La Voix Nue – Songs for Unaccompanied Voice by Living Composers
Patricia Green
Blue Griffin Records BGR279
bluegriffin.com

An entire disc of unaccompanied vocal works is a courageous undertaking for a singer, as the selection and performance of repertoire as well as its pacing and placement must engage the listener from start to finish. In addition, the singer must execute absolute precision of pitch while effectively conveying dramatic content. The beautiful, rich, warm tone of Patricia Green’s voice, combined with her dramatic sensibilities and skilful musicianship, is perfect for this collection of songs by living composers. These pieces, though modern, for the most part draw on historical material with texts from Shakespeare, Norwegian history, Ovid, Native legend, 5th-6th century aphorisms and surrealist French poetry.

As a committed performer of new music, Green is highly attuned to the intention of composers and respectfully steps out of the studio to delightfully make an exception to her solitude, allowing the accompaniment of birdsong for the excerpt from R. Murray Schafer’s Princess of the Stars. Another interesting and iconic work, King Harald’s Saga by Scottish composer Judith Weir, highlights Green’s dramatic flare, featuring a mixture of narrative and interchanging roles, each of which is given its own characteristic voice. Hillary Tann’s dramatic song cycle Arachne, in which an apprentice weaver takes a haughty stance with her teacher Athene and pays dearly for it, gives Green yet another opportunity to characterize more than one voice. The same again for Jonathan Dove’s setting of Shakespeare’s Tempest verses in Ariel. A couple of eclectic cycles by José Evangelista and György Kurtágprovide the singer a chance to exhibit a light and playful air, most charming indeed.

O’Riley’s Liszt
Christopher O’Riley
Oxingale OX2020
oxingalerecords.com

This wonderful pair of CDs is the perfect choice for avid lovers of the piano and its orchestral sound. The Lisztian virtuosic excess is like having a meal of rich overwhelming textures and layers of scintillating colours. Christopher O’Riley has astounding technique and control, as well as a creative and wild imagination. Those skills make these Liszt transcriptions a sumptuous and sensual listening experience.

I enjoyed his programming on the first CD. He paired two mammoth showpieces, alternating them with sensitive song transcriptions. He began with the extremely difficult transcription of Mozart’s Don Juan Fantasy, which Moritz Rosenthal had performed to impress Brahms. Schumann/Liszt’s Fruhlingsnacht followed in a tender and gentle interpretation. This was a breath of calm before the stormy and tragic Tristan und Isolde by Wagner/Liszt/Moskowski and O’Riley, who added a vocal line near the end of the piece and managed to make his fingers sing throughout this opera for the piano. He concludes the first CD with Schubert’s Fruhlingslaube. His emotional response to the music is refreshing and his musicality subtle.

The second CD is Liszt’s transcription of the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique. In his excellent program notes, Ethan Iverson quotes Charles Halle who said that Liszt played his piano version “with an effect even surpassing that of a full orchestra and creating an indescribable furor.” O’Riley displays his own gargantuan keyboard skills in this incredible performance. I didn’t miss the orchestra at all and O’Riley made the piano thunder and sing in washes of orchestral sound. Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath was monumental and devilish. These CDs are highly recommended.

Editor’s Note:O’Riley’s Liszt is also available on a Blu-Ray video disc which includes a special feature The Bells of Berlioz with artist’s commentary (Oxingale OX2021).

Koechlin; Schmitt; Rivier; Cartan;
Bozza Duo (Jean-Guy Boisvert;
Christiane Laflamme)
ATMA ACD2 2679

Moncton-based clarinettist Jean-Guy Boisvert’s latest project on the ATMA label brings together colleagues Christiane Laflamme (flute) and Jean-Willy Kunz (keyboards) from the Université de Montréal in an extended program of relatively unknown French miniatures from the margins of the 20th century wind repertoire, including several world premiere recordings. The 27 tracks are united by the recurring presence of the great Alsatian master Charles Koechlin, who is represented by 14 tracks interspersed with compositions by his contemporaries.

The best known of these fellow travellers is Florent Schmitt, represented here by the delightfully quirky modulations of his 1935 Sonatine for flute, clarinet and harpsichord. Also of note is the intriguing 1967 Duo for flute and clarinet by Jean Rivier, the slow movement of which is the only example that briefly flirts with the serial techniques of the 1960s. A series of duets by the short-lived Jean Cartan and the woodwind doyen Eugène Bozza fill out the guest list.

Koechlin is represented by the self-consciously antiquarian Sonatine modale and similarly conceived Motets de style archaïque duets along with six excerpts from his Monodies for solo clarinet. An example of Koechlin’s unique harmonic palette is briefly represented by his Pastorale for flute, clarinet and piano. The duets are masterpieces of contrapuntal writing while the best of the solo pieces is represented by the eerie chromatic bifurcations of the Chant funéraire. Koechlin also wrote extensively for solo flute and it is regrettable that we are not allowed to enjoy the clear and attractive tone of Christiane Laflamme in at least a few examples from the 96 pieces that constitute his monumental Les Chants de Nectaire. The recording is artfully captured in a warm, close acoustic recorded at the Domain Forget in Québec.

At the time of writing, the outstanding Toronto double bassist and former TSO principal Joel Quarrington is about to take up his new position as principal bassist of the London Symphony Orchestra. His latest CD with pianist David Jalbert on the Modica Music label, Brothers in Brahms (MM013), consequently has somewhat of a parting gift feel about it, having been recorded at the CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio just this past March and released in June. The title comes from a concert program that the Toronto RCM’s ARC Ensemble presented ten years ago, in which Quarrington was asked to play the Double Bass Sonata Op.97 by Brahms’ contemporary and friend Robert Fuchs. Quarrington had never heard of Fuchs or the sonata, but was quite taken with it, and eventually chose to record it by following the ARC Ensemble’s original program idea, pairing it with his own transcriptions of works by Brahms and Robert Schumann.

The Brahms might stop you in your tracks at first hearing: it’s the Violin Sonata No.1 in G Major, Op.78; a work you wouldn’t think would be able to survive a drop of a couple of octaves for the solo part. It takes a bit of getting used to, but soon assumes a character of its own and does work very well. Quarrington rightly stresses the singing nature of the solo part in his booklet notes and more than justifies this observation with his playing.

The transcription of Schumann’s beautiful Adagio and Allegro Op.70 for French horn is more immediately successful, but the main interest here is the Fuchs sonata. It’s a terrific work, with a cello-like quality much of the time, and quite Brahmsian in style — lyrical, Romantic, lush and passionate. As the original three movements are all Allegro, Quarrington chose to add the Andante from Fuchs’ Three Pieces for Contrabass and Piano Op.96 as a slow third movement; it works extremely well.

Quarrington’s playing throughout the CD is superb, combining virtuosity and musicianship with a tone and agility that are at times quite astonishing. Jalbert is his equal in all respects, and the recorded sound and balance are faultless.

Polish-born violinist Jerzy Kaplanek is a member of the Waterloo-based Penderecki String Quartet and associate professor in the Faculty of Music at Wilfrid Laurier University. On his new CD Exoticism – The Music of Karol Szymanowski (Marquis MAR 437), he is joined by pianist Stéphan Sylvestre, associate professor of piano at Western University, in a recital of works by his compatriot.

Kaplanek readily admits that he feels he has known and understood Szymanowski’s music since his childhood days; it’s certainly borne out by his exemplary playing on this excellent disc. Two of the major works here — the Nocturne and Tarantella Op.28 and Mythes Op.30 — are from 1915, at the start of the composer’s most prolific period. Also included are the Sonata in D Minor, Op.9 from 1904, the early B Minor Prelude Op.1 No.1 in a transcription by Grażyna Bacewicz, and the Chant de Roxane from the post-war opera King Roger.

Szymanowski always wrote gratefully for the violin — his two violin concertos are particularly beautiful — and the music throughout this disc is a delight. Beautifully recorded at the Banff Centre in 2011, the recital features outstanding playing from both artists, with the wonderful Mythes the particularly dazzling highlight of a terrific CD.

Violinist Viktoria Mullova is joined by harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone and the Accademia Bizantina on a new Onyx CD of Bach Concertos (ONYX 4114). The two standard solo concertos — the A Minor BWV1041 and the E Major BWV1042 — are here, together with two transcriptions: the E Major Concerto for Harpsichord, arranged for violin in D major; and the Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C Minor, arranged for violin and harpsichord.

Mullova’s playing is simply beautiful: crisp, clean and light, with a nice sense of space. The slow movement of the E major concerto is particularly lovely. The two transcribed concertos aren’t quite as successful, but are still highly satisfying. The C minor concerto perhaps transcribes better, but both works have really nice third movements, with some particularly dazzling harpsichord passages in the duo concerto.

Beautifully presented in a glossy card folder, this is a simply lovely CD.

The wonderful Gil Shaham is back with another outstanding CD on his own Canary Classics label, teaming up once again with his sister Orli Shaham for a fascinating recital titled Nigunim – Hebrew Melodies (CC10). It’s a mixture of old and new, with Josef Bonime’s Danse hébraïque and Joseph Achron’s Hebrew Melody and Two Hebrew Pieces bracketing the major work on the CD, Avner Dorman’s Nigunim (Violin Sonata No.3). The Dorman work was commissioned for this recording by the Shaham siblings, who wanted to emphasize the relevance of the Jewish music tradition in today’s world, and it’s a stunning piece, the virtuosity and quality of which quite clearly thrilled the performers.

The other works on the CD are: John Williams’ Three Pieces from Schindler’s List, the link to the 1940s Poland of their grandparents giving the music a personal relevance for the performers; Leo Zeitlin’s Eli Zion, transcribed by Joseph Achron from the original 1914 piece for cello and piano; and Ernest Bloch’s three-movement Baal Shem, the terrific performance of which features a particularly glorious Nigun central movement.

The Shahams grew up with this music, and it shows: the violin playing throughout the marvellous CD is rich, warm and idiomatic, and the piano playing always sympathetic and perfectly attuned.

The young Czech violinist Josef Špaček has a new CD on the Supraphon label, pianist and fellow Czech Miroslav Sekera joining him in a recital of works by Janáček, Smetana and Prokofiev (SU 4129-2). Both players are clearly very much at home in the Janáček Sonata for Violin and Piano and Smetana’s From the Homeland: Two Pieces for Violin and Piano, but Špaček shows a remarkable affinity for the music of Prokofiev as well. The Sonata for Solo Violin Op.115 is a relatively short but charming work and Špaček gets it absolutely right, with a perfect mix of lyrical and spiky percussive playing in the opening movement, a lovely Theme and Variations middle movement and a nicely contrasted — and not too fast! — finale.

Both players are in dazzling form in Prokofiev’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in F Minor, Op.80, from the lovely wispy violin scales over the slow, deep bass piano octaves of the first movement, through the percussive second movement to the brilliant Allegrissimo finale and the return to the mysterious mood of the sonata’s opening bars.

The great sound and balance contribute to an outstanding CD.

Jennifer Higdon, who recently turned 50, is firmly established as one of the leading contemporary American composers. With Early Chamber Works (8.559752) Naxos has added a fascinating retrospective CD to its American Classics series, presenting première recordings, made in association with the composer, of five works from the formative years of Higdon’s career. They are all finely crafted and very accessible.

The Serafin String Quartet opens the CD with a short but lovely setting of Amazing Grace, followed by the Sky Quartet, a four-movement work inspired by the immensity and beauty of the Western U.S. sky. The quartet’s violist Molly Carr is joined by pianist Charles Abramovic for the early — and really beautiful — Sonata for Viola and Piano from 1990, and bassoonist Eric Stomberg joins a standard piano trio line-up for Dark Wood, a short piece that Higdon describes as exploring the bassoon’s virtuosic abilities as well as respecting its soulful nature.

Members of the Serafin Quartet perform the earliest work on the CD, the String Trio from 1988; it’s a terrific work that draws an interesting comment from Higdon, who says it “reveals a young composer in the process of finding her own voice. The language is restless and searching, and even the arrival points do not feel quite settled.” She calls it “a good place to be if you are a developing composer.”

And an even better place to be if you are an interested listener!

Françaix – Music for String Orchestra
Sir Georg Solti Chamber Orchestra, Budapest; Kerry Stratton
Toccata Classics TOCC 0162

Sometimes all it takes is a letter to provide further impetus for a new disc. At least, that was the case with Canadian conductor Kerry Stratton who, upon searching for some fresh material, contacted Jacques Françaix, son of the eminent composer Jean Françaix, asking if there was any music by his father that had never been recorded. Yes, came the reply, the score for the ballet Die Kamelien and the Ode on Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. Two years later, both pieces are to be found on this fine CD of music for strings on the Toccata Classics label featuring the Sir Georg Solti Chamber Orchestra.

2012 marked the centenary of Françaix’s birth — he lived until 1997 — and over the course of his lifetime, he quietly carved out a niche as a gifted and prolific composer, completing more than 200 pieces in numerous genres. The disc opens with the Symphony for Strings, written in 1948. Containing more than just a touch of French insouciance, this is elegant music, elegantly played, with the GSCO’s strongly assured performance further enhanced by a warm and resonant sound. Less well known is the ballet music Françaix wrote for Die Kamelien (The Camellias), loosely based on the 1848 play by Alexandre Dumas, which premiered at New York City Centre in 1951. The score is a study in contrasts, from the eerie opening to the highly spirited fifth movement, Im Spielsaal. Also receiving its premiere on CD is the brief Ode on Botticelli’s Birth of Venus from 1961, a haunting and evocative homage to the Renaissance Italian painter. Here, the delicately shaped phrasing goes hand in hand with a wonderful sense of transparency.

Kudos to Kerry Stratton and the GSCO, not only for some fine music-making, but for uncovering some unknown treasures that might otherwise have been overlooked.

Allan Gordon Bell – Gravity and Grace
Land’s End Chamber Ensemble
with James Campbell
Centrediscs CMCCD 19013

Gravity and Grace is a collection of recent chamber works by Alberta composer Allan Gordon Bell, featuring Calgary’s Land’s End Chamber Ensemble with guest James Campbell on clarinet. Bolstered by great performances by the core piano trio and guests, Bell’s music shimmers and shrieks, grumbles and growls.

Bell is afflicted with delight in sonority and fascinated by the physical fact of consonance, using an effective range of dissonance as a foil. He expresses a kind of gratitude to the world around him in all these works. He is a strongly visual composer; in one piece sounds create images of falcons rising on thermals above the prairie or cascades of water tumbling into pools. In Field Notes he begins with a depiction of two rivers meeting and finishes with a sunset. Sweetgrass wraps paired contrasting images of the prairie around a still central movement that takes a page out of Béla Bartók.

The album title derives from the final work on the disc. Trails of Gravity and Grace, for clarinet cello and piano, was commissioned by Toronto’s Amici ensemble. As good as the title is, it is the weakest part of a strong collection. The limited palate doesn’t suit the composer, and I must confess that at times I found Mr. Campbell’s intonation questionable.

Apart from that, the playing is solid and committed; I especially enjoyed Sweetgrass, (written in 1997, the earliest of these pieces) for a sextet requiring three guests: Calgary musicians flutist Mary Sullivan, Ilana Dahl on clarinets and Kyle Eustace on percussion. Bell is wise to write for some common groupings in the contemporary idiom: here it’s “Pierrot plus percussion.” Field Notes is written for the same group as Quartet for the End of Time.

Both Bartók and Olivier Messiaen could be fellow travellers with Bell. They shared a similar mystical regard for the natural world and made efforts to incorporate that world into their music. Bartók’s Contrasts and the Messiaen Quatuor would ride alongside Field Notes quite comfortably.

Woman Runs with Wolves
Beverley Johnston
Centrediscs CMCCD 18913

This new release by Canadian superstar percussionist Beverley Johnston has everything a listener loves — stellar performances, strong compositions and clear sound quality.

The title track, Woman Runs With Wolves by Alice Ho, is based on the myth La Loba from Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. It is a dramatic work, with Johnston vocalizing a text of an invented language while playing hand-held percussion instruments. The work also involves acting and movement but Johnston’s precise rhythmic patterns and surprising range of vocal colours make it moving even without the visuals.

Christos Hatzis’ In the Fire of Conflict is a two-movement solo marimba and audio playback version of an earlier work also featuring cello. The marimba part adds a contrapuntal melodic line to the haunting rap tracks by Bugsy H. (aka Steve Henry) and tape effects, while the rhythmic component breaks down the boundaries between classical and pop music. Hatzis’ Arctic Dreams also features flutist Susan Hoeppner and soprano Lauren Margison in a soundscape of jazzy marimba, trilling flute and lush vocals against a wilderness-evoking tape part.

David Occhipinti’s moving marimba solo Summit, and three duets with pianist Pamela Reimer — Tim Brady’s rhythmically driven Rant! (based on a Rick Mercer “Rant”), Micheline Roi’s Grieving the Doubts of Angels and the film score-like Up and Down Dubstep by Lauren Silberberg — add compositional contrast and colour.

Johnston’s sense of phrase, tone colour and respect for the composers shine throughout this perfect release from a perfect musician.

WomanChild
Cecile McLorin Salvant
Justin Time JTR 8580-2
justin-time.com

When the American singer Cécile McLorin Salvant won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2010, the buzz around her was massive. Relatively young and coming seemingly out of nowhere, she impressed the judges with her poise and talent. The praise then and since has been effusive (on a recent cover of Jazz News she was referred to as simply “The Voice”) and it’s all well deserved.

The sounds of many legendary jazz singers can be heard in Salvant’s voice — most apparently Sarah Vaughan — in particular in the pure, horn-like quality that is one of the hallmarks of a great vocal talent. Confident and sure-footed in both traditional and modern styles, she gets basic and loose on the bluesy St. Louis Gal and the New Orleans-style Nobody, then edgy and outside the box on the title track, WomanChild, her own composition. Her sophistication quotient goes up even a few more notches when she sings easily and naturally in French on Le Front Caché Sur Tes Genoux.

The overall feeling of the album is masterful and that owes a lot to Salvant’s band mates. She has chosen to work with some very experienced players — like Rodney Whitaker, bass, Herlin Riley, drums, and James Chirillo, guitar and banjo — who bring a steady hand to the mix, while piano player Aaron Diehl is, like Salvant, a rising star in the jazz world. For fans who may worry about the art form’s future, this album is a sign it’s in very good hands.

Our Second Set
John MacLeod & His Rex Hotel Orchestra
Independent
johnsjazz.ca

Further proof — if indeed it is needed — of the astonishing quality of musicians in Toronto can be found on this, the second CD by this orchestra, recorded January 3 and 4, 2013, at the Humber College recording studio. The arrangements, all by John MacLeod except for Melancholy Baby which is by Rick Wilkins, are works of art and the program is a comfortable mix of standards and originals.

The standards are a high energy Indiana, a richly textured arrangement of Everything Happens To Me, what MacLeod describes as a “mash up” arrangement of O Pato and Take The A Train and the lovely Wilkins arrangement of Melancholy Baby mentioned above. The originals are beautifully played by what can truly be described as an all-star gathering.

The musicianship throughout is exemplary, the soloists are at the top of their respective games and I would hardly be able to single out any one of them. Having said that I would be remiss if I didn’t take my hat off to leader John MacLeod who is the catalyst providing the chemistry that brings it all together. Running a big band involves a lot of time and effort, especially if you are also doing the bulk of the writing.

If you like big band jazz you need to add this recording to your collection.

—Jim Galloway

Da Bang!
Billy Bang
Tum Records TUM CD 034
tumrecords.com

Billy Bang came of age amidst the Civil Rights movement and free jazz. Having studied violin as a child, he returned to the instrument after combat duty in Vietnam, a harrowing experience later revisited in recordings like Vietnam: Reflections. From his first recordings in the late 70s, he emerged as the most compelling jazz violinist of his day, combining the robust swing of 1930s violinists like Stuff Smith and the visionary power of John Coltrane.

Bang recorded this final session in Finland in February 2011, two months before his death from lung cancer. The repertoire includes two very familiar tunes, Miles Davis’ All Blues and Sonny Rollins’ calypso-fuelled St. Thomas, but even that emphasizes Bang’s originality in mating musicians and material. The front line of Bang’s eerily thin violin sound and Dick Griffin’s robust trombone is very distinctive, emphasizing the combination of frailty and force that gives Bang’s work a special intensity.

The band sounds as if Bang assembled it for maximum authority, creating a powerhouse rhythm section of pianist Andrew Bemkey, bassist Hilliard Greene and drummer Newman Taylor-Baker. They work in a largely received tradition, but Bang extends it in stunning ways: in his unaccompanied introduction to Don Cherry’s Guinea, pentatonic patterns and microtones link vernacular violin sounds — a Vietnamese đàn gáo, a Kenyan orutu — to early traditions of African-American fiddling, suggesting a unique perspective on the expressive depths and possibilities of jazz. Da Bang! is a powerful final testament.

Red Hot
Mostly Other People Do The Killing
Hot Cup HC 125
hotcuprecords.com

Trumpeter Peter Evans, who along with drummer Weasel Walter, bassist Tom Blancarte and pianist Charity Chan is featured at a punk-jazz-improv concert at the Arraymusic space on September 4, has quickly become one of jazz’s most in-demand and versatile brass men. Proficient elsewhere playing atonal music, this CD by an expanded version of the co-op group Mostly Other People Do The Killing (MOPDtK) finds the New York-based brass man helping to create a respectful but sophisticated take on early jazz. That Evans has mammoth chops is without question, and you can note that on Zelienople, where following a wood-block [!] break from drummer Kevin Shea, Evans’ open-horn exposition is bird-song sweet at one instance and growly as a warthog by the next. Meanwhile on Orange is the Name of the Town, he fires off triplet patterns after triplet patterns with aplomb.

While classic jazz fanciers probably won’t be offended, sardonic Red Hot is no by-rote Dixieland-recreation. For a start, MOPDtK bassist Moppa Elliott composed the nine selections, and each draws on a conservatory full of influences. On the title track for instance, there are echoes of sci-fi-like electronic processing plus clunking banjo twangs, both created by Brandon Seabrook. Meanwhile the two-step melody is extended by pianist Ron Stabinsky’s ragtime-styled pumps, and climaxes when Jon Irabagon’s C-Melody sax wails pierce the connective four-horn vamp.

Atmospherically (post) modern and good time music in equal measure, the CD demonstrates clearly how many avant-garde tropes like broken-octave sax peeps or squeezed and hectoring brass tones actually have a long history. It also shows how top-flight music can be made up of many inferences. Elliott, for instance, begins Turkey Foot Corner not with Trad Jazz bass string slaps but spiccato plucks, that while undoubtedly modern, blend seamlessly into a two-beat band arrangement that emphasizes bass trombone guffaws from David Taylor.

In the spirit that jazz is increasingly an international language, this month’s collection of CDs emphasizes that dialogue, from American guests turning up on Canadian musicians’ CDs to Canadian expatriates who are members of a global community.

Montreal tenor saxophonist Chet Doxas has just released Dive (Addo AJR 015 addorecords.com), a well-conceived successor to his JUNO-nominated 2010 release Big Sky. Doxas has put together a New York-based rhythm section, though it includes Canadian expatriates, Toronto-born guitarist Matthew Stevens and Montreal-born bassist Zack Lober, as well as drummer Eric Doob. The music is in a contemporary idiom (Doxas also co-leads Riverside, a band that includes Dave Douglas and Steve Swallow), and Doxas delights in cleverly constructed pieces that he and the band negotiate with ease, creating playful engaging music. Doxas’ light tenor sound is made for mobility and everything here contributes to quick, spontaneous reactions. Stevens’ processed guitar sound contributes much to the overall feel: it’s at once glassy and opaque, shimmering and muted, and the abstracted clarity of his work comes to the fore on the elusive Mysteries.

A native of Williams Lake, BC, now based in Toronto, tenor saxophonist Ryan Oliver studied in the celebrated Jazz Program at Rutgers University in New Jersey where he got to know veteran New York drummer Victor Lewis, the two exploring rhythmic concepts in weekly duet sessions. Lewis appears on Oliver’s Strive! (ryanoliver.ca) and brings Oliver’s John Coltrane influence into sharp focus, from the turbulent dialogue of the opening title track, so evocative of Coltrane’s duets with Elvin Jones, to the elegiac Thousand Miles, Oliver’s impassioned high notes framed by Lewis’ ceremonial cymbals. There are still elements of Coltrane’s harmonic conception on the funk of Eddie and Crescent City Stomp but the back beats open the door to Oliver’s soul-jazz side and also provide openings for the rest of the band — pianist Gary Williamson and bassist Alex Coleman — to shine. While Oliver may lack originality at this point, he makes up for it in conviction and skill.

There’s more imported propulsion on the Cory Weeds/Bill Coon Quartet’s With Benefits (Cellar Live CL 091812 cellarlive.com), a terrific session in which Vancouverite tenor saxophonist Weeds and guitarist Coons enjoy the estimable support of the New York rhythm team of bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash. They are all masters of a modern jazz mainstream defined in the 1950s, but they speak it as a personal idiom, whether it’s Weeds’ hard-edged lyricism or Coon’s lightly sparkling lines. Coon’s compositions make up half of the program, distinctive tunes that range from the superb balladry of Sunday Morning to the hard bop of Cory’s Story. The group dialogue is never better, though, than on the standard East of the Sun, a feature for Weeds’ warm balladry.

Like Weeds and Coon, bassist Clyde Reed is an essential part of the Vancouver scene, a stalwart presence in free jazz and improvising groups like the NOW Orchestra and Ion Zoo. One of his longest running affiliations is with the Oregon-based tenor saxophonist Rich Halley whose elemental music is one with the Pacific Northwest: his Crossing the Passes (Pine Eagle 005 richhalley.com) consists of compositions inspired by a hike across Oregon’s Wallowa Mountains, an outcropping of the Rockies. Halley’s compositions can be as jagged as a series of peaks, as varied as the terrain and there’s clear empathy with trombonist Michael Vlatkovich, who supplies the same emotion and force that characterize Halley’s own lines. Reed is a bulwark of empathy and form, whether providing rapid propulsion with drummer Carson Halley on Duology or coming to the fore with warm pizzicato and arco solos.

Drummer Greg Smith went to Europe with Toronto’s Shuffle Demons in the mid-90s and decided to stay there, taking up residence in Holland. Among his current projects is a Rotterdam-based band called Lama with Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and bassist Gonçalo Almeida. The group expands to Lama + Chris Speed with the addition of the New York saxophonist and clarinettist for Lamaçal (Clean Feed CF 275 cleanfeed-records.com), a live performance from the Portalegre Jazz Festival. This is lively creative music that delights in detailed close interaction amid a mix of unusual sonic textures: suggestions of village brass bands, Middle-Eastern scales, electronic loops and whale sounds abound. It even combines old-fashioned New Orleans polyphony with atonality. Smith’s boppish composition Cachalote is highlighted by a duet between the drummer and the mercurial Speed.

Pianist Kris Davis has followed a path from Calgary to Toronto and on to Brooklyn where she has established herself as one of the most creative improvisers of her generation. She appears on bassist Eric Revis’ City of Asylum (Clean Feed CF 277 cleanfeed-records.com) in a piano trio completed by the veteran drummer Andrew Cyrille. The studio session marked the first meeting of the three musicians, but there’s no sense that they’re feeling one another out. There’s aggressive creative interplay in the freely improvised pieces, with a special attention to momentum, the three sometimes developing tremendous swing while pursuing independent rhythms. A playful approach to Thelonious Monk’s Gallop’s Gallop and a reverent one to Keith Jarrett’s Prayer reveal something of the trio’s range and affinities. 

Twenty years after its modest beginning, the Guelph Jazz Festival (GJF), which this year takes place September 3 to 8, has grown to be one of this country’s major improvised music celebrations. Unlike many other so-called jazz fests which lard their programs with crooners masquerading as jazz singers, tired rock or pop acts, or so-called World or C&W performers who make no pretence of playing jazz, the GJF continues to showcase committed improvisers in sympathetic settings including during the fourth installment of the dusk-to-dawn Nuit Blanche.

Perhaps the most celebrated innovator at the GJF is trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. His Golden Quartet, which shares a double bill at the River Run Centre (RRC)’s main stage September 7, performs a variant of his classic Ten Freedom Summer suite, shortlisted for this year’s Pulitzer Prize in music. Part of that program was recorded with an orchestra, and you can get an idea of Smith’s structural blending listening to Occupy The World (TUM CD 037-2 tumrecords.com) as the 21-piece TUM Orchestra (TUMO) interprets another Smith composition. The selections’ intricate arrangements serve not to frame Smith’s muted brass flurries, which bring Miles Davis-like ballad mastery into the 21st century, but open up to the talents of the mostly Finnish orchestra. You can hear that on the title track when the trumpeter’s tale told through rubato grace notes and squeezed triplets is matched with tom-tom-like passages from TUMO’s three percussionists, followed by massed polyphony pierced by legato strings, a tremolo harp sequence and Smith’s conclusive brassy and heraldic tones. The Golden Quartet’s bassist John Lindberg is soloist on Mount Kilimanjaro, where his magisterial double and triple stopping establish a staccato pantonality which encourages the five-person string section to abandon legato thrusts for stirring sweeps, and despite being performed at warp speed, encourages a satisfying orchestral mosaic. Leaving space for split-second sonic blasts from the entire band, before the warm and welcoming conclusion, Lindberg joins the other tremolo strings for a sequence of scrubs and sweeps. Incidentally, Swedish tenor saxophonist Fredrik Ljungkvist, part of the Atomic band, which is at the RRC’s Co-operators Hall September 4 during the GJF, is one stand-out on Queen Hatshepsut when his bravura churning and almost vocalized tenor saxophone lines make a perfect pantonal contrast to pointillist smears from accordion and piano.

Balancing a delicate outer shell with a steely core, American flutist Nicole Mitchell is another major improv figure whose Indigo Trio plays St. George’s Church’s Mitchell Hall September 5. A similar configuration with bassist Joshua Abrams and drummer Frank Rosaly expands with additional colours on Aquarius (Delmark DE 5004 delmark.com) when the three and vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz make up the Ice Crystal band. What Herbie Mann’s combo could have sounded like if he had ignored rock-pop blandishments, even Mitchell’s blues and Latin tunes trade simplicity for sophistication as four-mallet, bell-like tones from the vibist and her gruff tremolo gusts are as linear as they are lyrical. Other pieces such as Above the Sky reflect mood rather than linearity, borne on metal-bar smacks and swooping flute flutters. Another standout, Sunday Afternoon has a pastoral title, yet adds Chicago grit to become a straight-ahead swinger, following Abrams’ stentorian solo that expands into string multiphonics while maintaining a steady pulse. Meanwhile the rhythmic adaptability of Rosaly is succinctly showcased on Adaptability. He proves that a program of rim shots, rolls and pops doesn’t retard the beat but instead underlines the metallic origin of the other instruments Adasiewicz and Mitchell transform with extended techniques, to soar and bounce as well as peep and resonate. 

Another inventive figure is pianist Satoko Fujii, whose French-Japanese Kaze Quartet is at the RRC’s Co-operators Hall on the morning of September 7. Kaze trumpeter Natsuki Tamura is also featured on Time Stands Still (NotTwo MW 897-2 nottwo.com) along with Fujii, bassist Norikatsu Koreyasu and drummer Akira Horikoshi as the quartet Ma-Do. Anything but Orientalist, except for some taiko-like thumps from Horikoshi and Koreyasu’s erhu-like patterning during the appropriately titled Broken Time, Fujii’s concepts are closely aligned to bedrock jazz plus inferences from so-called classical music. That tune accelerates to a layered swinger with strummed chords and glissandi from the pianist plus a Gabriel-like open-horn trumpet solo. Relaxed excitement is the touchstone of North Wind and the Sun on the other hand, where Tamura’s moderated linear exposition turns to sibilant lip bubbling as Fujii’s double pumping and circular chording plus sweeping bass lines engender friction but never break the chromatic line. In contrast Set the Clock Back is almost formalist with Chopinesque keyboard touches and legato note construction from the trumpeter. Outstanding and more experimental are Koreyasu’s a cappella string shakes which redirect the tune so that following his solo, when the head reappears, it too is more tremolo and agitated.

Outstanding double bass work from closer to home is on tap during a free Market Square afternoon concert that same day when Montreal bassist Jean Félix Mailloux performs his compositions from Bomata – Arômes d’allieurs (Malasartes mam 016 malasartesmusique.com) with his associates, percussionist Patrick Graham and Guillaume Bourque playing clarinet and bass clarinet. A trio which has internalized “scents from elsewhere” – the translation of the CD title – Bomata’s unhurried performances reference various ethnic styles without becoming subservient to any. A fine instance of this mixing is Cardamome when cross pulses from Graham and second drummer Phillippe Melanson move contrapuntally alongside a walking bass line, providing a trembling rhythm to Bourque’s mid-range, Klezmer-like overlay. The reedman’s mercurial high-note skill is on display on Shaman, with the bass taking on a slinky oud-like resonance and guest frame drummer Ziya Tabassian adding hard thwacks to toughen the beat. Yet as intense as the bassist’s and clarinettist’s improvisations become neither disrupts the basic thematic flow. Pianist Jérôme Beaulieu, who joins Bomata on a couple of tracks, is a little too decorous, creating a crystallite Nordic feel which clashes with Bourque’s ney-like sound on Nuit Blanche. Although with 13 tracks, sameness sets in at points, most performances argue well for the band’s continued evolution from this 2012 CD. Chinoiseries could offer one path, with the arrangement open enough to allow the reedist some altissimo smears even as the theme stays linear, with the end product suggesting both Eastern European concertina-like riffs plus a swinging jazz-like interface.

Broadsway – Old Friends
Heather Bambrick; Julie Michels;
Diane Leah
Broadsway BWCD001
thebroadswayshow.com

Three broads sing it their way: meet Broadsway, an explosively talented trio. The versatile voices of Heather Bambrick and Julie Michels are paired with acclaimed pianist/musical director Diane Leah, who in this context sings, plays and arranges exquisitely. Charmingly, the project started out by accident, when Michels, accompanied by Leah, invited Bambrick to sit in on what turned out to be a fantabulous version of Moondance (find it on YouTube!) in November of 2008. Turns out these three women have more in common than curly hair: incredible musicality, electric stage presence and, central to the group, a mutual respect and admiration for one another. Nearly five years after that first “Moondance,” they’ve turned their innate musical sisterhood into a sublime, polished cabaret act.

Likely the only group in the world to perform Puccini, Lady Gaga and Thelonious Monk in the same set, Broadsway can do seemingly anything, but most of their material comes from musical theatre and film. Highlights of this recording include Take Me or Leave Me from Rent, I Know Him So Well from Chess, a testament to songwriting genius in the Broadsway Bacharach medley and a contagiously joyous romp through the challenging Lambert, Hendricks & Ross vehicle Cloudburst. Balancing the wild spontaneity of a given moment with years of friendship, there will never be another Broadsway. And while there is no substitute to seeing these ladies in concert, this CD comes highly recommended.

—Ori Dagan

Concert Note:Broadsway performs on September 6 and 7 at the Flying Beaver Pubaret at 488 Parliament St.

Benjamin Bitten: The Complete Works.
Limited Edition of 3,000 copies world-wide.
Benjamin Britten, conductor, pianist.
DECCA 4785364 The deluxe boxed set of 65 CDs, one DVD
includes a 208 page, 6”x 8” illustrated hard cover book.

Of all the omnibus anniversary sets and innumerable artist-driven collections that have arrived recently, none has been more eagerly anticipated in this house than this Benjamin Britten collection. Now it is here in a limited edition of 3,000 copies worldwide in a deluxe boxed set of 65 CDs, with a DVD and a 208-page 6˝×8˝ illustrated book and there is not one whit of disappointment.

My first awareness of Britten (1913–1976) came on recordings of a handful of his arrangements of British folk songs from HMV with Britten accompanying Peter Pears: The Foggy Foggy Dew; The Ploughboy; Come you not from Newcastle?; Oliver Cromwell; The Sally Gardens and some others. I found them very pleasing and looked for more Britten in the record shops. One piece led to another, evolving into a continuing interest in Britten’s other works. Even more enticing was that he was alive then and there would be more to come. And there certainly was!

The Complete Works is divided into four groups: The Operas (CDs 1-20); Stage and Screen (CDs 21-32); Voices (CDs 33-48) and Instruments (CDs 49-61). There are four extra discs described below.

In Voices, discs 46, 47 and 48 contain 100 songs and folksong arrangements, including the above and all the others of that era (1945–47) plus later recordings, including six settings of W.H. Auden sung by Pears, Philip Langridge and Felicity Lott with various accompanists. This group includes the War Requiem, recorded in 1963, with soloists Galina Vishnevskaya, Pears and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, plus three choirs, organ, the Melos Ensemble and the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Britten (CD 33).This compelling work was commissioned for the consecration of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in 1962 for which Britten, who had a completely free hand, chose the traditional Latin text from the Missa pro defunctis juxtaposed with nine poems by Wilfred Owen, who was slain in the last days of the First World War. Other works in Voices are the Spring Symphony; Cantata Academica; Saint Nicholas; A Boy was Born; A Ceremony of Carols; Rejoice in the Lamb; Missa Brevis; The Serenade for tenor, horn and strings (with Barry Tuckwell); Les Illuminations; The Five Canticles; The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo; and all the others including the shorter works.

Until 1945 Britten was widely thought of, particularly in the older British music circles, as clever but superficial ... that was until June 7, 1945. That date marked the first performance of his second opera, Peter Grimes. The audience went wild as did critics and the British music establishment. Britten had emerged as an overnight, international success. He was now a composer of stature, lauded by all and sundry. In the premiere, the wronged, anguished Grimes was superbly realized by Pears, as he was on the 1948 recording of an abridged performance conducted by Reginald Goodall (EMI) and a decade further on in the 1959 complete recording conducted by Britten (CDs 3&4). Once a listener tunes in to Pears’ unmistakable timbre and the emotional depth of his performance, it is very easy to understand why Britten so vehemently disliked Jon Vickers in the role.

With the exception of the brilliant A Midsummer Night’s Dream (CDs 15&16), central to Britten’s operas is a misunderstood, injured and/or offended character who is also something of an innocent. The lonely and misjudged Peter Grimes is a perfect example, but none more deeply touching than Aschenbach in Death in Venice (CDs 19&20), based on Thomas Mann’s well-known story and the last of Britten’s operas. They are all here including Gloriana (CDs 11&12), conducted by Charles Mackerras in 1993. I am particularly fond of The Rape of Lucretia (CDs 5&6) which followed one year after Peter Grimes. Reginald Goodall conducted the Royal Opera House Orchestra with Pears and Joan Cross in 1947 in a truncated version (HMV) that sold me on the work but under Britten in 1971 with Pears (the male chorus) and Heather Harper (the female chorus), plus Janet Baker, Benjamin Luxon and others we have the definitive version.

As there is little space left to muse upon the many more works that continue to attract, let me direct you to the Decca website (deccaclassics.com) where there is a detailed list of the complete contents.

The last four discs (CDs 62 to 65) are unique to this edition. They are: Making Music with Britten — a documentary with singers, instrumentalists, orchestral musicians and producers recalling their experiences with Britten; rehearsal excerpts of the War Requiem recording sessions; historic recordings from 1944 to 1953 — four recordings including the 1948 Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings with Britten, Dennis Brain and the Boyd Neel Orchestra and also the Four Sea Interludes with Eduard van Beinum and the Concertgebouw; and supplementary recordings from 1955 to 1989. The extra disc is a DVD of the Tony Palmer video of the recording of The Burning Fiery Furnace.

The recordings heard are mainly from Decca, who also drew upon the archives of EMI, Virgin, Warner Music, Onyx, Bis and 14 other labels. It is of no consequence, except to pedants, that some very early works and film music are not included.

Earnestly recommended and a must see for those who might be interested is Benjamin Britten: The Hidden Heart, a DVD from EMI (509992 165719). Subtitled A Life of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, this 78-minute film produced in 2001 contains interviews and quotes from their associates, friends and relatives together with rare archival footage of significant performances. This is not an apologia but an appreciation and recognition of their symbiosis.