Bread for Jazz: Calgary Musician Enhances His Musical Offerings

Time to read: under 3 minutes

Saxophonist Keith O’Rourke is a man of many musical talents, and now he can also call himself an entrepreneur. His jazz trio was set to perform in the Jack Singer Lobby for the Arts Commons Presents TD Jazz: Jazzmeia Horn concert on May 26th, before it was forced into cancellation. 

A born-and-raised Calgarian, Keith earned his Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance, in classical saxophone, and learned that jazz was where his heart is. He decided to travel the world and explore new musical horizons. His first stop was London, where he steeped himself in some of jazz’s greats at legendary clubs like Ronnie Scott’s. Then he was off to Ireland to explore his ancestral homeland. For seven years after that, Keith sailed the seas as a musical director and theatre musician, a gig that exposed him to countries and musicians he otherwise wouldn’t have had the pleasure of knowing. Bolstering his adventures, Keith has attended the Banff International Jazz Workshop and studied with greats such as Pat LaBarbera and Kirk MacDonald. 

In recent years, he’s stacked up the accolades for recording projects including his own debut award-nominated recording inspired by all his travels, Sketches From the Road. He performs regularly and recorded with Calgary mainstay Prime Time Big Band, and is part of saxophone trio, Baritone Madness. This trio has toured jazz festivals across Canada and topped the Canadian jazz charts at #1 for three months straight in 2019. They were set to tour again this summer bringing unique original music to new cities, but then, all festivals were cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Keith also, like many professional musicians, teaches in schools, as a specialist on his instrument. However, with in-class schooling cancelled in March, when COVID shutdowns began, this work has dried up completely.  

While Keith is making every effort to make the most of a bad situation, the loss of performance income and earnings from teaching has hit him hard. Fortunately, Arts Commons was able to pay him his full fee, despite cancelling the Jazzmeia Horn concert, accomplished in part with the help of music lovers in Calgary who generously donated their ticket value back to Arts Commons. Everything helps, but Keith is still faced with months of cancelled gigs ahead of him and he's not one to sit idly by. Alongside the dedicated practice regimen he’s always been known for, he’s spread his wings into the entrepreneurial realm. 

On June 8th, Keith launched Bow River Music Lessons an online learning opportunity to replace cancelled summer music camps, and a new revenue stream for Keith and some of his musical peers. Parents can sign up for the eight-week program for two virtual lessons per week. Offered in group lesson format with an instrumental specialist leading, students will engage with each other and the instructor to enhance their skills throughout the summer – also an excellent way for adults to reengage with an instrument they want to take up again! 

Additionally, the jazz community across Canada has created an underground social media movement of showing their new home-baked artisan breads online. In a very short time, Keith has mastered the art of sourdough bread making – a completely new skill for him. I am a lucky recipient of a fresh loaf every week, and I can attest it is nothing short of magic, in loaf form. With a little encouragement from friends, he’s turning this into a veritable bake sale fundraiser, “Bread for Jazz,” for his next recording. With the future of arts project funding questionable in these times, he’s being proactive, albeit in unconventional ways. He can currently turn out up to four beautiful loaves per day, and in true baker form does the baking in the morning before turning his attention to his online teaching. If you’re lucky enough to score a loaf through his fundraiser I promise you won’t be disappointed! 

Keith O’Rourke’s Sourdough Bread 

800g flour 

600g water 

16g salt 

120g starter 

1. Night prior: feed starter to activate it for tomorrow’s bread. Use cold water to slow the starters growth so it’s not ready too early. 

2. Morning: mix the flour, salt and water to autolyse the dough. It should be quite shaggy. Cover in plastic wrap. Leave for 90 minutes. 

3. Mix the starter into the shaggy dough. Stretch and fold the dough over itself until the starter is well mixed in. Cover with a tea towel. Leave for 30 minutes. 

4. Stretch and fold #1: Grab the dough and stretch it out and fold it over itself. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Do this 4-8 times. Cover with a tea towel. Leave for 30 minutes. 

5. Stretch and fold #2. Same as step 4. Leave for 30 minutes. 

6. Stretch and fold #3. Same as step 4, at the end perform a “windowpane” test. For this stretch the dough out slowly, if it’s ready you can almost see through the dough without it ripping. If it rips, do another stretch and fold leaving for 30 minutes. Cover with a tea towel. 

7&8. Extra stretch and folds - if needed about 30 minutes apart to repeat step 6. 

9. Bulk rise. Cover the dough with and let rise 30-50%. This takes between 2-6 hours depending on the ambient room temperature. 

10. Late afternoon: Cut the dough in half and then preshape the boules. Stretch the dough out on a lightly floured surface. Then grab one side of the dough and fold it to the centre, do the same with the other three sides. Flip the dough and using a bench scraper, pull the dough ball guiding it with your other hand. You will pull and turn the dough until it makes a nice ball. Put it aside and let it rest for 30 minutes. Then shape the other half the dough. 

11. Take the pre-shaped ball and flip it over. Lightly stretch the dough into a rectangle. Once again fold each side into the middle and then flip it over. Shape the dough the same way as in step 10 until it’s a nice ball, popping bubbles as they appear. Once it’s a good shape, flip the ball over and place into a bowl lined with a tea towel that has been dusted with rice flour. The bottom of the loaf will be showing not the nice taught boule you just shaped. Fold the towel over the dough and cover the bowl with stretch wrap or put in a clean plastic bag and close it to proof overnight in the fridge. 

12. Next morning: Preheat oven and Dutch Oven pot to 500F for one hour. A hot Dutch Oven helps the bread rise. 

13. Just before baking take the ball (boule) out of the fridge. Put parchment paper over top of the boule and flip it over. Score the loaf with a razor blade or very sharp knife. Do this at an angle and all the way across the dough. This will help the bread rise and direct the expansion of the dough so you get a good shaped loaf. 

14. Place loaf in the Dutch Oven pot and cook in the oven at 500F for 20 minutes with the lid on. 

15. Take lid off, reduce the temperature to 450F and cook for 20 more minutes. 

16. Take loaf out of Dutch Oven and let the bread cool completely before you cut into it. 

17. Enjoy!