À travers le temps…
Chantal De Villiers; Burt De Villiers; François Bourassa; Taurey Butler
Independent CDV042018 (chantaldevilliers.com)

With the deeply meditative and profoundly beautiful quality of her playing on À travers le temps…, saxophonist Chantal De Villiers displays courage and maturity way beyond her years. Courage, because it is an enormous leap of faith for an emerging soloist to expose her musicality in the intimacy of a series of duets with pianists several years her senior. Her instrument’s voice has an elegant sensibility. And her maturity is suggested by the elevated sense of gravitas and erudition of her playing; the stretching out to explore ideas with melodic and harmonic invention that many – even established players – might find challenging.

Her reinvention of the traditional pop song-turned-standard Dear Old Stockholm – almost always associated with Stan Getz and his iconic version – is quite breathtaking. Here De Villiers explores – through gorgeous forays into the song’s choruses with Taurey Butler – playful, elegant and ingenious harmonic exchanges that elevate the warmth of her saxophone playing to new levels. In I Loves You Porgy, De Villiers engages François Bourassa with intense, elementally seductive balladry. Of the tracks she shares with her father, Burt De Villiers, the poignant Canadian Sunset is truly alluring, one in which saxophonist and pianist provide a perfectly judged musical context for a song with many heart-on-the-sleeve moments.

All in all, À travers le temps… reflects De Villiers’ determination to never play a note or phrase that does not have songful significance; hers is already a unique, expressive voice.

Got A Light?
Jeremy Ledbetter
Alma Records ACD61582 (jeremyledbetter.com)

Got a Light?, released internationally in July by Toronto-based Alma Records, is the debut album from the Jeremy Ledbetter Trio, which includes electric bassist Rich Brown and drummer Larnell Lewis, in addition to pianist/bandleader Ledbetter. If it is somewhat surprising to read the phrase “debut album” in relation to this group of musicians, attribute the feeling to each trio member’s ubiquity on the local (and international) jazz scene; Ledbetter, Brown and Lewis all perform frequently in a variety of popular creative projects, both individually and together.

Musically, the group shares some DNA with the Michel Petrucciani Trio and the Michel Camilo Trio; similarities can be found in the Ledbetter Trio’s technical firepower, use of electric bass and, especially in the case of the Camilo trio, a propensity for Latin jazz grooves. Moreover, as demonstrated on the title track of Got a Light?, it is the trio’s highly developed sense of dynamic control that provides an effective counterpoint to bouts of high-speed improvisational flurries. This sense of contrast works on a larger scale, too: Got a Light? is paced well, as gentle, contemplative pieces like Her New Wings (with vocalists Eliana Cuevas and Leila Ledbetter) and Suspirito (with batá drummer Reimundo Sosa) are balanced against the up-tempo 7/8 About Climbing Mountains, and The Pepper Drinker, the album’s burning penultimate song. A bold, exciting album, Got a Light? feels less like a debut than a coherent artistic statement from an experienced band.

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20
Toronto Jazz Orchestra
Independent TJO004 (thetjo.com)

One of the more exhilarating jazz listening experiences is the sound of a well-rehearsed big band firing on all cylinders and this is what we get with the Toronto Jazz Orchestra album 20. The recording and production is impeccable, so we hear the full aural effect of the dynamics from a tight rhythm section with clear bass, drums and piano fills, to full brass and saxophone harmonies. The album title refers to the band’s 20-year history, and where previous releases included several live recordings and used different Canadian composers, 20 was recorded completely in the studio and features the compositions and arrangements of artistic director Josh Grossman. An album highlight is 4 PN, a tribute to jazz icon Phil Nimmons on his 90th birthday. This piece’s four movements encompass several moods, from straight ahead swing, to an introspective third movement (Birdsong) and a very funky final section (Flat 10 Strikes Again). The first movement, The Land of 2 and 4, contains an excellent bop trumpet solo by James Rhodes that has a touch of Jack Sheldon to it. Ben Ball’s drum solo navigates us to the second movement, Under a Treeful, which contains a wonderful and idiosyncratic clarinet solo from Paul Metcalfe that I believe Nimmons would appreciate. Overall, 20 is full of catchy melodies and arrangements that leverage the big band pallette of sounds; the ensemble and solo musicianship is excellent. We can hope there are at least another 20 years in this band’s future.

My Heart Away
Avery Raquel
GKM GKM1035 (averyraquel.com)

Avery Raquel is clearly an artist for whom superstardom is just a matter of time – shorter than one might think, judging by the results of her performance on My Heart Away. On this disc Raquel reveals herself as an artist of the first order, broadening out from the run-of-the-mill pop repertory which many of her generation are stuck in. Her instrument is gorgeous: lustrous, precise and luminously powerful. Her musicianship is fierce as she digs into the expression of each word of the lyrics she writes and sings.

Raquel is accompanied here by a constellation of Canadian superstars – producer and guitarist Greg Kavanagh, pianist Adrean Farrugia, bassist Ross MacIntyre, drummers Joel Haynes and Ben Riley – to name just a few of those who flesh out the music here. Together they create the defining moments on the powerful ballad Who I Am.

The music on the disc recalls the heyday of Motown and Stax recordings with benchmark performances of vocal music characterized as soul. However, none of this work would soar quite so high into the rarefied realm of music were it not for Raquel’s genuine gifts. The manner in which songs speak to her leads one to believe that the connection is powerful and personal. How she responds to these narratives is nothing short of miraculous and each song gains enormously from this relationship between songwriter, song and vocalist. All of this makes Raquel a musical rarity.

Here and Now
Sandro Dominelli; Rez Abbesi; Chris Tarry
Chronograph Records CR-067 (chronographrecords.com)

Here and Now, a new album from Edmonton-based drummer/bandleader Sandro Dominelli, is something of an international affair. Recorded in New Jersey, it employs the talents of electric bassist Chris Tarry, a Canadian expat now based in the Garden State, and guitarist Rez Abbasi, a Manhattanite by way of California and Pakistan. Such time-zone-crossing projects, even when well executed, can sometimes suffer from a lack of intimacy, but thankfully, this is not an issue for Here and Now. Released this summer on Alberta’s Chronograph Records, Dominelli’s new album is a follow-up to The Alvo Sessions, which also features Tarry and Abbasi, released independently in 2010.

Here and Now begins with the title track, a medium-tempo, straight-eighths song that showcases the group’s well-developed chemistry, with compelling solo moments from Abbasi and Dominelli. The swinging D.H., written in tribute to bassist Dave Holland, balances rhythmic melodies with moments of eerie harmony. This vibe is ramped up on Through the Trees, a 16-bar blues that sees Abbasi making full use of his textural capabilities. Alternative Facts is a funky, backbeat-driven odd-metre song, with a powerful, overdriven solo from Abbasi. Exodus (the theme from the film of the same name, composed by Ernest Gold), the album’s last track, gives Dominelli a chance to show off his brushwork.

Here and Now is worth a listen because Tarry, Abbasi and Dominelli are all strong players with interesting instrumental voices; it is worth a second listen because the trio succeeds in creating a meaningful, unique group dynamic.

Tipping Velvet
Sheldon Zandboer
Chronograph Records CR 063 (sheldonzandboer.com)

While many contemporary pianists seem to delve into the piano’s more percussive aspects today, Calgary’s Sheldon Zandboer is of the school of piano virtuosi who subscribes to the view that it pays to forget sometimes that the mechanics of the instrument involve hammers striking strings. His is a style of pianism that is given to the teasing caress of the keys. Not surprisingly this produces music – melodies and harmonies from right and left hands – that is exquisitely velvety in its tone and eloquently phrased. Throughout, Tipping Velvet displays inventive discourse progressing in nuanced measures.

Risks abound, but they are always in the service of the music’s spirit and they always pay off. Combining a darkness of theme with a wickedly humorous unveiling of the musicians, Snakes and Liars, for instance, ends up being one of the sunniest pieces on the recording. A similar conundrum exists at the beginning of Tear in a Smile; its illusory nature resolved once again, in the translucent longing-for-spring atmosphere of Zandboer’s delicate keyboard hands.

Zandboer’s musical gems are a must-listen not only for his exquisite pianism, but also for the majestic work of Bob Tildesley’s trumpet, especially when the mute is employed and notes are squeezed out of the bell of his horn. The performances of bassist George Koller and drummer Andy Ericson crackle with genius and I Will Wait soars heavenward, not least because of the blithe spirit of vocalist Johanna Sillanpaa.

Sweet Sister Suite by Kenny Wheeler
Scottish National Jazz Orchestra featuring Laura Jurd & Irini Arabatzi
Spartacus Records STS026 (snjo.co.uk)

The late legendary Canadian trumpeter and composer Kenny Wheeler (1930-2014) was a quiet, complex genius. Although perhaps not a household name, Wheeler was held in incredible esteem by the global jazz/music cognoscenti (including John Dankworth, Dave Holland, Bill Frissell and Lee Konitz). His rhythmically and harmonically revolutionary compositions and arrangements have been performed worldwide – including in the United Kingdom – the place that he called home after 1950.

The recent release of Wheeler’s emotional and autobiographical work recorded by the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (produced by, and under the direction of Tommy Smith) is a magnificent tribute, worthy of the great, humble man himself. Wheeler’s music is propelled by the contributions of trumpet, flugelhorn and voice – rendered here by skillful trumpet/flugelhornist Laura Jurd and vocalist Irina Arabatzi (although one could easily imagine the luminous voice of Wheeler’s longtime collaborator, Norma Winstone).

There are eight compositions in the Suite, beginning with Sweet Sister, which features heartbreakingly beautiful horn work by the gifted Jurd, and a pitch-perfect and gymnastic vocal line from Arabatzi, segueing into fine rhythm section work and culminating in sumptuous, swinging, contrapuntal, jazz-puro, big-band ear candy. Also outstanding is Keeper of the Light. The moving lyric reflects Wheeler’s journey into the realm of his most secret self, illuminated by a potent sax solo from Smith and equally potent playing by the entire talented ensemble.

Wheeler’s massive (and always modestly given) contribution to contemporary jazz is evident in every note of this recording – which is a stunning celebration of the man and his work.

Intaglios
Tricia Edwards
Independent TE1117 (triciaedwards.ca)

What happens when you fuse a solid classical music background with a newfound love of jazz and Cuban music? Tricia Edwards’ Intaglios, that’s what! With a master’s degree in piano performance, studies at the Banff Centre and Salzburg’s Mozarteum, and several years performing chamber music while living in the Middle East in the 90s, the Calgary-based pianist launched her “second musical act” in the mid-2000s, having discovered the joy of jazz. Ultimately she found her way to some of the finest musicians heating up Calgary’s Latin music scene, three of whom appear on the album.

What makes this CD especially delightful is that while Edwards beautifully explores her affection for Latin music in seven original and terrific tracks, along with three covers, she clearly hasn’t forgotten her first love. I counted at least six neat little nods to the classical repertoire. On track seven alone, the fabulous and driving String Theory, which Edwards says was inspired by watching her cats at play, there are playful passages from Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor and Mozart’s Turkish Rondo; and I’m pretty sure there are some bars of Bach, too.

Track one, Trainwreck lll, owes its inspiration, in part, to the percussive energy of Ginastera, and the final track, the gorgeous, ballad-like Alegria, offers some lovely and lilting piano work, including a few notes from Debussy’s Clair de lune.

With Intaglios, Edwards honours the genres of classical, jazz and Latin music, imprinting upon them her unique style and a lifetime of experiences.

This World of Dew
Aaron Shragge; Ben Monder
Human Resource (humanresourcerecords.com)

Released in July 2018 on Human Resource Records, This World of Dew is the third duo recording from trumpeter Aaron Shragge and guitarist Ben Monder, following 2010’s The Key Is In The Window and 2012’s Arabesque. While Monder will likely be the more familiar name to jazz listeners, Shragge is a busy member of the improvised/creative music scene in New York, with notable recent performances at the Montreal Jazz Festival, L’Off Jazz Festival and the Festival of New Trumpet Music. A big part of Shragge’s sound on This World of Dew is, in fact, a new trumpet: the Dragon Mouth Trumpet features a slide in addition to valves, allowing the player access to new expressive avenues.

Whether he is playing the Dragon Mouth Trumpet, flugelhorn, or shakuhachi, melody is at the forefront of Shragge’s contributions to This World of Dew, from the beautiful opener, Companion, through the album’s titular suite and beyond. The recording is texturally captivating from beat one; even during moments of intensity, Shragge’s tone tends to be warm and breathy, which contrasts effectively with Monder’s electric guitar tone, which, even at its gentlest, maintains an articulate edge.

Beyond the suite, highlights include spare, linear improvisation on Roll The Dice, ethereal, organ-like sounds on It’s Ours, and the unsettling urgency of Blue Bird. Do not let the contemplative mood of This World of Dew fool you: Shragge and Monder have created captivating, intricate music that rewards the active listener with unexpected delights.

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Brûlez les meubles
Louis Beaudoin-de-la-Sablonnière; Éric Normand; Louis-Vincent Hamel
Tour de bras/Circum-disc (circum-disc.com)

Guitarist Louis Beaudoin-de-la-Sablonnière has recorded with the jazz-rock band Gisèle, while drummer Louis-Vincent Hamel has distinguished himself in mainstream-modern jazz idioms. Electric bassist Éric Normand comes from further left in the spectrum, best known as leader of a free improvisation large ensemble, called GGRIL. Here the trio seeks a fresh approach to the jazz trio, under the comically radical rubric, Brûlez les meubles (Burn the furniture).

That’s just what they do, stripping their music down to its essential elements, rooting it in spare melodies, clear relationships of parts and close communication. The opening L’affaire digitale, composed by Normand, has a melody as etched as something played by Paul Bley, suggesting a Quebecois stylistic parallel, while Beaudoin-de-la-Sablonnière’s Le bonheur reduces the melodic shape of Mongo Santamaria’s already spare Afro-Blue. It’s a gentle war on the rhetoric of much modern jazz, avoiding any approach focused on a tired harmonic language of convenience.

When the trio stretches out, it’s usually in a collective improvisation, like Éminence, which begins in a rubato reflection by Beaudoin-de-la-Sablonnière then gradually picks up tempo and form in a developed dialogue that smoothly reshapes itself in a series of tempo and mood changes, including a particularly subtle bass solo at its conclusion.

By the CD’s end, the trio has established a broad expressive range and a remarkably compatible formal language built on elastic forms and detailed rhythmic interaction. It’s a particularly interesting patch in the national jazz quilt.

In Transverse Time
Rova Saxophone Quartet
VICTO cd 131 (victo.qc.ca)

Victo is the recording arm of the venerable FIMAV festival, the annual celebration of radical musics presented in Victoriaville, Quebec since 1984. Under Michel Levasseur, the label has produced many CDs, whether to coincide with coming attractions or document exceptional concerts. In recent years, with the market in disarray, the label has limited itself to a single CD a year. The last two were of festival events, singular performances by Musica Elettronica Viva and Anthony Braxton. This year’s sole release was a prelude to Rova’s 2018 appearance, celebrating the saxophone quartet’s 40th anniversary in 2017, reached with only one personnel change (in 1988). The group has investigated game composition with John Zorn, performed a work composed for them by Terry Riley and explored John Coltrane’s Ascension in multiple forms, including a feature film recorded at the Guelph Jazz Festival.

In Transverse Time is a more intimate event, devoted to works by the quartet’s members – Bruce Ackley on soprano, Steve Adams on alto and sopranino, Jon Raskin on baritone and Larry Ochs on tenor – and playing to some of their greatest strengths, their openness to new concepts and their incredible sounds, bridging classical concepts of the quartet with stunning individual voices, Ackley’s soaring soprano, Raskin’s harmonic-rich baritone, Adams’ lyrical alto and Ochs’ blustery, vocalic tenor, filled with the breath of free jazz. Their voices have never been better framed in more immediate conversation, or more alive than they are here. It’s another annual Victo masterpiece.

Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album: Deluxe Edition
John Coltrane
Impulse! 80028228-02 (shop.musicvaultz.com)

For contemporary listeners saturated with collector’s editions with multiple takes of an artist’s every song, it’s hard to imagine a major label losing an album by John Coltrane, the most influential jazz musician of the last 60 years. Evidently that’s just what happened: destroyed by ABC Paramount in 1973, the unissued 1963 album exists only because of a separate mono review tape that Coltrane shared with his ex-wife, Naima. Suddenly there’s a studio session of his working quartet, complete with alternate takes, available from a period when the released Coltrane albums were Ballads and collaborations with Duke Ellington and singer Johnny Hartman.

Both Directions at Once catches Coltrane in transition, but Coltrane was in continuous, accelerated musical evolution from 1955 until his death in 1967. The material embodies his then-current interests: a hard-edged, compressed version of Impressions, a standby of extended shamanistic transformations in live performances; One Up, One Down, similarly focused; an intensely brooding Nature Boy that would bloom fully two years later; a sprightly soprano saxophone theme, Untitled Original 11383; the swinging Vilia and the 11-minute Slow Blues, both traditional and radical, literally two blues at once. It’s a considered guide to Trane’s musical thought on a day in March 1963.

The deluxe edition includes a second CD of alternate takes of most tracks and multiple takes of Impressions. If you’re considering The Lost Album, get this version. If you don’t need it now, you will.

Empty Castles
Spectral
Aerophonic AR-016 (aerophonicrecords.com)

Taking full advantage of the acoustics inside Vallejo, California’s Bunker A-168, are members of Spectral, a trio whose polyphonic improvisations develop additional sonic possibilities by applying the spatial qualities of this long-deserted 12,000-foot Second World War concrete munitions depository. Already committed to the extended techniques and dissonant currents of free music, the players – Burlington, ON-born, California-based trumpeter Darren Johnston, fellow Bay area resident sopranino and tenor saxophonist Larry Ochs and Chicagoan, alto and baritone saxophonist Dave Rempis – create nine sequences here in Action Painting-like dribs and drabs, with the cavernous setting further amplifying their connected and challenged timbres.

Tracks such as the concluding Gravity Corridor, where squished brass smears and the reeds’ shuddering snarls attain the apogee of discordance, and Protest Portal, a whining lullaby of mixing disconnected saxophone pressure tones and an unexpected rubato tattoo from Johnston, are almost textbook instances of cacophony. But Empty Castles offers reassuring consonance as well. Splash Zone is as close to a swing piece as this trio gets, with chromatic harmonies extended through trumpet flutters plus tongue slaps and splintered tones from the reeds, adding up to chromatic polyphony. Before that, Brooklyn Took It blends brass brays and distorted reed peeps into a mellow pointillist groove.

In reality Bunker A-168 may be an empty castle. But on this disc it’s filled with distinctive, assertive horn sounds.

The Space Between Us
Ida Toninato; Jennifer Thiessen
Ambiances Magnétiques AM 236 CD (actuellecd.com)

With its drone-inflected microtonalism, this session by Montreal-based baritone saxophonist Ida Toninato and viola d’amore/violist Jennifer Thiessen takes its cues from new music as much as jazz improvisation. As the duo’s performance undulates through seven constricted tracks, the development mixes sonorities and silences with studied extensions of the instruments’ conventional ranges. For instance, Toninato’s fat saxophone smears move swiftly from coloratura to chalumeau registers, the better to intersect with Thiessen’s flying spiccato or multiple-stopping sequences.

Additionally, it sounds at points as if processing or overdubbing is taking place, in order to produce a murmuring ostinato and hints of bassoon-like or French horn-like textures that evolve alongside the duo’s output. These doubled reed tones are sensed most readily on Magma/Suspension, where throaty tremolo tones are strikingly contrasting with the fiddler’s swift, razor-sharp sweeps. The most telling challenge to a conventional accompanist/soloist matrix is Space [Outer] Space. Here, cosmos infinity is evoked through barely moving textures, confirmed in their otherworldliness through emphasized sul ponticello bow strokes and pressurized reed snarls and buzzes, until both motifs finally combine.

Although the CD is titled The Space Between Us, the profound musical connection established by Thiessen and Toninato confirms that this gap is minimal at best.

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Night Chants – Native American Flute
Gary Stroutsos
ARC Music EUCD2777 (arcmusic.co.uk)

A 35-year, 30-album career makes Seattle-based flute player Gary Stroutsos a veteran of the ethnic flute scene. He’s been heard in concerts, on albums, on TV and film soundtracks. While he considers jazz and new age music pioneer flutist Paul Horn (1930-2014) one of his mentors, Stroutsos has made his own mark exploring the music of Native American flutes. His passion for the stewardship of diverse cultures and the natural environment can be heard throughout the 16 tracks of Night Chants. All the music was composed and performed by Stroutsos on various Native American flutes with technical and musical assuredness and cultural sensitivity.

Stroutsos performs on a wide range of flutes here. They include Dakota 5-hole cedar and 6-hole cedar elk flutes, a Hopi rim flute, a Navajo 6-hole cedar flute, as well as river cane wind whistles and clay aerophones. The various timbral and tonal qualities evoked by each flute are vividly captured in the recording, enriching the overall contemplative mood. In addition, the introduction of occasional percussion and sounds of nature – such as bird song, night frog choruses and wind – pair beautifully with Stroutsos’ unhackneyed and unhurried flute melodies. Together they share a contemplative space that invites listeners into a particular and peaceful sense of place. 

I began listening to Night Chants wondering if I would last an entire album of solo cedar flute. Given the rich musical-cultural journey Stroutsos takes us on, I’d gladly embark again soon.