Little Bit a ‘ Love
Denielle Bassels
Independent  (deniellebassels.com)

Vibrant and fresh are two descriptors that are worn easily by delightful and innovative vocalist, tunesmith and arranger, Denielle Bassels. With the release of her second studio project, Bassels shines and establishes herself as one of the most intriguing jazz/pop singer/songwriters on the current scene. Harkening to the swing era, and yet firmly contemporary, Bassels is joined here by talented musicians throughout, including her core band, bassist Russ Boswell, violin/viola player Drew Jurecka, vibraphonist/guitarist Thom McKay (who, along with Bassels, serves as co-producer here) and noted percussionist Chendy Leon, as well as guests.

The majority of tunes here were both composed and arranged by Bassels, and the uplifting opener (and title track) incorporates irresistible swing motifs with Bassels’ smoky, sultry, sonorous voice, accented by sweet background vocals. Another treat is Tangled Thread, the complex rhythmic and melodic vocal line reminiscent of the sassy Boswell sisters, replete with a fine acoustic guitar solo from Tak Arikushi. Another stunner is Lazy Gazing – a perfect marriage of melody, lyrics and arrangement. The bluesy Gone is a heart-rending and soulful romantic idyll rendered with intensity and heart, and the inclusion of McKay’s vibes on the Cinema Noir-ish Big Bad Wolf is genius.

The closer, I Wanna Be Like You, is consummately performed by Bassels, and with the clever addition of Jacob Gorzhaltsan’s stirring clarinet work, the listener is magically transported to a lower east-side speak easy where they are regaled by a talented, luminous chanteuse!

Weyn Allah
Al Qahwa
Independent (alqahwa.bandcamp.com/album/weyn-allah)

Depending on who you talk to, the word multiculturalism is either meaningless, or a politically correct supercharged word, especially in a post-pandemic world where everyone becomes easily overheated about everything. If the media is to be believed even Canada has not been spared the blushes of intolerance, and there seems no reason to doubt this. 

However, Canadian artists like the one-world-one-voiced Al Qahwa have always fought back against any form of divisiveness in the exquisite poetry of their music, sometimes with subtly crafted lyrics and at other times with more overt sounding words. The album Weyn Allah feels slightly different, not only because the title asks (and translates to) Where is God? But more than that there appears to be a more elemental, haunting cry that emanates from this music. The song of the same name hits the proverbial right spot in every way: poignant lyrics, elegant music and perfect execution.  

Elsewhere, on Dunya Farewell chromatic notes sigh, but the harmonic cushioning rarely falls where you anticipate. Vocalist Maryam Tollar embodies this elegance in the plaintive evocations of her vocals sung with Jono Grant’s excellent performance on nylon-string guitar.  

The lonesome wail of Ernie Tollar’s reeds and winds is breathtaking. Meanwhile, the delicately knitted single notes from Demetri Petsalakis’ oud, framed with the deep rumble of Waleed Abdulhamid’s bass and the resonant thunder of Naghmeh Faramand’s daff all make for a truly affecting experience.

Your Requests
Laila Biali
Imago EMG607 (lailabiali.com)

Gifted pianist and vocalist Laila Biali has just released an all-star recording with an interesting twist; in addition to welcoming vocal luminaries Kurt Elling, Emilie-Claire Barlow and Caity Gyorgy, the repertoire is based on requests that she has received from audience members during her performances. 

There are ten exquisite tracks here. Biali’s instrumental collaborators include clarinetist Anat Cohen, Grégoire Maret on harmonica, Michael Davidson on vibes, Kelly Jefferson on tenor/soprano sax, George Koller on bass, Ben Wittman (who also shares arranging and production credits with Biali) and Larnell Lewis on drums and Maninho Costa on percussion.

First up is the classic standard, Bye Bye Blackbird, arranged with a contemporary and rhythmic sensibility, replete with a dynamic sax solo from Jefferson. Directly following is a diaphanous take on Oscar Levant’s Blame it on My Youth. Biali’s voice is sultry and emotive here, perfectly interpreting the story of the poetic lyric. Also of note is Rogers and Hart’s immortal ballad My Funny Valentine, rendered here (with palpable musical chemistry) as a lovely duet between Biali and the inimitable Elling.   

A true highlight is an inspired duet with Barlow on Rogers and Hammerstein’s My Favourite Things. Barlow and Biali harmonize effortlessly and easily manifest a joyous track. Additionally, Biali shines on both piano and voice on a sumptuous take on Autumn Leaves. Her interpretation of Johnny Mercer’s renowned lyric is perfection itself, enhanced by another dynamic soprano sax solo from Jefferson and sensitive and creative bass work from Koller. 

Nowhere Girl
Nicky Schrire
Anzic Records (nickyschrire.bandcamp.com/album/nowhere-girl)

This is singer-songwriter Nicky Schrire’s first release in ten years and she’s come a long way since then, both geographically and musically. Born in London, England, raised in South Africa and educated in New York, Schrire has made her home in Toronto for the last few years. Her previous jazz recordings had a healthy dose of covers from the Great American Songbook, with a smattering of originals, but Nowhere Girl’s 11 tracks are all (but one) written by Schrire. 

Whether this is a jazz album is debatable, if you care about such things, but what’s not in doubt is the high quality of the songwriting, singing and playing. Supported by the Canadian jazz trio, Myriad3 (Ernesto Cervini, drums, Dan Fortin, bass and Chris Donnelly, piano) and local luminary saxophonist Tara Davidson, there’s plenty to satisfy jazz fans. Starting with the driving title track and finishing in a similar high energy style with My Love featuring Mozambican Julio Sigauque’s guitar work. In between is a collection of lilting, poetic songs delivered with Schrire’s pretty, unaffected voice that lends a somewhat Celtic feel to many of the tracks. Her travels inform a lot of this new album both literally, with songs like In Paris and This Train (about New York City), and also musically, as styles from various cultures subtly leave their marks.

Listen to 'Nowhere Girl' Now in the Listening Room

brutalovechamp
Brandon Seabrook
Pyroclastic Records PR27 (store.pyroclasticrecords.com)

Brandon Seabrook is known to be a composer who eschews both sonic norms and overheated emotion. But on brutalovechamp he seems to tear up that musical playbook, to turn his own insides out and even bare his soul. These are works, seemingly like musical shards of raw emotion. You don’t really need to unscramble the three-word mash-up of the title or reach the end of the booklet to discover that Seabrook was gutted by the loss of man’s best friend, his dog Champ. 

Seabrook creates dizzying layering-on of tonal cadences, mixing guitar, mandolin and banjo, into the low instrumentation of bass recorder, alto, B-flat and contrabass clarinets and two contrabasses. Into this he has a cellist pour liquid notes, while the ensemble glimmers, redolent of a myriad of percussion instruments. This unusual collision of timbre creates a musical feast for the senses. 

If Seabrook means for you to feel the evocations of his pain at losing his beloved dog, then this you certainly do up close and personal on brutalovechamp. This is all inward-looking music, raw in a Jean-Paul Sartre-esque, existential sort of way. And although Seabrook may be averse to labels, some works cannot escape sonic allusions to the symbolists like Arthur Rimbaud, in for instance, Gutbucket Asylum. But make no mistake, every piece of music on this recording bears the authentic imprint of Seabrook’s feral sound palette.

Canvas
Natalie McMaster; Donnell Leahy
Linus Entertainment 270787 (natalieanddonnell.com) 

Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy have long been considered Canada’s reigning power couple of Celtic music. With their latest project (released on St. Patrick’s Day) the virtuosic fiddle duo expands the boundaries of traditional Celtic modalities by embracing global sounds with the help of diverse, world-class guest artists, framed with innovative, contemporary arrangements. Many of the 13 tracks here have been penned by MacMaster, Leahy and co-producer, exquisite guitarist, Elmer Ferrer. 

The opening title track is a pulsing wall of sound, parenthesized by thrilling segments of MacMaster and Leahy’s masterful fiddle work, which seamlessly segues into the dynamic, Colour Theory featuring Brian Finnegan on both flute and Irish whistle. Other delights include the joyous Dance Arnold Dance, which incorporates a fine horn section, and Woman of the House which features noted Celtic vocalist Rhiannon Giddens, who dives deep into the emotional history of the Irish and Scottish settlers in Canada, and both the joy and pain of their exile. 

Iconic cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, brings his soulful presence to So You Love – a diaphanous, heart-rending and deeply moving ballad performed here with perfection, displaying a sinuous string trio of Ma, MacMaster and Leahy. Additionally stunning is the addition of Josemi Carmona’s flamenco guitar on both Galicia and Caramelo, which celebrates the deep, ancient Celtic connections in Spain, and The Laird O’Bemersyde where MacMaster and Leahy’s fiddles and ensemble literally weep with longing. A truly inspired recording guaranteed to move even the coldest heart.

The Songs That Are
Stranger Still
All Set! Editions AS016 (all-set.bandcamp.com) 

First gaining recognition as a jazz bassist/composer, Pete Johnston has gradually revealed other facets of his creative imagination. Stranger Still is a song project, a quartet devoted to settings of the distinguished Maritime poet Alden Nowlan (1933-1983), like Johnston once a resident of Hants County, Nova Scotia. Johnston plays acoustic and electric guitars and banjo here and occasionally sings as well, along with the clarion principal singers Mim Adams and Randi Helmers and bassist Rob Clutton.   

For the group’s second Nowlan collection, Johnston continues to refine his art, continuing to develop an idiom that falls principally in a British folk tradition, but which has expanded its range to suggest medieval plainsong along with touches of the richer harmonic vocabulary of jazz. There’s a fundamental affinity between Johnston’s music and Nowlan’s poetry, a clarity and direct address with subtle nuances of diction and musical phrasing that continually surprise. Nowlan’s poetry can comfortably set a mythic theme in a commonplace home: in I, Icarus the narrator explains, “My room was on the ground floor at the rear of the house.” In the instrumental introduction to the opening Snapshot, guitar and bass fuse into a single instrument. Johnston occasionally augments the quartet in surprising ways, adding organist (and singer) Andrew Killawee to bring substantial power and depth, notably to The Bhikku, adding cathedral-like grandeur and harmonium wail to an Eastern theme.  

Johnston is developing as distinctly Canadian an art-form as one might conceive.

Waiting for the Sun to Rise
Marc Jordan
Linus Entertainment 270730 (marcjordan.com)

Marc Jordan is a member of a very small, select group – Canadian artists who have garnered recognition and success beyond our borders and represented Canada on the global stage with their skill, originality, artistic integrity and creativity. Jordan’s latest release, which was produced and arranged by Lou Pomanti and co-produced by Jordan, is yet another shining example not only of Jordan’s gifts as a poet, composer and musician, but also of his ineffable taste and understanding of the essential need for human communication through the arts.

The majority of the 12 tracks here were written by Jordan in collaboration with Pomanti, Steven MacKinnon, John Capek and Bruce Gaitsch – with a few treats from Jimmy Webb, Tears For Fears, Blue Nile’s Paul Buchanan and Pomanti. The irresistible project kicks off with The Last Buffalo, which features lush, contrapuntal strings and segues seamlessly into Best Day of My Life – a moving romantic ballad, lovingly rendered by Jordan and featuring a sumptuous trumpet solo by the iconic Randy Brecker. Coltrane Plays the Blues invokes Jordan’s famous “after-hours netherworld” zone.

The inveigling title track is both visual and potent – a song in search of a film – and Rio Grande explores the damage that has been done to Mother Earth, as well as an invitation to BE the change, as we measure our hope against the eco crisis at hand. Other tasty delights here include the soulful Tell Me Where it Hurts, Jimmy Webb’s The Moon’s a Harsh Mistress, performed with Jordan’s distinctive, sensitive style, and the luminous arrangement and performance of Buchanan’s The Downtown Lights. In short, this is a triumph of a recording from a world-class artist, performing at the peak of his skills – rife with creativity, talent and insight.

Tara Rara
Bruno Capinan
Independent (capinan.com) 

Bruno Capinan (they/them) is a Brazilian-Canadian singer and songwriter whose music combines traditional Brazilian rhythms with contemporary pop and rock influences. For Tara Rara, their sixth album, they delve into stories and sounds stemming from their home state of Bahia. 

Since all the songs are in Portuguese, those of us who don’t speak that language won’t be able to literally understand the songs, but the emotions come through via Capinan’s expressive singing. Capinan has explained that the inspiration for Tara Rara, which means rare desire, came to them in a dream about two enslaved men who fell in love on a slave ship travelling from Africa to Brazil. The themes of the songs relate to love, pain, childhood memories, reclamation, catharsis and heritage.

Musically, there is plenty to appreciate with pretty melodies and infectious rhythms plus beautiful string, woodwind and horn accompaniments throughout. Much credit goes to producer Vivian Kuczynski, who also mixed, arranged and played keyboard, synthesizer and guitar on all the tracks. The album opens with Ode ao Povo Brasileiro (Ode to the Brazilian People), a polyrhythmic tune that blends traditional Brazilian percussion with modern electronic sounds. From there, the album explores a range of styles, including the haunting Deuses Deusas, the gently swinging samba Meu Preto and the danceable Mafua. Fans of Brazilian music will find much to enjoy on this dynamic and eclectic album.

Gamelan Music of Cirebon Indonesia Volume 4
Gamelan Sinar Surya

Gamelan Music of Cirebon Indonesia Volume 7
Gamelan Sinar Surya

Gamelan Melayu – Traditional Gamelan Music Of Malaysia
Gamelan Sinar Surya
Independent (gamelan.bandcamp.com)

Gamelan Sinar Surya (Javanese for Rays of the Sun), a collective of 16 musicians and dancers from Santa Barbara, California, has a unique artistic mission. Directed by the indefatigable musician, music director, teacher and cultural activist Richard North, for decades the group has been dedicated to the preservation, performance and dissemination of the traditional performing arts of Cirebon, located on the northcentral coast of the island of Java, Indonesia. Cirebon is a cultural region with deep historic roots, richly endowed with dynamically evolving artistic traditions. North made his first visit to Cirebon in 1976 and his reaction to what he experienced was profound. “I immediately fell in love with the culture, especially the music.” 

Gamelan Sinar Surya (GSS)’s practice centres on the music played on numerous kinds of the indigenous gamelan, which can be described as an orchestra of various hanging gongs, gongchimes, metallophones, a xylophone, flutes, drums and sometimes other instruments and voices. Of GSS’ three newest releases, two are dedicated to the performance of traditional Cirebon gamelan repertoire, while the third explores the different gamelan music performed on the Malaysian mainland.

Gamelan Music of Cirebon, Indonesia: Volume 4 includes music played on four types of Cirebonese gamelan; each with its own tuning, playing style, character and a bespoke repertoire. Many of the instrumental pieces played by these antique gamelans are rarely heard today. For instance, the tracks Abduhu and Bragalan illustrate one of the reasons: the great age of some of these works. They originated in the Javanese sultanate of Banten, founded by Sunan Gunung Jati before he became the second king of Cirebon in 1479 CE. Abduhu and Bragalan are played on the seven-tone gamelan pelog forming part of the repertoire of the vanished Banten shadow-puppet theatre.

Gamelan Music of Cirebon Volume 7- Live Concert was recorded in front of a live audience in Santa Barbara. GSS’ seventh album includes pieces from the characteristically bright and cheerful five-tone gamelan prawa repertoire. The outlier here is the lilting, spare Timang Burung from the Malaysian gamelan tradition, instrumental music which typically accompanies a dance depicting a princess awaiting the arrival of a bird of paradise in a palace garden. The track Moblong is a further example of North’s underlying mission. A delicate classical melody from the gamelan prawa repertoire, it is traditionally played to calm the bride in a royal wedding at the Kacirebonan Palace. North learned it in the 1980s from the palace arts director, Pangeran Haji Yusuf Dendabrata. On returning to Cirebon after a 17-year absence he was surprised to find no living musicians who knew the piece. This recording is part of an initiative to re-introduce it to the Cirebon repertoire.

Gamelan Melayu: Traditional Gamelan Music of Malaysia

With deep historical roots on the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali, gamelan music performance has over the last few hundred years spread to other cultural spaces – and eventually around the world, including Canada – adapted into scores of distinct regional styles. Gamelan Melayu is one of a constellation of treasured Malaysian arts, the music linked to elaborate royal dances known collectively as joged gamelan, back in the day performed in the palaces of Malay sultans. Despite its centuries-old pedigree, gamelan Melayu is relatively unknown among the global music community. Richard North studied this rare gamelan style in 1980 with the well-known Malaysian joged gamelan expert Marion d’Cruz. After a long wait, this is GSS’ first album to feature this melody-forward music. Listeners get a privileged glimpse into music imbued with a distinctive delicate regional charm, convincingly rendered.

Both Sides of Joni
Janiece Jaffe; Monika Herzig
Acme Records JM001 (acmerecords.com)

There is no question that Joni Mitchell is a member of a small coterie of artists who have contributed to the very ethos of 21st century music itself (in all of its splendid diversity). Mitchell’s synesthesiac blendings of unconventional melodies, chordal structures and contemporary poetry have touched our hearts and minds, and it’s the eclectic nature of Mitchell’s work that has lent itself to a variety of tributes. With this posthumous release from award-winning vocalist Janiece Jaffe and pianist/arranger Monika Herzig, Mitchell’s work is interpreted with a fresh, jazz-oriented perspective, which includes stalwart performances from noted jazz artists Greg Ward on saxophone, Jeremy Allen on bass, Carolyn Dutton on violin and Cassius Goens on drums.

Included in this compelling recording are Herzig’s innovative arrangements of Mitchell’s most commercially successful songs, as well as some lesser-performed gems. First up is Help Me, which features a melodious, a cappella sax intro which then segues into a rhythmic, swinging musical tapestry replete with stunningly beautiful multi-track vocals from Jaffe. Jaffe’s voice is a delight to the ear. Her clear, pitch-perfect tones embrace the melody and charge it with meaning and Goens’ relentless drums and Ward’s improvisational choices propel this superb track.

The title track is rife with emotional content – exploring the nature of hindsight and regret, and Mitchell’s melancholy River (from Blue) has been cleverly arranged by Herzig. My Old Man is a total delight, warm and ebullient with well-chosen chord substitutions, fully embracing jazz motifs and featuring a solid electric bass solo from Peter Kienle and lighter-than-air soprano work from Ward. The Hissing of Summer Lawns is a triumph in every way – transporting Mitchell’s intent to a whole new dimension of free jazz featuring an energizing piano solo by Herzig. Also of special note is The Circle Game – presented here with a profound innocence and pristine vocal. Although Jaffe died suddenly prior to this release, her vision and musicality will be celebrated with extensive tours in the U.S. and Europe featuring New York City chanteuse Alexis Cole.  

Absence of You
Tina Hartt
Independent (tinahartt.com)

The instrumentation hooks you, the arrangements reel you in and Tina Hartt’s passionate performance catches you. Trust Your Heart is an arresting original composition, with Jonathan D. Lewis’ wistful strings cascading over Hartt’s evocative lyricism; equal parts yearnful and triumphant. The relationship between form and substance shines through in every note Hartt sings. Every once in a while, when the band employs silence or coordinates hits for emphasis, Hartt shapes her phrases in a way where profundity takes center stage. In lines like “I can’t touch but I can dream” from I Can Look but I Can’t Touch, that hesitation adds an exclamation point to the echo effect the music creates, bringing the idea home with great clarity. 

Aside from Hartt’s consistent ingenuity as a vocalist and limitless creativity, this album is tied together by how incredible it sounds. Credit is due to Steve Dierkens for the mixing, because it adds a great feeling of intimacy and closeness to the album. There are no effects imposed on any musicians present and yet the sound is recorded with startling detail. Every element of the music feels like the most prominent aspect at any given moment, and it is this kind of clarity that lends to Hartt’s voice perfectly. From the very first track to the end, there is a singular directness of Hartt’s approach to her music, and the effectiveness of said approach cannot be overstated.

Wildwood
Harry Bartlett Trio
Independent (harrybartlettmusic.com)

Harry Bartlett, an accomplished jazz guitarist and composer with a music degree from the University of Toronto, has played in festivals and venues across Canada and has also toured public schools to provide improvisation workshops. Although currenting living and playing in Toronto, he grew up in the Pacific Northwest and the music for Wildwood was composed while living on Gambier Island (approximately 50 km northwest of Vancouver). Titles like Snowfall on Sword Ferns and Circle of Moss and Fire Smoke evoke the landscapes which inspired Bartlett’s music. Wildwood was recorded over three days on that same Island. 

All the tunes have an atmospheric quality that is enhanced by the trio’s empathic playing. Burgess Falls is hauntingly melodic, and the guitar work combines a Bill Frisell-feel with a few country-ish riffs. Sailing Over Troubled Waters features a distorted and atonal guitar line along with swirling and bashing drums to mimic an occasionally violent storm. Wildwood is an engaging and beautiful album with Caleb Klager (bass) and Harry Vetro (drums) providing nuanced support to Bartlett’s superb guitar work.

Blink Twice
Jackson Welchner
Plutoid Records (jacksonwelchner.com)

“Let’s go grab a coffee/and talk about every moment since/since we had last crossed paths.” Blink Twice is comfort music. The harmony is warm, the strings are soft, the rhythms are sweet, the lyrics are reassuring. The five-pattern-synth ostinato on the title track will bounce around your skull for hours as it soothes you into a heightened state of being. Sum of All Strings feels like the chamber movement to end all others, as it meditates on its final figure, with an abrupt fade leaving the listener time to recompose themselves. Sarah Thawer’s ride cymbal shimmers, Michael Davidson’s vibes intrigue, Thom Gill’s arpeggios envelop, while Patrick Smith, Kae Murphy and Anh Phung’s countermelodies positively delight.  

Contemporary music that commands perhaps the most respect is the kind that treats the low end with the same respect it treats the mids and highs. Jackson Welchner’s arrangements are an exercise in perfect, immensely cathartic balance. The music is progressive, stylistically well-versed while being astonishingly easy to move to. Welchner’s voice is absolute velvet, while being able to consume the cosmos on The Distance. The versatility is in the consonants, and in the consonance. Nary a second of music doesn’t feel cared for and nurtured. It would be easy to come across as hyperbolic saying it, but at this point in the year, it’s hard to find many first (or second, or third…) listens more holistically gratifying than this.

Silent Tears – The Last Yiddish Tango
Payadora Tango Ensemble
Six Degrees 657036132924 (payadora.com/silent-tears)

This Payadora Tango Ensemble project features guest musicians and vocalists, and executive producer/English text adapter Dan Rosenberg. It is comprised of tango-flavoured song settings of heart-wrenching memoirs, poems, testimonials and writings by female Holocaust survivors in Canada about the traumatizing violence women and children experienced during the Nazi occupation of Poland. The main lyric sources are from Dr. Paula David’s Terrace Holocaust Survivors Group Poetry Project at Toronto’s Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, and from Toronto-based Holocaust survivor Molly Applebaum. All arrangements are by Payadora’s Drew Jurecka.

These songs are based on the inter-war tangos which were popular in the Jewish Central European communities such as four here composed by Artur Gold (1897-1943) who was murdered in the Treblinka Death Camp. Gold’s last tango composition Nie Wierze Ci is arranged into A Prayer for Rescue, based on two 1942 Applebaum diary entries. Marta Kosiorek’s moving heartbreaking vocals, Rebekah Wolkstein’s violin and Jurecka’s bandoneon countermelodies, with steady tango grooves by Robert Horvath’s piano and Joseph Phillips’s double bass are an intriguing uplifting/sad mix. Four songs are composed by Wolkstein. Her The Numbers on My Arm features Aviva Chernick’s colourful emotional vocals with words from the Terrace Group about wearing long sleeves in Canada to hide the numbers branded on Auschwitz prisoners is given tight ensemble support. The release also features guests Lenka Lichtenberg and Olga Avigail Mieleszczuk (vocals), and Sergiu Popa (accordion).

This is the most memorable release I have ever had the privilege to listen to and review.