The Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville (FIMAV) arrives with the late, brief spring of Quebec’s central region, an energizing jolt between winter and summer that sees the flowering of older vines and new life bursting through the earth. This year’s instalment of FIMAV did what it has done very well for many years: present challengingContinue reading “Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville, 32nd Edition.”
Genre Archives
New Stages For New Music
Intense purple LED light washes over the Thin Edge New Music Collective (ABOVE PHOTO) as they scramble to soundcheck, seeming to heighten the chaotic mood at Long Winter, Toronto’s monthly interarts festival series during the coldest season. Two different sources of electric guitar bleed into the room from other performance spaces inside the historic, ramblingContinue reading “New Stages For New Music”
The Shapeshifting Sounds of Gabriel Dharmoo
After experiencing Anthropologies Imaginaires, it’s hard to imagine that just a few years ago Gabriel Dharmoo, its creator and performer, was reluctant to use his spectacularly flexible voice to anything like its full extent. In fact, he initially rebelled against seizing the singer’s usual place, smack in the middle of the spotlight. “I felt likeContinue reading “The Shapeshifting Sounds of Gabriel Dharmoo”
Michael Blake. Fulfillment.
Program music that’s more music than program, New York-based Canadian saxophonist Michael Blake’s eight-part suite Fulfillment is a reimagining of 1914’s Komagata Maru incident, when Canada’s exclusionary racial laws wouldn’t allow a ship carrying several hundred Sikh immigrants to land in Vancouver. Blake’s great-great-uncle was a Member of Parliament who called for “a white countryContinue reading “Michael Blake. Fulfillment.”
François Carrier / Steve Beresford / John Edwards / Michel Lambert. Outgoing.
Like a peripatetic Old West gunslinger, Montreal alto saxophonist François Carrier roams extensively to challenge himself alongside the planet’s best improvisers, and so far has gone head-to-head with players from Poland, Russia, France, and the United States. Now it’s the United Kingdom’s turn. This seventy-minute CD captures five friendly dustups involving Carrier, Montreal percussionist MichelContinue reading “François Carrier / Steve Beresford / John Edwards / Michel Lambert. Outgoing.”
Guelph Jazz Festival. Guelph, Ontario. September 16–20, 2015.
Storytelling of the verbal and instrumental variety was an important feature of this year’s Guelph Jazz Festival. New venues such as Heritage Hall, Guelph’s first black church, and the soft-seated Guelph Little Theatre added a feeling of intimacy to the festival’s innovative programming. Front and centre with tales, tall and otherwise, were multireedist Douglas EwartContinue reading “Guelph Jazz Festival. Guelph, Ontario. September 16–20, 2015.”
Tenzier: History Outside the Margins
“There’s a group of students who used a term I really liked: countermemory,” Tenzier founder Eric Fillion tells me over Skype from Montreal. “I almost like that better than counterculture.” He’s talking about Tenzier, the avant-garde label which has put out five critically acclaimed vinyl releases in as many years, as well as Tenzier theContinue reading “Tenzier: History Outside the Margins”
In the Sea. Henry Crabapple Dissappear.
Vinyl releases are almost the norm now, as artists strive for added-value alternatives to free downloads or cheap streaming. But audiocassettes? The degree to which that trend might catch on remains to be seen, but in the meantime some excellent music is being released in that format. In the Sea is a quartet featuring aContinue reading “In the Sea. Henry Crabapple Dissappear.”
Hanoi New Music Festival Ensemble 2013. Being Together.
Although Hanoi is more closely associated in North American minds with 1960s Vietnam War designators like the Ho Chi Minh trail and the Hanoi Hilton, the city now has an improvised music scene, and this disc celebrates Hanoi’s first-ever New Music Festival. Being Together, a three-part piece based on a graphic score by Danish saxophonistContinue reading “Hanoi New Music Festival Ensemble 2013. Being Together.”
The Creative Constructions of George Lewis
“THIS PIECE HAS A NEW NAME,” ANNOUNCED GEORGE LEWIS, composer, trombonist, writer, and professor, speaking from the stage of the Community Church of New York. “I realized as I got into it that the old name—the name you have in your programs—doesn’t really fit.” The title given in the program of the October 23, 2015 concertContinue reading “The Creative Constructions of George Lewis”