Tune up

Just a quick note that I'm hosting a (mainly) Black History edition of Jazz Euphorium tonight at 8 pm EST on CKUT. You can listen live or download it from the archives if you miss it. Under normal circumstances it would be a full two hours of Great Black Music, but I'll also be highlighting the music of Andrew D'Angelo, Dennis Irwin and Scott Harding.

RIP Teo

When I first started really getting into jazz, it seemed like every record I was buying was either from Blue Note's Rudy Van Gelder series, or Columbia, with Teo's name on it. Not just all the Miles stuff, but as Phil Freeman mentions, the Monk albums as well. Live at the It Club is still my favourite document of Monk. And to think of the sonic collages made with Miles, production can be more heavy-handed now with Pro Tools machinery and zooming in on waveforms than Teo was with a razor blade, tape and most importantly, keen ears. More from James Hale, DJA and Kyle Gann.

Controversies aside, Macero and the Ertegun brothers were heroes of jazz at major labels, spokesmen for the music that we no longer have. They will all be missed dearly.

In sickness and in health

Nate Chinen mentioned it in his NYT article on the health of jazz musicians, and Ropeadope's Andy Hurwitz confirms it: producer and sound manipulator Scott Harding was involved in a brutal car accident last week, and is in a hospital, now paralyzed. Like Andrew D'Angelo and Dennis Irwin, Harding doesn't have health insurance. The extent of his paralysis is still unknown, or unmentioned. EDIT: More info on Scott's condition can be found here. Donations by cheque can be sent to:

Kim Danyluk
6066 54th Street
Maspeth, NY
11378

Make them payable to "Scott Harding c/o Tom Camuso." My best wishes go out to Scott and his family.

Kalmunity/Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, 02/13/2008

There is a love for tribal art in Montreal. The Sunday ritual of Tam-Tam drum circles in Parc Mont-Royal have thrived for two decades here; we have a small but powerful Afrobeat scene. We also host many émigrés from other parts of la Francophonie, including Cote D'Ivoire and Haiti. The historical motives for this passion are something I'm unaware of, but fascinate me, and were manifest in last Wednesday's double bill at La Sala Rossa.

The Kalmunity Vibe Collective is an assemblage of musicians, poets, MCs and singers that congregate every Tuesday at Sablo Café, a tiny hub in the middle of residential Little Italy. Helmed by drummer Jahsun, the band initiates grooves for the wordsmiths to freestyle on or read over. Over their five-year existence, they've had a shifting core of musicians and have diversified from the hallmark R&B and reggae to include jazzers like Andres Vial (keyboards), Martin Heslop (bass) and Jason Sharp (saxophones). It was this jazz side of the collective that was the musical foundation for the Sala Rossa hit, while vocalists Fredy V, Malika and Odessa "Queen" Thornhill wove soulful background melodies behind trumpeter/poet Jason "Blackbird" Selman, MC Preach Ankobia and Kalmunity stalwart Fabrice Koffy. As with anything improvised (and anything involving large numbers of people), nights can be hit and miss, but when they hit there's a magical sort of communion that happens in the room. Last week, it was pretty much all "hit," aside from some minor pitfalls surrounding the ability of everyone to hear the grand piano onstage. Fabrice's new work is rhythmic and incisive, and all the MCs/poets navigated the syncopated structures well. Andres, Martin and Jahsun have achieved a really tight hookup over the past year or so, and I haven't heard Jason Sharp in a long time. He's now specializing in baritone saxophone and fujara, an overtone flute which he achieves non-traditional, haunting sounds.

Kalmunity was the perfect complement to Kahil El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, a group that achieves the same sort of spiritual unity on a much smaller scale. Percussionist and bandleader El'Zabar moved between electrified kalimbas, his hand-built "earth drums" and drum kit over the course of the night, and vocalized bass lines as well as lyric mantras in a gruff baritone. Sometimes the vocalizations struck me as a more purposeful Keith Jarrett, and in his stronger moments sounded like a preacher in the throes of a sermon. The group is rounded out by saxophonist Ernest Khabeer Dawkins and trumpeter Corey Wilkes. Dawkins appeared as the elder, clad in a dashiki and surrounded by a table of small percussion that he and Wilkes shared. Wilkes is of the hip-hop generation, with a swagger and mannerisms not unlike Roy Hargrove, and he balances showmanship with musicality. They opened the set with a meditative version of "All Blues," with El'Zabar holding down the famous ostinato on kalimba and vocals while Wilkes and Dawkins soared overtop. Both Wilkes and Dawkins can switch from greasy, gritty blues to more outward bound invention on a dime, all the while retaining a grounded soul to their playing. Even the most showy portions of the set - both Dawkins and Wilkes playing two horns simultaneously in "Mama's House," Wilkes' circular breathing during "There is a Place" - never got in the way of the music. The closing "There is a Place" seemed to drag, being such a spare tune with spare instrumentation and repetitive lyrics, but the simpatico between the three musicians on stage, and the rapt attention of the audience, was a thing of beauty. A power stronger than itself.

Also Spracht Grammophon

I suppose as a jazz pianist I should be elated that Herbie won album of the year. I'm left with a sort of ambivalence, as his victory for me raises more questions about the Grammys, the industry at large, and the way we think about music.

Part of it, for me, is the disparity between Herbie live and Herbie on record. Over the past few years, his live performances and touring bands have been far more interesting and musically rewarding to me than the albums. Compare Gershwin's World, which I really did like, with the BET Jazz DVD shortly following its release. The tunes are blown open, everyone has more room to explore and develop their musical personality. Since 1995's The New Standard, the albums seem to be more about novel ways about framing Herbie's artistry and less about Herbie's artistry itself.

I don't claim to have the answers to these questions. Perhaps the rest of the hivemind, jazzers and no, can weigh in. Pat has already tackled some of these.

- There's a somewhat cynical view of Album of the Year serving as a sort of Lifetime Achievement Award in disguise. Steely Dan's Two Against Nature win in 2001 and Santana's Supernatural sweep in 2000 were deemed to function this way. While what little I've heard of River is alright, it was far from the best album of the year in my estimation. Maybe Kanye West & Amy Winehouse supporters split the vote allowing Herbie to go up the middle. Herbie has been recognized in the past by NARAS; but is crowning Herbie, and having Eldar honour Oscar Peterson, pandering to the great lack of televised jazz over the years?
- Is it fair to compare an artist's current work with their past catalogue? Two Against Nature, as good as it was, was certainly no Aja (which, to my research, never won a Grammy); Supernatural, and Santana's ensuing duets albums, don't hold a candle to Abraxas. Should this factor into how we appreciate and award these records?
- Will Herbie's win lead to more people checking out Herbie's work (or Joni's)? I really want to say yes, but the "who the fuck is Herbie Hancock" comments suggest otherwise. Howard Mandel and his commenters have more here.
- Is there an objective way to determine "best" in these cases? I'm curious how many NARAS voters are musically trained, and how actively involved they are in music? I'm reminded of the famous 1989 Metal fiasco, with Jethro Tull beating Metallica. Patti Austin's Avant Gershwin record won Best Jazz Vocal album (and congrats to Michael Abene, who did the arrangements). Other nominees included Freddy Cole and Kurt Elling. What makes Patti Austin a better jazz vocalist, in the ears of NARAS?

Get well soon...

On the heels of bassist Dennis Irwin's illness comes this (via Bill McHenry's MySpace bulletin): multi-reedist Andrew D'Angelo is undergoing surgery for a brain tumour. He's blogged a little bit about it on his site. I wish him all the best - donations are being accepted via PayPal.

Animal Forum - 01/27/2008, Le Cagibi

My first impressions of Le Cagibi were favourable. Having never set foot in this Mile-End institution (formerly called Pharmacie Esperanza before a change of ownership a couple of years ago), it struck me as a cross between Café L'Utopik and Casa del Popolo. The three of them are vegetarian, équitable cafés embracing left-field art and music - Cagibi and L'Utopik share a multi-room structure, as well. The key difference is that Casa is primarily a venue that happens to have damn good food, and L'Utopik in its prime was known as a venue and gathering place for primarily Francophone radicals, gradually infiltrated by the Anglophone jazz community's urban sprawl. Cagibi still seems to have the air of a neighbourhood hang-out - the veggie burrito is stellar, but the support of artists is a little lacking.

Witness Sunday night's show of Animal Forum, a trio of musicians from diverse backgrounds who have convened in the improvising community of Brooklyn: saxophonist Peter Van Huffel, formerly of Kingston, ON; Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser; and Israeli percussionist Ziv Ravitz. The moment a cover charge was announced, the nearly-full back room fled to the front, leaving only a couple of stragglers who stayed throughout the show, plus Miles Perkin, Brad Barr and myself.

It's a pity, because Animal Forum played a set of three lengthy improvisations that crossed many textures. van Huffel alternated between alto and soprano saxophones, with a warm rounded tone blending closely with Blaser's open horn. Relying on no mutes or other colouristic effects other than multiphonics, Blaser's melodic inventiveness was on full display throughout the set. Ravitz often indulged in grooves, anchoring the lines of the two horns, playing off them, as well as creating soundscapes by using a microphone as a mallet on his cymbals, amplifying overtones, and leading one of the improvisations with glockenspiel. Unfortunately, it was easily one of the best shows no one saw. See Adam Kinner and Kate Molleson's commentary at the Gazette for more of the same - great musicians from here and beyond playing to nearly empty rooms. Peter and I were talking after the gig, and the situation seems to be the same everywhere: as musicians, it's great to have your friends in the audience (and honestly, more often than not, I'm friends, acquaintances or colleagues with someone in most every band I've reviewed here), but a scene can't sustain itself on musicians alone. You need the non-musicians, and the eternal question is how to court them.

Peter is leaving NYC soon to make his home in Brussels, and Samuel Blaser may well be following him to Berlin. They're doing another mini-tour with a group called Hufflignon, featuring vocalist Sophie Tassignon and bassist Michael Bates, which is unfortunately yet unsurprisingly not making a Montreal stop.

Splinter cells

I just realized I didn't blog about Darcy's hit at Sala Rossa last Tuesday, though Juan Rodriguez and Adam Kinner of the Gazette both have done the honours. I was coming at it from a very different place than most of the audience - being quite familiar with his music over the past year or so, I was listening for the differences between the New York and Canadian players and curious how my buddies and colleagues like Joel Miller, Erik Hove, Lina Allemano and Gordon Webster would take on Darcy's music. As opposed to the majority of the room who were experiencing Darcy's music for the first time. So, in the interests of full disclosure: I'm close with a lot of these musicians, and many of them, DJA included, play a big role in my own personal musical development.

The band nailed it. From the opening of "Flux in a Box" to the closing blast of "Transit," it was evident that the long rehearsals had paid off. And even though I'd been listening to recordings of the New York band, hearing that music live had a different power and immediacy that I wasn't expecting. I should have realized this, spending the better part of last year wrangling large ensembles, but it somehow eluded me. Highlights of the set included Hove on "Flux in a Box," Chet Doxas' solo on "Drift," Ingrid Jensen's turn on "Transit" (which is always impressive), Mike Fahie's intensity on "Habeas Corpus," and the beats kicking in on "Ferromagnetic," "Induction Effect" and "Habeas Corpus."

Joel Miller's Mandala is one of my favourite groups around, and the record Mandala (2004) received a lot of play on my personal stereo as well as CKUT. I haven't heard the new record Tantramar yet, but from what they played in their opening set, it deserves all the praise it has received. Some of the new music seemed more directly rock-influenced with unison basslines and hard-driving grooves, but it also retained the youthful levity that characterizes Joel's music to my ears. After the years of playing together, the rhythm section of Thom Gossage (drums), Fraser Hollins (bass) and Kenny Bibace (guitar) have really locked into each other, which showed on tunes like "Rashers" and "Big Tiny." Trumpeter Bill Mahar sounded stronger than I've heard him in the past, and those who saw Altsys at IAJE told me he'd raised his personal bar even higher at that gig. The blend of Mahar, Miller and multi-reedist Bruno Lamarche often creates this bizarre horn section where it sounds like a polyphonic horn.

For those of you who couldn't make it to the gigs, download them from Darcy's site ASAP. And for the non-Canadian readers and listeners who don't recognize any of the names above, make some room in your record collection.

Blogroll Update

A big hello to any of those who are arriving here via the IAJE blog panel and related entries and links. In turn, I have updated the sidebar to reflect many of those new connections, and connections I should have made long ago.

- Howard Mandel, the fantastic author, DownBeat correspondent and burgeoning blogger.
- David R. Adler, co-panelist, jazzbo & politico now living in Philly, whom I met at the Vision Fest this past summer.
- James Hale, who interviewed me at the Kenny Barron master class last year in Ottawa, and whom I've long-regarded as the best advocate of Canadian jazz in the international press.
- Matthew Wengerd, bassist/composer/blogger. I hope to have more interaction with him in the future, and I will certainly check out his music in short order.
- Shannon Butcher, a singer with whom I crossed paths quite frequently at IAJE, though I'm nearly positive we must have met at the Rex when I was jamming there as a kid.
- Amy Cervini, singer/manager, someone I should have met a long time ago but somehow never did.
- Kelly Fenton, composer and coffee lover. Large ensembles and caffeine - a woman after my own heart! I've often been tempted to use the Sibelius graphic of coffee-stained paper, just for continuity's sake with my own notebooks.
- Greg Dudzienski, saxophonist and blogging newbie, but from what he's got so far looks to be a promising contributor.

The Madness '08

I might have been the only blogger in attendance at this year's IAJE conference that didn't make any posts in realtime. Frankly, there were too many things to do than hang at the internet kiosks and try to make cogent updates. Caveat emptor: this will be a very long post.

The conference served as a sort of bizarro world for me, with my Toronto, Montreal and New York colleagues finally getting to meet one another and colliding in the hallways of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. It was perhaps for this reason that I didn't experience my normal Toronto jitters at all.

Wednesday I got into Toronto after Kurt Elling's pre-conference keynote speech, but with enough time to register before checking out pianist Aaron Goldberg's trio. Drummer Eric Harland was not as fortunate, suffering through a variety of delayed and cancelled flights before walking into John Bassett Theatre right at 7 pm. It didn't audibly seem to faze his playing though, unleashing barrages of strokes in support of Goldberg and bassist Reuben Rogers that somehow never got in the way of the music. Goldberg has a very light touch on the piano, and even when he was visibly digging in, the piano still sounded like it had the soft pedal engaged. His hand independence is astounding, especially when Reuben got out and left Aaron and Eric to interact as a duo. Most of the music was drawn from Goldberg's album Worlds, including his beautiful reading of Djavan's "Lambada de Serpente." Another highlight was the tune "The Sound of Snow" from the Baby Loves Jazz book series.

I tended to skip all the big evening concerts for various reasons. Because Aaron's set started late, it ran into the time slot of the Wednesday evening concert featuring New York Voices and Lionel Loueke, and I just didn't much feel like standing in line for a seat with bad sightlines and worse sound.

Thursday started bright and early for me, with an interview on CBC's Metro Morning. Thanks to Brownman for hooking me up with the opportunity, and for my dad to inform me that we were #4 on eMusic's monthly jazz downloads. (We've since slid down the chart, but it was true at the time. We're still Ropeadope Digital's #1 album.)

My IAJE day started with a Chamber Music America lecture on grants. Unfortunately it was almost exclusively geared to CMA's grants, which are only offered to American citizens. It was helpful to get a sense of how to structure an application and what kinds of proposals have received grant money from CMA in the past, and hopefully that sort of thing can apply to Canada Council grants as well.
Next up, I caught a little excerpt of Bernie Dresel's big band drumming clinic, and then moved to the erroneously listed management clinic (which was supposed to be on Friday, but was in the schedule on Thursday).
I then went down to Constitution Hall to get a seat for the ASCAP/IAJE commissions by Ayn Inserto and Tim Hagans, as performed by Secret Society North. I had heard excerpts of Ayn's piece at Darcy's semi-open rehearsal at McGill. A feature for her mentor and colleague George Garzone, it was definitely a more subdued setting for his firebrand tenor than I'd have expected. When it came time to solo, of course, Garzone let rip in all his glory; at the time, his entrance interrupted the continuity for me, but the solo settled into the piece. Hagans' piece, "Box of Canoli," was described as a crazy love song, which fit. Ingrid Jensen had a tremendous feature in it, and Gordon Webster took a fantastic solo cadenza. I unfortunately missed Wil Swindler's Gil Evans commission, but I have it on good authority that it was killing. I couldn't pass up getting a halfway decent seat for the tête-à-tête with Jon Hendricks and Kurt Elling. Mr. Hendricks regaled us with great stories, and in talking about various people (including the Bush administration) used the phrase, "They wouldn't swing if you hung 'em!" Elling was eloquent and erudite as ever, and almost humourously deferent to Hendricks.
It was followed by another meeting of the minds: legendary jazz historian Dan Morgenstern chatting with Roy Haynes. Morgenstern's knowledge is unparalleled, able to recall the most obscure minutiae instantly, and ... well, Roy is Roy. In an hour, Mr. Morgenstern only got up to his playing with Trane, though his association with Chick was mentioned by way of Bud Powell. I had the incredible honour but somewhat arduous task of interviewing Roy myself just after that talk and a signing of his new boxed set, A Life in Time. I certainly am not the same fount of knowledge as Mr. Morgenstern, and Mr. Haynes was obviously pretty drained. He is, however, inspiring and very cool; I hope to catch him again someday.
Following that, I played merch-boy again outside DJA's official IAJE hit. I was setting up the shirts when guitarist Kenny Bibace ran up to me and told me that Jon Wikan had lost the drum book. I wound up running around the entire convention centre looking for the drum music, to no avail. Darcy wound up finding it Friday, sitting in the production office. I skipped the British jazz showcase to hang out with members of Secret Society North and Altsys at a Front Street pub, and then went back to an "Advanced Student" jam session. I was really quite impressed at the level of musicianship there, from the local Toronto kids to members of the talent recognition programs and visiting student ensembles.

Friday had the first of two Brazilian clinics, this one given by guitarist Thiago Trajano. He was very clear on the relationship between the layers of Brazilian percussion and how the guitar grooves interact with each part. I then went back for the properly scheduled artist management clinic with Gail Boyd and Bill Traut (who will be retiring in March). They were incredibly straightforward and clear, and gave pragmatic, easy-to-comprehend advice about how artists can further their career. Given that previous industry-driven talks I've attended have been needlessly condescending and circular, this was a breath of fresh air.
Friday afternoon was our blog clinic, with David, Carl, Darcy, and Neil Tesser. Carl has already written about it, as has Matthew Wengerd and Greg Dudzienski. I didn't feel it to be as divisive as Matthew felt it was; for me it was really intriguing to find out how everyone else views their blogs. It also forced me to think about my blog and what I want to achieve with it. There were really only two self-imposed guidelines the beginning - no political stuff, unless it ties in with arts and culture somehow; and to take advantage of the fact that I am immersed in the Montreal scene as a practitioner (musician) and advocate (radio host). I don't really think about my writing voice so much, and I'm not so interested in driving traffic here, though I suppose I should be if I want this to serve as a promotional vehicle in any way. I hope to get back into more substantive writing soon, because this isn't really a playlist blog as both Neil and Matthew have characterized it. Ideally, this should be a space that reflects all facets of my musical involvement: pianist, composer, arranger, radio guy, music lover.
Following post-panel discussions with Amy Cervini, Matt Merewitz, and Howard Mandel, I went to the Industry One-on-One session and had ten minutes with Jacqui Naylor to discuss what's worked for her career-wise, and to try and get a decent answer as to what an external publisher is and does. If there's any publishers reading this, please get in touch with me! I then ran to grab a piano-side seat at the Latin Pro Jam led by Hilario Duran and featuring the top Toronto Latin jazz players including saxophonist Luis Deniz and drummer Mark Kelso. Jeff Coffin sat in on tenor, and by the time I had gotten the cojones to work out some white-boy montunos, Hilario called the last tune - "Take the A-Train" as a burning descarga in 7. Next time.
I met up with my friend (and former web designer, pre-blog) Katie Gennaro for dinner before running to Supermarket to do a last minute opening solo set for Elizabeth Shepherd. Also on the bill was Adrian Gibson from London's Jazz Café, and the Jazzcotech dancers. It was just Perry and Kola from Jazzcotech, but even just the duo were impressive. They came out in full 1930s paperboy costume, and cut the rug on some nu-jazz tunes that Adrian spun, as well as Elizabeth's version of "Four." Truly magical, and worth checking out.

Saturday I started to feel "jazz-itis" settling in, finding it hard to truly appreciate (whoops, there's that word) and focus on what was happening. It started with Sergio Gomes' "New Ways of Brazilian Drumming" clinic which was, again, fairly instrument specific, but very helpful in terms of providing variations on samba and maracatu rhythms. The highlight for me was the Grammy Jazz Soundtable with Phil Ramone, Kurt Elling, Al Schmitt, Esperanza Spalding and Randy Brecker. At the beginning, attendance was surprisingly sparse, but it filled up and rightly so. Phil and Al talked about a few of the many important sessions they've worked on and Kurt, Randy and Esperanza spoke to the changes in recording technology and how that affects music. The point Neil Tesser was trying to drive at, and never really elicited from the panel, was how have these changes in recording and listening technology affected the perception of the music? For my part, I cannot listen to classical at my computer, and I find it very difficult to listen to much jazz as an mp3, even though I love Destination: Out! There seems to be a sense of air in the best jazz recordings that gets lost with compression. Esperanza brought up something I've encountered as well: engineers ill-equipped to deal with live-off-the-floor recording, or engineers that can do it but are astonished that young musicians are still asking to record in such a fashion. I did get Neil to snap a photo of Phil Ramone and me - as I said to Phil, I owe him my career. Billy Joel's 52nd Street is my earliest musical memory, and I attribute my choice of the piano after aborted violin and guitar lessons to that record.
The Soundtable was so riveting throughout its two-hour duration that I completely missed the film scoring in Sibelius panel that I really wanted to see. If anybody was there, please send me notes. I got involved in a long conversation with Joel from Upstairs about the state of Montreal's jazz scene and, once again, the "what's a blog? what use is a blog?" mentality. The discussion did end in time for me to catch the end of Reggie Thomas' great odd-meters panel. The fact that the best panels for me, in my IAJE career, have been about time and rhythm (cf. Ronan Guilfoyle's "rhythmic human being" talk in 2006) tells me that not enough is being taught in jazz education about time and rhythm and this needs to be rectified stat.
I caught Marty Ehrlich and Myra Melford duo in the rather bizarre setting of the Intercontinental Hotel bar. Ehrlich joked that they would play "Feelings" to end the set. I love their record Spark! and have consistently played their solo work on Jazz Euphorium over the years, so it was a pleasure to see them live. Ehrlich's control of inflection on clarinet gives it a very vocal quality, not unlike Don Byron in some cases, and his altissimo register on alto goes all the way to the stratosphere. Melford's pianisms range from two-fisted churchiness to two-fisted (literally) Don Pullen intensity, and the trance she seems to enter while playing was hypnotic to me as well.

That marked the end of my official IAJE activity, and I hauled up to Trane Studio to play with my Toronto boys: Michael Herring on bass and Nick Fraser on drums. I don't have an opportunity to play with them often, so when we do play it's quite special. In the six-degrees-of-separation that often marks the music world, the soundwoman at Trane is Zoé Johnson, whom I met through the Red Bull Music Academy. She gets a great sound in the room and I wish there were more soundpeople like her, who actually know the room they're working in and know how to get various different styles of music to sound equally good in the room. We were followed by a Sudanese/Canadian experimental jazz-funk group, which sounded as clear and clean as we did. Zoé also saved my hide when my laptop crashed halfway through the head of "How Deep is the Ocean?" by running down and grabbing the Trane's house digital piano. I was flustered, but we finally settled into a groove around "3 4 You." The highlight for me was our version of "Law Years." Thanks to everybody that came out!

Setlist: How Deep is the Ocean; First Impressions; Settled in Shipping; Dupla Traição (Djavan); 3 4 You (Gary Schwartz) --> Law Years (Ornette Coleman); Way To Blue (Nick Drake); Hivemind (me - first performance ever!).

The calm before the storm

A bit of a posting hiatus here, until The Madness (term hijacked from Darcy) is over. Here's where you can find me:

Tomorrow, January 6 - Trumpeter and Jazz Euphorium colleague Sean Winters is leaving town for a bit, and I'm playing on his farewell show at Diese Onze (4115-A St. Denis). The quartet is rounded out by Benoit Coulombe on bass, and Matt Vorzimer on drums. Lots of special guests will grace the stage, too.

January 8 I will be the friendly doorman at the Mandala/Secret Society North hit at La Sala Rossa. I will reprise that role in Toronto at the Tranzac on the 11th.

January 9-12 I will be navigating my way through the IAJE conference, soaking up new music, schmoozing, and even speaking on a panel about The Blog! with truly top-notch company.

January 12 I'll be hitting Trane Studio (964 Bathurst, Toronto) with my hometown friends Michael Herring on bass and Nick Fraser on drums. We start at 8 pm, two sets, $10. It's a real treat to play with those guys. It's my first time even setting foot in Trane, a club that really started to take off after I moved to Montreal.

Expect full reports upon my return.

Playlists, Jan 4/08

Jazz Amuck
Erik Friedlander - "Prowl" (Prowl)
Keefe Jackson's Fast Citizens - "Blackout" (Ready Everyday)
Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet - "Way Out East" (Way Out East)
Joe Morris/Ken Vandermark/Luther Gray - "Rebus 3" (Rebus)
Michael Musillami - "The Treatment" (The Treatment)
Amir ElSaffar - "Diaspora" (Two Rivers)
*Gary Schwartz - "What'dyasay?" (Public Transport Project)
*Don Scott - "Amasa" (Out of Line)
*Geordie Haley's Sea of Song Trio - "C'est bon des pop tart" (Blue)
*Lina Allemano Four - "Vesper" (Concentric)
*Ingrid Jensen's Project O - "Dilemma" (Now as Then)
*Arkana Music - "Ontology (Keep Thinking)" (Hyprovisation)
Steve Lacy - "Blinks" (The Door)
Siegfried Kessler Trio - "Spikenard" (Live at the Gill's Club)
Mark Helias' Open Loose - "AKA" (Verbs of Will)
Braam/DeJoode/Vatcher - "Gosh, Ethnics Gan" (Change This Song)
Bobby Bradford - "Roswita's Dance" (Love's Dream)

Extra Groove Hour
Medeski Martin & Wood - "Bemsha Swing-Lively Up Yourself" (It's a Jungle in Here)
Eval Mangiat - "Ra-Monk" (Monk Swing)
Kira Neris - "Open Doors" (Behind Closed Doors)
DJ Shadow - "Organ Donor (Extended Overhaul)" (Endtroducing [Deluxe])
Jaco Pastorius - "Opus Pocus" (s/t)
Billy Preston - "Struttin'" (Best Of)
Quantic f/ Spanky Wilson - "Don't Joke With a Hungry Man" (Mishaps Happening)
Gil Scott-Heron - "Third World Revolution" (Secrets)
Kutiman f/ Karolina - "Music is Ruling My World" (s/t)
Charlie Hunter Quintet - "Try" (Right Now Move)
Roy Ayers - "Funk in the Hole" (Virgin Ubiquity II)
Talkover: Me'shell Ndegeocello - "Mu-Min" (Dance of the Infidel)
John Scofield - "Jungle Fiction" (Uberjam)

Two solitudes

Some of the first posts on this blog, nearly two years ago, dealt with music, linguistics and the divisions of music scenes by languages. Juan Rodriguez of the Gazette has an insightful piece on his experiences as an Anglophone music critic whose beat is the Francophone pop scene. Juan is an astute writer and a voracious listener - the above piece namechecks Malajube and John Zorn.

Also appearing in today's Gazette was a Reuters article about the prevalence of Beatles' music in hip-hop and advertising. It's an interesting piece for many reasons: cynics in the crowd might note that Sony/ATV (and Michael Jackson) own the copyrights to the Beatles catalogue -- feel free to make your own inferences here. And in the wake of the brouhaha over Danger Mouse's Grey Album (and in a different manner, the whole Love mash-up project), it's notable that the samples are still not fair game, but "interpolations" or recreations and performances of the music in question, are all right. (The sampling-vs-interpolation debate is quite intriguing, but it's a discussion for another day.) Rather, I'd like to highlight this quote from Sony/ATV's chief executive, Martin Brandier:

"It's important that the world knows this music. It just can't be hidden forever, otherwise you're going to miss generations of music listeners."

Really? Lennon/McCartney tunes "hidden forever" because they haven't been decimated by American Idol? My head hurts.

Basabasa Playlist, Jan 1 2008

So operating on 3 hours of sleep and minimal advance pulling time, this is what I came up with:

Gilberto Gil - "O Canto da Ema" (Brasil '70) [carried over from Tuesday Morning After]
Arthur Verocai - "Na Boca Do Sol" (s/t)
Carlinhos Brown - "Pandeiro-deiro" (Alfagamabetizado)
Soha - "Tourbillon (Serre-moi fort si tu m'aimes)" (D'ici et d'ailleurs)
Habib Koité & Bamada - "Namania" (Afriki)
Mamani Keita - "Leydou" (Electro Bamako)
Angélique Kidjo - "Itche Koutche" (Oremi)
Chicago Afrobeat Project - "bscg2" (A Move to Silent Unrest)
Kutiman - "No Reason for You" (Kutiman)
Antibalas - "Beaten Metal" (Security)
Olatunji - "Odun De! Odun De!" (Drums of Passion)
King Sunny Ade - "Dele Davis" (Gems from the Classic Years: 1967-74)
Henri Dikongué - "Ongele" (Mot'a Bobe)
Sidi Touré - "Holley" (Hoga)
Dr. John - "Memories of Professor Longhair" (Plays Mac Rebennack)
Fats Domino - "Hey! La Bas Boogie" (They Call Me the Fat Man)
Wild Tchoupitoulas - "Brother John" (s/t)
Stanton Moore - "Fallin' Off the Floor" (Flyin' the Koop)
Neville Brothers - "Big Chief" (Live at Tipitina's)
Booker T & the MGs - "Funky Folks Cha Cha" (Stax Instrumentals)
Nana Vasconcelos - "Aquela do Milton" (Bush Dance)
Susana Baca - "Afro Blue/Zum Zum" (Espiritu Vivo)
Snowboy & the Latin Section - "Oya Ye Ye" (Play Afro-Cuban Jazz)
Yerba Buena - "Bote Bote Va" (President Alien)
Vieux Farka Touré - "Ana (Captain Planet rmx)" (UFOs Over Bamako)
Daara J f/ Sergent Garcia - "Esperanza" (Boomerang)
*Nomadic Massive - "Neg Chanté" (Nomad's Land)
Famoudou Konate - "Koma des femmes" (Hamana Foli Kan)
Seckou Keita - "Jali" (Baka Beyond presents Eté)
Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars - "Bull to the Weak" (Living Like a Refugee)
Tinariwen - "Makadjem Yinmixan" (Aman Iman: Water is Life)
Ladysmith Black Mambazo - "Nansi Imali" (The Indestructible Beat of Soweto)
Kenge Kenge - "Omeme Nyapura" (Introducing...)
*Papagroove - "East Road" (demo)
Mar-Keys - "Tighten Up" (Stax Instrumentals)

Playlist December 28, 2007

Below is the playlist for my fill-in on Jazz Amuck (Fridays, 9-11 am), plus the additional Oscar Peterson hour. I'm filling in next week as well, also with an extra hour - I haven't quite decided whether it'll be three hours of Amuck or an hour of non-jazz music. I'm also covering Basabasa Soukous Soukous Soundz New Year's Day, 9-11 am, with music from the African diaspora. (* = Canadian Content)

Jazz Amuck
Amir ElSaffar - "Flood" (Two Rivers)
The Bad Plus - "Mint" (Prog)
*YUL - "Florence" (Departure)
*Geordie Haley's Every Time Band - "Eagle Boy" (The Green Suite + Other Stories)
Steve Lehman Quintet - "Curse Fraction" (On Meaning)
Mario Pavone - "Bastos" (Boom)
Peter Van Huffel Quintet - "Luminescence" (Silvester Battlefield)
Bobby Selvaggio - "Jungle Animals" (Unspoken Dialogue)
*Gary Schwartz - "The Door is Open" (Public Transport Project)
Marty Ehrlich/Myra Melford - "Night" (Spark!)
*Don Scott - "Holding Pattern" (Out of Line)
*François Bourassa - "Fa Do Do" (Rasstones)
Uri Caine Trio - "Snaggletooth" (Live at the Village Vanguard)
Marco Benevento - "Record Book" (Live at Tonic)
Scott Colley - "Window of Time" (Architect of the Silent Moment)
Nels Cline - "Yokada Yokada/The Rumproller" (New Monastery)

Oscar Peterson Tribute Hour
"East of the Sun, West of the Moon" (Beginnings 1945-49)
"Sweet Georgia Brown" (Beginnings 1945-49)
"My Blue Heaven" (Beginnings 1945-49)
"Oop Bop Sh'Bam" (Beginnings 1945-49)
"Oh, Lady Be Good!" (Plays George Gershwin)
"Nigerian Marketplace" (Dimensions)
"Hymn to Freedom" (Night Train)
"Mack The Knife" (Oscar Peterson Trio + One: Clark Terry)
"How About You?" (Tenderly)
"Moanin'" (Exclusively for my Friends: The Lost Tapes)
"Night Train" (Night Train)
"Django" (Eloquence)

Oscar RIP

We have lost our jazz icon. Oscar Peterson has passed on at the age of 82. More at the CBC.

As a Canadian jazz pianist, especially one living in Montreal, Oscar's shadow looms large. Peterson served as the figurehead of all that was right about Canadian jazz and represented the community and talent of its heyday, when clubs were peppered all over the streets of Montreal and Toronto. When I first moved to Montreal and rode the métro through Place Saint-Henri station, the movement from Canadiana Suite popped into my mind. His legacy is continued here by Oliver Jones (who took lessons from Peterson's sister, Daisy) and Wray Downes, who also specialize in fleet, blues-soaked swing.

Oscar was definitely one of my first inspirations when I started listening to jazz - I remember hearing Night Train and marvelling at the power in his hands. The bounce in his comping and the effortless facility of his lines were artistry that I still aspire to. I heard "Hymn to Freedom" before I heard A Love Supreme, and Peterson's solemn ballad was maybe the first piece of music that moved me in such a deep and visceral way. I don't hear much of Oscar in my playing anymore, but he was a primary influence when I was starting and I would still do anything to have his left-hand ability. Even his diminished capability after a stroke in 1993 was a force to reckon with.

I had the opportunity to shake his massive hands when I was still living in Toronto, and the even greater honour of playing his Bosendorfer Imperial when it was stored at Remenyi House of Music. His support of jazz in Canada, and of young pianists in general, is something to be cherished. He will be dearly missed.

Ambushed by art

On my commute today, I walked into a strange métro painted deep ocean blue. There were architectural line drawings on the windows, and various samples played over the PA - voices of old men and children in French, English and Chinese, cows mooing as we pulled into a station, sitar runs evoking clichéd exotica and more. I'm still a little unsure of what this was apparently it was this (French-only); it got me thinking again about the role of art in our everyday lives. The UK's recent No Music Day raised this point as well. We're all surrounded by music all day, but I don't know that I would characterize it all as "art." For me, I'd prefer to make the choice of being immersed in an arts exhibition rather than being bombarded with buskers and inescapable eavesdropping on others' playlists. I suppose I did make that choice by stepping on that car instead of finding another one. (Aside: when did blasting music out of one's cellphone, sans earbuds, become all the rage?)

To me, the argument that being surrounded by music inherently devalues it doesn't hold water for me. I think the opposite is true - the music I devote my time to is imbued with a higher value because I'm actually setting aside space, time and undivided attention for it.

***

The resurrected Cinéma du Parc is running the first annual Brazilian film festival until December 20. I went to see the documentary on Capoeira Regional pioneer Mestre Bimba. Having little prior knowledge of the subject, it was a highly educational film for me. It was intriguing to learn the roots of capoeira in its Angolan form, as a real, violent and illegal martial art practiced by stevedores. Mestre Bimba was the inventor of Capoeira Regional, the most common form of it today. What was truly fascinating to me was the musical element of it all: the way the berimbau and pandeiro rhythms influence the moves capoeristas improvise; the various mythologizations of Bimba in folk song, MPB and capoeira chants. The influence Bimba had on his students was immensely powerful, and that sense is conveyed in the film. Because capoeira is an improvised art form with an underlying vocabulary and structure, many parallels can be made to jazz. I won't make them until I've seen the film a few more times. Some of the quotes from historians and students of Bimba were quite profound and beautiful, but I can't remember any of them right now.

Dan Levitin, in This is Your Brain on Music, cites the figure of 10,000 hours of practice to make a virtuoso. I wonder if the musicality of certain cultures - definitely Latin America, and to a different extent South Asia - is due to the fact that music isn't a rarefied thing in those regions, but rather part of its lifeblood. Go to Cuba or Brazil and everyone, or almost everyone, can play percussion, or guitar/tres/cavaquinho, or sing; the familial percussion groups profiled in Susie Ibarra's Electric Kulintang are part of a weekly ritual. I would assume that this 10,000 hours of practice is built up a lot faster in these regions than in North America due to mere exposure. This suggests to me that it's not that being surrounded by music is the inherent evil, as above; it's music as wallpaper, rather than actively engaging subject, that's the culprit. And really, isn't that the fault of the listener?

Snow day!

I don't even think Montreal got the brunt of this nor'easter, but I'm still snowed into my house. Time for warm beverages and YouTube browsing.

The Meters live in 1974, from a Dr. John "Soundstage" special. One of my first exposures to funk in high school, the New Orleans funk sound has a special place in my heart. Sentimentality aside, these guys groove like hell, too.


James Booker's "Pixie," live in 1978. I don't honestly know much about Booker except that next to Professor Longhair he's the most mythical pianist from New Orleans.


Non-NOLA, but amazing nonetheless: The Gadd Gang's version of "Signed, Sealed, Delivered." I can't find the words to describe Richard Tee's playing here (starting roughly at 3:10, for those who want to skip ahead). A master class in two-fisted gospel-derived piano.

It can follow you like a dog

I'd like to direct everyone's attention to the blog of my friend, the Freshwater Mermaid, who has taken it upon herself to singlehandedly advocate against the proliferation of TASERs and the tabled Canadian DMCA bill. While I'm not going to weigh in on the former, because it's not my area of expertise, I will speak to the latter.

This is, honestly, a very scary bill. One of the privileges of being an arts lover and artist in Canada is that our definition of fair use was broad - copying discs for private use was A-OK. And with resources like the Bibliothèque Nationale and the McGill music library at my disposal, it was a veritable treasure trove. BANQ has a wonderful selection of jazz, with a surprising amount of "out" and out-of-print material. It was there that I discovered the Braxton gems Creative Orchestra Music 1976 and Dortmund, which have proven to be my points of entry into his astonishing world. McGill's classical collection is stunning, and the jazz collection is achieving parity.

Now, the mere act of ripping - even if it's for the purposes of back-up, archiving, or transferring to my own digital device - would become illegal, as would disabling any DRM technology that comes embedded on CDs or other files. This worries me on many levels: as a keyboardist, I have converted my rig to software synthesizers, and my computer is my career. It holds all my sounds and all my scores (thank you, Sibelius!). My father worked in the computer industry for a long while and is vigilant about keeping clean systems. If I want to play a CD while I work on my computer, I don't want to be obliged to install whatever DRM-rootkit-proprietary-player crap. I also want to know exactly what is being installed, and what information is being sent to third parties. If this bill passes, we would not be allowed to spy on the spies. What's more egregious is that in the event one locates the hidden DRM files on one's computer, the proposed software would be regenerative - delete it, and not only are you a criminal, the software reinstalls itself. Never mind the fact that as an artist, I'm still paying copyright levies on blank CD-Rs so I can send MY OWN MUSIC to festivals, radio stations and other members of the industry.

As an educator this is also disturbing. Music is an aural tradition. I'm not going to insist my students track down x, y and z recordings, and any CDs I'd make for my lessons are protected under fair use for education. How are the powers-that-be supposed to know the difference between ripping for pleasure and ripping for education?

Michael Geist has far more information on his website, and there's even a Facebook group. If you are a Canadian artist or arts lover, write your MP and protest this bill.

Launch post-mortem

The launch gig at Casa went well. We had a small but intimate audience (and still more than I expected given the snow-plowing fiascoes and imposing snowbanks) and the energy was high. The sound balance between the trio and the strings was a lot better than we anticipated, too. This was the premiere of "Indigone Trio Electric," with Alex playing electric bass in addition to my usual laptop gig rig. We opened with a couple of trio tunes, and then brought on the strings to play all the songs from the EP, plus new and reworked pieces.

In other news, my Red Bull Academy Radio mix is now available for your listening pleasure here. We're also on the Facebook band wagon.

Real, pre-Madness blogging to resume shortly.