Isabela
Oded Tzur; Nitai Hershkovits; Petros Klampanis; Johnathan Blake
ECM 2739 (odedtzur.com)

On the questing music of his album the eloquent saxophonist Oded Tzur pours out a range of feelings possibly dedicated to his muse  – Isabela – together with a quartet (featuring pianist Nitai Hershkovits, contrabassist Petros Klampanis and drummer Johnathan Blake) which interprets the music’s lyrical profundity. The five songs – or movements, perhaps – on this meditative album brood, sing, dance and soar heavenward.

Throughout this expressive music, Tzur’s lead tenor saxophone voice exquisitely intones his aural emotions glazed with evocative Phrygian modes. The rest of the ensemble follows suit as if they were written into Tzur’s music too. Each of the artists shows immense sensitivity for the composer’s feelings. Thus the repertoire on the album Isabela unfolds with warm and sweeping beauty. 

In Noam and especially in Isabela (the song), for instance, every phrase is vibrantly sculpted and placed within the context of eloquent conversations among piano, bass and drums. Countering the moist tenor of Tzur’s saxophone and the cascades of Hershkovits’ piano is the low rumble of Klampanis’ contrabass and the hiss and sizzle of Blake’s cymbals. This makes for some of the most sensitive performances on the album. 

On Love Song for the Rainy Season Tzur reveals uncommon depth of thought and musical ingenuity as he weaves disparate Middle Eastern and Asian influences into the music. The other musicians remain alert to nuance and dynamic contrasts, providing requisite quotas of passion.

When I Get Low
Tia Brazda
Flatcar Records FCR022 (tiabrazda.com)

Going out on a limb it is not so risqué to proclaim that you won’t find another singer who vocalizes music – including this classic music – quite like Tia Brazda. While Brazda may owe much to both Billie Holiday and Amy Winehouse, she has a fully formed style that is wholly her own. Her wide-open articulation, characterized by the sultry, aspirated “ah” when she uses the first person pronoun “I” is as unique as it is beckoning, and it is something you are not likely to tire of as she glides through these nine songs on her fifth disc When I Get Low. 

Brazda traverses the mezzo-soprano tonal range with ease. But her intonation is uniquely smoky. Moreover, she has a singing style that is made for the pathos of songs such as Lullaby of Leaves, When I Get Low, I Get High and Smile. She can catch both pathos and agitation with tenderly softened tones, made for the graceful love repertoire on this disc (such as the spectacularly evocative I’ll Be Seeing You). 

The members of the ensemble that back Brazda prove themselves to be both subtle and idiomatic interpreters of these songs which they illuminate (as if) with dim gaslight on the darkened alleys off Broadway. Soloists Mike Freedman (guitar), Joel Visentin (piano), Alexis Baro (trumpet) and Drew Jurecka (violin, bandoneón) create an atmospheric setting for Brazda’s gorgeously sullen, long-limbed narratives and floating and spinning lines to unfold with bewitching beauty.

Dream Dancing
Melissa Stylianou; Gene Bertoncini; Ike Sturm
Anzic Records ANZ-0080 (melissa-stylianou.bandcamp.com)

This writer purchased Melissa Stylianou’s 2006 release Sliding Down after hearing her perform in Toronto, which was my introduction to the vocalist’s tasteful singing and composing. It was also my introduction to guitarist Kim Ratcliffe whom I knew of but hadn’t heard, and a chance to hear Kevin Breit who I had just gotten to know. When offered the chance to review Dream Dancing, I delighted in the opportunity to revisit Stylianou’s music over 15 years later, accompanied by yet another great guitarist, Gene Bertoncini. 

Renowned New York bassist Ike Strum is the third bandmate on this recording, and does an exquisite job filling in spaces left by voice and guitar. In this chamber jazz setting devoid of drums, there is simultaneously a rhythmic responsibility to be aware of, as well as the freedom of knowing that each note and chord can be heard clearly. 

Bertoncini throws an occasional harmonic curveball Stylianou’s way, as any exciting and interactive guitarist will tend to do, but each of these interesting challenges are responded to in a sensitive yet sophisticated manner. The album’s penultimate and final numbers My One and Only Love and It Might As Well Be Spring both attest to this, with the NYC-based Canadian vocalist adjusting range and phrasing to fit best with her bandmates. Dream Dancing is a great vocal album yhat transcends the jazz vocal realm enough to be enjoyed by instrumentalists and listeners of all genres.

Listen to 'Dream Dancing' Now in the Listening Room

Epistle
Jacob Chung; Christian Antonacci; Felix Fox-Pappas; Thomas Hainbuch; Petros Anagnostakos
Three Pines Records TPR-008 (jacobchung.bandcamp.com/album/epistle)

It is always exciting to hear a young musician sound fully formed, simultaneously recognizing the tradition that created this art form while innovating as well. Just because there is youthful energy present doesn’t mean the music has to become overly futuristic or avant-garde, and saxophonist Jacob Chung does a brilliant job of bringing new ideas to the table while respecting the old guard. 

Epistle stimulates the listener seconds after pressing play on a CD player or streaming platform. The recording quality and aesthetic brings to mind Verve, Blue Note and Impulse releases, but maintains a modern clarity that eludes many musicians/engineers’ attempts to achieve such a sound. 

Chung has surrounded himself with a group of likeminded and competent young musicians, the oldest being just 24. Trumpeter Christian Antonacci matches Chung’s phrasing, giving the group a unified sound as they traverse several intricate melodies. Some of these melodies come in the form of lines written over pre-existing chord changes, notably Triage with chords penned by Billy Strayhorn, and Bouncin’ at Bonafide which shares a progression with Charlie Parker’s classic Confirmation. These compositions are very tastefully executed by Chung and his band, and their borrowed chord progressions are in no way a cop-out. Epistle 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all unique offerings that provide us with contrasting characteristics, from gospel to swing and everything in between. 

If this is how Jacob Chung is sounding in his early 20s, the future of jazz in Canada and beyond looks bright. Check out Epistle and stay tuned for what’s next!

Nate Wooley – Ancient Songs of Burlap Heroes
Columbia Icefield
Pyroclastic Records PR 20 (natewooleypyroclastic.bandcamp.com/album/ancient-songs-of-burlap-heroes)

Composer/trumpeter Nate Wooley possesses focus and drive to match his creativity, embarking on projects that shift and reappear at intervals of years, expanding exponentially. Between 2007 and 2020, his Seven-Storey Mountain grew from a trio accompanied by electronic tapes to 14 musicians and a 21-member choir. Columbia Icefield, a stellar quartet launched in 2019 with guitarist Mary Halvorson, pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn and drummer Ryan Sawyer, is growing conceptually. Wooley sometimes quotes 19th-century American authors like Herman Melville, and this work invites terms like “epic” and “monumental.” The looming intensity, even dark energy, can suggest Moby Dick.  

Wooley’s poetic invocation describes the “burlap hero” as “one who marches – consciously or not – back to the sea in hopes of making no splash, who understands and embraces the imperfection of being, and in that way, stretches the definition of sainthood to fit.” The CD booklet includes aAron [sic] Munson’s grimly evocative photos of an Inuit village in Nunavut, one depicting a frozen whale carcass. 

As a trumpeter, Wooley extends the lyric, expressive tradition of Miles Davis and Wadada Leo Smith, adding extended techniques, eerie electronics and over-dubbing. Brief impressionistic inter-tracks suggest submerged struggles, while the three long movements are developed instrumental dialogues, with guest appearances on one track each by violist Mat Maneri and electric bassist Trevor Dunn. The concluding Returning to Drown Myself, Finally, based on the Swedish song, Nu är midsommar natt, is awash with sea sounds before Wooley’s unaccompanied trumpet comes to the fore, then surrenders to the guitarists’ burbling liquid microtones.

Mesmerism
Tyshawn Sorey Trio
Pi Recordings (tyshawn-sorey.bandcamp.com)

Tyshawn Sorey has a strong profile as both drummer and composer, creating extended works on several fronts, exploring both improvisation and composition, including concert pieces dedicated to key influences (For Roscoe Mitchell and For George Lewis), probing hypnotic works (Pillars, a three-CD magnum opus exploring low frequency improvisation), and assorted collaborations with pianists Vijay Iyer and Marilyn Crispell. Here Sorey takes a different turn, recording a series of favourite jazz tunes, several of them standards, in an ad hoc trio with pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Matt Brewer, a “project with only an hour or two of rehearsal, … with a group of musicians who never performed on stage together.” 

That’s both harsh reality and ideal in jazz, a test of the spontaneous creativity that defines the art, and this trio performs magnificently, working through a program that combines traditional standards – Detour Ahead, here a 14-minute voyage into harmonic extension, and Autumn Leaves, a spare masterpiece – to works by master pianist-composers, like Horace Silver and Duke Ellington. It’s a trio that can achieve mystery and clarity simultaneously, with Silver’s Enchantment moving from hanging resonant chords to soulful modal blues and Paul Motian’s From Time to Time effectively suspending time amidst the piano’s sustain and Sorey’s cloud-like cymbals. Muhal Richard Abrams’ Two Over One and Duke Ellington’s REM Blues, have a muscular vigour and avoid verbosity, reflecting Diehl, Brewer and Sorey’s creativity and precision.    

Mesmerism may be a commonplace project, but the results are often majestic.

Desert Bloom
Florian Hoefner Trio
Alma Records ACD52022 (florian-hoefner.com/music-shop)

Pianist/composer Florian Hoefner states that the concept behind his latest album Desert Bloom is the behaviour in certain arid locations where a huge rainstorm will occur every few years: the dormant seeds of the wildflowers “suddenly germinate” and “the colours explode.” That image resonates throughout the evocative and tasteful works comprising Desert Bloom. The opener, Between the Lines, is beautifully hypnotic with a repeating piano line that is joined by a contrapuntal bass and when the drums enter it switches effortlessly to a funky groove. The title song begins with a bowed bass, elegant cymbal strikes and sporadic piano chords, works into a nice bass solo until a very funky ostinato theme emerges. 

Hoefner’s compositions are subtle, nuanced and always moving; the album is a jazz delight because of the interplay amongst all three musicians. Andrew Downing’s bass work is precise and funky, Nick Fraser’s drumming is a masterclass in keeping the groove going while sprinkling in surprising and enlightening percussive elements; and Hoefner’s piano can be understated, driving, impressionistic or whatever else is required.

Golden Hour
Jocelyn Gould
Independent JGDC0422 (jocelyngould.com)

Nothing can beat an album intro like this one. Beautiful rubato guitar melodies weave together overtop lush piano chords, punctuated by patient pauses. As the lead voice leans into the last note, the rest of the band hangs onto it, giving the impression of a soft exhale. The spell is eventually broken by catharsis via drum pickup, which manages to feel like a definitive statement without being overly forceful, as if to say “welcome.” This is not to overanalyze 30 seconds of music, because one could loosely apply the previous description to the entirety of Golden Hour. It flows perfectly, is extremely dynamic, and has the calming effect of a slow, deep breath. Everything fits snugly in place. 

With her sophomore effort, Jocelyn Gould proves herself to yet again be a masterful curator, bandleader and improviser, refining so much of what made 2020’s Elegant Traveler so mesmerizing. From that preceding album, the energy itself is largely dialed back, to inject the overall tone with the quietude of observing a sunset. This atmosphere is aided by Gould’s approach to song, both through interpretation and composition. Her original music feels every bit as polished and timeless as the jazz standards she chooses to tackle. Serendipity evokes the meaning of its title with grace, with pleasant surprises to be found throughout its form, culminating in an outro that sums up everything the music’s  about: pure, unbridled unity.

The End and The Beginning
RedGreenBlue
Astral Spirits AS190 (astralrgb.bandcamp.com)

The End and the Beginning defines the slow burn; establishing a drone and then, armed with nothing but patience, allowing it to grow organically into something truly profound. The whisper of synth wizard Paul Giallorenzo’s reassuringly consonant droning note both begins and ends the album. At first so subtle you almost need to squint to hear it, this initial monophonic drone in The Beginning signals the only viable musical direction to be skyward, and then in The End allows space for the rubble to clear. Charlie Kirchen comes in shortly after, creating a simple bass line that lends itself to the tranquil atmosphere while managing to add as much harmonic context to the drone as needed, not unlike what Charlie Haden provided to the music of Don Cherry. 

It is on this foundation that the music begins to gather wholly satisfying momentum. Citing Terry Riley as an influence, RedGreenBlue accomplishes something staggering, managing to evenly bridge the forms of minimalism and improvisation, revealing their marriage to warrant unceasing exploration. Percussionist Ryan Packard’s ability to impeccably imply pulse while stealthily adding aspects to the groove is key here, allowing for the sound to expand outward while also shifting imperceptibly. The end of The Beginning is an undeniable climax, but the stripped-down Giallorenzo solo passage during the next piece is every bit as evocative. In this kind of music, process is given equal emphasis as product, and RedGreenBlue embody that concept.

Transmit Slow
E3 by Alex Lakusta
(e3byalexlakusta.bandcamp.com/album/transmit-slow)

Numerous points in Transmit Slow can place a listener in a unique state between dissociation and transfixion, peacefully swaying as blissful minutes evaporate. Drawing from numerous palates of ambient and electronic sound, the trio finds their signature from the outset. Alex Lakusta’s bass playing is the definition of substance over style, only playing the notes that lay a necessary harmonic foundation for the ensemble. Drummer Keagan Eskritt and keyboardist Josh Smiley play similarly devoid of superficiality. Transmit Slow is a masterclass in what a rhythm section can achieve artistically when solely focused on grooving as hard as possible. Just as additive are the production efforts of Robert Diack, who adds the perfect amount of polish to the low end; greatly benefiting the music’s textural clarity. Brad Eaton rounds out this cast of consummate professionals, guesting with extremely restrained trumpet playing that does nothing more than needed to further contextualize Lakusta’s arrangements. 

Due to the consistency of Lakusta’s refined bandleading style, the tracks blend together almost as if they were parts of a suite, arriving at nary a single passage in contrived fashion. Quite a bit of the overall cohesion is helped by Smiley’s patience when it comes to creating drones with his organ, allowing for a profoundly hypnotic throughline. This effect is particularly present on the track All Static/Frequency Lost, which seamlessly switches metre and pulse halfway through. That’s the thing about E3, they always stick the landing.

Anatomy
Billy Mohler; Nate Wood; Chris Speed; Shane Endsley
Contagious Music CGM007 (billymohler.bandcamp.com/album/anatomy)

It is perhaps fitting that Anatomy – an album most defined by its clarity and attentiveness – is so profoundly anchored by brief, improvised passages. If the track list were to be split into three, the songs titled Abstract would open each side. As it pertains to the pristine arrangements surrounding these vignettes, these solos serve as a sobering reminder of how fruitless and unnecessary a task it can be to draw a hard line between creative processes. There is still that element of cleanliness and craftsmanship present, mainly due to the fidelity of Billy Mohler’s bass.

Through the hypnotic layering and reverb of Abstract 1, one can almost hear the exact point in which fingers make impact with string. But through his diatonic explorations within a fixed range and found resolutions of phrases in real time, it is not only pure spontaneous expression but an admittance that he isn’t one to have an entire arrangement suddenly appear in his head. By bringing the listener through a process, a greater appreciation is gained for the premeditation going into a track such as Equals. The song lives in a ping-pong match between septuple metre sections for long enough that its brief forays into standard time feel like subversive interludes. Mohler understands the power of a well-intentioned bridge, serving as a memorable detour from more prominent ideas while never being reduced to a mere conduit from point A to point B.

Live in Paris (Radio France Recordings 1983-1984)
Chet Baker Trio
Elemental Music 5990442 (elemental-music.com)

In 1952, near his career’s beginnings, Chet Baker became an instant star playing cool jazz with the Gerry Mulligan quartet. It was the opposite of everything that then characterized modern jazz: glacially slow, meticulously arranged, almost improvisation-free. Thirty years later, just a few years before his death, Baker was still playing a kind of cool jazz, but it was frequently fast, with extended improvisation.

Available as three LPs or two CDs, Live in Paris presents two concert recordings, each featuring Baker’s preferred instrumentation, a chamber jazz trio of trumpet, piano and acoustic bass. The first concert, from L’Esplanade De La Défense, focuses on the Great American Songbook. It’s the ballads that stand out, with stellar instrumental performances of Easy Living and Stella by Starlight, the rhapsodic accompaniment by pianist Michel Graillier (his fluid harmonic invention resembles Bill Evans’) and bassist Dominique Lamerle feeding Baker’s lyrical gift. Episodes of Baker’s scat singing, while mimicking the fluid detail of his trumpet playing, detract from two up-tempo performances. 

The much longer club session from Le Petit Opportun is much more consistent, with Baker foregoing singing and popular songs to concentrate on East Coast hard bop anthems – e.g., Hank Mobley’s Funk in Deep Freeze, Horace Silver’s Strollin’, Richard Carpenter’s Walkin’ – pieces that take on new character with the chamber jazz dynamics and the more forceful bass playing of Riccardo Del Fra, further propelling Baker and Graillier. A 19-minute (the improvisations really are extended) treatment of Brazilian composer Rique Pantoja’s Arbor Way is another highlight.

Cat’s Cradle
Arnab Chakrabarty
Independent (arnabchakrabarty.bandcamp.com/releases)

Musicians from around the globe have chosen to make Toronto home ever since the days it was colloquially tagged for hogs and muddy streets. Virtuoso sarod player Arnab Chakrabarty, a representative of the venerable Hindustani raga classical music tradition, is a relatively recent and welcome addition to the ranks of Toronto-area music professionals.  

No novice, over the last two decades Chakrabarty has played hundreds of concerts on stages around the world. Indian newspaper The Hindu reported that Chakrabarty is “known both for his emotive virtuosity and cerebral approach,” believing not in “simplifying music to cater to popular tastes as much as revelling in ‘manipulating the operative rules of the ragas to create interesting expressions.’” 

Chakrabarty aims to make classical raga performance accessible to today’s audiences without compromising its fundamentals. And his third full-length album Cat’s Cradle, featuring sarod renderings of five classical ragas, reflects this balanced approach. Eschewing flamboyant ornamental passagework, he rather focuses on the core values of the raga at hand which come to life in the alap, the introductory melodic improvisation.

The gat, a melody set in a specific raga and tala (time cycle) the latter rendered on the tabla, follows. On this album the gats are Chakrabarty’s compositions. They in turn inspire improvisation, the outcome of a spirited dialogue between set rules and the musician’s imagination freed up.

Cat’s Cradle gives full scope to Chakrabarty’s in-depth understanding and imaginative exploration of each raga complex, plumbing their signature phrases and emotional tenor while never losing sight of the rich Hindustani traditions of raga performance practice.

Vessel
Gamelan Pacifica
Independent 002 (gamelanpacifica.org)

Led by composer Jarrad Powell, for over 40 years Seattle’s Gamelan Pacifica has been one of the few ensembles specializing in the intersection of Southcentral Javanese gamelan and international experimental music. Its new release Vessel extends that approach in new directions, bookended by two works by group musician and composer Stephen Fandrich. Laras Chopin and Difference both evoke a sound world of electronic clusters, or perhaps of bowed glass bowls, supported by occasional powerful bass tones. Yet Fandrich creates that soundscape using mostly acoustic sounds coaxed from bowed metal gamelan instruments, deep gongs, and a piano played with an electromagnetic bow. The effect is magical.

Fandrich’s Iron Tears explores regions between the Western harmonies rendered by the Del Sol string quartet and indigenous gamelan tunings. They’re allowed to interweave for 12 minutes before cadencing in a surprising A Major chord. 

Powell’s Tsuki features the brilliant Javanese-inflected singing by Jessika Kenney of an English text by Zen Master Doĝen urging us toward direct experience, the path to spiritual awakening. In her challenging work Scar, composer Kenney aims to “unlearn Javanese vocal timbres and melodic patterns without relearning centering whiteness.” She explains the work is a “prayer which intends to reject the violence of white imperial privilege, and also to unlearn [the] Javanese vocal tradition” in which she is so fluent.

Finally, Ketawang Panembah by Darsono Hadirahardjo features an emotional rebab (2-string bowed lute) solo masterfully played by Jesse Snyder. Originally meant to evoke a prayer for divine blessing, this moving music – and much of the album – reminds us of the healing power of music in dark times.

Shanties! Live
La Nef; Chor Leoni
Leaf Music NEF0003 (chorleoni.org/product/shanties-live/)

There could be nothing more eminently singable and danceable than sea shanties – those apparently unforgettable work songs from the 19th century. Fortuitously – perhaps even providentially – proud Canadians (particularly of the Scottish diaspora) continue to keep the cultural flame of the shanty alive. There is much to choose from; shanties – creations of the peripatetic merchant mariner – grew out of the French “chanter” fused into boisterous barn-dancing songs, merrily sung by British mariners into a pint of lager across the ocean to North America. Many have made it to this outstanding live recording. 

Two celebrated traditional music groups – Montreal’s La Nef and Vancouver’s Juno-nominated Chor Leoni, came together for a one-night-only performance of brand new arrangements of these work songs on the resplendent Shanties! Live. It would be a minor travesty to suggest that all praise for this performance accrues to members of La Nef, albeit the fact that the ensemble’s fame is owed to their iconic soundtrack for Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed video game. The participation of the iconic Chor Leoni has – together with arrangements by Seán Dagher and the Chor directed by Erick Lichte – turned this rare collaboration into something truly special. 

Rip-roaring shanties such as Haul on the Bowline and the stomach-churning Stormalong John provide thrill-a-minute excitement. Meanwhile the profound beauty of Lowlands Away, Shallow Brown and Le 31 du mois d’août, and the sublime fidelity of the recording make this classic sea shanties disc truly spectacular.

Listen to 'Shanties! Live' Now in the Listening Room