Jazz Fest Day 1 - Frisell & Porter

Bill Frisell has the ability to investigate every nook and cranny of a melody and draw new textures from it. Relying on the repertoire of John Lennon, this gift was in full display at Club Soda tonight. And who better to pay tribute to all sides of Lennon's musicality, from his originally skiffle and R&B influenced rhythm guitar chops to his experiments with tape loops, than Frisell? Alongside steel guitarist Greg Leisz. bassist Tony Scherr. and drummer Kenny Wollesen, the group reframed Lennon's work, sometimes in drastic ways, without ever straying too far from the tunes.

Sporting a Gibson ES-style semi-hollowbody axe - not a guitar I associate with him - Frisell and company came on stage after a kitschy orchestral version of "Yellow Submarine," without any prerecorded announcement. His swirling, delay-laden, celestial voicings led into a lightly deconstructed "Across the Universe," announced by repeating the "jai guru deva" section. This band deals in impossibly gradual crescendos, ratcheting up the energy in painstakingly incremental fashion. Frisell can lay into the simplest of melodies with the utmost conviction, and has the patience to stay there - "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" from East/West is the textbook example of this.

Frisell's relationships with these specific bandmates go back years, if not decades. The blend between Frisell and Leisz was so close, at times I couldn't tell who was creating what. Wollesen was clearly having a blast, laying into the backbeats of "Please Please Me" and gleefully referencing Ringo's tom fills of "Come Together." And if there's any bassist within the jazz realm who clearly understands Paul McCartney's bottom-end aesthetic of being melodic while also being glued to the kick drum, Scherr is it.

Once the melody of "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" appeared out of a nearly Coltrane-ish modal excursion, Leisz and Frisell would coalesce their lines into a poignant, powerful downbeat. Frisell's dissonances never seemed to be tacked onto the songs: they seemed perfectly natural, like they had always been there, lurking under George Martin's production.

The final tune of the set, "In My Life," induced goosebumps and tears from its clarion opening theme. The piano solo became a recurring part of the arrangement, played in perfect tandem between Leisz and Frisell. Towards the end, Wollesen unleashed a train beat that morphed itself into a nearly Sonny Rollins-esque calypso, before detonating a long E-power-chord pedal that resolved itself to end the set. The two encores, "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Imagine" were played more or less straight up, which is not to say they lacked innovation or beauty. Not by a long shot.

***

Gregory Porter is a new name to me. I had heard snippets on Bandcamp before, but my knowledge of his work was much more limited than my experience with Frisell, whom I have seen four times. Porter has a husky, classic soul-man baritone, with a Kurt Elling-like nasal rasp in his upper register. He has clear diction and a very disciplined sense of melisma. His between-song banter reminded me of Bill Withers' monologues from Live at Carnegie Hall. Clearly, he knows his history, with his original songs incorporating the classic Motown grooves (complete with a quote of "It's the Same Old Song") and take-no-prisoners swing.

Porter recounted the travel fiasco he and his bandmates encountered in arriving to Montreal. Perhaps that accounts for the kind of youthful raggedness of their sound. Aaron James' intonation on the bass was iffy in places, which made me think it wasn't his own instrument. Pianist Chip Crawford, in the first set, relied on his hands in unison - either octaves or tenths - spinning impressive, if hyperactive, lines. By the end of the two-and-a-half hours, I felt like he had run out of ideas, resorting to a series of glissandi on "Wisdom." Saxophonist Yosuke Sato had a piercing, poppy alto sound, and lacked Porter's restraint. Drummer Emmanuel Harold (I'll check the spelling of his name tomorrow) was a real revelation for me, anchoring the rhythmic feel of the band, from the gospel-meets-one-drop of "Mother's Song" to the Philly Joe Jones rim-click swing at the end of their version of Mingus' "Moanin'". When Porter was singing, the band gelled behind him admirably.

The sets were evenly split between Porter's originals and a repertoire of standards, notably including a fast version of Wayne Shorter's "Black Nile." This was followed by a gorgeous rendition of "Skylark" that was marred only by Rufus Wainwright's outdoor show leaking into the club. (Someone needs to get on soundproofing L'Astral, stat!) Even after two-and-a-half hours of barnburning soul-jazz, the audience demanded an encore. Running up against his curfew, Porter indulged with a short, sweet, a cappella rendition of "Mona Lisa."

2012 Montreal Jazz Festival - outdoor picks

The 33rd edition of the Montreal Jazz Festival unofficially kicks off in two evenings from now, with "pre-opening" concerts courtesy of Janelle Monáe and James Taylor (not, unfortunately, a double-bill). I profiled the indoor programming here; my picks for the must-see outdoor and free shows are below. There is once again an official jam session at the Hyatt hotel, hosted by pianist John Roney. The unofficial jams include the B3 organ hang over at Brutopia, hosted by Martin K. Petersen and company, and local Afrobeat dons Papagroove hold court at L'Absynthe for a few nights as well. And for all the people who grouse every year that the Festival is less and less jazzy (especially outdoors), keep reading.

June 28
Ivan Garzón Quartet (8 pm, CBC stage): I play with Ivan in Denis Chang's manouche quartet, where he plays rhythm guitar. He's also a fantastic post-bop electric player, and is in the running for the TD Grand Prix.
Marie-Christine (8 pm, Rio Tinto Alcan stage): One of the great rising soul and R&B singers in town, she's a commanding stage presence to match her voice.

June 29
Mike Essoudry's Mash Potato Mashers (4 & 6 pm, Heineken Lounge): Mike and I crossed paths at McGill. The Ottawa drummer's revisionist brass band is part of the daily afternoon brass-heavy madness throughout the festival.
Peripheral Vision (6 pm, TD stage): My buddies from Toronto, guitarist Don Scott and bassist Michael Herring, co-lead this quartet featuring their forward-thinking tunes. They're also nominated for the Prize.
Curumin (10 pm, Bell stage): If you missed his show three years ago on the same stage, prepare to be converted to this dubby, hip-hop-inflected Brazilian pop music. Curumin is undoubtedly the reason why my heart and my ears gravitate to São Paulo's music scene.

June 30
Alexandre Côté Quintet (6 pm, TD stage): Alex is an un(der)sung hero of the Montreal scene, as a saxophonist and as a composer. I'm privileged to play alongside him in Gary Schwartz's LETTINGO, and his writing always opens my eyes to new possibilities.
Maria Farinha Band (8 & 10 pm, Rio Tinto Alcan stage): This singer's list of sidemen include the cream of the crop of Brazilian musicians from Canada, the US and São Paulo. A dose of traditional MPB.
Plaster (10 pm, Bell stage): The original purveyors of local wall-shaking live electro. These guys embodied lots of what I loved about the Montreal scene circa 2004-05, and they're back!

July 1 - the night of too many decisions
Chris Tarry Group (6 pm, TD stage): The ex-Metalwood bassist has been settled in NYC for many years now, cranking out phenomenal original music and short stories. Tarry's sound on electric bass has been one of my favourites for years.
Robi Botos (8 pm, CBC stage): I grew up marvelling at Robi's talent in Toronto, watching him give master classes at The Rex with every solo. Without question one of Canada's best pianists. He's in the running for the Prize as well.
Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto (8 pm, Bell stage): the premier traditional cumbia group, in existence since 1940! An opportunity to not be missed. It'll provide context for...
Boogat (10 pm, Bell stage): Montreal MC turned ambassador for electro-Latin music. He's prepping a new record, and I'm sure all the dancefloor hits will be in his set too. ¡Dios mio, que viva Montreal!
Kneebody (10 pm, CBC stage): I've been a fan of this bi-coastal quintet since their first album on Greenleaf. Their electric, modern jazz packs a wallop, with a killer frontline of multi-reedist Ben Wendel and trumpeter Shane Endsley.
Heavy Soundz (midnight, Savoy, til July 3): alongside Boogat, the leading voice of Latin hip-hop in town. They take up three late-nights of residency at the Savoy.

July 2
Roma Carnivale vs Fanfare Severni (5 pm, place des Festivals): two local Balkan-influenced brass bands march across the place des Festivals for some heatstroke-inducing early partying. My money's on Roma.
Rachel Therrien Quintet (6 pm, TD stage): Like me, Rachel nurtures two great passions: Latin music and contemporary jazz. Fresh off the Banff Centre's jazz workshop, her sound has grown immensely and I can't wait to hear her showcase for the Prize.
Jazz Amnesty Sound System (midnight, L'Astral, til July 4): Selectors Andy Williams (of the Goods) and Luv dig into their impossibly deep jazz crates for a vinyl-only dancefloor section. I've been honoured to guest on a couple of their nights at the Waverly and I always get schooled by their records.

July 3
Sidi Touré (8 pm, Rio Tinto Alcan stage): This Malian singer and guitarist is firmly in line with many of his great countrymen, with a disarming voice and potent fingerwork.
Escort (9:30 pm, TD stage): a live disco big band direct from Brooklyn, featuring members of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society among others, for the mid-festival blowout? Yes, please.

July 4
Karl Jannuska (6 pm, TD stage): A bit of a mythical figure on the Montreal scene, this McGill alumnus moved to Paris before I arrived. Everyone still talks about his drumming and his compositions, for good reason. Featuring vocalist Sienna Dahlen, Jannuska's music is moving and somewhat haunting.
Ernesto Cervini Quartet (8 pm, CBC stage): I'm not really sure how you can be nominated for the TD "Rising Star" prize when you've released a few records on Anzic and your tenor saxophonist is Joel Frahm. Ernesto is a fantastic drummer (and an equally capable pianist and clarinetist) whose compositional voice is constantly growing.
Besh O Drom (8 & 10 pm, Rio Tinto Alcan stage): a group that was at the forefront of the Balkan Beats movement, this band direct from Hungary will show us how it's done.
The Narcicyst (10 pm, Bell stage): MC, author, professor, social critic and fashionista will grace the Jazz Fest stage with an all new show before he leaves our belle ville. Allahdamercy!

July 5
Chet Doxas Quartet (10 pm, CBC stage): The brothers Doxas (Jim's a drummer) are fixtures on the local scene, and the catalysts for some of jazz's biggest names to come to town. Chet will be playing music from his last album, Big Sky, featuring guitarist and Triplettes de Belleville composer Ben Charest.
Coyote Bill (10 pm, Bell stage): horn-heavy funky goodness featuring composer/producer/saxophonist extraordinaire Charles Papasoff, and members of Papagroove.
Kalmunity Vibe Collective (midnight, Savoy, til July 7): full disclosure - I'm playing on this one. Kalmunity has provided nine years of improvised grooves and social commentary in the city, and has been the incubator for some of the city's most promising talent over the past decade. With our three nights at the Savoy, we're indulging three different facets of our collective personality. July 5 is my baby, exploring the roots of all this music at Congo Square, and seeing how and where it grew from there. For those of you who attended our Mardi Gras party, expect some greasy NOLA funk through the Kalmunity kaleidoscope. The following nights are spotlighting J Dilla (July 6) and "the present moment" (July 7).
Canicule Tropicale (midnight, L'Astral, til July 7): My boys Philippe Noël and Kobal are back once again, with an all-tropical, all-vinyl marathon of dancefloor rockin' goodness.

July 6
Samuel Blais Quartet (8 pm, CBC stage): another young saxophonist whose enterprising NYC connections have led to an influx of fantastic shows in this city. He's showcasing his homegrown quartet, one of his many simultaneous projects.
Orgone (TD stage, 9 & 11 pm): I still harbour a love for the "jamband" scene - a remnant from my high school and early university days. These guys are carrying the torch of that community quite well, with an improvisational sense to their funk.
Frank Lozano Montreal Quartet (10 pm, CBC stage): Frank was a teacher of mine at McGill and a big inspiration, with a language that spans all periods and improvisational abilities.

July 7
Chicha Libre (8 pm, Bell stage): Led by Olivier Conan, the co-founder of Brooklyn's renowned club Barbès, this group has led the way for the rediscovery of Peruvian chicha music. They've put out a couple of brilliant records.
Blackmahal (10 pm, Bell stage): Bill Smith of Eye For Talent agency described them to me as "Bollywood hip-hop." An intriguing enough endorsement to warrant closing out the festival with this group. 

The time taken

The impetus of this blog, when I started out, was to document my life as a musician in Montreal. At the time, jazz blogging was in its infancy and centred around New York. I felt that Montreal's scene was equally vibrant and worthy of documentation. As the attention of indie-rock sites focused on the talent coming out of this city (many with links to jazz education programs in town), there wasn't the same mention being given to our jazz talent on the national or international stage. Ironically, as I've been more active as a musician, and therefore have had more things going on to document, my time for blogging has decreased. Yet one recent McGill Master's recital has prompted me to try and revise that.

Trombonist, composer, and arranger Jean-Nicolas Trottier was a few years ahead of me in our undergrad class at McGill. His concert of original big band pieces, held in the smallest recital hall available at McGill, was the catalyst for my own path down writing for large ensembles and cramming them onto tiny stages. Johnny has since become a first-call session player and arranger in town, and rightfully so. In his Master's recital, he led a tentet comprised of three saxes, two trumpets, trombone, and rhythm section. Due to the torrential rainfall of Tuesday, I was half an hour late to the set, and missed the opening tune "Mes Deux Femmes." I walked in on the closing woodwind chords of "Klondike Suite."

Trottier's writing features beautifully tense voicings, without sounding overly dense. The immediate parallel at the beginning of his "Chamber Suite" was Birth of the Cool, for its bouncy rhythmic sense and the roundness of the horn blend. Throughout the set, Trottier proved to be the epitome of straight-ahead jazz in 2012: there's an assimilation of great large ensemble jazz composers before him, from Tadd Dameron to Gil Evans. Anchored by a hard swinging rhythm section featuring guitarist Carlos Jimenez and pianist Jonathan Cayer, the ensemble sections were an outgrowth of Trottier's own trombone sound: not overly brassy or harsh, yet not pastoral in the way many post-Maria Schneider composers can be. Even the more angular tunes, like "Blue Lines" (a feature for trumpeter David Carbonneau and Cayer), and Part 5 of the "Chamber Suite" (seemingly indebted to George Russell's "All About Rosie") had the edginess sanded off. I appreciated that, aside from personal amps for Carlos and bassist Sebastien Pellerin, there was no electricity whatsoever. No microphones, which worked quite well in the new(er) Tanna Schulich Hall of McGill, and showcased Kevin Warren's touch on the drums behind the soloists. Even when Trottier soloed over the band - in cup mute! - he was completely audible in the back row of the hall.

The recital was essentially a dry run for the weekend's recording session. With standout soloists in altoist Samuel Blais and bari player J-F Ouellet, in addition to the aforementioned, Johnny's tentet is poised to take its place in the canon of great Canadian jazz composition.

FIMAV 2012 diary

My first trip to the esteemed Festival International de la Musique Actuelle du Victoriaville (FIMAV, or Victo to its friends) was this past weekend. It was a privilege to perform on the final day with Matana Roberts, with the majority of the Montreal group that recorded Chapter 1: Gens de couleur libres. Sunday at Victo was a bit of a tribute to Constellation Records, with Matana, Silver Mt. Zion and Esmerine on the bill.

We left CST HQ early Sunday morning at the non-musician-friendly hour of 8 am. Luckily, Mile-End staple Cafe Olimpico opens at 7 am, even on a holiday Sunday. We piled in two oversized vans and hit the highway. Making good time (and defying the no stopping rule) we made a bleary-eyed detour for some additional caffeine, before heading to Colisée A, the re-purposed hockey arena where we were playing. We had arrived an hour early, but the stage manager was apologetic that they weren't ready for us and helped us begin our setup before the rest of his crew came. Victo was one of the best festival set-ups I've been witness to: multiple stagehands and techs catering to our needs, and when you're trying to balance four horns with electric saw, guitar synth, and piano, there's a multiplicity of needs! After soundcheck we were given individualized folders with our festival IDs and information about Victoriaville (including a couple of maps that did not prevent us getting highly turned around in trying to locate the hotel). Festival director Michel Levasseur, sporting a red square, introduced Matana (as he did every show) and asked her about details before going on stage. He also gave us the liberty of starting a teeny bit late so we could finish our talk-down of the piece.

Every time I've had the opportunity to play Matana's music, there's both an edginess and a complete surrender that occurs. Her notation and conduction demands that an improviser's attention is devoted to many elements at once, but what happens in the moment reigns supreme. I've played both Chapter 1 and Chapter 2: Mississippi Moonchile, and the different ways that folkloric music is ingrained into the piece is a real anchor, I find. We had only a limited amount of time to rehearse the piece and integrate some of the new conduction Matana has added, so for my part I tried to watch her like a hawk. (Being on the other side of the stage didn't necessarily make conduction gestures easier to see!) The "calinda" - I guess on the album it goes under the title "How Much Would You Cost?" - gets me every time. As we rose to bow (to a standing ovation), we saw Henry Grimes in the front row. George Lewis came backstage afterwards, as well.

After the show, I went back to the hotel to catch a second wind. We headed out for dinner, and unfortunately time slipped away so we missed our Coin Coin compatriots Thierry Amar (bass) and David Payant (drums) pulling double-duty with Silver Mt. Zion, complete with a cameo from Matana. I headed back to the Colisée to get a seat for the trio of Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell and George Lewis, not before succumbing to the incredibly dangerous record kiosk. I don't know anywhere else in Quebec (or even Canada) where such a deep catalogue of Clean Feed, Tzadik, FMP and other small but highly important labels are available.

Muhal's opening low Db melted me with its tone. The first large segment of their improvisation, with Roscoe on flute, exhibited a mastery of patience. It slowly bloomed into a bigger sound, with Roscoe walking towards the microphones. The trio at times splintered off into duos and solos: Muhal waiting for the right moment to re-enter; Roscoe alternating among flute, soprano and sopranino saxes. George divided his time between trombone (with and without plunger) and his laptop, with which he would reconstruct Muhal's and Roscoe's sound into a swirling, pitch-shifted alternate universe. The electronic palette grew a tad predictable towards the end if no less enthralling. The improvisation ended an hour later as it had begun - Roscoe switching back to flute, the piece bookended by deliberation, causing the entire coliseum to hang on each individual note. The trio returned for a loudly demanded encore, which I unfortunately remember less than the main piece. I do recall it ended humourously, with George's guttural plunger effects ascending into a sudden stop.

The morning after, everyone congregated in the restaurant for breakfast. I was seated with Matana, Henry & Margaret Grimes. Later, fellow musicians, journalists and devotees trickled in before we all hit the road and count the days until next year.

2012 Montreal Jazz Festival - indoor programming picks

It's that time of year again, where local aficionados that the major festival in town is less and less jazzy. In my view, the programming for the 33rd annual Montreal Jazz Festival is decent - a couple of wows, a lot of repeat performers, and overall some solid, if not surprising, programming. And as always, the jazz is there if you look for it.

A couple of general notes before we proceed with the day-by-day picks:
- More venue juggling from years past, including cutting the 6 pm series from Gesù, and moving the late-night shows to the SAT.
- Upstairs Jazz Bar has the most consistently impressive series of the festival, featuring Brian Blade (!!) and Jon Cowherd with Fraser Hollins and Joel Miller, the Becca Stevens Band, trumpeter/composer Tom Harrell (!!), pianist Aaron Goldberg, and more.
- A couple of glaring omissions, given that these artists are performing in nearby Ottawa: Dave Holland's new electric group with Kevin Eubanks, Craig Taborn and Eric Harland; Kneebody (fresh off their residency at Brooklyn's Littlefield); the Mingus Big Band; and Tim Berne (either with Snakeoil, playing in Burlington, or the trio Big Satan).
- No disrespect intended to the fantastic musicians involved with these shows, but can we please, please, please have a festival without a tribute to Miles (Miles Smiles with Kenny Garrett et al, July 2) and/or Billie Holiday (Ranee Lee, July 7)?

June 27
The night of pre-opening special events: Janelle Monáe at Metropolis (8 pm); James Taylor at Wilfrid-Pelletier (7:30 pm, also the 28th); and the premiere of Carlos Saura's new show, Flamenco Hoy at Théâtre Maisonneuve (6 pm, until July 1). Saura will be an omnipresent figure at the festival, as I've heard his films will be screened at the Cinématheque as well.

June 28
- *Bill Frisell (Club Soda, 6 pm): Frisell is one of my favourites, and his renditions of pop melodies are always magical. The night will be devoted to the music of John Lennon, as heard on his disc All We Are Saying.
- Rafael Zaldivar Trio w/ Greg Osby (L'Astral, 6 pm): Cuban ex-pat Zaldivar has been stirring up the local scene for years, and his trio is joined by rhythmically advanced and provocative alto saxophonist Osby.
- Gregory Porter (L'Astral, 9 pm): this deep-voiced singer often gets compared to José James for his ability to convincingly wade in the waters of the jazz and R&B traditions.
Honourable mention: Gotta shout out my bwoys in Inword, who will be opening for Ziggy Marley at Metropolis (8:30 pm). The bill could easily be the other way around. 

June 29
- ***Wayne Shorter (Théâtre Maisonneuve, 9 pm): I should have my credentials suspended for not having seen this band yet. One of the most exhilarating working groups in jazz, led by the true definition of living legend. I'm NOT missing them again.
- Esperanza Spalding's Radio Music Society (Metropolis, 8:30 pm): We love Esperanza, Esperanza loves us. She gets to indulge her groove side here, and she specifically requested the venue.
- Pierre Bensusan (Cinquième Salle, 9:30 pm): I've been exposed to this French guitarist through bassist Chris Jennings, and his beautiful tone and innovative tunings give him a stunning solo repertoire.
- Colin Stetson solo (Gesù, 10:30 pm): Solo saxophone wizardry in probably the best acoustics in the whole city? Yes, please.

June 30
- *Grégoire Maret (L'Astral, 9 pm): If memory serves, the last time this Swiss-born harmonica player was here was alongside Pat Metheny. His sound is the new standard for the instrument, and he's a great composer, too.
- *CéU (Club Soda, 10 pm): She's a lynchpin of the new São Paulo scene that mixes hip-hop and electronica into their MPB, the reason I got into modern Brazilian music in the first place.

July 1
- ***Me'shell Ndegeocello (Club Soda, 10 pm): When she last rolled through with her Spirit Music group, she floored those listeners at Spectrum that were paying attention. I'm eager to hear how she renders her new album, Weather, live. Added bonus: my boys of Parc-X Trio have the privilege of opening the show!
- Barr Brothers (Metropolis, 8:30 pm): Jazz Fest programmer Laurent Saulnier called them their "chouchoux" of the year, and having rammed Club Soda for Montréal en lumière it's evident. NB: Metropolis will be set up "cabaret-style," with seating, another specific request from the group.
- Fishbone (SAT, 11 pm): Ska-punk pioneers back at it.


July 3 
- L'Orkestre des pas perdus (L'Astral, 6 pm): This actuelle-tinged brass band has been off my radar for a while, but they've always proven to be an intriguing listening experience.
- Marcio Faraco (Savoy du Metropolis, 7 pm, also July 1): I'm a sucker for Brazilian guitarists and songwriters. I'm unfamiliar with Faraco, but he sounds like he's in the Gilberto-Djavan tradition. He's also collaborated with Brazilian music's poet laureate, Chico Buarque.
- Jef Neve Trio (L'Astral, 9 pm): I know the Belgian pianist more for his solo work and his accompaniment of José James. It will be a treat to see his trio live.

July 4 - the day of tough decisions
- *Carmen Lundy (Club Soda, 6 pm): The underrated vocalist graces us with a rare Montreal appearance. She's one of the rare "jazz singers" that is as strong a songwriter as she is an interpreter of standards. Unfortunately, she's at the same time as...
- Adrian Vedady & Marc Copland (L'Astral, 6 pm): Bassist Vedady has become a fairly regular host of this iconoclast pianist, whose work I should know far better than I do.

-  ***L'Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou (Club Soda, 10 pm): After a wave of killer reissues on Analog Africa, this Afrobeat powerhouse from Benin is going to tear the roof off Club Soda. Absolutely not to be missed, unless you go to...
- *Ambrose Akinmusire (Gesù, 10:30 pm): I first heard Ambrose at jam sessions in NYC, and his full trumpet tone and ear-perking ideas were immediately impressive. His Blue Note debut, When the Heart Emerges Glistening, was rightfully one of the most acclaimed albums of last year. Why do these things have to be at the same time?
- Lyrics Born (SAT, 11 pm): From the Quannum label, another great Bay Area MC, who will be performing with a live band!
 
July 5
- Rémi Bolduc's 50th Birthday Bash (L'Astral, 6 pm): What other endorsement do you need than tenor heavyweight Donny McCaslin addressing a McGill student in a master class with, "Are you going to lay some of that Rémi stuff on me?" To celebrate, M. Bolduc will invite many of his collaborators past and present.
- Sonia Johnson (Jazz Cruise on the Bateau-Mouche, July 1-6, 6:30 pm): 2012 Juno winner for Jazz Vocal Album of the year, and another one of the rare breed of jazz singer-songwriters.
- D'Harmo (Savoy du Metropolis, 7 pm, also July 4): Four harmonicas playing music from influences around the globe. They were highly recommended to me after their standout show at last year's OFF festival. 

July 6
- Sarah MK (Savoy du Metropolis, 7 pm, also July 7): Severe conflict of interest alert - Ms. MK and I are fellow members of the Kalmunity Vibe Collective, and I was her piano teacher for a little while. Her new EP Worth It has received tons of accolades and airplay, and I'm proud of her. If you missed her crammed-to-the-gills launch at O Patro Vys, now is the time to see her.
- Harry Manx World Affairs (Maison Symphonique, 7 pm): The acoustic blues guitarist, who is also adept at the mohan veena, presents another West-meets-East conference featuring, among others, the fantastic vocalist Kiran Ahluwalia.
- Misja Fitzgerald Michel (Musée d'art contemporain, 8 pm, also July 7): I was previous unaware of this guitarist, but a release of Nick Drake's music on the No Format label proves to be very promising.
- Cedar Walton Trio (Gesù, 10:30 pm): One of the last of the hard bop masters, a tremendous opportunity to be up close and personal with the tradition.
Honourable mention: my boys and girls of Nomadic Massive opening for Deltron 3030 at Metropolis.

July 7
- Dirty Projectors (Club Soda, 10 pm): The indie darlings - and rightfully so, Bitte Orca is a near masterpiece - make their festival debut.
- Music Is My Sanctuary 5th Birthday Bash w/ Electric Wire Hustle & The Goods (SAT, 11 pm): What a way to close out the festival, with DJs Lexis, Scott C and Andy Williams handling the selections, and New Zealand's electro-soul heartbreakers, Electric Wire Hustle, blowing minds. (Full disclosure: I'm tight with the Goods, fill in for their radio show from time to time, and attended the Red Bull Music Academy alongside EWH's Mara TK.)

Bad, not good, mediocre...

There are feathers flying on Facebook regarding the NOW Magazine article on Toronto hip-hop instrumental trio BADBADNOTGOOD. Thanks to Peter Hum's more cogent analysis, the attention on the article is spread, more generally, around the Internet. I first saw mention of this on Brownman's Facebook wall, and I weighed in alongside current Toronto players like Rich Brown. Brownman posited a "live-and-let-live" approach; regardless of what we may feel about their musicianship, allow these kids to "criticize their environment," as he says, and make music they believe in. At the time of my posting, I had not read the NOW article. I have... *ahem*... now. Below is an edited and expanded version of what I posted on Facebook.

I first saw and heard BBNG at a J Dilla tribute event at Le Belmont co-presented by The Goods and Music Is My Sanctuary. My beef with their set was that I didn't get the sense that they understand the tradition of what they're playing. Not necessarily the "jazz" tradition as taught by any number of schools, but the tradition of groove-based music, and the tradition of covers, i.e. playing a song with a meaning. To go double-time rock freakout on Slum Village's "Fall In Love" either means you are just pulling out your musical tricks because you can, or it means you've had some really shitty relationships (which could very well be the case at 19). They also didn't seem to realize, or care, that they were booked on a Dilla tribute bill and in a sold out room full of Dilla heads. To be fair, a lot of people in the room were really digging it, but their set proved that they're a bit of a one-trick pony (or maybe a hog?) musically. And yes, when I was 19, I believed that every tune had to crescendo to a climax, too. The early days of Indigone Trio are evidence of this.

I'm not entirely sure what the environment at Toronto's Humber College, BBNG's alma mater, is like, but I look at the schools here and I see two major issues:

1) a lot of the profs are ill-equipped to talk about the post-Dilla rhythmic and harmonic language, not to mention anything more "avant-garde" such as the AACM or Cecil Taylor. Therefore, if students are interested in music beyond the common-practice bebop/post-bop/mainstream jazz language, they run into walls trying to get their questions answered.

2) I don't see students getting reality checks about what leading a life in music is really like, and what creative musicianship really entails, both in school and in the outside world. Having guys like Brownman and pianist Gordon Webster school me at the Rex when I was 15 really got me ahead of the game, in terms of how to be a humble musician and how to act on and off the bandstand. I don't see that kind of mentorship happening as much anymore - I see a lot of students either disinterested in the school environment, burnt out, and/or not held accountable for their behaviour in ensembles and in the classroom. There's little sense of realistic expectations, not just of musicianship, but of "the hang." I'm guilty of it too - I don't hang out at jam sessions much anymore, but I do try to pay my experience forward.

We need to read the BBNG article for what it is - three jazz school dropouts full of piss and vinegar, running the scene for the time being, playing with their idols and heroes and having microphones shoved in their faces. I agree with the sentiment prevailing on Brown's wall, that we can and should give them their space and their soapbox, but also give them the reality check of how to create a supportive community of artists. When the BBNG fame subsides, will these guys be able to get a gig outside of their own project? It remains to be seen. I hold far more hope for young guns like Kris Bowers, the 22-year-old Monk competition winner holding court with José James and Jay-Z, who's still a humble cat.

Bourbon blues on the street

It's Carnaval time, as Facebook is kindly reminding me with events I can't attend. This means that Tuesday, the 21st, is Mardi Gras, and to celebrate it, I'm organizing a Mardi Gras party with the Kalmunity Vibe Collective at Les Bobards. We're taking classic New Orleans funk and soul tunes from the Meters, Lee Dorsey, and the Wild Magnolias, among others, and running it through the Kalmunity filter of improvisation with poets, MCs, vocalists and fantastic musicians.

This isn't just a way to tie into the festivities (although it helps) - New Orleans music has been a highly important part of my life. My parents would tune into the "oldies" stations that fed me a steady diet of Fats Domino and Little Richard, recordings I loved long before I was aware of their New Orleans connections. My first exposure to jazz was Louis Armstrong, and a compilation that included some more overt New Orleans references ("Skokiaan" and "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?") as well as "Hello Dolly." It was in high school when a classmate turned me onto the Meters that I became more explicitly aware of the phenomenal New Orleans R&B tradition. The "jamband" scene of the late '90s and early '00s paid frequent homage to New Orleans funk, with Galactic leading the charge of reviving that music in the younger generations' consciousness, and various other bands inviting the Dirty Dozen and Rebirth horns as guests.

The real lynchpin was the web-radio station Radio Free New Orleans; that was where I discovered a whole swath of the rich musical heritage of the Crescent City. Every day of the week was a different theme: Wednesdays were New Orleans Rock 'n' Roll, Saturdays were Piano Day, and Sundays were devoted to gospel. The unnamed programmers were responsible for exposing me to Professor Longhair, James Booker, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, and Earl Palmer's phenomenal "in-the-cracks" drumming.

It's been a real privilege to dive into this music, which I've rarely heard played in Montreal (outside of "Cissy Strut"). For me, it's paying respect to truly formative music in my life. On a purely technical level, Stanton Moore's clinics and books have redefined my rhythmic sensibilities. Getting to witness Allen Toussaint work his magic in the intimacy of Gesù is a concert experience I won't soon forget. The goal is not just to throw a hell of a party, but to pay the influence of this music forward.

The line-up for Tuesday's Kalmunity Mardi Gras party:
Fredy V, Odessa "Queen" Thornhill, Jjanice - vocals
Jason "Blackbird" Selman - trumpet/poetry
Vincent Stephen-Ong - alto sax
Alexandre Dion - tenor sax
Christopher Cargnello - guitar
David Ryshpan - keyboards
Mark Haynes - bass
Jahsun - drums

Teach them now and let them lead the way

I had a couple of very affirming moments last week concerning the future of music - jazz music and all music (and no, not just because Adele swept the Grammys and Bon Iver is this year's Esperanza-style upset).

The first was at Katie Malloch's sendoff concert at Lion D'Or. Peter Hum has a much more thorough review. (I would add trombonist/arranger Christopher Smith and guitarist Gary Schwartz to Hum's roll call of musicians present at the show.) The music was top-notch, and reminded me of when I was still studying at McGill and heard André White, Kevin Dean, et al with regularity. It was totally swinging, with an authoritative command of the bebop and post-bop language that made it sound real, not affected. There were a couple of moments where altoist P.J. Perry's over-articulated eighth notes were a little too mannered for my taste, but in all it was a moment of celebrating the tradition. It was truly fantastic to remember that all jazz - indeed, all music - thrives in a community. There is an intangible, indescribable sense of belonging that occurs when I see all generations of musicians hanging, listening, and enjoying.

The second was a pleasant surprise before Stephen Johnston's hit at Upstairs, the following night. I headed straight to the club after teaching and was greeted by McGill students showcasing their combos in the matinee slot. Back in my day, we got to headline Upstairs on Mondays and Tuesdays. The first combo appeared to be first and second year students, firmly getting a grasp on their vocabulary on Improv class staples like Joe Henderson's "Serenity," but they also included White's contrafact on "Along Came Betty." The second student group floored me. Playing without sheet music or music stands, they delved headlong into band-arranged deconstructions of the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows," Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean," and Lennon's "Happiness is a Warm Gun." They were taking chances, pushing each other creatively, and sounded and looked like a band. The drummer's presence on the mic was welcome, too. My standard answer when people ask about my time at McGill is positive, but I qualify it because I feel the year I was in was a special one. I still play fairly regularly with many of my classmates, and there was a willingness to always explore, to always try new things (or, at least, things that were new to us). I've seen and heard many students burn out and become disillusioned with the jazz education system, and it was a pleasure to see some genuine creativity and joy coming out of a school ensemble.

The third - in two parts - was at Saturday's J Dilla tribute, presented by Montreal music maven Lexis, featuring our very own Scott C & Simahlak, with Toronto imports MyManHenri and BadBadNotGood. Every Dilla tribute in Montreal seems to be a night of unity in the Montreal hip-hop scene, and Saturday was no exception - representatives from Kalmunity, Alaiz, and the Nomadic Massive crews were there (and there's some overlap between those three groups). Efa from Ruckus, Ango, and Krystale, were also in the building. BadBadNotGood were, indeed, very good, although not what I expected. These three (ex?-)Humber College students took a different tack on Dilla beats. I'm sure one of the "Bad"s in the group name must be an homage to The Bad Plus for their sheer force, energy and revisionism. They kind of reminded me of Indigone's early days, where we would take every tune to a high-energy climax, whether it warranted it or not. They injected sudden tempo shifts and aggressive energy into their takes on classic beats like Busta Rhymes' "Woo-Ha" and De La Soul's "Stakes is High." With Henri's master class in the way Dilla flipped samples (and a classy moment of silence dedicated to Dilla, Whitney Houston, and Bad News Brown), BBNG's next-generation live set, and Scott C & Simahlak keeping heads nodding all night, it felt like the hip-hop equivalent of Katie Malloch's party: an inter-generational celebration of the people and music that are integral influences to what we're doing now.

The Goods playlist, Feb 5 2012

I had the pleasure once again of filling in for Scott C & Andy Williams on The Goods. My cold thankfully did not interrupt the two-hour set. I also had the privilege of welcoming the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble into the studio in advance of their show this afternoon at a loft space.


Roy Campbell's Pyramid Trio - "Ethnic Stew and Brew"
Art Ensemble of Chicago - "JA"
FLY - "JJ"
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - "Starfighter"
Mulatu Astatke – “I Faram Gami I Faram”
Eddie Palmieri – “Mi Cumbia”
Roberto Roena y su Apollo Sound – “Los Demas”
Clare Fischer – “Descarga Yema Ya”

Performance/Interview with Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
Corey Wilkes - "Remy's Revenge"

Stanton Moore – “Fallin’ Off the Floor”
Dr. John – “Quitters Never Win”
Eddie Bo – "Gotta Have More"

Lee Dorsey – “O Me-O, My-O”
Meters – “Look-Ka Py Py”
Vijay Iyer – “The Star of a Story”
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson – “Don't Nobody Care About Us”
Sonnymoon – “Machinery”
Nicolay & the Hot At Nights – “Meiji Shrine”
*Sarah Linhares - "Here"
Mark de Clive-Lowe f/ Nia Andrews – “We Renegades”
*Conn Shawnery - "Apache Revisited"
J-Boogie Dubtronic Science - "Salaam"

I'll see you on the radio

CBC's Katie Malloch has announced her retirement, and the news has rightfully been saluted with remembrances from Peter Hum, Jesse Cahill and Ted Warren. Katie was one of the welcoming voices on the airwaves as I first started to discover jazz: she, along with Ross Porter, Ted O'Reilly and Bob Parlocha (who was syndicated on CJRT-FM in Toronto at the time), was a lynchpin in my jazz education. Her work on Jazz Beat was not only influential on me as a musician, but greatly fostered my belief that radio is much a part of musical education as any lesson.

Being a generation or two behind Peter, Jesse, and Ted, I never had the good fortune of being played or mentioned on Jazz Beat. My professional career only started in the waning of Jazz Beat's days, and Tonic, though Katie's presence on the mic was unchanged, was a bit of a different animal. I only have had one personal interaction with Katie Malloch to date. She was moderating a public Q&A with Pat Metheny at Jazz Fest a few years ago. I submitted a question on paper and she selected it to ask. For some reason I had put my last name on the sheet, and after asking Metheny the question, added, "Hmm, I wonder if he's related to...". I will be in attendance at the Montreal farewell party: as both a musician and radio host, I owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude.

The Montreal party is next Wednesday, February 8, at Cabaret Lion D'Or (1676 Ontario E., corner Papineau). Kevin Dean's group with PJ Perry, Mike Rud, and Neil Swainson will be featured. I have a sneaking suspicion other artists will grace the stage, too. Doors are at 7, the show begins at 8, and it's free with a reservation to mtlcomm@cbc.ca.

Reclamation

I've been silent on the subject of #BAM (Black American Music), as so many other people have delved into it very eloquently already. There was some activity on Twitter yesterday that caught my eye, however, that illustrates the core issue I have, not with the term or the music itself, but with the term's most recent etymology.

After many summations of the BAM conference at APAP in New York this weekend (which I have yet to watch, it's on today's playlist for sure), Nicholas Payton issued this rather innocuous-looking tweet:

Funny, I've had several twitter conversations with @Chrisdaddydave and @robertglasper and neither of those Niggas follow me. Killen. #mfcomn

Considering how vocal Payton has been on comparing the "j-word" with the "n-word," his use of the latter raises the logical fallacy I've had with him since the beginning of this movement. My issue lies with the ability of certain communities to reclaim and redefine words. Is Payton now admitting that "j-word" musicians can use the "j-word" amongst ourselves, but no one else can? Is there a difference between "jass" (the original derogatory term applied to this music) and "jazz" - is the difference between -ss and -zz the same as the difference between -er and -a? Coming on the heels of Gary Bartz comparing the jazz-industrial complex to the slavery house system, it's an ironic, if not hypocritical, tweet.

To be clear, I'm not trying to run from the racial undertones of jazz's history, nor am I advocating widespread use of the n-word. The n-word debate has raged on precisely because some in a community have decided to reclaim it and re-use it, and in doing so, attempt to strip it of its initial meaning. (See; Chris Rock and Richard Pryor.) So why not shape the word jazz - as we already shape the music - into our own image? Why is the "j-word" so beyond the pale and far from redemption?

***

When the whole initial BAM firestorm arose, I couldn't help but remember a moment from Vijay Iyer's lecture at the Banff Centre in 2005. He asked, "Who in this room would call themselves a jazz musician?" Some hands were raised, but some hands (including Dave Douglas') remained firmly at rest. Iyer rephrased, "Who would say that they are a musician that has deeply investigated the musical tradition that is commonly referred to as 'jazz'?" And most, if not all, of the hands in the room went up. And, for me, that is key.

Jazz is a loaded term, to be sure. It comes with connotations - of racial history, of behavioural tendencies, lately of elitism - that we may not want nor that we support any longer. However, it is the currently accepted name of a rich musical tradition that, for me, forms the backbone of who and what I am artistically. My sense of structure is rooted in song form and in the longer forms of jazz composition, not rondo, sonata or Italian dances. I think of the rhythmic intricacies of J Dilla, Bob Marley and traditional samba in degrees of "swing." My sense of harmonic analysis comes from jazz harmony, not Schenker or my classical theory courses in university. As such, I am firmly a jazz musician (perhaps "jazz-trained" would be the more appropriate moniker) whether I'm playing dancehall, forró, BAM, an opera, or freely improvising.

My aesthetic issues with the term "BAM" lie with its sense of being too general (Black American Music encompassing everything from gospel to hip-hop, and as much as I love it, my shouting B3 chops are non-existent) as well as too specific. As I've mentioned previously, some of the most compelling "jazz" of late, to my ears, draws from the "Black American Music rooted in a swinging pulse and song form" tradition as it does from India (Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa's Kinsmen and Apti), Iraq and Iran (Amir El-Saffar's work), Eastern Europe (Jim Black, Chris Speed and Brad Shepik's output over the last decade), and the Afro-Latin diaspora (Miguel Zenón, Guillermo Klein, Esperanza Spalding, Gretchen Parlato, Fabian Almazan). The classical tradition, while I've never formally studied it, is as influential on my own recent work as it has been throughout the history of jazz - Bird was checking out Stravinsky, there are clear references to Debussy in Billy Strayhorn's work, the late Bob Brookmeyer incorporated Lutoslawski's tonal density into chestnuts like "My Funny Valentine" and "Skylark." Where does that leave us for a term that encompasses all of these things?

Indigo, indigoing...

Speaking of chance encounters in New York, on my last visit, I got to meet fellow Ropeadope artist Todd Clouser in the flesh at The Bitter End. Todd lives in Baja, so for the two of us to meet while both passing through NYC was a bit of odd happenstance. I mentioned, as I always do, that if he ever wanted to play in Montreal I'd hook him up. A few Facebook messages later, I rounded up the Indigone crew for what seems to be an annual winter performance! We welcome bassist Joel Kerr into the extended Indigone family for this occasion. (Seb will have just returned from Chile alongside Color Violeta, a fantastic project paying tribute to Violeta Parra. ¡Felicidades, mis hermanos!)

INDIGONE TRIO & TODD CLOUSER'S A LOVE ELECTRIC
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2011
CASA DEL POPOLO (4873 St-Laurent)
8:30 pm - $10
David Ryshpan - keyboards/compositions; Joel Kerr - bass; Evan Tighe - drums.

For a brief time, let ours be the beautiful songs

There's been a long silence on this blog, not necessarily intentionally. Very luckily, in my world, "jazz" is not necessarily that uncool. (More on that subject to possibly follow)

Loyal readers of this blog have probably noticed various winks and nods to a project that I've been pursuing. Finally, after nearly two years of work, I can finally divulge all the details in this space.

The name Gitanjali Jain has made frequent appearances here over the past year or so: we both perform together in the live salsa/hip-hop band Mantecoso (who also backed up Latin soul legend Joe Bataan), and we both had the privilege to record with Matana Roberts on Coin Coin: Gens de couleur libres. A strong vocalist with a background in theatre, we initially met randomly at a bar in New York. I realized that having your drinking neighbour speak French is common on Boulevard St-Laurent but not on Avenue C.

Gitanjali knew that I was very inspired by Latin American poetry in the past - two pieces from the Indigone album, Cycles, are based on Neruda and Borges, respectively - and had intentions to work with more of it in the future. While I was in Banff in 2010, she e-mailed me an anonymous, pre-Hispanic Mexican poem she had found. I wrote music to it in two days. Upon my return to Montreal, she showed me the poetry of her uncle, Francisco Serrano. A couple of his poems immediately lit the same spark that Neruda and Borges touched, as well. At some point in this process, we said, "Why don't we turn this into a full-on song cycle?" Months of writing, rehearsal, demo-ing, revising, and support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec later, the song cycle is here: ALICUANTA.

Alicuanta (aliquant): "A number or expression which is not an exact divisor of a given number or expression" (Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics)

 It's an apt title, for what we've created is not really any one thing in particular: musically, we've drawn from Mexican folkloric traditions, modern jazz, and contemporary classical. Looking down the road at future presentations, we plan on utilizing Gitanjali's strong background in theatre, but this isn't a play, nor an opera, nor a musical. It's somewhere in between.

The texts are mostly drawn from Serrano's anthology, Aquí es ninguna parte, though there are some poems drawn from other books of his, as well as that pre-Hispanic poem that started it all. Mr. Serrano describes the poems we've selected for the song cycle as "songs of love and lost love, pain and hope, rhythms that evoke surprise, joy, gratitude, and loneliness and longing and nostalgia. In short, a passionate record of the forgotten wonder of being alive."

 The songs are bridged by improvised interludes set to a poem entitled "Elegía trágica," written in homage to General Francisco Roque Serrano (1889-1927). Investigating the history of the General has been as much a part of this project as the other poetry and composition; a leading figure of the Mexican Revolution, General Serrano was brutally assassinated by his opponent while running for presidency in 1927. (Yes, that's a gross oversimplification of the events that occurred.) It's a tangled web of betrayal, political corruption and historiography that to this day is still not really clear.

This marks the first time I've collaborated in composition with someone to this degree, on this scale. I'm incredibly grateful to Gitanjali for her co-piloting this project and to the musicians who have played a part in developing this work. I'm proud to announce the premiere of ALICUANTA is Wednesday, December 14 at a beautiful loft called La Cenne. All the details are below:

GITANJALI JAIN & DAVID RYSHPAN PRESENT: ALICUANTA
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011
LA CENNE (7755 St-Laurent, #300)
8 pm sharp! - $10 (tickets available through alicuantamusic@gmail.com)
Gitanjali Jain - voice; David Ryshpan - piano/electronics; Sébastien Pellerin - bass; Claudio Palomares - cajón; Mark Nelson - drums; Marjolaine Lambert & Stephanie Park - violins; Lilian Belknap - viola; Bryan Holt - cello.

Hallowed halls

Here's my first attempt at video-blogging. A couple of weeks back I got a guided tour of the new Montreal Jazz Festival exposition from head honcho André Ménard. He showed me around the exhibit featuring memorabilia from a small sampling of artists important to the festival's history. For a more thorough investigation of the Montreal Jazz Festival, be sure to check out the Médiathèque, home to a bunch of Mac Minis loaded up with all the CDs in the Festival's collection as well as every videotaped show over the years. I've already whiled away many hours in that place, with a promise of many more to come: Spectra has taken ownership of late jazz connoisseur/historian/"friend of jazz" Len Dobbin's archives, including more than 12,000 CDs and 500 books.

SFJAZZ Collective - L'Astral, 10/12/2011

Given my well-documented geekery for all things Stevie Wonder, there was absolutely no way I was going to miss this latest edition of the SFJAZZ Collective. (I even had to forgo seeing my brothers and sisters of Groundfood & Snarky Puppy tear up Club Lambi - ah, the sacrifices we make.) The last time I saw the Collective was in 2009, on the McCoy Tyner run at the Metropolis. There have been a couple of personnel changes since: Avishai Cohen has assumed the trumpet chair from Dave Douglas; Mark Turner is on tenor, in place of Joe Lovano; and Edward Simon is now on the piano bench instead of Renee Rosnes. For the Canadian stretch of the tour, Kendrick Scott was subbing Eric Harland on drums, and the L'Astral hit was his first gig.

The first set started with Robin Eubanks' arrangement of Wonder's "Race Babbling," which kicked things off with a healthy dose of swing. Vibraphonist Stefon Harris carved out a deliberately bluesy statement before flying across his instrument. Scott has a broader sound on the drums and washier cymbals than Harland's precise and tight kit, creating an Elvin-like lope. A fragment of "Contusion" sent Eubanks off over a hybrid samba/songo groove. Cohen, like his sister Anat, is a charismatic presence onstage, trotting off behind the piano to dance behind Eubanks' solo. The whole adventure wound down with a beautiful chorale of "If It's Magic."

"Deliberate" is an adjective that came up frequently in my notebook. All the members of the Collective, but notably Turner, Harris, and Simon, have an almost architectural solo concept that came to the fore throughout the show. Harris' arrangement of "Visions" opened with a stark solo vibraphone intro, contrasting clean octaves with clusters that created the widest phasing effect I've ever heard from vibes. The blend between Harris and Simon evoked a massive Fender Rhodes. Gradually the vibes set up a very dense, repetitive figure, a much busier version of "Visions" than would necessarily suit my tastes. It's one of the strongest melodies and it seemed to get obscured. Scott was pushing Turner through his solo, which released into the gorgeous bridge of the tune.

Cohen's ballad, "Family," opened with another stunningly crafted solo introduction by Edward Simon over a G minor drone. I was so taken by the melody and its orchestration I stopped writing notes. Matt Penman took the microphone and introduced his own tune, "The Economy" in nearly flawless French. Described as a "tragicomic" affair, the tune is marked by a dark and biting unison line. The four horns scattered to the corners of the stage, playing an off-mic chorale, with Cohen seemingly playing into the piano. The drum solo was cleverly crafted as a call-and-response between the riff and Scott, which then exploded into assertive statements by Miguel Zenón and Simon.

The second set opened with Ed Simon's tune, "Young and Playful," which featured a strong Cohen solo (complete with a quote of "Peter and the Wolf") and some winks-and-nods at tumbao from Simon. Mark Turner's arrangement of "Blame it On the Sun" was next, tweaking the melody through some subtle rhythmic variations without fragmenting it too much. Scott was in lockstep throughout Zenón's solo, finding all the right holes to fill without ever getting in the way. Penman's version of "Creepin'" was suitably brooding, with a phenomenal Turner statement. The outro was delivered in a new, faster tempo with Zenón and Cohen trading. The set concluded with SFJAZZ's semi-viral hit, Zenón's arrangement of "Superstition." Scott, throughout the evening, took things in a more Latin direction than Eric Harland's hip-hop-informed interpretations, and it worked surprisingly well here. Eubanks dug in with another great turn.

There's been discussion about the fact that SFJAZZ has paid tribute to a non-jazz composer, such as Stevie Wonder. I would personally argue that Wonder is as much an influence on today's jazz composers as Kenny Wheeler, Wayne Shorter, or Monk. This edition of the Collective seemed to have a much more cohesive language among its members, both in terms of improvising and arrangement. Easily one of the standout gigs of the year that I have seen.

Trio Bruxo at L'OFF Festival

It's a rarity that I get to perform on a real piano with this band. Thanks to Claude Thibault from SortiesJazzNights for the quick upload!

In the good ole days when we were young

After an intense week of final prep, the Joe Bataan gig is in the past. It was not the first time I've learned another artist's repertoire and mounted a band for them - Trio Bruxo has done that frequently - but this was on another level. I felt like, in the absence of Joe and his music director, Ray Poncin, that I was entrusted with his legacy of Latin soul and getting it into shape before they got there. The musicians of Mantecoso had the music for two months before the gig, and like any jazz-trained bandleader I rehearsed according to "the ink," or what was on the page. It was only two days before the show, during dinner, when Ray told me, "Oh yeah, we don't play it like the charts." Cue some mad scrambling before the final rehearsal to figure out their sign language signals (similar to my own, but different enough that we had to wrap our heads around it) and realizing that basically every tune was no longer a set arrangement but modular sections to be cut and pasted at Joe's whim.

It was an honour to be on stage alongside Joe - an old-school performer and businessman who drives the bus in the same way as classic R&B singers of yore. It's a New York-bred mentality that not many people have in Montreal. His riveting stories about contracts and life on the road was mentorship unlike any that exists in Canada. I have to thank Frank Rodriguez and Lou Piensa of Afro-Latin Soul for spearheading this project, and for them and Joe and Ray to put their faith in me is a privilege I don't take lightly. And many thanks to Pop Montreal for taking the initiative of booking Joe Bataan, an artist who has a significant cult following; contrary to the enthusiastic Midnight Poutine review, most of the audience at Sala Rossa were there explicitly and exclusively for Mr. Bataan. Before we went on stage, Joe received a few guests backstage telling him that they had waited 30 years to see him live.

Some reviews of the show have gone up, and I just want to set the facts straight. It's clear from the tone of the reviews from The Gazette's T'cha Dunlevy and La Presse's Alain Brunet that, like any good freelance journalist, they caught mere snippets of our set. Anyone who knows Joe Bataan's catalogue would not peg him as a salsa artist - he has always referred to himself as "Latin soul." Only three of the tunes in our twelve-song set were salsa dura - the rest ran the gamut from bossa nova to breakbeats, proto-rap and gospel. As much as I love the Latin musicians in Montreal, I don't know many of them that could handle that diversity of music. It takes a versatile crew of musicians to be able to hang on "Puerto Rico me Llama" as well as "Call My Name." I'm aware that it wasn't perfect, but I'm satisfied with it, considering we had 3 hours with Joe to re-learn the arrangements. Regarding the weakness of drums and percussion in the mix, suffice it to say that when the congas are miked with only one overhead mic, its presence in the mix will be severely compromised, regardless of how great the player is.

Regarding the lack of Latino-American musicians on stage with Joe, I want to bring to everyone's attention that we had three musicians from the Latin & South American diaspora with us: Butta Beats is originally from Buenos Aires, saxophonist Steve Salcedo is of Dominican heritage, and conguero David Sanchez (also of Heavy Soundz) is Mexican. The fact that we had a Torontonian Jew, a Québécois, and a Minnesotan in the band reflects the reality of the Montreal music scene quite aptly and I think is a perfectly appropriate showcase for Pop Montreal and for the influence of Afro-Latin Soul across North America. Let's use this successful concert to rejuvenate the Latin music scene in Montreal. The crowd came out to support in force, and there are ample musicians here, Latino or not, to capably back up the legends that are still among us.

Sapopemba

One year ago, when Trio Bruxo was in São Paulo, vibraphonist, producer, and man-about-town Guga Stroeter was kind enough to show us around Centro Cultural Rio Verde and studio Sambatá across the street. He gave us phone numbers of fantastic musicians in town, equipment for our upcoming gigs, and CDs that his great band Orquestra HB (Heartbreakers) have put out. Two of them feature the singer Sapopemba on traditional songs from various regions of Brazil; one CD traces the common roots of candomblé and santería to the Nigerian Yoruban traditions, and unites a band that is half-Cuban, half-Brazilian. Both of these albums floored me when I got back to Montreal. What's more is that Guga told us Sapopemba is (or was?) a truck driver, whose parents used to take him to all the parties in town - that's how he learned Brazilian folklore and according to Guga, "knows more about the folkloric history of Brazil than any professor."

Guga posted this on Facebook this morning: a program on TV Cultura called Ensaio (Rehearsal), featuring Sapopemba & Orquestra HB. As the weather starts to get colder here in Montreal, this music brings me right back to São Paulo. Muito obrigado. Axé.

September happenings

Apologies for the blog silence. It's been busy behind the scenes here. Some of the reasons are listed below.

September 9, 2011 marks the return of Trio Bruxo. We haven't played as a trio with original drummer Mark Nelson in quite a while - Pascal Lepage, now of Bran Van 3000 fame, has been a fantastic sub lately. We'll be adding some new tunes to the repertoire, including original compositions of mine. This gig also marks the one-year (!) anniversary of our adventures in São Paulo, so expect a good chunk of music related to that city. [I should really do a link-dump post of all the fantastic people we met there; I'm still amazed by the hospitality and graciousness people showed us while we were there, and I can't wait to go back.] Our good friend Isaac Neto will open for us, and we'll do a few tunes together at the end, as well.

TRIO BRUXO @ CLUB LAMBI

4465 St-Laurent, corner Mont-Royal

Friday, September 9, 2011

9 pm - $10

DRR - keyboards; Nicolas Bédard - bass; Mark Nelson - drums/percussion; with Isaac Neto - guitar & voice.

I've been keeping this next gig pretty close to my chest. I am humbled, privileged and thrilled to announce that I will be playing with Latin Soul pioneer Joe Bataan at POP Montreal. A co-production by POP, Afro-Latin Soul (run by Nomadic Massive's Lou Piensa and San Juan Hill's Frank Diggz), and The Goods, we've rounded up the Mantecoso gang and become the Afro-Latin Soul Orchestra. We'll be playing all the Bataan classics, and it promises to be a fantastic night of music.

On many levels, this show is very important to me. It marks Mr. Bataan's first ever gig in Montreal, and to be entrusted with his music is a great honour, indeed. I've long been an advocate of meetings between international musicians with local players; as much as I love the notion of working bands and nurturing that development, I think the bandstand experience of being in the pickup band for a touring soloist and singer is also necessary for musical development, not only for individual artists but for a city's scene in general. I hope that this gig will re-energize the live Latin music scene in Montreal - it's bubbling under the surface, and recent shows by salsa groups both homegrown and from elsewhere have proven that it's a vibrant community - and promote more exchanges between Montreal musicians and other like-minded artists.

POP Montreal, Afro-Latin Soul & The Goods present: JOE BATAAN

Saturday, September 24, 2011

La Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent)

doors: 8:30 pm; San Juan Hill -> Joe Bataan -> The Goods

Joe Bataan - keyboards/vocals; Ray Poncin - trumpet; Steven Salcedo - tenor sax/flute; Jean-Philippe Tremblay - trombone; Chris Cargnello - guitar; DRR - keyboards; Mark Haynes - bass; David Sanchez - congas; Butta Beats - drums.

City inspiration

I took a bit of a whirlwind trip down to New York this weekend, with the express purpose of being a tourist in Bienestan, the fictional country established by Aaron Goldberg and Guillermo Klein. Named by bassist Matt Penman in a linguistic mixup (he misread the title of "impresión de bienestar" as "bienestan"), Bienestan is a place to do whatever you like. As evidenced by their final set at Jazz Standard, that meant drastically revisiting standards and Charlie Parker tunes in the kaleidoscopic rhythmic language that Klein loves. Joined by saxophonist Miguel Zenón (who is another master of rhythmic illusion driven more by clave and melody than math) and drummer Eric Harland, the music was absolutely brilliant. The opening minimalist vignette of "Implacable" for just Goldberg on piano and Klein on Rhodes led into an abstraction of "All the Things You Are." The self-described "cubist" takes on "Donna Lee" and "Blues for Alice" were highlights.

Earlier on Sunday I had a lesson with Guillermo. We looked at some music I'm writing for piano trio, voice and string quartet (more on this later), and he offered concise, cogent and inspiring insights into how to improve the music. His sense of harmony and orchestration is deeply rooted in Duke and Gil Evans; throughout the lesson this became clear. One of the best lessons I've had in a long time, in terms of getting myself to re-evaluate my own work, my process, and my musical language. We also took a look at the woodwind orchestrations on Miguel Zenón's new record, Alma Adentro.

Other impressions from this weekend:

- Spotted at the Jazz Standard: Matt Merewitz, Dan Tepfer, Aaron Parks, Patrick Jarenwattananon, Obed Calvaire, and Billy Hart. Maybe it's because there's a concentration of everything in NYC, but it was really nice to see fellow musicians and industry people at a show in the "off-season". Yes, I'm guilty of not going out to jazz shows as much as I used to or as I should. I'm planning on changing that. The scene starts with ourselves.

- Monday night I went down to the Bitter End for Richie Cannata's Monday night jam session. I went once, years ago, when it was at the Cutting Room. It feels much more like a session and a hang at the Bitter End than at the Cutting Room, where it felt like a show. I met fellow Ropeadope artist Todd Clouser, and was blown away by the house band's keyboardist, Benny Harrison. There was a 16-year-old curly-haired, bespectacled kid that played some really solid rhythm guitar on "Whole Lotta Love" and "Last Dance with Mary Jane." It recalled my days swigging iced tea out of pint glasses at the Rex.

- Guitarist Oz Noy played the set before the jam, with rock-influenced takes on Monk tunes: "Light Blue" had a surf quality to it, and the closing "Evidence" was drenched in fuzz. They did a dirty shuffle version of "Ballin' the Jack," too.

- What impressed me most at the Bitter End jam, frankly, was the sound system and the sound man. When was the last time there was a soundman on site for a jam session in Montreal? The system was powerful but not painfully loud. This is a lesson all Montreal venues need to learn. (I agree wholeheartedly with Bugs Burnett's assessment of Jello Bar, but it would be infinitely more impressive to hear Alan Prater, Dan Thouin and company through a really well-tuned system with a sound guy at the helm.)