Live Recordings 1963-2006

Zubin Mehta; Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

Helicon Classics 02-9625

To honour Zubin Mehta’s 40th Anniversary as Music Director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Helicon Classics has assembled this set of thirty-seven live performances selected from Mehta’s expansive repertoire, from Vivaldi to now.

Heard are soloists Arie Vardi, Yefin Bronfman, Radu Lupu, Alicia de Larrocha, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Chaim Taub, Daniel Benyamini, Marjana Lipovšek, Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yehudi Menuhin, Lyn Harrell, Stella Richmond, Mischa Maisky, and many more. The set includes a disc of music by Israeli composers. Available space precludes listing the works but among the standouts is Bloch’s Schelomo, enjoying a blazing interpretation by cellist Mischa Maisky supported by Mehta and a white-hot orchestra. It’s one for the books. The Verdi Requiem was recorded at an open-air performance in July of 1968 given in Manger Square in front of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity following a call for peace in the Holy Land. The concert started late so as not to disturb the call to prayer from the adjacent Jamma El Omar mosque. The soloists are Martina Arroyo, Shirley Verrett, Richard Tucker, and Bonaldo Giaiotti. This performance generated headlines and is included as a significant event. The recorded sound in this case is merely adequate.

There is an overall characteristic bloom around each of these performances and a distinct impression that the musicians are attentive to each other. Perhaps it is this and their esprit de corps that has resulted in the orchestra’s identifiable patina on every performance heard on these discs.

This is an attractive collection of idiomatic performances of mostly familiar works, well played and well recorded. Complete details of the contents at www.heliconclassics.com.

Chausson - Concert; Mathieu - Trio & Quintette

Alain Lefèvre; David Lefèvre; Quatuor Alcan

Analekta AN 2 9286

Son of Montreal composer/pedagogue Rodolphe Mathieu, André (1929-1968) realized prodigious achievements as a child pianist and composer. Paris critic Émile Vuillermoz dubbed the ten-year-old Mathieu “The Canadian Mozart” following a piano recital of his original compositions.

The Piano Trio and Piano Quintet were written in his early 20s. The words “passionate” and “luxuriant” have stayed with me throughout my encounter with this music. Mathieu’s emotional range and the delicate interplay of instruments make the Trio absorbing listening. I especially enjoyed the slow sections, including some mystical proto-minimalism, as brought to life by pianist Alain Lefèvre, violinist Laura Andriani, and cellist David Ellis.

For the virtuosic Quintet the Alcan Quartet join Lefèvre in a powerful performance. In this exciting piece I hear Debussy and the Stravinsky of the Firebird. Would Mathieu’s career have progressed more effectively had he studied with Messiaen or Dutilleux? Regardless, we are now privileged to celebrate anew André Mathieu’s youthful musical genius.

Chausson’s similarly virtuosic Concert is described in Lucie Renard’s program notes as being “akin to a concerto for piano and violin” with string quartet; here violinist David Lefèvre joins the Quintet musicians. I love Chausson’s imaginative treatment of the stark three-note opening motif, which could have become clunky and maudlin in lesser hands. The assembled forces capture wonderfully the drama of the opening movement, antique glory of the Sicilienne, profundity of the slow movement, and intensity of the Finale on this outstanding disc.

Sir William Walton was still a teenage undergraduate at Oxford when he started his first string quartet in 1919. Completed in 1922, its few performances were unsatisfactory, and despite several cuts and revisions the quartet was withdrawn by the composer. It was revived in its revised version after Walton’s death in 1983, but the Doric String Quartet performs the premiere recording of the full-length original version on Walton String Quartets (Chandos CHAN 10661). Despite the composer’s negative assessment – it was, he said, “full of undigested Bartok and Schoenberg” – it’s a fascinating and extremely challenging three-movement work, with a massive and astonishing fugal finale that isn’t out of place besides Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge. Dating from the mid-1940s, Walton’s second quartet is, not surprisingly, from a different world, and more in the language that we associate with the mature composer. There is contrapuntal skill here too, though, together with Walton’s usual lyricism. The Doric Quartet is superb in both works, and beautifully recorded. This is a significant addition to the catalogue of 20^th century string quartet recordings.

The wonderful Philippe Graffin is back with another fascinating CD of little-known works. Last month it was English violin concertos, this time it’s Rare French Works for violin and orchestra, with Thierry Fischer conducting the Ulster Orchestra (Helios CDH55396). The works themselves may be little-known, but only Ernest Guiraud lacks stature as a composer. Fauré’s single-movement Violin Concerto in D minor is here – the second movement is lost, the third never written – as are Lalo’s three-movement Fantaisie norvegienne and his Guitarre, and Saint-Saëns’ Morceau de concert. The best surprises, though, are Guiraud’s beautiful two-movement Caprice, and Joseph Canteloube’s gorgeous Poème, the latter giving the lie to the composer’s apparent doubts about his melodic abilities. Graffin is superb throughout, with a rapid vibrato and a crystal-clear lustrous tone, dazzling in the higher registers, and with an obvious empathy for these seldom-heard but utterly delightful pieces. Recorded in 2001, this is apparently a re-issue of a 2002 disc; if you missed it the first time around, don’t make the same mistake this time.

JoAnn Falletta and Michael Ludwig, conductor and concert-master respectively of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, combined for an outstanding Naxos CD of the Dohnanyi Violin Concertos a few years ago, and now they’re back with the music of Czech composer Josef Suk (1874-1935), this time with their own orchestra (Naxos 8.572323). Suk studied with Dvořák, who later became his father-in-law, and continued the Czech school of Dvořák and Smetana while managing to accommodate the influences of his contemporaries Mahler, Richard Strauss and Debussy. Ludwig is outstanding in the Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra in G minor, and also takes the solo line in the opening movement of the four-movement suite Pohadka (Fairy Tale), compiled from incidental music Suk wrote for a theatrical work in 1898. The orchestral Fantastic Scherzo in G minor rounds out another immensely satisfying CD from this terrific team.

Fantasy is also the title of a new CD from the UK-based Japanese violinist Kaoru Yamada and pianist Sholto Kynoch (Stone Records 5060192780017) that features “Fantasy” works by Messiaen, Schoenberg and Schubert. The three Messiaen titles are early works springing from his relationship with the violinist Claire Delbos, with whom he toured in the early 1930s, and whom he married in 1932. La Mort du nombre, a setting of Messiaen’s own text, adds soprano and tenor to the duo; the influence of Fauré and Debussy is quite evident. Theme et variations is much more typical of Messiaen’s later (and instantly recognizable) style, with long, high melodic lines against steady, widely-spread piano chords and a wide dynamic range. Fantasie was believed lost, but recently discovered and published in 2007. Schoenberg’s Phantasy dates from 1949, and is typical late Schoenberg: assured, but technically challenging writing for both players. The two Schubert works seem a bit isolated after the fully committed performances of the 20^th century material. The four-movement Fantasie has a set of variations based on Schubert’s own song, Sei mir gegrusst!, a somewhat pedestrian performance of the song itself ending the CD. Soprano Rhona McKail is the soloist for the latter, and is joined by tenor Nicky Spence in the Messiaen.

I certainly wasn’t expecting a Best of James Ehnes CD, but that’s what Analekta has given us with SELECTIONS (AN 2 9768), consisting entirely of material from previous Ehnes CDs. The Saint-Saëns Havanaise and Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso, and the Massenet Meditation are the only sizeable complete works; everything else is basically snippets of Bach, Dvořák and Kreisler. Presumably the hope is that if you like this, you’ll rush out and buy the previous CDs, but if you do really like Ehnes then you’ve probably already got them. Well, at least they didn’t call it James Ehnes’ Greatest Hits.

In these days of specialized instrumental soloists we tend to forget that for hundreds of years virtually all of the major violin virtuosi were also quite competent – and sometimes outstanding – composers: Vivaldi, Corelli, Tartini, Viotti, Paganini, Joachim, Hubay, Vieuxtemps, Sarasate, Spohr, Wieniawski, Ysaÿe, Kreisler, Enescu… and that’s only a partial list. Most violinists know the music of Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766-1831) only as students grappling with his Etudes, although his name is more famously attached to the Beethoven Op.47 Sonata, which Beethoven dedicated to him. Kreutzer, along with Viotti and Rode, was in at the start of the French violin concerto in the early 1780s, and Naxos has issued a CD of his last three Violin Concertos, Nos. 17-19, with the US-based German violinist Axel Strauss and the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra under Andrew Mogrelia (8.570380). No.17, in G major, is quite brief and sounds a lot like Paganini without the fireworks. No.18, in E minor, is more substantial, but in much the same vein, and No.19, in D minor, is somewhat reminiscent of Schumann and Mendelssohn. Axel Strauss does as well as you can possibly expect with material that, truth be told, does not immediately strike you as being anything other than wholly competent. The booklet notes tell us that “Kreutzer’s final three violin concertos are among his greatest achievements as a composer;” one is tempted to wonder what the other 16 are like. Apparently, we’ll be able to find out: Naxos plans to record all of them. Gulp.

Armenian cellist Alexander Chaushian is teamed with Russian pianist Yevgeny Sudbin on a hybrid SACD of Russian Cello Sonatas (BIS-SACD-1858), featuring works by Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and Borodin. Their playing has the strength, warmth and conviction that these pieces need, and they are beautifully recorded. The balance felt a bit “pro-piano” at first, but it only served to underline that these are piano/cello duos, and not solo cello pieces with piano accompaniment. Rachmaninov’s G minor sonata opens the disc, and his Vocalise closes it. In between we have two works that couldn’t be more different. The Borodin Sonata in B minor is a real oddity: the manuscript, apparently, has survived only in “fragmentary form” and this performance is of the version completed by Russian composer and musicologist Mikhail Goldstein in 1982, “with a slightly abbreviated finale” whatever that means. How much is Borodin, and how much Goldstein, who knows? An earlier Goldstein “discovery” turned out to be his own work. What’s more, the material itself is quite strange. While doing post-doctoral scientific research in Heidelberg around 1860, Borodin lived next door to a violinist who kept playing the Bach G minor unaccompanied violin sonata; the fugue subject fascinated Borodin, and it forms the basis for the cello sonata, appearing in each of the three movements – in fact, it starts the first and third movements. The second movement, however, opens as pure Norwegian Grieg! Quite a stylistic feat. The Shostakovich D minor sonata, his first major chamber work, points the way to the composer’s future in more ways than one: written in 1934, it hints at the distinctive style that was to come, but it was also the work Shostakovich was touring with the cellist Viktor Kubatsky in 1936 when Pravda printed the attack on his music that would forever change his life.

Brilliance

Duo Gaulin-Riverin

Analekta AN 2 9953

This aptly titled first release by Duo Gaulin-Riverin showcases the “brilliance” of saxophonist Mathieu Gaulin and pianist Jacynthe Riverin. Both musicians possess a love of their instruments and of the music they are playing. Their innate sense each other’s artistic strengths makes for passionate performances.

The repertoire featured could be described as “Saxophone and Piano Music 101,” a survey course of works written for the combination during the 20th century. The diverse compositional styles range from the parlour music sound of Rudy Wiedoeft's Valse Vanite to the romantic qualities of Fernande Breilh-Decruck's Sonata in C sharp to the more new music sounds of Piet Swerts’ Klonos. The strongest work is William Albright's Sonata which opens with a complicated Two-Part Invention that weaves its way through a number of moods to climax with the final movement Mad Dance, a short robust stomp that ends with a wail and a shout. Works by Jean Matitia, Paul Creston and Ida Gotkovsky are also featured.

The liner notes describe the duo’s goal of remaining accessible while presenting “an eclectic and varied repertoire.” Here’s hoping they now commission and record works written especially for them. That’s when their musical stars should really begin to shine brilliantly. In the meantime, Gualin’s impeccable breath control and Riverin’s singing florid phrases will keep the listener engaged.

Moto Perpetuo

David Childs

Salvationist Publications DOYEN DOY CD262 (www.davidchilds.com)

A few months ago I had the pleasure of attending a concert by the Hannaford Street Silver Band which featured euphonium soloist David Childs. With the memory of that breathtaking performance still fresh in my mind, I then received a CD by this amazing young Welsh virtuoso. From Paganini to Stephen Foster, David Childs shines a bright light on the broad spectrum of musical qualities of his instrument. Performing with the famous Cory Band, under the direction of his father Robert Childs, David explores the qualities of this underrated member of the brass family. The opening, dazzling, title track of the Paganini Moto Perpetuo left my head spinning. I could not operate my brain with such dexterity let alone my fingers. In contrast, the Lament by contemporary Welsh composer Karl Jenkins is one of the most lyrical solos I have ever heard on that instrument. Originally written as soprano solo in Jenkins’ Stabat Mater, this instrumental arrangement is my favourite on the record. Similarly, the Benedictus from Jenkins’ highly acclaimed The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace highlights the soloist’s ability to display the finest lyrical qualities of his instrument. The CD also features a new concerto for euphonium by Jenkins which was commissioned by David Childs.

The Hollywood Flute of Louise DiTullio

Louise DiTullio; Sinfonia Toronto; Ronald Royer

Cambria CD-1194 (www.cambriamus.com)

Louise DiTullio, the flutist of choice of many Hollywood film composers, including John Williams, over the course of a fifty year career, has played over 1,200 film scores. On this CD you can hear why she was in such demand: her sound, enlivened by a very organic vibrato, is pure and full and at the same time simple and unaffected. She plays the haunting themes from John Barry’s Dances with Wolves with enormous dignity, avoiding the temptation to slip into sentimentality. She is also capable of stunning virtuosity, as in The Lost Boys Chase, from John Williams’ score for Hook.

The CD was recorded two years ago with orchestra – Sinfonia Toronto augmented by woodwind and brass players from the TSO – conducted by Toronto conductor and composer, Ron Royer. Royer did all but one of the arrangements and also contributed a four-movement composition, Short Stories, one each for piccolo, concert, alto and bass flutes. In these the orchestration is masterful and the writing for all four solo instruments is fluent and idiomatic.

There is one other piece on the CD that was not composed for film, Laurence Rosenthal’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, for unaccompanied flute. Rosenthal, who is a film composer, gave a copy to Ms. DiTullio after a recording session. She has since performed it many times. This piece definitely deserves to become part of the standard repertoire for solo flute.

Out In Front

Larry Bond Quartet

Independent (www.larrybondtrio.com)

A little over a year ago we reviewed a CD by the Larry Bond Trio. Now they are back, but they have grown to a quartet. The original three members, Larry Bond on piano, Bob Mills on bass and Richard Moore on drums have been joined by Bruce Redstone on saxophones. As with their earlier CD, if you enjoy good quality relaxed jazz, this could be for you.

Unlike the earlier trio CD, which was a mix of standards and lesser known numbers, on this CD all selections are original compositions by Larry Bond. Although all numbers were new to my ears, they are all very accessible. I could easily have imagined lyrics being written for many of the tunes. The addition of Bruce Redstone’s sax stylings provides a greater variety of colours than the earlier CD. Since all tracks were new, it was almost impossible to tell when the members were playing the charts and when they were improvising. There is a good variety of rhythms including a few up tempo numbers, but they are never in the frantic category. Recording quality is excellent with a crisp, clean bass line and smooth sax work in all registers. In addition to his musical talents, Bruce Redstone provided all of the photography and art work for this CD.

The Beginning

Mark Segger Sextet

18th Note Records 18-2011-1 (www.marksegger.com)

Cunningly arranged so that each instrument is appropriately voiced, the compositions of drummer Mark Segger are given a first-class showcase on this exceptional CD. An Edmonton-native, now Toronto-based, the drummer’s eight tunes are multi-faceted solidly contemporary efforts with avant-garde flashes. On hand to enliven the pieces are veterans, trumpeter Jim Lewis, bassist Andrew Downing and Tania Gill on piano and melodica; plus younger soloists trombonist Heather Segger, tenor saxophonist and clarinettist Chris Willes, plus the drummer.

With sounds ranging from those reminiscent of baroque rounds to those which pick up Latin-funk inferences, many announce their individuality by concentrating the rhythm in an ostinato from trombonist Segger. In other places she snorts subterraneously or resonates alphorn-like trills, often in dual counterpoint with the trumpeter’s flutter tonguing. Joining Segger’s percussive ratamacues and flams to meticulously expose dynamic key clips and intense rubato lines on an uncomplicated swinger like Soca You Play It, Gill turns around to add jittery melodic pumps on other tunes such as Steam Engine. Here Downing’s walking bass and a light shuffle beat provide solid back-up as burping trombone and heraldic trumpet roll and tongue the theme with lyrical abandon. Another highlight is My Dog Has Fleas, where Willes’ saxophone response to the canine affliction ranges from unaccompanied chromatic slurs to narrowed and striated shrills to melodic, decorated peeps, accompanied by the drummer’s rim-shot rebounds and challenged by top-of-range tremolo trombone slides.

Appropriately the final track here is the title tune, for the strength of the performances makes you hope for future Segger sound elaborations.

Purcor - Songs for Saxophone and Piano

Trygve Seim; Andreas Utnem

ECM 2186

The work of this Norwegian duo offers a blend of original melodies accompanied by adaptations of a few indigenous folk songs. The recording is very subdued and creates an intimate atmosphere for the listener that is both alluring and interesting. This album also exemplifies many genre defying qualities which make it rather difficult for one to categorize.

Andreas Utnem’s piano style is vaguely reminiscent of Robert Schumann’s work, while Trygve Seim’s playing echoes that of Dexter Gordon. When the two distinct styles converge, a beautiful fusion emerges with affluent melodies and unique lyrical qualities – it’s as if Trygve is speaking to the listener through his saxophone.

The recording itself accentuates the expressive saxophone with close proximity microphone placement. This enables the listener to hear every detail of Trygve’s performance from the deepest bellow to the most ethereal whisper. Conversely, the piano feels distant and ominous, leaving reverberant trails of melody in the background of the soundscape.

One can easily discern that these fourteen songs have been chosen and placed in order with much deliberation. Although they are songs without words, a story unfolds in such a way that one should surely listen to this album from beginning to end.

All Baby Wants is Me

Rita di Ghent

Groove Classic (www.ritadighent.com)

In her seventh and latest recording “All Baby Wants is Me” evocative songstress Rita Di Ghent presents a tasty sampling of much loved standards as well as two original compositions, including the jaunty title track. Di Ghent’s trademark haute-cabaret presentation and impeccable good taste are in full swing on this highly enjoyable recording. She effortlessly conjures up visions of smoke-filled speak-easies, and the bluesier numbers are well-served by her smoky, understated vocal style - reminiscent of the late great Lee Wiley.

Rita served as producer and arranger on this project, and she has surrounded herself with an elegant supporting cast of Dave Restivo on piano and B3 organ, Marc Rogers on bass, Daniel Barnes on drums, multi-cultural jazz artist Kenny Kirkwood on saxophone, Nick “Brownman” Ali on trumpet and Fred Raulston on vibes/percussion. The ensemble is nothing short of perfection, and never overpowers the diaphanous Di Ghent. Dave Restivo is acknowledged as one of the most gifted jazz pianists on the scene today, and on this recording he also shows himself to be a masterful accompanist - in the best possible Alan Broadbent sense.

Di Ghent’s clever composition, Nicely Situated is a song in search of a Broadway show, and she delivers it with humour, flair and melodic integrity. Other outstanding tracks include an up-tempo What a Little Moonlight Can Do and George Gershwin’s classic I’ve Got a Crush on You, replete with a gorgeous string arrangement and performance from Jaro Jarosil.

Junjo

Esperanza Spalding

Ayva Music AYVA036 (www.esperanzaspalding.com)

Chamber Music Society

Esperanza Spalding

Heads Up International HUI-31810-02

A shockwave went through the pop music community and a small thrill of delight was felt by a lot of jazz fans when Esperanza Spalding beat out Drake and Justin Bieber for Best New Artist at the recent Grammy Awards. Finally here was someone a) we've heard of and b) who can play something other than an iPhone. The young bass player and singer has solid and wide ranging training – she studied jazz at the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston where she went on to become the youngest faculty member at age 20. She taught herself the violin at age five when she landed a spot in the Oregon Chamber Music Society. And it all shows in her two discs “Junjo” from 2005 and 2010’s “Chamber Music Society,” for which she won the Grammy. (Spalding has a third solo album from 2008, not being reviewed here.) “Chamber Music Society” is produced by the masterful Gil Goldstein (check his work on Karrin Allyson's “Wild for You” and Boz Scaggs “Speak Low”) and the free-form improvisation that is rife throughout her debut “Junjo” is still dominant but reined in a bit and tempered by a string trio. Her singing – which was done completely without words on “Junjo” - leans toward the light classical side, without the encumbrance of actual melodies for the most part. Except for Loro, which is a brilliant vocal chord twister written by Brazilian composer Egberto Gismonti, which Spalding handles with ease. The most mainstream song on her latest disc is the opening track Little Fly which is a William Blake poem Spalding has prettily set to music. The disc then ventures through a series of mostly Spalding compositions that mix percussion from a variety of musical cultures, courtesy of Terri Lyne Carrington and Qunitino Cinalli, with angular string trio arrangements and Spalding's solid acoustic bass playing. Spalding is a playful performer who stretches her considerable imagination and skills to the fullest.

100 Best of Blue Note

Various Artists

EMI 5 099990 530326

The first of 100 tunes in this collection is a 1937 recording of tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and guitarist Django Reinhardt playing Out Of Nowhere. It was recorded two years before Blue Note Records was founded. The taping was done for EMI’s Capitol label’s French division. This is an ominous hint as to the content of the 10-disc “100 Best of Blue Note” box set, which at first glance appears to have all the trimmings of a slick 21st century collection. It comes in a box you’d expect to contain two or three CDs, not 10 with 10 cuts on each of them. Individual disc covers please the eye, the name of each track leader coloured differently from its successor. The same design is employed on the back, with each tune named. However, a closer look shows that’s just about all the information you’ll get, forcing listeners into guess-that-sideman mode. Most recordings here don’t have just the named leader in action while there are numerous odd selections taken from albums that contain much better jazz. Just one example is on CD2 where Gil Fuller and the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra featuring (trumpeter) Dizzy Gillespie plays a feeble version of Man From Monterey. The same LP has Gillespie and Charlie Parker roaring through Groovin’ High… no contest. While it’s too easy to be picky, these sorts of choices nonetheless make you wonder what organizers were thinking and who chose the music. It’s compiled by EMI Belgium, tracks selected by 2Sounds.

I’m sure most jazz fans believe the Blue Note golden years were the 1950s and 60s, fruitful times when hard bop had taken over from bebop and torrents of vinyl LPs were illustrated with gorgeously expressive player portraits. This music was distinctive, the ancestor of modern mainstream. Jazz changes its forms, but jazz history does not.

Given the convulsions in the music business and ownership changes, it’s not surprising that the EMI empire has many labels under its belt, with the result that recording dates in the terse accompanying notes cover a period far longer than the Blue Note heyday and cite labels other than Blue Note. Overall most recording dates are meaningless in that a large number are reissues.

I delight in re-experiencing vintage classics such as Sonny Rollins Misterioso with Monk, Silver, J.J. Johnson, Chambers and Blakey, and appreciate the fresh recognition given Golden Age stalwarts such as Tine Brooks, Dexter Gordon, Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Ike Quebec, Baby Face Willette, Donald Byrd and Jimmy Smith. At the same time I wonder about the inclusion of bands like the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Chick Corea, Patricia Barber, David Axelrod, Stacey Kent, Lionel Loueke and, heaven help us, Norah Jones however good that was for sales. The sole piece of Canadiana is Holly Cole singing Hum Drum Blues with saxman Javon Jackson. Enough said.

Ella and Oscar

Ella Fitzgerald; Oscar Peterson

Original Jazz Classics Remasters OJC-32693-02 www.concordmusicgroup.com

Even with less than essential bonus material, “Ella and Oscar” – recorded May 19, 1975 – is a welcome reissue that warrants repeated listening. Bassist Ray Brown, closely associated to both artists, appears on four tracks, but this is a decidedly duo effort that focuses on two close friends who happened to be among jazz’s most historic figures. To imply that Ella was at her vocal best here would be dishonest; at the time, 58-year-old Fitzgerald’s failing health caused a golden voice that was previously 24-karat to tarnish; for the first time in her career she sounded less than effortless. Thankfully there was more to the First Lady of Song than a pretty voice: there was improvisational prowess, sensational swing, delectable joy and a chameleonic hypersensitivity to her musical surroundings. Ella’s finest moments here are sumptuously spontaneous, from the miraculously phrased Midnight Sun to the mighty fine I Hear Music. Each and every ballad is enhanced considerably by Peterson’s performance, which is pitch-perfect throughout. Expectedly, O.P. brightly dazzles on every solo taken, and as accompanist, he displays an acute sensitivity that was arguably lacking in his early years. The album’s most charming tracks are an 8½-minute exploration of April in Paris that flies by in executive first class, and a lively When Your Lover Has Gone, boasting glorious four-bar trades between voice and piano that will likely never be equalled. Turn up the volume and you will hear Ella and Oscar smiling.

Kirk MacDonald is one of Canada’s premier tenor saxophonists, shining first as a performer and latterly adding composing gifts to his arsenal. His Juno-nominated Kirk MacDonald Quartet - Songbook Vol.2 (Addo AJR006 www.addorecords.com) is first class, a seven-tune session with classy sidekicks that cements his stature. The opening burner You See But You Don’t Hear has power playing from all with Cuban-born pianist David Virelles, bassist Neil Swainson and whirling drummer Barry Romberg matching the leader’s invention and intensity while succeeding songs underline the presence of vigorous probing spirits, plenty of mercurial moments and execution that’s fleet and fluent. Vanda Justina is a pleasing ballad, The Torchbearers a surging up-tempo piece with long logical runs that feel just right and an inspired contribution from Virelles, while Starlight and other tracks showcase darting solos with seamlessly evolving and thoroughly developed ideas.

Veteran trombonist Ron Westray, alumnus of Wynton Marsalis’ Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, holds the Oscar Peterson Chair in jazz performance at York University and it’s good to find new recorded evidence of his talent. On Ron Westray Thomas Heflin - Live From Austin (Blue Canoe Records BCR-1094 www.ronwestray.com) he co-leads a hard bop quintet at the Elephant Room in Austin with trumpeter Heflin, engaging pianist Peter Stoltzman, alternating bassists and drummers plus on four pieces starring tenor saxman Elias Haslager. Westray, who was at Texas U before York, wrote two of the seven cuts (Exile: Remember The Homeless, Inside Out) and demonstrates stunning agility with muscular open tones that stop short of brash yet are always exciting. He’s clearly in the J.J. Johnson tradition, ever-rousing but sweetly elegant when required.

Pianist David Braid is without doubt in Canada’s leading jazz ranks, testing his diverse talents in numerous genres. His newest venture - David Braid - Verge (DB 20110120 www.davidbraid.com) – is a solo effort comprising eight pieces, six by him, a remodelling of Broadway ditty The Way You Look Tonight and a traditional Chinese folk song. On the opener Le Phare he’s in Brad Mehldau mode, active counterpoint embellishing the melody amid a sheen of classical music influences. You get a fulsome and quirky deconstruction of the standard tune done with wit and superior craft, a spiritual treatment of El Castillo Interior and nods to contemporary pop structures with subtle chord alterations on Richmond Square. Braid exudes confidence, at times a model of concision, at others ranging from fiercely edgy through to sweetness as he creates complex narratives told with flair and always favouring finesse over sheer power.

Big bands have always been a Canadian favourite (except perhaps in today’s parlous economic times) and the reputation of Swing Shift, led by Jim John on alto sax and clarinet, is increasing. A dozen tunes including a three-pack of blues and pop vehicle Whatever Lola Wants on the outfit’s third CD taped live at Humber College, illuminate its well-drilled abilities. Swing Shift Big Band - Mostly Canadian, Eh! (Palais Records SSBB2019CD www.swingshiftbigband.com) features lively swing, strong charts and solid transcriptions of versions by earlier Canuck greats like Art Hallman and Bert Niosi (thanks to pianist/musical director Brent Turner). Solo skills vary, with my choice tenor saxist Jeff Pighin, with trombonist Rob Williams a whisker behind. Old-style vocalists Larisa Renée and David Statham get two songs apiece. The only flaw – there’s just 46 minutes of music here.

It’s always worth hearing Quebec’s alto saxist François Carrier, a veteran of the improv scene who never records “outside” jazz that’s off-putting to listeners. Taped on Canada Day 2002 at the Vancouver jazzfest but just released is François Carrier - Entrance 3 (Ayler Records AYLCD-106 www.francoiscarrier.com), a heady romp by his trio with Sweden’s Bobo Stenson a piano-playing guest. Four collectively “composed” long workouts are always ambitious and adventurous with huge contributions from the upright electric bass constructed by Pierre Côté and regular Carrier companion Michel Lambert’s frantically busy drums. Sax and piano swap smart ideas with great urgency in a session throbbing with energy and atmosphere peppered by heated moments, catchy hooks that arrive and depart without overstaying their welcome and splendid passages signalling imminent menace. Great stuff.

The Toronto band Engine doesn’t aim for the same visceral impact, preferring to achieve its spontaneous aims by employing jagged-edged ideas and contrasting creations suggesting off-kilter chamber jazz, abrupt shifts of mood and time, playful sounds off the conventional music map and rumbling passages suggesting a Mingus-influenced uprising. That makes Engine - Start (Pet Mantis Records PMR007 www.enginequintet.com) an interesting disc, nine of its ten tersely-titled items from reedman-leader Peter Lutek. Bandsmen, notably trombonist Tom Richards and pianist Greg de Denus, revel in the discomfort zones with bassist Dan Fortin and drummer Ethan Ardelli trolling rhythmic possibilities with verve. Best crank-turning tune among many good ones is the closing The Lawnmower, with Lutek et al at full wail.

Accommodating and adaptable improvising musicians from the Netherlands are as open to out-of-country influences as working with players from different countries in Holland or abroad. Confident in their own skills, they see non-local musicians’ participation as additions to their music, not competition. These beliefs characterize two ostensibly Dutch ensembles in concert in Toronto this month: The Ex with Brass Unbound is presented by the Music Gallery at Lee’s Palace on May 18; while Ig Henneman’s Kindred Spirits Sextet is at Gallery 345 May 19. Violist Henneman’s combo includes two Canadians, pianist Marilyn Lerner and clarinettist Lori Freedman plus German trumpeter Axel Dörner. Meanwhile the Brass Unbound, working with the guitar-heavy, Dutch anarchistic punk-jazzers The Ex, is made up of Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, American saxophonist Ken Vandermark and Dutch trombonist Wolter Wierbos. A careful listen to some of these players’ own CDs demonstrates the sort of adaptability that characterizes these Dutch-centred combos in general.

A series of duos, Walter Wierbos - Deining (DolFijn Records 02 www.wolterwierbos.nl) is most intuitive when the trombonist’s rugged and multiphonic timbres stack up against those from the reeds of Ab Baars, who coincidentally is a member of the Henneman band playing the following night. On Buitengaats, for instance, Baars’ altissimo irregularly vibrated warbling and fluttering cross tones come up against bugle-like chromaticism from the trombonist. This emphasis towards linear connections works even more effectively on Op de Warf, as the play-anything Bennink works his way staccatissimo all around his kit – and the nearby floor – while tooting a harmonica and whistle blowing. Right beside him, and similarly intense is Wierbos using elephantine brays, capillary burbles and rubato snorts to eventually shift the tempo so the two end up swinging with identical microtones.

Baritone and tenor saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, another of the Unbound hornmen, has had even more experiences trading licks with rock-influenced groups – even in Canada. As a matter of fact, Barrel Fire (Drip Audio DA00651 www.dripaudio.com) captures a raw face-off between the reedist and the Vancouver-based members of guitarist Gord Grdina’s Trio, including bassist Tommy Babin and drummer Kenton Loewen. Unfettered in his playing during all of the CD’s five tracks, Gustafsson snorts, slurs, stutters and spits out elasticized, almost never-ending glottal punctuation. Meanwhile Grdina counters – as the Ex’s guitarists do as well – with distorted reverb, harsh downstrokes and staccato bent notes as Loewen’s ferocious backbeat encompasses ruffs, rolls and ricochets. Bringing the same sort of nephritic gut-wrenching blasts to Enshakoota, a traditional Iraqi tune mostly limited to the splayed and coiled runs Grdina picks on oud, the saxophonist’s stentorian tones and the others’ contrapuntal responses also get an extended showcase on Burning Bright. As Babin’s fingers slither along his strings so that the notes fairly glisten and the drummer pounds and smashes relentlessly while swishing his cymbals, ringing guitar chords deconstructed with reverb and distortion are matched polyphonically with diaphragm-vibrated split tones and triple-tonguing from the saxman. Gustafsson’s ejaculated shrills and shaking vamps, Grdina’s skyward-chiming chording plus Loewen’s backbeat come as close to a definition of Heavy Metal Jazz as can be imagined.

If Gustafsson’s altissimo cries and renal grunts define unfettered excesses of one sort of Free Improvisation, then Kindred Spirit Axel Dörner takes the opposite track with reductionist microtones, which favour sound exploration over melody. A convincing illustration of this occurs on the appropriately titled Super Axel Dörner (Absinth Records 018 www.absinthrecords.com), with his duo partner Argentinean percussionist Diego Chamy. It’s near a solo showcase since Chamy spends more time mumbling and vocalizing while distractedly hitting percussion instruments than laying down a beat. To compensate the trumpeter pushes grainy, flat lines through his open horn without moving his valves so that these textures parallel, rather than blend with Chamy’s sonic expressions. With intermittent noises that sound variously like nakers being hit, the whirl of chukka sticks and the bouncing of a stick on cymbal tops from the percussionist – as well as rapid-fire Spanish statements – Dörner has plenty of scope to decorate the sonic grisaille in such a way that harmonic and rhythmic contours are nearly visible. At one point he alternates bright, open-horn blasts with tongue slaps against the mouthpiece, inflating agitato triplets to full-bore whistles. When discord suggests the drummer is eccentrically scrapping a putty knife against the drum’s rims, Dörner livens up the interchange with fortissimo brass blasts, immediately followed by extended circular breathing. This so vibrates the trumpet’s insides that partials and microtones are audible alongside brass textures. It’s this sort of instant response to a non-pulsating beat that serves the trumpeter well in the Henneman sextet where the underlying beat is really supplied by the bass of Wilbert de Joode, who is also featured on more than half of Wierbos’ CD here.

Intertwining horn work is another leitmotif of Henneman’s combo, and in Toronto, Dörner shares the front line with Ab Baars and Montreal’s Lori Freedman. This sort of timbre blending is a regular facet of the bass clarinettist’s performances. It can be sampled on Isaiah Ceccarelli’s dramatic Bréviare d’épuisements (Ambiances Magnétiques AM 199 CD www.actuellecd.com). Much different than the Henneman sextet’s jazz-oriented fare this session amalgamates the ecclesiastical and the atonal. Émilie Laforest and Josée Lalonde intone or vocalize Marie Deschênes’ texts, with distinctive sonic timbres heard alongside these lyric sopranos arising from Freedman’s and Philippe Lauzier’s bass clarinets, Pierre-Yves Martel’s viola de gamba and Ceccarelli’s percussion arsenal. The drummer’s most common strategy involves scrapping cymbals against drum tops, acoustically producing the sort of grinding and buzzing textures that otherwise would be associated with electronics. Meanwhile the cleverly harmonized singers personalize the poetic lyrics while stretching the songs with hocketing pitch variations. One standout passage occurs on La disparation est un mur de plus when the nearly vibrato-less parlando of one vocalist is cushioned by clarinet harmonies. During some pure instrumental passages the similarities between trilling reeds and stroked strings is emphasized as mutual tonal expansions appear to be both notated and aleatoric.

Performances by either the Kindred Spirits, the Ex or both, means exposure to noteworthy soloists as well as well-thought-out group conceptions. Torontonians get a rare chance to hear them both over a two-day period in May.