Danses Danzas Dances
Lorraine Desmarais Big Band
Les Disques Scherzo SCHCD-1512 (lorrainedesmarais.com)

A fierce energy leaps out of the opening chords of Lorraine Desmarais’ Ultra Triple Swing. It is an immensely exciting start to Danses Danzas Dances, a recording that has you on the edge of your proverbial seat. Primary colours abound in the orchestral texture, and the fast nature of the piece keeps the music on a tight rein, with angular rhythms and phrasing precise and alert. Of course you should expect nothing less from Desmarais, whose mastery of the big band idiom is quite beyond reproach. Conducting from behind her concert grand piano, Desmarais brings the fabulous orchestrations of her most recent music to life with spectacular effect.

The spirited and finely nuanced readings of these charts that literally sweep the listener off his or her feet, and across the dance floors of the Americas, is articulated by vivid performances by members of this wonderful big band. Adopting a spacious, and a feisty, artful approach to navigate the idiosyncrasies of Desmarais’ luscious arrangements, the musicians display unbridled virtuosity as well as unusual musical instinct as they bring cohesion to the many disparate elements of the music and generate tremendous high-voltage tension and hair-raising orchestral ingenuity to this music from beginning to end of this exquisite disc.

Elevation
Parker Abbott Trio
Independent (parkerabbotttrio.com)

The content of the Parker Abbott Trio concept album on the idea of ascending to a rarefied realm transcends even the image on its package. Somewhere in the swirling ascension of the Alpine Swift in flight lies some very classy piano (and a battery of other keyboards) playing. Indeed both Teri Parker and Simeon Abbott have developed something of an edge-of-the-seat virtuoso risk taking. On Elevation this pays off handsomely. The CD is a selection of short pieces evoking the giddy atmospheric fantasy arising from meditations on odysseys of music and mind. But philosophy aside there is much to enjoy, discover and identify with.

Parker and Abbott’s playing – as well as that of drummer and percussionist Mark Segger – is eloquent indeed. The pianists’ voicing is expertly balanced in the edifying transcription of the title track and their phrasing sings wonderfully in the near-mystical Night Song and the scintillating Zinnia. The otherworldly music of Maybe makes for a fitting, open-ended conclusion. The trio’s enigmatic studies are not the easiest nuts to crack, but Parker, Abbott and Segger’s insightful colours have the measure of their limpid introspection and fantasy.

Remarkably, this music – despite the originating imagery – is not as cerebral as one would imagine, but pre-eminently heart driven. Exchanging the intellectual for the emotional may be what makes this exceptionally polished recording get under the skin as well.

Flux
Quinsin Nachoff; David Binney; Matt Mitchell; Kenny Wollesen
Mythology Records MR0012 (quinsin.com)

Toronto-born tenor saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff has been exploring unusual textures since combining a jazz trio and a string quartet on Magic Numbers, his 2006 debut. The elements in his music have grown more tightly interwoven since then, so it’s difficult to separate out the sources and genres that contribute to his work, music that bears the name “flux” appropriately. Nachoff’s current compositions are alive with subtle underpinnings and a sometimes jarring surface, all of it brilliantly executed, interpreted and extended by his current quartet of prominent New Yorkers.

He’s paired with alto saxophonist Dave Binney, the two supported by the virtually orchestral combination of keyboard player Matt Mitchell (piano, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Moog Rogue and organ) and drummer Kenny Wollesen (drums, timpani, tubular bells and handcrafted percussion). Together they develop a rare yet consistent combination of complexity and vitality, evident from the opening Tightrope, a tense piece in which Nachoff, the composer, introduces different thematic materials throughout, ranging from short, irregular rhythmic figures that set the initial mood to smooth rapid figures and a ballad, each segment opening to individual solos, until the piece climaxes with a collective improvisation thematically anchored by Mitchell’s forceful left hand.

That combination of distinctive structures and strong group interplay continues throughout, with Wollesen’s loose drumming and Mitchell’s varied approaches continually shaping the music’s flow. It’s particularly apparent on Complimentary Opposites, as the two shift the ground from Binney’s fluid invention to Nachoff’s edgy, broken lines filled with vocalic shifts. Nachoff’s creativity has been evident since his debut, and Flux is his most developed statement to date. 

Flux
Quinsin Nachoff; David Binney; Matt Mitchell; Kenny Wollesen
Mythology Records MR0012 (quinsin.com)

Like a Paralympian who triumphs in a contest despite lacking something usually deemed fundamental, tenor saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff has composed a set of seven well-balanced creations with a quartet missing one jazz necessity: a double bass. But so skillfully are the tunes affiliated and so sophisticated are his musical associates that it’s almost unnoticed.

A former Torontonian, now based in New York, Nachoff, who also composes for big bands and string ensembles in North America and Australia, makes sure Flux’s flow is maintained by relying on three of New York’s nonpareil improvisers: alto saxophonist David Binney; Kenny Wollesen on drums and percussion; and Matt Mitchell who stretches his hands over piano, Fender Rhodes, organ, Wurlitzer and Moog synthesizer, sometimes synchronously. Like a generic drug compared to an original, Mitchell’s bottom notes and Wollesen’s faultless beat remove the need for a bassist. More crucially through the drummer’s animated clatter or hard backbeat plus Mitchell’s harmonic judgment – his crinkly, slurry electric keyboard fills are as arresting as his cultivated romanticism on acoustic piano – fit perfectly jigsaw puzzle piece-like depending on the circumstances. On its own, Binney’s sculpted-out-of-stone tone can be heard at its flinty best on a tune such as Astral Echo Poem. Elsewhere he and Nachoff chew up or caress phrases like conjoined twins. Alternately stinging or smooth, the tenor saxophonist can angle out weighty Coleman Hawkins-like storytelling on Mind’s Ear I then turn around to spit out triplet snorts on Mind’s Ear II backed with thick piano extensions.

Most indicative of Nachoff’s writing and playing is Complimentary Opposites. Built up from a hide-and-seek game between the composer’s Hawkins-like timbres with rococo-like snarls and split tones from the other saxophonist, the harsh interface takes place on top of calliope-like bounces from Mitchell’s Wurlitzer plus silky cymbal swishes and tap-dancing snare taps from Wollesen.

If there’s anything lacking in Flux it’s that this just released CD was recorded in 2012. Imagine how well the quartet must sound today.

Duopoly
Kris Davis
Pyroclastic Records PR 01/02
(krisdavis.net)

Jigtok
Darren Sigesmund
DS0004 (darrensigesmund.ca)

Toronto composer and trombonist Darren Sigesmund has been crafting his own distinct idiom for a decade now, a kind of pan-historic cool that emphasizes subtle timbres, often floating rhythms and a keen harmonic imagination that can recast a melody with fresh inferences. This is his second recording in two years with a quintet that includes New York-based violinist Mark Feldman and keyboardist Gary Versace (here he plays piano, organ and accordion), a group that draws a line from the 1930s French café sound of Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt through 50s cool jazz to the mid-60s music of Wayne Shorter to the present.

It’s Sigesmund’s acute consciousness of instrumental makeup that sings through here, from the different meshes of characteristic overtone patterns to attacks and decays. The frontline is matched by the orchestral colourings of bassist Jim Vivian and percussionist Ethan Ardelli. The result is a tonal richness that goes beyond the usual jazz quintet.

There’s a special resonance to Machautnations in which Feldman’s eerie droning melody is set against Versace’s understated organ and the broad sonic washes of Ardelli’s cymbals. The ultimate entry of Sigesmund’s wailing upper-register trombone creates a kind of pan-cultural spell, a ceremony, seance or invocation that stretches from Northern Europe to the Far East. The more mainstream Now or Never highlights the unusual combination of violin and trombone along with Sigesmund’s mature instrumental voice, at once brusquely authoritative and finely nuanced, arching across Versace’s harmonic fields and inflected rhythms.

Moons
Myriad3
Alma Records ACD52062
(almarecords.com)

The collective musical spirit is alive and well in Moons, the third release by Toronto-based jazz trio Myriad3. Like the group’s name, a myriad of traditional, experimental and popular influences are quoted and/or superimposed while masterfully performed by pianist Chris Donnelly, bassist Dan Fortin and drummer Ernesto Cervini.

Each member is a composer too which makes for an eclectic listening experience. Donnelly’s Skeleton Key abounds with minimalism and new age melodic influences, with a flamboyant drum part and a surprise sudden stop ending adding welcome contrast. His Unnamed Cells is driven in a funky direction by speedy repeated notes in conversation between instruments. In contrast, Fortin’s appropriately titled Stoner is a slow and meditative journey that aches for the resolution of the chord changes while his Exhausted Clock ticks away gently to dreamland in a calming acoustic trio performance. The title track, Moons by Cervini, is a tranquil and reflective work with the subtle use of percussion colours creating a memorable space-age effect. The more traditional jazz acoustic stylings of his Ameliasburg make this exercise in simplicity a highlight. The trio really knows how to rock too, especially in Cervini’s more-in-your-face tune Brother Dom, and their feisty cover of Counter of the Cumulus by electronic whiz Disasterpeace.

Myriad3 is a strong trio no matter what style they tackle. From traditional to hybrid, their take on modern jazz is intelligent, groundbreaking and satisfying.

Beyond the C
Steve Koven Trio
Bungalow Records SK 010 4
(stevekoven.com)

Established in 1993, the Steve Koven Trio is a well-respected, internationally renowned Toronto-based jazz trio. This new release reinforces their professionalism, musicality and improvisational skills as pianist/composer Steve Koven, bassist Rob Clutton and drummer Anthony Michelli perform Koven’s compositions with precision, drive and the overwhelming sense of delight that comes from playing together for a very long time.

The title track, Beyond the C, is an upbeat playful jazz tune with a bouncing groove. The almost-stadium-anthem sing-along quality of the two tracks Brooklyn and Bathsheba form a solid backdrop to Koven’s improvisational stylings. The Learned is a more lyrical work embellished with piano runs and trills, and a surprisingly dense virtuosic drum part by Michelli which builds excitement until the final gentle chord. Cymbal washes and broken-chord-flavoured lines evoke programmatic sonic images in Mist-ic. More programmatic touches in Swamp Water Bullfrog as Clutton’s brilliant colourful bass playing resonates with rhythmic and melodic expertise. The closing waltz-like Moments is a reflective lyrical treat.

Koven and Michelli are also producers here, along with co-producer Roman Klun, so it comes as no surprise that all the trio’s group and individual musical nuances, idiosyncrasies and teamwork are captured in the recording. Check out the cover design by Hugh Syme with smart touches of the sea and birds flying in C-formation.

Listen and enjoy the Steve Koven Trio here as they play every note beyond and including the C!

Super Petite
Claudia Quintet
Cuneiform Records Rune 427 (cuneiformrecords.com)

Acclaimed long before he joined the faculty of McGill’s Schulich School of Music last year, American composer-percussionist John Hollenbeck indicates with Super Petite one of many reasons why a Donald Trump-obsessed United States’ loss is our gain. Each of its ten tracks, which are meticulously crafted as if shaped by a master diamond cutter, manages to convey a flowing simplicity, but includes enough worldly sonic jolts to stave off placidity.

Tunes such as JFK Beagle and Newark Beagle for instance, use accordionist Red Wierenga’s tremolo shimmers to replicate a canine’s exuberance, while their serious airport-sniffing work is characterized by a stringent tone conveyed by tenor saxophonist Chris Speed. Alternately, if Drew Gress’ walking double bass grounds the movement of those on the A-List, then squeeze-box surges lustily underlie the swing in the step of the participants. Although the titles are evocative, tracks aren’t really programmatic but are there to balance the players’ interpretative skills. For instance Speed’s clarinet line that stretches outwards like a fire hose defines the near-static mood piece that is mangold as effectively as melded vibes-accordion ripples atop percussion pops.

Although uncompromised animation buoys the majority of the tracks, the most remarkable are those which buttress contemporary jazz smarts. Peterborough – named for the city in New Hampshire not Ontario – is reminiscent of a Benny Goodman-Lionel Hampton duet via Speed’s clarinet tone and Matt Moran’s spangling vibes. But once the stop-time theme kicks in, introduced by Gress’ duple rhythms and the reedist’s turn to aviary sibilance, 21st-century musical orientation is evident. Philly is a deconstructed bebop line that honours Philly Joe Jones, one of Hollenbeck’s drum influences from that city. Yet while the vibe rattle and percussion splatters relate to more formal sounds, Speed’s gutty saxophone flutters and Wierenga’s organ-like tremolos reflect Philly’s soul-jazz heritage.

With none of these gently swinging tracks lengthier than six minutes and most in the three-to-four minute range, not one wears out its welcome. If he keeps turning out discs like Super Petite Hollenbeck won’t wear out his welcome on either side of the border.

A Luz (The Light)
Louis Simão
Independent (simaomusic.com)

Blue Glass
Pedram Khavarzamini; Siamak Aghaei; Efrén López
Independent (bit.ly/2dPS2uj)

The studio session which resulted in the Blue Glass album began life as an improvised collaboration between three modal music adepts. The santûr (Iranian hammered dulcimer) virtuoso Siamak Aghaei, and the Spanish fretless guitarist Efrén López were joined by the accomplished Canadian-Iranian tombak (Persian goblet drum) player Pedram Khavarzamini. Recorded in Heraklion, Greece in 2008, where the participants met while teaching at the Labyrinth Musical Workshop, the album has finally been released in Toronto on Khavarzamini’s label and is available on Amazon.com.

Two of the musicians may be known to Canadian world-music followers. Aghaei has worked with the Montreal-based ensemble Constantinople which was “conceived as a forum for creation, encounters and cross-fertilization” between the East and the West. Pedram Khavarzamini, who has been described as a “keeper of traditional Iranian tombak technique and repertoire” and also “an innovator who has pursued cross-cultural collaboration and musical experimentation,” served as the 2015/2016 world music artist-in-residence at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.

López, who on this album plays exclusively fretless guitar, is well recognized in Europe also as a hurdy-gurdy, rabab, kopuz and laouto player in medieval and traditional music groups. Building on his in-depth practical study of several global modal musical systems including makam, dastgâh and raga, he has enjoyed a career working with master musicians of Greece, Turkey, Afghanistan and India.

The first four titles for the duo of Aghaei’s eloquent santur and Khavarzamini’s incisive tombak playing offer extended moments of sonic stillness, marvellously coordinated improvization and flashes of Persian virtuosity. The album takes off on an altogether different and exciting transcultural vein however when López joins them on fretless guitar in the last two tracks, Abyss and Minaayee. His plucked string instrument’s mellow baritone melodies, elaborated with plenty of modally inflected fretless note bends resonate eloquently against the santur’s treble voice and the tombak’s soft and subtle agogic accents. It is music which can produce an overall timeless and geographically ambient effect on the globally open-eared listener.

Tse Tak Bulo/That’s How It Was
ZeelliaChickweed Productions #ZL003 (zeellia.com)

With its mix of field recordings and original arrangements and compositions, Zeellia’s new album Tse Tak Bulo/That’s How It Was explores pre-Soviet Ukrainian migration to Canada. Containing snippets of interviews and songs from elderly migrants, which the ensemble founder Beverly Dobrinsky collected in Alberta and Saskatchewan in the 90s, the CD is both a historical document and an artistic statement. Zeellia’s approach to these traditional songs lives firmly in the realm of artistic re-interpretation, rather than an ethnographic recreation. With her mixture of vocal and instrumental textures, Dobrinsky takes great liberties with the found materials pushing them into the realm of original compositions rather than mere arrangements. The most striking track is Oy byv mene cholovik (My Husband Beat Me). In my own explorations of Ukrainian folk music, I have found that domestic abuse is, unfortunately, a common theme and I commend Zeellia for not shying away from it. Dobrinsky’s recomposition of the tune is a highly effective combination of playful rhythms and dissonant a cappella vocal harmonies punctuated by woodblock knocks. As I Walk across Canada is a gorgeously mournful song steeped in loneliness and nostalgia for the homeland left behind. Among other instruments, the album features the hurdy-gurdy, known as lira in Ukraine. Dobrinsky’s approach to the instrument both nods towards its traditional role as accompaniment to spiritual minstrel songs and reframes it in a new light.

Max Richter – Songs From Before
Robert Wyatt; Max Richter
Deutsche Grammophon 4795566

For some years now you could have confined your re-imagined and exploratory music CD buying to releases by the German-born composer, pianist and electronics manipulator Max Richter and found your shelves start to sing with depth and invention. And that would hardly be surprising. Richter is among the foremost of the talented new musicians who have developed a sharply individualistic, difficult-to-classify personal genre. Here, on Songs From Before, as is customary, roots in and branches from folk and classical often surface, but there is so much else going on: Richter skilfully, imaginatively and (by-and-large) subtly mixes in elements of electronic music, rock, contemporary composition and the occasional nod to the fantasy of poetic recitation.

Although most of the pieces develop from beguiling, elegant melodies, what makes them so special is Richter’s manner with arresting textures and colours – achieved not only with his keyboards, but also with the strings. These sonic creations stimulate mental pictures of mysterious narratives – especially when on Flowers for Yulia, Harmonium, Time Passing, Lullaby and Verses, Robert Wyatt is called upon to recite sparse verses – evoking the work of such chroniclers and visionaries as Bach and Arvo Pärt. And yet with every phrase unfolding a new mystery as if by aural magic, one is irresistibly drawn to this music because it is distinctly and uniquely a part of Max Richter’s own sound world. 

Land of Gold
Anoushka Shankar
Deutsche Grammophon 4795459

“Everyone is, in some way or another, searching for their own Land of Gold; a journey to a place of security, connectedness and tranquility, which they can call home,” writes sitarist Anoushka Shankar in the liner notes of her new album. Themes of separation, isolation, journey into the unknown, parental love and hope, are all inspired by the refugee crises across the globe and the current state of the human condition. Shankar is an evocative storyteller – her compositions (co-composed with Manu Delago) are intensely hued with raw emotion. The journey from darkness and uncertainty to light and acceptance is portrayed with a powerful musical drive and in collaboration with many wonderful musicians.

The album opens with Boat to Nowhere and Secret Heart – two sitar-driven numbers, featuring yearningly poetic cello lines (Caroline Dale) in the first and the dynamic Indian reed instrument shehnai (outstanding Sanjeev Shankar) in the latter. M.I.A. is a guest artist in Jump In (Cross the Line), adding a contemporary feel and expression, and Alev Lenz’s touching lyrics and vocals are the pulse of the title song Land of Gold. But the heart of the album is Remain the Sea – featuring heartbreaking poetry of Pavana Reddy, spoken with much feeling (Vanessa Redgrave), and landscaped beautifully with traditional chanting and sitar. In this piece one cannot help but feel the weight of emotion, coupled with responsibility.

The mix of Indian classical styles, electronica, jazz and textured soundscapes, has an admirable fluidity. This album makes a difference – as a social commentary and as a powerful musical creation.

Ice and Longboats: Ancient Music of Scandinavia
Ake & Jens Egevad; Ensemble Marie Balticum
Delphian DCD34181
(delphianrecords.co.uk)

What would the music of the Vikings have sounded like? This CD offers a partial response to this question and more, as it takes the listener on a journey through soundscapes of two periods: music improvised on Viking era (800-1050 AD) instruments, as well as notated songs and instrumental items from the early centuries of Christianity in Scandinavia.

The second volume in Delphian Records’ groundbreaking collaboration with the European Music Archaeology Project, Ice and Longboats showcases the work of the versatile Ensemble Mare Balticum, as well as the remarkable father/son team of Åke and Jens Egevad. The Egevads are musicians and reconstructors of ancient instruments. They built the wooden lurs (trumpets), frame drums, bone flutes, hornpipe, animal horn and Viking lyres heard on this recording.

The selections mostly alternate between instrumental and vocal songs, with occasional dramatic shifts in mood and texture between tracks. The delicate medieval bone recorder is contrasted with the declamatory sounds of the lurs, and the simplicity of the bells provides a foil to the more elaborate medieval vocal and ensemble sections.

Standouts include the lyre duet on In the Village: evening, the Jew’s harp solo (played by Ute Goedecke) on Gaudet mater ecclesia and the sublime vocals on Nobilis humilis. The overall sound is pristine, as the music was recorded in the historic (ca. 1100s) Oppmanna church in Sweden. A beautiful and illuminating recording, Ice and Longboats is a voyage worth taking.