Regina’s Art Deco Temple

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Quantz, Largo e Double

Despite the stark, almost Hitchcockian impact of this photo, this Government of Canada building across the street from SaskPower and kiddie-corner to Regina’s landmark Hotel Saskatchewan (Radisson) is easy to miss somehow! Perhaps this has somehing to do with the intersections six lanes of traffic to keep an eye on, or getting distracted by the play of the prairie light on the mature trees in Victoria Park and – omigod! giant ants! – or, the likely distraction: simply wanting to find a good seat at O’Hanlon’s Irish Pub just up Scarth Street.

At the deco building, I had spoken with Earl in the lobby initially, and then to one contact after another (it’s all in my notes somewhere) seeking official permission to play/record in the magnificent, acoustically delightful 4-storey marble, glass and brass-detailed enranceway. It was a couple of days later as I was just finishing playing at Canada’s new RCMP Heritage Centre that I received a welcome call letting me know I could proceed – three hours before my flight to Winnipeg!

And what a treat! It was understandable that there was some initial hesitation: apparently there is a history of film crews, photographers, and tourist ‘deco-gawkers‘ (my own term) who have heard about this place, travelled from far and wide and make like it’s their own! Perhaps it was viewed that UrbanFlute was enough of a novelty item for them to humour me.

I might have preferred discreetly setting up and recording ‘below the radar’, so I was initially horrified to be greeted as I set up with several employees observing kindly ‘You must be the flute guy’. It turns out that an all-points e-bulletin had been sent to everyone in the building that a musician would be staking out the front foyer area! In the end it was all good…where I might have welcomed intermittent footfall and the subdued murmur of passing conversation mixed in with the music, there was a respectful and even reverant hush as individuals tiptoed by in twos or threes on their lunch or smoke-break, or peered out from behind half-opened, plate-glass doors – everyone listening and enraptured by the musical resonance and ‘deco-acoustics’ of the space, along with the flutist himself!