Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation (music by Christos Hatzis)
Tanya Tagaq; Steve Wood and The Northern Cree Singers; Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra; Tadeusz Biernacki
Centrediscs CMCCD 22015

The richly textured, eclectic cinematic score by veteran Toronto composer Christos Hatzis furnished for the ballet Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet was premiered in October 2014 to considerable audience and critical acclaim. This impressive work is a superimposition of at least three culturally defined layers.

Hatzis directly quotes and echoes sections of iconic 20th-century European ballets Rite of Spring, Swan Lake and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. In addition Christian liturgical chorales, medieval chant and dance music by Jean-Baptiste Lully are all skillfully reworked in Hatzis’ characteristic tonal-centric style. To this he adds elements in multiple vernacular music genres, as well as acoustic and electronic soundscapes, diffused from the studio-produced digital audio track.

Another significant layer of this 2-CD musical journey is the contribution of North American indigenous voices. They are essential texts in this narrative centred on the suffering imposed on children in Canada’s infamous Indian residential schools – with musical detours into the early contact between Europeans and First Nation peoples – ending with the possibility of personal and intercultural redemption and reconciliation.

Based on a story by Joseph Boyden, the ballet score is given a human voice by the extraordinary Polaris Prize-winning Inuk singer Tanya Tagaq, in the last scene’s Morning Song eloquently performed by the Cree singer Steve Wood and through the pow-wow energy of the Northern Cree Singers infusing a visceral power into several scenes.

Is Going Home Star “the most important dance mounted by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in its illustrious 75 year history,” as described by one CBC TV commentator? Hatzis’ cumulatively moving, highly eclectic score compels me to see Mark Godden’s choreography and to find out how this important national story plays out on stage. I invite my fellow Canadians to join me on this journey during the RWB’s upcoming 2016 national tour.

Allison Cameron – A Gossamer Bit
Contact Contemporary Music
Redshift Records TK445 (redshiftmusic.org)

This distinctive 2015 CD with four new pieces by the ever-wonderful contemporary composer Allison Cameron is sure to garner her much positive attention among the cognoscenti. A Gossamer Bit, produced as what is rightfully described as a palimpsest, is a stimulating though very different programme. Here Cameron presents pieces that represent myriad aspects not only of music – as in 3rds, 4ths & 5ths – but also great flights of the imagination – as in the song, Gossamer Bit, which is a dazzling overlay on Charles Ives and which, in turn is an eloquent sojourn across manipulated pitches and dramatic quarter-tones. In Memoriam Robert Ashley shapes the relentless octaves of Ashley’s music (overlapping the directions to that composer’s In Memoriam Esteban Gomez with great melodic cogency. D.I.Y. Fly combines written and improvised sections and finds a wider dynamic and colouristic scope using just this composerly device.

Allison Cameron is, of course, the Alberta-born, Toronto-based musician and composer who has built a sizeable reputation in contemporary composition but remains relatively little-known even in her native Canada. It is hoped that this attractive and well-recorded program, which hints at impressionistic antecedents, will greatly enhance her reputation. Look out, of course for the balletic leaps across her work especially in this repertoire. Cameron also has an acute sense of humour and this is delightfully hinted at in this music which is also rendered with a telling sensuous reserve.

SOUNDSNATURE – Works for Cello and Electronics
Madeleine Shapiro
Albany Records TROY 1577 (albanyrecords.com)

Diálogos
Dúo Lisus (Lidia Muñoz; Jesús Núñez)
FonoSax FONOSAX001 (duolisus.wix.com/duolisus)

Though France is still the European Mecca of the classical saxophone, a contender for Medina might be Spain; the country has recently seen hothouse growth in its classical saxophone community. The result has been a lot of excellent saxophone recordings from south of the Pyrenees. One such disc is Dúo Lisus' Diálogos, released this year on the FonoSax label.

Five of the seven pieces on the disc are by Spanish composers and every single composition is recorded here for the first time. With music, the duo and even the record label making their debuts on this disc, the unified impression, especially combined with composer José de Valle's opening maelstrom, is a kind of ex nihilo new music big bang. The momentum of this first burst carries through to American Eliza Brown's Apart Together, an entropic canon which seems to disintegrate under the energy received from the previous piece – a narrative arc which accurately describes the entirety of the disc as the saxophones are subsumed by electronics.

The other inclusion to break from the all-Spanish theme is Canadian composer Robert Lemay's Deuce. These heterogenizing selections were carefully chosen, and it's clear why Lemay made the cut: his extended techniques here always complement and never overshadow his finely wrought spectral and contrapuntal textures.

Leonard Feather may have called Spain a “jazz desert,” but the saxophone, a hardy plant, still finds a home there in spite of it; both Dúo Lisus and FonoSax are worth watching.

Balance
Capitol Quartet
Blue Griffin Records BGR367 (bluegriffin.com)

As a result of the orchestral works of composers such as Bartók, Prokofiev, Berg – and many others – the saxophone has become a standard instrument of classical pedagogy and taught in many highly regarded conservatories. These classically trained saxophonists naturally began to seek out performance opportunities outside the jazz scene. Thus, the 20th century saw the birth of a new ensemble: the saxophone quartet. Like its predecessor, the string quartet, the saxophone quartet has been a place composers turn to for experimentation and exploration. The Capitol Quartet, is certainly no exception when it comes to celebrating and commissioning new works from today’s leading composers. In their release balance, Capitol has recorded four impressive works, three of which are commissions from the group. Carter Pann’s The Mechanics is a dizzying array of driving rhythms and clever gestures providing a playful and charming opening to the disc. American minimalism meets postmodern lyricism in John Anthony Lennon’s Elysian Bridges. A somber mood permeates Stacy Garrop’s Flight of Icarus, throughout which beautifully contoured chorales evoke the sadness of loss, a mood inspired by the Greek legend of Icarus. This piece is more about Daedalus’ loss of his son than the thrilling flight itself.

Last on the disc is a piece by French composer Alfred Desenclos (1912-1971). As the history of the saxophone quartet continues to grow, there inevitably will be pieces that remain to comprise a body of standard repertoire. Desenclos’ Quatuor will undoubtedly have a place in this canon. Wonderfully orchestrated themes and rich harmonic colours reminiscent of Debussy will surely provoke future quartets to embrace this work as a significant contribution to the genre.

Berg; Wellesz
Renée Fleming; Emerson String Quartet
Decca 478 8399

Krzysztof Meyer – Piano Quartet; Piano Quintet
Piotr Salajczyk; Silesian String Quartet
Naxos 8.573357

Frederic Rzewski – The People United Will Never Be Divided; Four Hands
Ursula Oppens; Jerome Lowenthal
Cedille CDR 90000 158

The first time I heard Ursula Oppens perform was in a masterclass of Rosina Lhevinne at the Juilliard School in New York. Ursula and I were both students of the legendary Mme. Lhevinne. Listening to this CD I remember the lovely and rich tonal colours Oppens had in her classical repertoire. I am delighted to find the same lyrical palette in the Rzewski. It is so easy to make some of the Rzewski variations harsh and brittle. This is not the first recording Ursula Oppens has made of this work and this CD is far more reflective and poignant. There is a fluidity that connects the disparate movements. Rzewski gives many instructions to the pianist and each variation comes with informative titles: “with determination, delicate but firm, tenderly, in a militant manner,” and so on. In this performance each different style, whether folkloric, jazzy or lyrical does unite with sensitive and intuitive musicianship.

Technically it is brilliant playing. From pounding chords to effervescent riffs of extreme delicacy Oppens is in control and commands the keyboard. There are numerous recordings of this work but this CD is definitely in a class by itself.

For Rzewski’s piano duo work Four Hands, pianist Jerome Lowenthal, a Juilliard faculty member, joins Oppens. Their touch on the piano is so unified that it sounds like one pianist. It is a quirky piece with lovely moments and this work deserves more performances. However, this duo piano team would be difficult to improve on.

Excellent performances. Highly recommended CD.

Clear Day
Emilie-Claire Barlow; ECB Band; Metropole Orkest; Jules Buckley
eOne eCD-CD5841 (emilieclairebarlow.com)

Arguably, multiple-award-winning jazz vocalist, Emilie-Claire Barlow, is one of the finest singer/musicians that Canada has ever produced. Blessed with an impressive musical genome, Barlow has consistently challenged herself, all the while continuing to mature into the impressive and accomplished artist that she is today. With her 11th recording, Barlow has partnered her stunning voice and arranging skills with the world-renowned Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley.

Barlow and Steve Webster act as Producers here, and the eclectic programme is comprised of material from the unlikely musical bedfellows of Pat Metheny, Coldplay, Brad Mehldau, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Canadian pianist/composer Gord Sheard and more. Described by Barlow herself as a “personal journey over the last four years,” this recording is a portrait of the artist as a mature women poised at the full apex of her skill, talent, inspiration and power. Also included in this recording are arrangements featuring Barlow’s excellent band, with Reg Schwager on guitar, Jon Maharaj on bass, Chris Donnelly on piano, Larnell Lewis on drums and Kelly Jefferson on reeds.

The CD opens with the spacious and magical Amundsen by noted bassist/composer Shelly Berger, which segues seamlessly into a dynamic and fresh arrangement of the near title-song, Burton Lane’s On a Clear Day. Other impressive tracks include a tender, string-laden take on Coldplay’s Fix You and a sensual, jazz-infused version of Paul Simon’s Feelin’ Groovy (replete with a masterful guitar solo from Schwager). Of special note is Barlow’s arrangement of Joni Mitchell’s I Don’t Know Where I Stand, sung here with the soaring, crystalline purity of her magnificent vocal instrument.

Your Mess
Melissa Lauren
Independent ML2015 (melissalaurenmusic.ca)

Melissa Lauren is a prolific young songwriter and she has released her second album of (mostly) original songs in three years. Lauren collaborated on songwriting and production for Your Mess with Toronto bassist Mark Cashion. The album is about the chaos and heartbreak of life as we stumble our way through and despite such relatively serious themes the songs are mostly upbeat and playful.

The album opens with two songs – Room is Too Small and Walk Behind Me – that have an air of the 50s and 60s about them as Lauren adds a bit of gutsiness to her delicate, pretty voice. The title track is given a sort of New Orleans style with swampy effect courtesy of guitarist Eric St-Laurent and Sly Juhas on drums. The album is sparingly produced with guitar, bass and drums in various combinations being the main accompaniment, but guitarist Nathan Hiltz breaks out the uke and gets strummy for the bouncy Houses which is all about being content with your current situation and which suits Lauren's voice to a T. There is a sprinkling of covers on Your Mess and the band's gorgeous slowed-down take on the Police tune Every Little Thing He Does is Magic is a highlight.

What Goes On
Andrea Superstein
Cellar Live CL073015 (andreasuperstein.com)

The young Montreal-born, Vancouver-based chanteuse faced a big challenge to improve on her stellar EP, Stars. With talent in spades, Andrea Superstein not only made great strides, but has slipped in a rather memorable sophomore album with What Goes On. Twice as long as Stars, this noirish album is replete with repertoire well-suited to her gorgeous, sultry and sensuous voice. If you want to know what exactly that means just listen to her take on Cole Porter’s I Love Paris. Not only do you get a sense of what it is to breathe in the melancholy and crowded loneliness of crepuscular Paris, but you will also get a wonderful sense of the dramatic tension that Superstein can bring to a song that has been done over and over again. And if you thought that no vocalist could ever bring anything new to a classic, think again.

Superstein sings in beautifully shaded dialogue with her accompanists, often slipping into blissfully exquisite murmurs and slanted whispers, singing seductively as she conveys a lover’s infatuation, a wounded partner and an ecstatic bride. Her vocal slurs punctuate clipped and long, loping lines. At her flippant best she can resemble a gazelle gone delightfully crazy as she catches the scent of rain. Her extroverted personality is wonderfully geared to maximize her storytelling ability as well the stylish declamation of poetry in song.

Les Ondes Célestes
Gabriel Lambert
Jazz from Rant 1549 (nette.ca/jazzfromrant)

The label Jazz from Rant is very much a family affair, projects by composer/drummer Michel Lambert, his partner Jeannette Lambert and her brother Reg Schwager. With this CD, guitarist Gabriel Lambert, Michel's nephew, joins what may be the first family of Canadian jazz.

Lambert is a fleet-fingered guitarist, and his thoughtful improvisations are clearly articulated with a bright, glassy sound. What makes the CD remarkable, however, is that it hardly sounds like a debut at all. His compositions mingle influences from both classical and jazz sources – serialism, modes and free improvisation – but the music always feels organized, testament to both the coherence of his vision and the developed empathy of the band.

The first half of the CD consists of four individual pieces. Le mystérieux ordre des choses has bassist Adrian Vedady and drummer Michel Lambert developing a drone before Gabriel Lambert enters playing a serial melody, creating the kind of tonal tension that sustains much of the work here. Approximation #2 demonstrates Gabriel Lambert and pianist Andres Vial's gift for developed scalar improvisation in a Coltrane vein, while Approximation #3 employs a Messiaen mode to develop a heightened calm.

The second half is devoted to the four-part suite, Les Ondes Célestes, in which the influences of Schoenberg and Messiaen are further integrated, until the work concludes with Les ondes, the conventional instruments of a jazz quartet creating a dreamlike state of bowed strings and shimmering cymbals and piano. It's a fitting transformation to conclude an imaginative recording.

Kings County
Way North
Independent (dangerherring.com/waynorth)

Way North explores roots-based music in a highly contemporary framework. The quartet is a collective comprised of Toronto-based musicians, trumpeter Rebecca Hennessy and bassist Michael Herring along with Brooklynites Petr Cancura on saxophone and clarinet and Richie Barshay on the drums. The music is instantly inviting and infectious with a capacity for taking the listener to unexpected places. The often contrapuntal nature of both the writing and the improvising brings an earlier era of jazz to mind, specifically New Orleans, albeit a NOLA for the millennium. Rarely does a solo go on for too long without being joined by another voice or voices. At times the group improvisations can sound as if they were composed, meshing seamlessly with the written parts.

Each of the group’s members has contributed compositions to the recording, resulting in a coherent and satisfying flow of tunes. Cancura’s Where the Willows Grow evolves from a slow march to a bass solo that becomes a duet with trumpet before being joined by the rest of the group. Treefology is a Michael Herring composition that combines counterpoint with unison melodies over a second- line groove. Trumpet and saxophone continue the theme, soloing together with remarkable unity of intent. Hennessy’s Kings County Sheriff is a five-beat figure with a tango-like feel. Her poignant flamenco-ish solo is met by Cancura’s sax solo which ranges effortlessly from an intense growl to modern chromaticism. The tune, like the rest of the album, revels in the spirit of lively conversation.

Sitting, Waiting, Wasting Time
Ken McDonald Quartet
Independent (ken-mcdonald.ca)

Bassist and composer Ken McDonald’s latest outing, Sitting, Waiting, Wasting Time, exemplifies the highly informed yet searching nature of much of the music being heard from a new generation of jazz musicians. Schooled in the tradition, they bring a host of their own influences to this ever-evolving music. McDonald’s quartet is a lean affair that takes full advantage of its pared-down instrumentation to create a group sound that is instantly relatable and identifiable. The seven self-penned compositions offer original twists on some classic jazz themes such as the blues and up-tempo swing while venturing into calypso, Brazilian and Middle Eastern flavours.

Drummer Lowell Whitty and bassist McDonald form a highly adaptable and conversational rhythm section. The front line of saxophonist Paul Metcalfe and guitarist/oud player Demetri Petsalakis are well matched in their aggressive funkiness and bring both humour and risk-taking to the proceedings. Apocalypso, the opening tune, features an island groove and establishes the band’s sound in the angularity of the writing and the sense of space in the ensemble. Metcalf’s tenor solo has a playful quality that is in sync with Whitty’s interactive drumming. Petsalakis, with his slightly overdriven guitar sound and fluid style, expresses himself in ways that are equally melodic and edgy. Moon features a haunting melody played by oud and soprano saxophone. The dynamic arrangement and unusual instrumentation take this recording into world music territory in a way that seems totally consistent with its openness of vision.

Spring Rain
Samuel Blaser Quartet
Whirlwind Recordings WR 4620 (whirlwindrecords.com)

An original variant on the practice of saluting earlier jazz heroes by recording their tunes, Swiss-born, Berlin-based trombonist Samuel Blaser honours Jimmy Giuffre’s early 1960s trio with pianist Paul Bley and bassist Steve Swallow, by recording five of its tunes plus seven originals in restrained chamber- jazz style. But even as Blaser empathizes with the particular sound constructed by compositions Giuffre and Carla Bley wrote for the trio, he’s like a chair designer modernizing the ergonomic concepts of 50 years ago to 2015.

For a start he uses a quartet not a trio, and while there’s a sympathetic bassist in Drew Gress, his trombone and Gerald Cleaver’s drums replace Giuffre’s reeds. Most prominently, instead of using sparse acoustic piano inferences exclusively, keyboardist Russ Lossing emphasizes the textures from Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer and mini-Moog. With Gress’ sympathetic string bumping and Cleaver’s dextrous patterning providing a taut rhythmic foundation, the others are free to bend melodies origami-like into novel shapes. For example, Bley’s Temporarily is souped-up with a stop-time arrangement; and Trudgin’, a Giuffre line, becomes more ambulatory as Lossing’s rococo electric piano fills make the journey buoyant as well as lengthier. Giuffre’s classic plaint, Cry Want, may ramble along like a drive in the country, but Blaser’s roistering slide blasts and the pianist’s ability to roughen the texture by mauling chords, activates the piece from its bucolic repose.

Blaser’s originals are as contemporary as a clock on a smart phone, but the same way that timekeeping is based on the classic Swiss concern for precision, most don’t neglect the coiled nonchalance suggested by the Giuffre3. Missing Mark Suetterlyn, for instance, is a pensive ballad built up from the Wurlitzer’s drenched glissandi plus staggered drum beats; while Umbra, featuring only piano and trombone, is as tranquil as anything Giuffre created. On the other hand two unaccompanied tracks showcase Blaser’s unalloyed instrumental command. And The First Snow is actually a near blizzard that picks up cues from 1970s fusion via the juddering Rhodes. Authentic in its reflection of sounds past, present and future, the CD is another fluid example of this brass player’s flourishing talent.