There’s a faint but persistent ringing coming from the southwest corner of Ayelet Rose Gottlieb’s Vancouver apartment. We discover one of her young twins picking purposefully at the keys of a brightly coloured toy piano. The other twin comes over, attracted by this large stranger’s curiosity, and contributes her own jangling notes. When I startContinue reading “Ayelet Rose Gottlieb’s Open-Heart Tunings”
Genre Archives
Harris Eisenstadt. Old Growth Forest.
Away from his patriotically named band Canada Day, Toronto-born, Brooklyn-based drummer Harris Eisenstadt convenes a quartet to deal sturdily with his compositions, naming the band after a Canadian national resource—Trees. Trombonist Jeb Bishop, bassist Jason Roebke, and tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby are likely conservationists, but all—especially the first two—play with enough lumberjack brawniness that itContinue reading “Harris Eisenstadt. Old Growth Forest.”
Ken Aldcroft. Mister, Mister.
There’s something special about fully realized solo improvisation. Layers of consciousness, kinds of memory, and impulses of intent impinge on one another, revealing fresh possibilities and meaning, as if improvisation, in the absence of an immediate community of players, begins to extrapolate substitutions for the more conventional kind. Toronto guitarist Ken Aldcroft is a widelyContinue reading “Ken Aldcroft. Mister, Mister.”
Tony Wilson. A Day’s Life; A Bowl of Sixty Taxidermists.
Tony Wilson is both a versatile and distinctive guitarist. While he’s played across a spectrum of idioms—from jazz-rock fusion to folk and free improvisation—he’s maintained his own voice, a forceful, lyrical style filled with subtle nuances. As a composer, he’s crafted a similarly distinctive style rooted in strong linear focus and textural mutation, developing piecesContinue reading “Tony Wilson. A Day’s Life; A Bowl of Sixty Taxidermists.”
Anna Webber’s Percussive Mechanics. Refraction.
Audaciously extending her conceptual chops, avant-jazz reedist and composer Anna Webber creates a suite, of sorts, with Refraction, bookending the program with a prelude and postlude sonically coordinated but not copied, all seven tracks on the album subtly reflecting motifs that swirl throughout. A British Columbian turned Brooklynite, Webber, who plays tenor saxophone and fluteContinue reading “Anna Webber’s Percussive Mechanics. Refraction.”
Joshua Abrams’ Natural Information Society
THERE’S AN ENGAGING CATCH-AS-CATCH-CAN LOOK to Joshua Abrams’ Natural Information Society, something that immediately conveys a certain spontaneity, yet disguises—slightly—the complexity of the music. During the band’s North American tour in May 2015, which included performances at Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville and Toronto’s Array Space, an unusual combination of instruments was putContinue reading “Joshua Abrams’ Natural Information Society”
Hard Rubber Orchestra. Crush.
Like bears awakening refreshed after an extended hibernation, the members of Vancouver trumpeter John Korsrud’s Hard Rubber Orchestra (HRO) have come forth with a rousing CD after a dozen years of silence. Although mostly devoted to Korsrud’s jazz-influenced compositions for the full eighteen-piece ensemble, Crush also includes one extended track, as well as a seriesContinue reading “Hard Rubber Orchestra. Crush.”
Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville
In 2014, FIMAV celebrated its thirtieth edition—a testimony to founder and artistic director Michel Levasseur’s vision and pragmatism. He has built a loyal audience, secured firm community, government, and industry support, and developed a team that year after year delivers musicians from around the world to this hamlet midway between Montreal and Quebec City. HavingContinue reading “Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville”
The Unsung Songbooks of Dave Burrell
TO SAY THAT PIANIST, COMPOSER, AND—AT THIS POINT—JAZZ ELDER DAVE BURRELL WAS NOT made for these times is a bit of a shortsighted claim. Burrell is a jazz classicist preceded by a reputation for free improvisation. He was present for the fabled Parisian Summer of 1969, when he and other players of free jazz found aContinue reading “The Unsung Songbooks of Dave Burrell”
Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld. Never Were the Way She Was.
Never Were the Way She Was is as robust as you would expect from a collaboration between Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld, two members of the ever-fertile Montreal music community whose instrumental prowess seems as much a product of virtuosity as extreme physical endurance. Their solo work—as heard on releases such as Stetson’s New HistoryContinue reading “Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld. Never Were the Way She Was.”