I'm posting this theme on Canada Day 2014 because this music makes me feel so proud to be Canadian and my hope is it will do the same for you. This music has not been heard in over 12 years but for only 8 months was heard by over 1 million people every day. It also played during the 9/11 attack.
This is my full theme as I composed it for a 60 piece orchestra mostly made up of TSO players… Doug Riley played piano, Brian Barlow on orchestral percussion and Steve Heathcote on snare drum. It contains all the sections that were used as underscore for top stories of the day. In this 2:23 you can hear how the orchestra builds so beautifully to the final theme statement. There are 3 fundamental underscore sections that are each divided further into 2 providing the news department with six possible weights of underscore for the daily news items. They are interchangeable because I used a strong 11/V/1 progression into each new key. This was perhaps one the best studio days in my life. The musicians were so buoyant as they left the studio, the client was so pleased and it was all recorded and mixed in 1 day.  It was recorded in January 2001 at Manta Sound, Toronto. Gary Gray was the recording and mix engineer. Happy 147th Birthday Canada!

CBC The National 2001 Full Theme

Ballroom Jump is fun and lively. Theme or underscore, it's got style.

Ballroom Jump

Look Ahead is a joyous Piano & bass collaboration between two Canadian jazz stalwarts.

JUNO nominated Canadian bass player Paul Novotny and current JUNO winning pianist Robi Botos, also the winner of the TD Grand Jazz Award at the 2012 Montreal International Jazz Festival, have come together to record their album Look Ahead, a joyous musical collaboration between two of the most in- demand jazz artists in Canada. Novotny has performed with jazz luminaries Cedar Walton, Geoff Keezer, Junior Mance, Jo Anne Brakeen, Kenny Wheeler and others, while Robi Botos has just released (2015) his own JUNO winning CD, Movin ’Forward, with Jeff “Tain” Watt’s, Robert Hurst and Seamus Blake.
“Working with Robi was so natural and produced an embarrassment of riches,” says Novotny. “So many albums need editing to fix problems. This one required editing to present the jewels of the three days of recording.”

Look Ahead, features a number of standards including “My Favorite Things”1 and “A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square,” as well as original tracks by both Novotny and Botos, whose composition “Budapest” pays tribute to his Hungarian birthplace. While Novotny was born in Canada, his parents are from Prague, and came to Canada in 1952, while Botos arrived in 1998. Even though the family’s arrival dates are 46 years apart, their stories are similar in that both families were fleeing persecution from hostile regimes. Canada showed its heart to both the Novotny and Botos families.

Novotny and Botos are musicians who make their music with deeply passionate melodic improvisations. In our current, ubiquitous and diverse musical landscape, it is rare to find new jazz that has an old soul, but still sounds fresh, yet timeless. Look Ahead does all of this, while presenting music in the acoustic context of an intimate chamber jazz space. Sonically speaking, 5.1 HIGHRESAUDIO customers will be immersed in a jazz performance that is richly present, and masterfully recorded at 96Khz/24 bit.

Liner notes are written by Canadian jazz musician extraordinaire, Phil Dwyer.

10 Nightingale Sang In Berkelee Square

9 Now's The Time

8 Praise

7 My Favorite Things

6 Budapest

5 Darn That Dream

4 Porters Hymn

3 Love Letters

2 AAA

1 A Gentle December Day

Paul Novotny  
Biography 2014

Bassist | Composer | Producer

Paul Novotny makes Toronto Canada his home. He has performed with Cedar Walton, Geoff Keezer, Joanne Brakeen, Junior Mance, Kenny Wheeler, Holly Cole, Carol Welsman, Molly Johnson and other international artists. As a media composer for Film and Television he has written themes and underscore for CBC National News, CBC The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos, CBC News Now, feature films and commercials. Paul has also performed in a duo setting with his music and business partner Joe Sealy since 1991. Together Joe and Paul have recorded five CDs on their own label, Triplet Records. Paul also produced Joe’s Africville Suite recording which won a Juno award. Their other releases have also garnered several Juno award nominations. Novotny and Sealy have performed at the Montreal and Toronto Jazz Festivals, opening for Brad Meldau & Charlie Haden, Michel Petrucciani & Herb Ellis, and The Bobo Stenson Trio. Paul recently produced, arranged and played on Canadian singer Barbra Lica’s debut CD titled “That’s What I Do”. It reached number 1 on iTunes Canada and is now available in Japan on Universal records.


Paul Novotny Music

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