist, but when he gets together with his brother Peter they perform their favourite jazz, Latin and blues standards. The techniques between classical and jazz are very different, he points out, but the duo’s music would definitely be called jazz as the common thread is improvisation.
“No matter what song we pick – Celtic, country, pop – we arrange it the way a jazz musician would,” Tony said. It could be part of the legacy from his dad, since Neil Chotem was an excellent arranger of music. He was a child prodigy who was offered lessons at age 13 from Rachmaninoff and turned them down. Later he entertained the troops during the war, and Stephane Grappelli invited him to join his crew. He turned that down too, earning a reputation as a sought-after musician. The boys learned some of their music by osmosis.
“I would absorb so much at home,” Tony said, “and would hear whole albums being written in the next room on the piano.”
Despite this early start, the brothers were late bloomers in performance, joining the touring and festival circuit in 2010, including going on a tour that paid tribute to their father at Ottawa and Montreal jazz venues. These days they are active in Vancouver’s lively jazz scene.
Double Helix performs at the Ruby Lake Resort on Friday, July 10 from 6 to 9 p.m., at The Old Boot Eatery in Sechelt on Saturday, July 11 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. and at Persephone Brewing in Gibsons on Sunday, July 12 from 2 to 4 p.m.
See www.tonychotem.com for more. Check out their music at the site www.sonicbids.com/band/doublehelix
