The Electronic Valve Instrument (EVI) is the brainchild of my inventor friend Nyle Steiner. This particular model is one of only two see-through versions that Nyle produced. This model has been fitted with a MIDI wireless unit, the MIDIjet Pro produced by Classic Organ Works here in Toronto. It enables me to move freely in performance and works wonderfully.

It is essentially a synthesizer for a trumpet player. I found an early version of the instrument I now play in a music store in Chicago in 1979. At the time I was on the road as musical director and trumpet player with Blood Sweat and Tears and though I had little idea of how to play the instrument, I was so taken with it that I took it on stage that same night and played it - albeit terribly - much to the puzzlement of the audience and the horror of my band-mates. However since I loved the instrument so much I persisted in practicing it and the BS&T recording Nuclear Blues that I produced contains one of the first commercial recordings of the EVI.

I think that because of its breath control it is the most expressive electronic instrument produced to date. It responds to breath pressure, vibrato, portamento and pitch bend and has a playable range equal to that of the piano. It is capable of producing the sounds of many different instruments via an electronic protocol called MIDI and is also capable of playing complex new sounds even emulating the sound of a full orchestra.

A sister instrument the Electronic Wind Instrument (EWI) is essentially a saxophone-style version of the EVI that Nyle produced around 1990 and being easier to play is a much more commonly seen instrument. Certainly the best-known proponent of the EWI is the popular jazz saxophone player Michael Brecker.

NyIe Steiner himself is a wonderful performer on the instrument and though you may not have seen him play it you have certainly heard it though you may not have recognized the instrument because of the EVI’s chameleon quality. Some of the better-known films that contain NyIe’s EVI playing are: Apocalypse Now, Dead Poets Society, Fatal Attraction, Ghost, Gorillas In The Mist, Officer And A Gentleman and Witness.

I now consider the EVI my primary instrument and with my late friend David Hoenigsberg produced an orchestral concerto for the instrument and I used it to play the Ondes Martenot solo part on Olivier Messaien’s Turangulila Symphony with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra in 1992. I play it extensively on the album “Timeless’” with my partner Pops Mohamed and live with my Hotfoot Orchestra here in Toronto as well as in concerts with David Clayton-Thomas. An album of Hotfoot that features the EVI is “Sunrise on Ganymede”. This CD and Timeless are only available from me personally as they were recorded in South Africa during my extensive work stay there and are yet to be released in Canada. A search on the Internet with “Bruce Cassidy”, “EVI” and “trumpet” will show some of my other work.

Besides arranging and production work a main focus of mine at present is my group The Body Electric in which we attune to the atmosphere present in the venue and play to resolve the present feelings by means of our musical performance. Music heals and the EVI is my ‘instrument of choice’ in this work.

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