“Blackwood trio performs their musical sections as one, creating calming, mesmerizing music” Tiina Kiik, the Whole Note 2025

“This music is soaring, enveloping, comforting, and it creates atmospheres that are both mysterious and languid. A rather unclassifiable album that we highly recommend if you are the type to let yourself loose”.  Justin Bernard, La Scena Musicale, Oct. 2021

“Sonically haunting, sophisticated euro-jazz minimalism”. 
Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise UK, Nov. 2021

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Album Release Concert

The Blackwood trio is very happy to announce the release of our new full length album “How Long We Wait”. To celebrate this, we are having a special album release concert on Friday, September 4th!!!!

PURCHASE TICKETS IN ADVANCE HERE

The album’s name is Inspired by Thomas Merton’s poem ‘How Long We Wait, With Minds a Quiet as Time’, and the album reflects on patience, surrender, and our intimate place within the slow, enduring rhythms of nature. 

And it has been a bit of a wait since our last album!  It’s been two years since “Passages”, our last album as a trio. However – this one is special as it is the first album where our cellist, India Gailey is a full contributor as both a composer and performer.

Friday, September 4th at 7:30 pm at the beautiful First Baptist Church 1300 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS

PURCHASE TICKETS IN ADVANCE HERE

Or – you can get them at the door as well. Cash or e transfer only. Tickets are $25.00 but we have a pay-what-you-can policy if you pay at the door.

If you want to check us out before the concert (and please do!) head on over to Bandcamp where you can listen to some of this beautiful album and – we would love it if you’d show your support and pre-order your copy. We can have it ready for you to pick up at the concert! 

New Blackwood Trio Album!!

Sanctuary Concerts announces the upcoming September 4th release of How Long We Wait (SCCD 008), a new recording from the Blackwood Trio with Peter-Anthony Togni (pipe organ) and Jeff Reilly (bass clarinet) and India Gailey (cello).

Pre order your digital or physical copy of the album on bandcamp here!

The album features 9 newly composed, original tracks by the three members of the ensemble. The album’s name draws inspiration from Thomas Merton’s poem ‘How Long We Wait, With Minds a Quiet as Time’ and it reflects on patience, surrender and our quiet, elemental bond with the deep forces of nature that govern our world.

Building on the sonic palette established across Lost and Found and Passages, How Long We Wait marks a clear evolution in both sound and scope. The distinctive timbres of bass clarinet, cello and piano remain at the heart of Blackwood’s sound, while a greater emphasis on melody allows the music to unfold with new warmth and lyricism. The result is a richly textured musical language that blurs the boundaries between contemporary classical, minimalism, jazz and free improvisation.

Through exploring the power of a sun shower in India’s Gailey’s “Sonnenreggen”, the mourning of a vanishing species in Jeff Reilly’s “Last Flight” and the powerful natural forces that shape our planet in Peter-Anthony Togni’s “Surge” – these titles and all of the others are inspired by the group’s profound respect for the mystical forces of nature that govern our lives.

 

Blackwood Trio Album: “Passages”

Inspired by plainchant, free improvisation and holy minimalism (think Arvo Part meeting up with Bram Stoker) Blackwood members Jeff Reilly and Peter-Anthony Togni join up with cellist India Gailey to release PASSAGES.

Featuring 5 tracks where Peter plays on three different pipe organs from around Nova Scotia, this album is soaring, mystical, dark and full of heart.

Find out more and support the artists directly by ordering your digital or physical copy of the album on bandcamp here!

Give us a listen on Spotify here

Watch Peter and Jeff perform the title track:

While their previous release Lost and Found featured exclusively tracks with Peter-Anthony Togni on piano, PASSAGES focus on the pipe organ. Recorded on 3 different organs across the maritime provinces of Atlantic Canada PASSAGES’ sound is rich, mysterious and lyrical.

Peter and Jeff are honoured and delighted to be joined by the cellist, composer, and improviser India Gailey, a rising star based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax, who appears on 2 tracks from this album. India adds her wonderful musicianship and powerful improvisations to the sound of this project.

Watch the Blackwood trio perform Benédicité live from the 2024 St John’s Sound Symposium:

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Blackwood released their first album LOST AND FOUND on September 24th, 2021. Available on all download and streaming sites. Support the artists here by ordering a physical copy or digital download on bandcamp.

Bookings: Kanon Artists Ltd.   kanartists@gmail.com

Watch Blackwood perform the title track to their album Lost and Found:

Lost and Found is Peter-Anthony Togni and Jeff Reilly’s collection of compositions inspired by subjects ranging from the power of dreams, the birth of children and grandchildren, the natural world and medieval plainchant. They also include a transcendent take on the Miles Davis classic Blue in Green. Here they are performing track 2 from the album, Uncountable, by Peter-Anthony Togni.

Recorded in the pristine acoustics and isolated environment of Trinity St-Stephen’s church in the small town of Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada — the album has rich and inviting sonic atmosphere.

Blackwood started back in 1998 with a trip to the organ loft.  Peter and Jeff had just started working together at the CBC music department in Halifax, NS and on one weekday afternoon Peter mentioned he had acquired the keys to one of the best organs in the city. Without hesitation they skived off the rest of the day to go check it out. Jeff brought his bass clarinet along and the sounds they were able to make in that cathedral space of St Mary’s Basilica were a revelation. They discovered a deep musical sympatico that has led to over 2 decades of remarkable productivity.

Peter and Jeff went on to tour the world with the trio Sanctuary, record concertos for bass clarinet and choir on the German label ECM, string orchestra concertos on Warner Classics and award winning full length works for solo bass clarinet and vocal quartet on the Montreal based label ATMA Classique.

In spite of having worked on many large-scale projects together, it is in the intimate context of performing their own compositions on piano and bass clarinet that Togni and Reilly celebrate the full range of their many years of collaborative musical experience. In their debut release as a duo, Togni and Reilly explore everything from ancient modality to contemporary modernism. Their sound has the precision of gesture and clarity of focus found in any serious classical ensemble, but also taps into the expressive freedom found in the improvisational gestures of contemporary jazz.

Watch the entire CD release concert (with special guest bassist Ronald J. Hynes) here:

Blackwood’s take on the Miles David classic, Blue in Green:

Peter-Anthony Togni’s “Silentio”, with Peter on the pipe organ.