07 Mustonen SymphoniesOlli Mustonen – Symphonies 2 & 3
Ian Bostridge; Turku Philharmonic; Olli Mustonen
Ondine ODE 1422-2 (ondine.net)

As a pianist, Olli Mustonen performed several times with the Toronto Symphony under Jukka-Pekka Saraste, always bringing a fresh and creative approach (I remember a particularly bracing version of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto). On this disc, he displays his impressive abilities as a composer and conductor. After beginning his composition studies with Einojuhani Rautavaara at the age of eight, he has developed a style that is eclectic but quite conventional and expressive: think of a blend, perhaps, of Jean Sibelius and Benjamin Britten. It’s the sort of music that performers can really sink their teeth into and when his works are championed by the likes of Steven Isserlis and Ian Bostridge, one can rest assured that he knows what he is doing. 

The disc opens with Symphony No.3, written in 2020 featuring the lustrous and sensitive voice of Bostridge. It portrays a legend, Taivaanvalot (“Heavenly Lights”) from the epic Finnish folk tale Kalevala and is sung in English except for a brief passage in the last movement. Symphony No.2, written in 2013, is subtitled “Johannes Angelos” and is based on the 1952 novel of that name by Mika Waltari which depicts the fall of Constantinople. Both works are compact in length (about 30 minutes) and both are full of picturesque and expressive  music. Orchestrations are expert, the recording quality is superb and the players of the Turku Philharmonic are clearly enjoying themselves.

08 Violeta DinescuVioleta Dinescu – Solo Violin Works
Irina Muresanu
Metier mex 77106 (divineartrecords.com)

Romanian composer Violeta Dinescu’s works for solo violin are one of the biggest discoveries for me in terms of contemporary repertoire for this instrument. Her music is deeply meaningful and closely connected to literary works and philosophical concepts. It is precisely how Dinescu experiences, translates and depicts the inner musings that makes her music so captivating. The performer is seen as a storyteller and directs the flow of the pieces much like a storyteller would do – by making choices that enhance a particular phrase, action or emotion. 

Violinist Irina Muresanu shares a special rapport with Dinescu’s music, one that is perhaps based on the fact that they share a Romanian heritage and understand the musical language that is strongly tied to their homeland. Dinescu’s music, influenced by folkloric melodies, particularly the melos of traditional Gypsy music, also includes contemporary violin techniques and an array of unorthodox sounds. The space between the notes is of particular importance to both composer and performer. 

Muresanu seduces, mesmerizes and probes with her violin. Her deep, sonorous sound never lets the intensity lessen and never gives way to the technical challenges. That is particularly obvious in the opening piece Aretusa. In this composition, Arethusa, a nymph from Greek mythology (as described in Ovid’s Metamorphosis) is chased by the river God Alpheus. There is an ethereal beauty to this piece, the transcendent emerging amidst the passion, which becomes a signature mark of Muresanu’s performance on this album.

09 Wake up the DeadChris Fisher-Lochhead – Wake Up the Dead
JACK Quartet; Quince Ensemble; Ben Roidl-Ward
New Focus Recordings FRC 385 (newfocusrecordings.com)

Vermont-based composer/performer Chris Fisher-Lochhead’s album Wake Up the Dead assembles six pieces of wide variety and instrumentation, including two works each for string quartet and female vocal quartet, one for mixed instrumental ensemble, and one extended work for solo bassoon.  

The album opens with stutter-step the concept, a commission by the Ensemble Dal Niente in 2016. This is a meaty introduction to Lochhead’s style of composition, and the ensemble interprets the score with commanding familiarity. An overall multi-phonic richness leaves space for irregular string solos, false harmonics and rich lower string resonances that are distributed evenly throughout the instrumentation giving a cohesiveness that sets up the rest of the album. The track Precarity Songs is a gorgeous piece for four high vocals performed by the Quince Ensemble, who also return on track five with Four Until L8, a more humourous piece with text. Track three, titled Funktionslust is performed by the JACK Quartet, and is a tightly wound collection of long tones, pizzicatos and expressive outbursts often layered simultaneously and at times stretched apart and then reduced again. The quartet takes the work in stride and makes the difficult score sound easy. 

The fourth track in the collection, Grandfather, a work for solo bassoon written for contemporary specialist Ben Roidl-Ward, is a commanding piece of extended technique bringing up the phrase New Complexity. It was illuminating to find the score online; it helped to appreciate the writing, the incredible execution of the overtones, key clicks, and vocal outburst as well as the creative and detailed notation. The final track After Bessie Smith returns with the JACK Quartet, to close the collection with an extension of Fisher-Lochhead’s signature stretching and reducing of thematic material. A very interesting album for new music and deep dissonance lovers.

10 Yvonne LamWatch Over Us – Works for solo violin and electronics
Yvonne Lam
Blue Griffin BGR647 (bluegriffin.com)

The music on this album plays as if it is written by the cool composers on the block. Add to that a notion of electronic tapes as an equal musical partner and we get an album that is beaming with fresh ideas, concepts and expressions that have an edge of contemporary life. 

Missy Mazzoli, Katherine Balch, Nathalie Joachim, Anna Clyne, Eve Beglarian and Kate Moore bring a certain sort of energy and vigour to this album, one that is perhaps best described as creative confluence. These composers do not rely on traditional structure, preferring instead to forge their own, but certainly pay homage to masters of the past in various ways. Violinist Yvonne Lam is a thread that connects them all with the spirit of her performance. Lam is attuned to the intricacies of each compositional language and her interpretations have a mixture of sensibility and boldness that is rare. Above all, she brings forward the sonorousness that envelops and nurtures all the compositions.

From Rest These Hands (Clyne) that is beyond gorgeous in its sonority and melodies to Synaesthesia Suite (Moore), a concerto with a sci-fi edge for violin and synthesized violin, to Watch Over Us (Joachim), a piece that explores physical and symbolic aspects of water, the compositions here are innovative, edgy and immediate.

11 Yotam HaberYotam Haber – Bloodsnow
Talea Ensemble; Taylor Ward; Don-Paul Kahl; American Wild Ensemble
Sideband Records 11 (sidebandrecords.com)

The music of Yotam Haber impresses and shows that he is an innovative composer who seems to inhabit a space where notation meets, then crosses over into, improvisation. The music of Bloodsnow indicates that Haber is not one to shy away from subject matter that can be rather visceral in nature, such as that which is contained in two poems – one by Tahel Frosh, the other by Dorit Weisman. That may be just as well as Haber’s supple philosophical distinction between music and noise enables him to superbly articulate the sentiments and emotions of both poems that he sets to music. 

Frosh’s Oh My Bank is a polemical broadside against capitalism and Haber uses instrumentation cleverly to accentuate dramatic tensions: winds against strings with Taylor Ward’s baritone top delivering the broadside. Through it all Haber harvests mint-fresh timbres to convey the sense of the anger of Frosh’s fiery work. 

Haber’s music can also be charming in the face of tragedy as is the case with his music for. Weisman’s poem, They Say You Are My Disaster. In describing the character’s descent into the horrors of cancer he uses a wide range of sonorities to create music – both to mirror her stoicism as well as the face of raw tragedy. Bloodsnow – the song – is a modernist masterpiece. 

And while the album suggests Haber excels in music of adversity, he also shows that he is a master of songfulness.

12 Beyond the WallBeyond the Wall
AkMi Duo
Avie AV2641 (avie-records.com)

Beyond the Wall is exquisitely presented and performed. The CD case has a beautiful orange/pink colour scheme extending to the stylish suits worn by Akvilè Šileikaitè (piano) and Valentine Michaud (saxophone); included is a booklet of extensive liner notes outlining the background of each composition and how it fits into the album›s concept. 

Beyond the Wall presents four sonatas: Paul Hindemith, Sonata Op.11 No.4 (1919); Erwin Schulhoff, Hot-Sonate (1930), Edison Denisov, Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1970) and William Albright, Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1984). It is both an auditory and intellectual treat to get this mini-history of 20th-century saxophone music that Šileikaitè and Michaud perform sensitively and impassioned. 

The liner notes do an excellent job of discussing the tonal and cultural differences amongst these composers and works but ultimately it is the brilliant performances that stand out. I found the Albright work to be a revelation: it contains throughout a gorgeous intertwining of saxophone and piano lines; Michaud’s dramatic mastery of the saxophone, including the altissimo range, is an emotional highlight. 

13a Schoenberg On the BeachSchoenberg on the Beach
Jeff Lederer with Mary LaRose
Little i Music LIM CD 111 (littleimusic.com)

Balls of Simplicity – Jeff Lederer Notated Works 1979-2021
Morningside Tone Collective
Little i Music LIM CD 112 (littleimusic.com)

In 1909 the intrepid Arnold Schoenberg brought the hammer down on the Wagnerian concept of tonality, in favour of musical expression that abandoned tonal centres, key signatures and traditional application of harmony. He did so through a system in which all the notes of the chromatic scale were assigned equal importance. The result was music that sounded so radical to the ear that one critic went as far as describing the sound of Schoenberg’s music as if “someone had smeared the score of Tristan whilst the ink was still wet”. 

In his closest approximation (in deferential homage really) of what might be Schoenbergian music – or rather how the composer might have responded to the more salubrious climate of his music today – Jeff Lederer gives us – what else? – Schoenberg on the Beach. Joined by his wife, the fearless, boundary-blurring vocalist Mary LaRose, Lederer combines the burnished sound of his clarinet and high-wire act on the flute, with LaRose’s often-dissonant vocal glissandi. Together Lederer and LaRose, and other instrumentalists, have deeply interiorized these works and offer wonderfully idiomatic performances, bringing to life Lieder by Schoenberg, Webern and others. With lyrics from Goethe, Rilke, Nietzsche, et al, highlighting the musically radical Second Viennese School, all of which feed Lederer’s and LaRose’s equally radical artistry. While Lederer’s arrangements and LaRose’s interpretations respectively, are likely to have as many naysayers and refusniks as Schoenberg’s Three Pieces for Piano Op. 11 had in its day, songs such as Blummengruss and Summer Evening do thrill. 

Moreover, this repertoire is redolent with outstanding performances by vibraphonist Patricia Brennan, cellist Hank Roberts, bassist Michael Formanek, drummer Matt Wilsson and the redoubtable Marty Erlich on The Pale Flowers of Moonlight. All of this makes this disc unmissable.

13b Jeff Lederer Balls of SimplicityLederer has not been well represented – or so it may seem – solely for his compositions. Balls of Simplicity – Jeff Lederer Notated Works (1979-2021) will certainly remedy that lapse. These five (extended) works for reeds, winds, strings and piano clearly trace the dominant pattern of Lederer’s career, from chromatic Romanticism through atonality to serialism. Persistence of Memory (2015) and the seductive Piano Piece (1979) lay the groundwork for Bodies of Water for flute, cello and piano (2020). The darkest work, Song for the Kallyuga for piano, clarinet, violin and cello (1984) which marks the chemical disaster at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, killing almost 4,000 and maiming half a million others, is quite the artistic apogee of this album.

01a Marianne Trudel 1À Pas de Loup – Quiet sounds for a loud world
Marianne Trudel
Marianne Trudel Productions TRUD 2023-2 (mariannetrudel.com)

Dédé Java Espiritu
Marianne Trudel; John Hollenbeck
Marianne Trudel Productions TRUD 2023-1 (mariannetrudel.com)

Time Poem – La joie de l’éphémère
Marianne Trudel; Remi-Jean Leblanc; John Hollenbeck
Marianne Trudel Productions TRUD 2021-1 (mariannetrudel.com)

Marianne Trudel ascended the pinnacle of music 20 years ago, with formidable technique and breathtaking, innovative expression. Today, still atop that do-not-touch-me pinnacle, there’s an erudite quality to her pianistic approach, the lived-in character of her improvisations and phrase-making that is engaging, the fire and brimstone of youth now complemented by the well-honed values of experience. So, it is only natural to celebrate – yet again – with a set of three recordings: solo, a duo with drummer John Hollenbeck and a trio with Hollenbeck and contrabassist Remi-Jean Leblanc.

Some discerning listeners may be tempted to hint at the fact that Trudel’s later music with small ensembles may be more adventurous given the interaction between musicians that affords improvised conversations and the possibilities of considerable development of ideas. The very act of playing solo on À pas de loup – Quiet sounds for a loud world is a pensive act of musicianship best enjoyed in similar quietude. That way, what is composed and improvised, often on keyboard instruments – including the gently wheezing harmonium – and percussion (instruments, individually played and/or overdubbed) offers a taste of Trudel’s sense of adventure to the solitary recesses of her brave creativity. It is in the very act of being in quiet conversation with herself, inside her own head, buzzing with ideas so to speak, that we find considerably venturesome music. Melodic beauty quickly ascends vertically with masterful harmonic development and passionate embellishments. When Trudel adds percussion – as on Chrysalide, for instance – her supple facility for ideation and articulacy reaches its much-vaunted apogee.

01b Marianne Trudel 2Music embellished by the wondrous percussion colouration of John Hollenbeck is experienced truly memorably on Dédé Java Espiritu. Trudel has said that when she first played with Hollenbeck, she knew from “the first few notes” that they played together that there would be a musical reprise. Now comes this album featuring not simply breathtaking and daring adventure, but all of it featured in beautifully crafted arrangements of beguiling variety and sensuousness. Trudel’s love for – and mastery of – her instrument shines brightly. She and Hollenbeck seductively manipulate melody, harmony and rhythm in phrases that fly off the page on Coquillages. Meanwhile Trudel appears to bend notes while she and Hollenbeck masterfully sculpt the long inventions of Tension and Happiness. Clearly in the spacious arrangements and improvisations there’s not a semiquaver that has not been fastidiously considered.

01c Marianne Trudel 3To complete the trilogy of recordings released to mark two decades in music, Trudel returns to the studio (and the soundstage} with Hollenbeck. This time it’s a trio on Time Poem - Le joie de l’éphémère and the duo is complemented by the elegant rumble of the contrabass played by the masterful Québécois veteran Leblanc. There is unlikely to be a more reliable guarantee of high-quality contemporary trio music than when these names appear on the cover. Trudel’s musicians are fully attuned to the vision and artistry of their fearless leader, whose pianism bristles with meaningful virtuosity. Hollenbeck delivers his melodious rolling thunder of drums and hiss of cymbals while Leblanc beguiles with the spacious growl of his bass. Check out everything here.

You cannot have one of these three recordings without the other two, so, my best advice would be to indulge freely for untold moments of musical pleasure.

02a Margaret Maria Bill GilliamUncountable Spheres
Margaret Maria; Bill Gilliam
Independent (marbyllia-bg.bandcamp.com/album/uncountable-spheres)

Goddess of Edges
Margaret Maria
Independent (margaretmariamusic.com)

New collaborators, cellist Margaret Maria and pianist Bill Gilliam have formed their duo Marbyllia and released the album Uncountable Spheres, a sonic free-exploration between friends. These two well-travelled artists have collided from different worlds: Gilliam, a London-born, multi-award-winning Toronto composer, pianist and poet, is well known for his prepared piano and sonically stretched compositions and collaborations. Cellist Margaret Maria, a U of T graduate who went on to study at the Curtis Institute of Music, is becoming known as an improvisor, composer and producer after shedding her previous life as a classical cellist with the Vancouver Symphony and the National Arts Centre Orchestras, though she has been improvising, teaching and collaborating for many years. Their new experimental piano and cello duo album is described as “a journey from our earth’s core gravitational forces and our troposphere where we live impacted by climate change, and further up into our distressed stratosphere.” The resulting landscape is often spacey, explosive, dark and stormy, but each track reaches through the different levels of the atmosphere and eventually breaches the surface. The two improvisors push the limits of each other: Gilliam’s extensive range of sounds from his piano and Maria’s extended cello technique and unusual sound makers. The track Stratosphere in Distress is a solid representation of this dynamic team.

Listen to 'Uncountable Spheres' Now in the Listening Room

02b Margaret MariaAs a double-release feature, Margaret Maria’s solo album Goddess of Edges is her 15th studio album and highlights her editing craft and production skills, as well as reminding us of her decades of experience as an orchestral cellist. Here Maria shows off her extensive cello chops, as well as her love of rich string compositions with layers of rhythm, harmony and texture. Each track is layer upon layer of cello of every range, resulting in a full symphony of sounds of every description; from the full and rich C-string to the highest false harmonics, powerfully rhythmic chords and squeals and screams. A solid, strong disc chock-full of exciting and layered works, the compositions are driving and emotional pieces; many could be contemporary dance soundtracks. With themes of death, angels and shame, this album is edgier and more expressive than her previous offerings. Driving fragility far away; this is an exposé of Maria’s conflicting representations of who we are on the inside while our exterior belies our vulnerability.

Listen to 'Goddess of Edges' Now in the Listening Room

If you missed the double-release featuring both performers at Annette Studios on December 2, you can find the recorded stream on YouTube. It’s well worth the visit, to hear of Margaret Maria’s compositional process, her release from classical orchestral playing and readings of inspirational poetry.

03 Egoyan PaulyHopeful Monster
Eve Egoyan; Mauricio Pauly
No Hay Discos NHD 004 (nohaydiscos.bandcamp.com)

Some five years in the making, the ten tracks which constitute Hopeful Monster reflect the experimental musical partnership of adventurous Toronto pianist Eve Egoyan and Vancouver-based composer/improvising musician, Mauricio Pauly.

Egoyan performs on acoustic and augmented (in many ways) piano, voice and other acoustic instruments such as the judiciously used kanun and Armenian duduk. The latter adds acoustic and cultural specificity to this often geographically though not aesthetically unmooring album. In most respects, this music lies in the experimental mainstream in the lineage of Tenney, Cage, Varese, et al.

Pauly, also a maker of hybrid electronic instruments, contributed a roomful of electronic gear such as computers, live samplers, live processing, dekeyed Chromaharp, and “drum bundle,” but also the inscrutably named instruments: O-Coast follower, FAWslicer and MtkAsmC25. Don’t let the profusion of odd gear throw you however. Being created through exploratory improvisation based on fearless artistic attitude and close listening by both musicians, this music attains a kind of biological fluidity.

“There’s a dark edge to [Pauly’s] sound-world that’s kind of like stone,” observed Egoyan in an interview, “… a real earthiness to his electronics, something very organic about his sounds. I [too] have a connection to an organic instrument and … to organic samples, but then I can go digital with them and make it very supernatural.”

Hopeful Monster explores a boundaried acoustic ecology through ranks of electronically mediated filters. The resulting collaboration reveals an audacious, supranatural sonic world stranger and at times more wonderous than the one outside this album.

04 Sick BossBusinessless
Sick Boss
Drip Audio DA12188 (sickboss.bandcamp.com)

I’ve made no secret that I’m a huge fan of the Vancouver improv scene, and this album from Sick Boss will become one of my favourites for this year. With leadership and compositions from guitarist Cole Schmidt, this album leaps beyond the band’s first album released in 2017, the self-titled Sick Boss.

Right out of the gate in Businessless, their subsequent release, we are blasted into outer space with a more aggressive direction and further explorations of explosive guitar and effects. What’s not to love here! The second track When the Buzzards Leave the Bone sounds exactly as titled; it’s a fantastical craziness featuring a long exposé of improvisation between the brilliant cellist Peggy Lee and the equally brilliant Jesse Zubot on violin, expressing just how well these two players know each other. The relentlessness of Useless Genius sits heavy on the solid rhythmic creativity of another phenomenal artist, drummer Dan Gaucher, who drives much of the edge of the album, along with Schmidt’s gorgeous wildness on the guitar. Both of the longer tracks on the album, Doctor Dawn and the melodic CJ Blues, express the most cohesive display of how tightly this band channels their collective creative energy. All this craziness is glued together by bass and synth player James Meger and blown apart by the stratospheric melodies of JP Carter’s trumpet. 

A condensed album at under 40 minutes, every track of Businessless is outstanding, but Useless Genius, featuring the holy hell of violin that is Jesse Zubot, is killer. 

05 Don Thompson Rob PiltchBells… Then and Now
Don Thompson; Rob Piltch
Modica Music (modicamusic.bandcamp.com/album/bells-now-and-then)

Having grown up in Toronto and being interested in jazz music from a young age, the opportunities to hear Don Thompson on bass, piano and, less frequently, vibraphone were plentiful indeed. In fact, he was such a near-constant presence on this city’s live music scene that for me, the playing, compositions, and more generally, the sound of Thompson’s various projects and performances were the very essence of Toronto jazz from that time. As such, when I listened to Bells… Now and Then, a re-release of Thompson and guitarist Rob Piltch’s great 1982 recording Bells, bookended here with two terrific and newly recorded additional tracks, I was instantly transported to a familiar and welcome place of musical memory.

Originally released on Umbrella Records, Bells, paired Thompson with then-24-year-old guitarist, Rob Piltch. The result is an intimate duo performance that demonstrates the ways in which Thompson was so good when working with guitarists, while situating Piltch in a long line of accomplished guitar players who worked as creative foils for Thompson (Sonny Greenwich, Ed Bickert, Lenny Breau, John Abercrombie, Jim Hall, Emily Remler, Reg Schwager). Whether it is the Sonny Rollins-esque vibe of Mike Malone’s Caribe, or the immediately recognizable vibe that the initial chord change inculcates at the beginning of Thompson’s truly beautiful composition September, listeners who are old enough to remember Toronto’s aforementioned jazz history will be served a happy auditory reminder of days gone by, while new listeners now have the exciting prospect of wonderful music to explore. Thanks to Roberto Occhipinti and Modica Music for both re-releasing this fine recording, and for adding two new tracks of Thompson and Piltch’s important contributions to the Canadian jazz discography and canon.

06 Mike HerriottMike Herriott – Tales of Tricksters and Vagabonds
Mike Herriott; H&H Studio Big Band
H&H Records (mikeherriott.com)

Get ready to be transported into a mystical world of fairytales and mysterious characters, where the border between reality and fable begins to fade. Renowned Canadian trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist Mike Herriott’s latest release takes the listener on a captivating foray into the magical realm of fantasy through lyrical melodies and riveting riffs. The album showcases Herriott’s compositional talents as well as his instrumental skills, as he plays most of the instruments, with the exception of cello and drums, heard in the recording. This makes for a truly enchanting musical journey and should be an addition to the collection of any jazz-lover that’s looking for something unique and truly engaging.

What makes this album stand out is the concept behind it, “[a] big band… album of six original compositions that depict a collection of some of the «sketchier” characters from great works of fiction,” as Herriott describes it. A modern six-part jazz suite if you will. Each tune is chock full of personality, truly reflecting what the idiosyncrasies of each “villain’s” persona. Take Puss, in Boots for example; a classic, snazzy big band sound with a driving beat and sultry horns immediately call to forth images of the “puss” in question, slinking around in the shadows, possibly up to no good. Herriott has done a fantastic job of merging the domains of fantasia and reality within his compositions, merging and blending genres; creating an imaginative, detailed world in the mind’s eye.

07 Carl MayotteCarnaval
Carl Mayotte
Independent (carlmayotte.com)

Multi-faceted, bustling, exuberant and emotive, Quebecois bassist/composer/leader Carl Mayotte’s new album makes for quite the engaging listen. Mayotte consistently showcases the entire range of his instrument, using the upper register to add colour and warmth to interludes in tracks like Cascade. His use of natural harmonics and arpeggiations encompassing the fingerboard in the intro of Coeur d’enfant unlocks the electric bass as a sole creator of soundscape, which allows for a tranquil meditation before the blazing inferno that follows. Each composition in this sense feels like a living organism, never content with occupying a single space for too long, with woodwind quintet Choros often providing near breath-like reprieve from all of the endless celebratory rhythms. In terms of the instrumentation and arrangements, Mayotte draws from a consistently exhilarating palate of electronics, heavy percussion sections and acoustics, creating a synthesis of influences that are never tedious. 

The tracks that make up the Carnaval suite flow seamlessly into each other but contain enough twists within them that the overarching statement itself feels more holistic than the form normally allows. This album is a very ambitious undertaking, but it never allows this vision to obscure its sense of adventure, tunefulness or grace. Central to this point is L’éveil, one of the more discreet moments to be found on the tracklist, albeit maybe its most rewarding on repeat listens. As we listen closer and closer, Mayotte leaves us with more and more wonders to discover.

08 Mike MurleyRecent History
Mike Murley; Mark Eisenman; Neil Swainson; Terry Clarke
Cornerstone Records CRST CD 166 (cornerstonerecordsinc.com)

Craving the perfect musical accompaniment to those cozy winter nights spent at the fireside, a warm drink in hand? Stellar duo Mike Murley and Mark Eisenman’s newest release is just the soundtrack you’re looking for. Mellow sax melodies and catchy piano riffs make for a warm, inviting record that conjures images of a snug living room and music floating softly in the background, watching the snow fall softly. Featuring all-stars Neil Swainson on bass and Terry Clarke on drums, Murley/Eisenman’s compositions soar to new heights via these fabulous backing musicians. 

The album harkens back to the classic jazz sound, featuring standards by greats such as Monk, Schwartz and Strayhorn. Yet just the right amount of modernity is brought into the mix, with Murley and crew adding a pleasing contemporary twist to the pieces to swiftly bring them into a current musical setting, as is heard in the time-honoured Monk’s Dream. Murley/Eisenman mention that the album “[reflects their] shared interest in writing new melodies on standard chord progressions,” otherwise known as contrafacts. What also adds a unique spark to the record is the several pieces that showcase Murley/Eisenman’s shared, intertwining solos that soar lyrically overtop of Clarke’s constant, energy-laden beat and Swainson’s rhythmic bass riffs. For those jazz aficionados looking for a foray into the past while also remaining present in the current day, this is a great album to add to the collection.

09 Jesse DietschiGradient
Jesse Dietschi Trio
Independent JDM-2023-01 (jessedietschi.com)

With so much so-called 21st-century music to listen to it is refreshing when a disc turns up that harks back to the elements that made jazzy, improvisational music so attractive in the first place: melody and swing. In this case it is the album Gradient by the contrabassist Jesse Dietschi and his trio. This ensemble is fortified by pianist Ewen Farncombe, a wunderkind who combines technical prowess with intelligence and good taste, and the swinging timekeeper with a gift for melodicism, itinerant journeyman and drummer Ethan Ardelli, now well on his way to becoming something of a proverbial elder statesman. 

The trio operates as a partnership of equals, not as bassist and accompaniment. Each participant is given ample room to stretch; to pick up threads, develop ideas and to embellish Dietschi’s compositions with a range of ear-worm riffs, dancing melodies, insistent rhythms and harmonies with the added elements of colour and texture. 

A relative newcomer, Dietschi emerges as an eloquent musical contrabassist producing some tasty arco work (cue Loose Plug and Canmore), and agile pizzicato everywhere else. As a composer he is clearly more gifted than he would get credit for being. This is likely because he splits his time between chamber orchestras and contemporary ensembles. The music of Gradient, however, suggests a questing mind with a borderless, erudite aesthetic. This is quite a rare combination under any circumstance.

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