Hush – New Works for Flute and Electronics
Roberta Michel
New Focus Recordings FCR422 (newfocusrecordings.com/catalogue/roberta-michel-hush)

Roberta Michel’s intrepid musicianship has caught the attention of avant-garde artists and groups such as the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Bang on a Can, the Wet Ink Ensemble and others. On Hush she takes the flute – her chosen instrument – out of the confines of the chamber (or orchestral) context on solo flights following, unfettered, wherever this audacious music beckons.

Ditching what certainly appears to be a reliable technique, she puts paid to predictable finger movement and conventional breath controls to seemingly turn her body’s whole cardio-pulmonary machinery into a system plotted around the efforts and exertions required to make a multi headed monolith of pure sound made from mouthfuls of air.

 The whirling ellipses of Jane Rigler’s Red are eminently suited to Michel’s restless creativity, and it surges in a mad rush of blood to the head, and her flute. Victoria Cheah’s edifice, And for you, castles sees Michel mindfully abseiling through its sonic architecture. Jen Baker’s piece, The Great Bridge and a Lion’s Gate is painted in washes of muted and vivid coloured brushstrokes by Michel. Mert Morali’s Quintet sends pungent sonorities through Michel’s bass flute echoing through four speakers. Meanwhile Angélica Negrón’s Hush echoes the silvery quietude of Michel’s father Fred’s plant photographs. Cheah, Morali and Negrón join Michel to perform on their works. 

Meanwhile the conventional meaning of the word “hush” apart, metaphorically speaking Michel blows her way through her flutes right past the sound barrier.

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Ink Traces
Julia Glenn; Konstantinos Valianatos
Navona Records NV6670 (navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6670)

American violinist Julia Glenn has lived, taught and performed in China, immersing herself in China’s language, music, dance and poetry. Together with Athens-born pianist Konstantinos Valianatos who, like Glenn, has taught at Tianjin Juilliard School, she plays works by composers who embrace both Chinese and Western classical idioms.

Chen Yi’s Romance and Dance (1995-1999) begins with the very Chinese-sounding Romance, the violin’s bent notes wailing plaintively over sporadic pianistic water-droplets. Dance is a wild ride, with frenzied violin flourishes and rapid piano ostinatos. Chen’s Memory for solo violin (2010) movingly mixes Chinese and Western elements, progressing emotionally from apprehensiveness to determination.

The fragmented melodies and rhythmic inertia of the other solo violin pieces – Yao Chen’s Air (2015) and Pan Kai’s Ink Traces of Sigh (2017/2022) sound thoroughly European, as does Gao Weijie’s The Road (1996), though with longer violin melodies and some momentum from the piano.

Much more enjoyable are Sang Tong’s Night Scenery (1947), the violin ruminating above the piano’s irregular walking bass, the lovely melodies of Nostalgia from Ma Sicong’s Inner Mongolia Suite (1937) and, most of all, Chen Gang’s delightful, unmistakably Chinese Drum and Song (1974-1976) in which rollicking jollity frames blissful dreaminess.

Whining Chinese glissandi and martial Western propulsion clash violently in the CD’s longest work, Chen Yihan’s 11-minute EHOHE for baroque violin and electronics (2022), commissioned by Glenn. Happily, the disparate cultures eventually reconcile and the disc ends in peaceful serenity.

Playfair Sonatas
Ethan Iverson
Urlicht Audiovisual (musicalconcepts.net/recording/ethan-iverson-playfair-sonatas)

Ethan Iverson is a pianist and composer who helped found the American jazz group The Bad Plus in 2000. He has performed jazz with a diverse group of musicians over the years (Lee Konitz, Ron Carter, Ingrid Jensen etc.) and composed for a variety of groups along with writing on music for several magazines. Playfair Sonatas is named after Piers Playfair who agreed to pay Iverson’s studio’s rent for six months in exchange for him composing six sonatas where Playfair would choose the instrumentation.

Along with piano accompaniment, the six instruments are: violin, marimba, clarinet, trombone, alto saxophone and trumpet. All the works are lively and take advantage of each solo instrument’s unique characteristics. For example, Violin Sonata is relatively classical sounding while Alto Saxophone Sonata includes classical, Broadway and jazzy lines. One of the most intriguing aspects is where Iverson dedicates a movement to well known musical figures. For example, Clarinet Sonata II (Music Hall) is dedicated to Carla Bley and it has a sultry and ironic melodicism which matches Bley’s musical personality. Violin Sonata II Blues (for Ornette Coleman) is melodic with brief forays into atonal territory which matches Coleman well. 

Playfair Sonatas is an elegant and innovative addition to the world of chamber music.

Forever Stories of Moving Parties
Peggy Lee; Cole Schmidt
Earshift Music (peggyleecoleschmidt.bandcamp.com/album/forever-stories-of-moving-parties)

Cellist Peggy Lee and guitarist Cole Schmidt have been playing together since 2017 and their deep trust and easy communication naturally extend to their community of exceptional improvisors, many of whom add their voices to the conversations on this album. “The initial concept for the record had to do with hosting a party,” remarks Schmidt, “[one] that included all kinds of people and characters connecting on different conversations in different rooms of the house.”

 Lee and Schmidt have a way of being lyrically tight compositionally while at the same time being flexible and open to new ideas. Their generous co-leadership has resulted in them structuring compositions which leave lots of room for improvisation. The result is exactly what the album describes it to be; a group of friends getting together to float through the album like conversations at a house party, no two being alike. Many of the tracks were made remotely between studios in Vancouver, Melbourne, Montreal and home recordings, retaining the album’s genuine feeling of collaboration and conversation, as well as allowing for multi-tracking and effects. 

It Will Come Back features the vocals and electronics of Sunny Kim with exquisite backing from the band. Lisen Rylander Löve’s vocals on Dr. Dawn is a breathless standout and flows freely with experimental and layered cello. The melodic and dreamy for Ron Miles (featuring bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck) is gorgeous. Wayne Horwitz’s Wurlitzer on the seamless funk-out of Gloop stealthily creeps up inside the tune to a gloried end, and Dylan van der Schyff’s knockout drumming in Sungods is a whole trip on its own.  

The final track Coda, featuring only Lee and Schmidt, feels like the exhausted end of a house party, when everyone has gone home, and two good friends finally have a sit-down on the sofa and feel warm and satisfied for having hosted a great gathering.

Utopia Ontario
Andrew Downing; Maggie Keogh; Justin Orok; Kevin Turcotte; Ian McGimpset
Independent AD00107 (andrewdowning.com)

The latest release from eminent bassist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Andrew Downing is a love letter to a rural, small-town in Ontario, perhaps ironically named Utopia. All eight compositions are from the amazing brain of Downing, with lyrics by Downing and vocalist Maggie Keogh who contributes lyrics on three tracks. Like much of Downing’s work, the music itself defies category… a mash-up of jazz, folk and art song. Downing has said that his diverse group of influences include Bill Frisell and Joni Mitchell, with a blast of Debussy, Billy Strayhorn and Carla Bley, and he has manifested here a singular musical palate involving Ian McGimpsey on pedal steel guitar, Justin Orok acoustic guitar as well as his long-time coterie member on trumpet, Kevin Turcotte.

The programme kicks off with Tiger Lilly – a folk-inspired, mystical reverie that conjures up the deep peace of a woodsy sunset, as well as the earthy power of the feminine mystique, elegantly negotiating the seasons. The tasteful execution of slide guitar by McGimpsey is inspired. Turcotte also shines here on muted trumpet, while Keough’s diaphanous, pure vocal instrument is both delightful and abundantly refreshing in this era of over-wrought, vibrato-clad divas. Of particular, subtle beauty is Girl – an almost unbearably romantic ballad replete with a cleverly poetic lyric – a treat for both musical sensibility and the emotional self. Turcotte enhances the elegant melody while Downing’s bass is the anchor to which all attaches.  

Downing’s facile arco technique is on full display in the melancholy, nostalgic Sideroad, and again, Keogh’s honest and pure vocal effortlessly evokes deep, profound emotions connected to what is precious to all humans – while Downing’s unique artistic perspective, vision and masterful musical skill saturate every moment of the experience.

Soft Winds and Roses
Diana Panton; Reg Schwager; Don Thompson
Independent (dianapanton.com/releases-new.html)

With Soft Winds and Roses, vocalist Diana Panton offers listeners an album that will appease nostalgic music fans, without sounding out of place in the eclectic sonic world of the 2020s. This is a commendable feat, and perhaps the key to Panton’s ability to appeal to such a wide range of audiences. Her music has gained more commercial traction than many comparable Canadian musical acts, without failing to appeal to jazz purists. 

Some of the well-rounded nature of Soft Winds and Roses is a result of Panton’s excellent casting choices. Veteran musicians Reg Schwager and Don Thompson round out a trio “and then some.” Schwager contributes beautiful accompaniment on acoustic and electric guitars, and Thompson is responsible for the arrangements and piano work. The “then some” comes in the form of the aforementioned arranger adding vibraphone and bass to a handful of tracks. Thompson is a master of several instruments and has an uncanny ability to showcase ample musicality on all of them.  

On my first listen I thought that more liberties could have been taken when arranging some of the better-known pop songs covered by Panton. I changed my tune on this, so to speak, after delving further into the recording. The vocal melodies and song forms are treated beautifully by Panton, and they still leave room for improvisation from Schwager and Thompson. 

I’m confident that this album does not require my hype to reach a broad audience, but I’m happy to give it a positive review, as it indeed contains something for everyone.

Listen to 'Soft Winds and Roses' Now in the Listening Room

Tryptique
Fern Lindzon; Colleen Allen; George Koller
Zsan Records ZSAN7458 (fernlindzon.com/tryptique)

What a compelling mixed metaphor it is that draws you into the seductive mystique of the three parts of the painting that adorns the package (bigger, and better explicated if folded out) of this disc. Of course, that magnetic pull only serves to intensify the effect of that metaphor on its transposed metamorphosis into the music of the album Tryptique. Indeed, the pianist Fern Lindzon, saxophonist (and flutist) Colleen Allen and contrabassist George Koller employ the sublime melodic, harmonic and rhythmic subterfuge in their arrangements of jazz standards (Satin Doll) and several originals.  In turn, this music finds reflection in each section of Mythology, the beckoning painting by artist Rose Lindzon, and the unique character of the group’s collaboration brings it to fruition. 

I could spiral into a frenzy trying to define this music and trace its influences. Is it jazz so evasively polyrhythmic that a clear, regular beat rarely emerges? (Cue Kerl Berger’s Zeynebim or Moe Koffman’s A Flower for Amadeus). Do these oh-so-seductive arrangements of standards and originals perfectly define the creativity of the players? 

The sensible thing to do would be to get out of the way and let each song do the “singing.” It bears mention that this is a perfect encounter of musicians whose individual and collective work redefines the very process of improvisation around composition. The result: overall performances that are crisply articulate, rich in hue and gesture.

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Reverence
Carn Davidson 9
Independent CD9-004 (taradavidson.ca/cd9)

The Carn Davidson 9 is an ensemble comprising nine of the “finest players of their generation.” Those five words would be quite a meaningless epithet to describe this nonet were it not for the fact that virtuosity and individuality are almost always completely eschewed except in the case of total immersion in the music at hand. This is but one reason why Reverence is such a flawless musical production

The utter brilliance of the album is that it features beautifully crafted arrangements of beguiling variety and sensuousness. And this is evident in every lovingly caressed phrase of music composed in a myriad of musical idioms beloved of the husband and wife duo: trombonist William Carn and alto saxophonist Tara Davidson. 

Listen to the manner in which the judiciously chosen – and featured – soloists seductively bend and stretch notes, and propel phrases in glorious, airy arcs on Groove and If Not Now, Then When?, and how Davidson sculpts the long inventions of Carn’ Saudé, or how Carn and trumpeter Kevin Turcotte do likewise on Wonderment.

From such brilliant playing, solo or in ensemble, clearly there’s not a single semiquaver that hasn’t been fastidiously considered. Featuring the longtime rhythm section of drummer Ernesto Cervini and bassist Andrew Downing, every musician is completely attuned to the artistry of Carn and Davidson. What better way to honour revered musical icons.

Discovery
Luke Sellick
Sellick Sounds (lukesellick.com/discography)

I review albums from Canada, the US and beyond. Luke Sellick’s latest album Discovery is a hybrid of sorts, with its New York City based bassist and leader hailing from Winnipeg originally. Great music transcends geography, but New York is a city that has attracted the best and brightest improvising musicians for nearly a century. Sellick and his band sound right at home there.

Discovery has an uplifting and energetic tone to it, without eschewing any of the playful edginess one would expect from a group of young musicians in 2024. I was not familiar with most of the artists on this album prior to listening, and I postponed my usual internet sleuthing until I’d heard Discovery in its entirety. This was a fresh way to listen, and I was not disappointed! 

If I were to make an initial criticism, it would be centered on the production aspects of Discovery. Although the individual sounds on this recording are clear, and everyone is present in the mix as a whole, at times subtle additions like the organ on Fun and vocals on Discovery felt a little out of place in the sonic landscape. These were no doubt musical additions, but they toe the line between embracing “studio magic” and obscuring the live-sounding nature of the music. This is a nitpicky and subjective observation, but I’m including it because my other comments are all positive. 

Bassists as bandleaders often have an internalized sense of “programming,” whether in a live or recorded setting. Sellick demonstrates this brilliantly, with the album’s opening and closing tracks being perfect “bookends” to the music they surround. 

Dan Fortin – Cannon
Dan Fortin; various artists
Elastic Recordings (danfortin.bandcamp.com)

The voluptuous sound of Dan Fortin’s bass echoes with dark, sustained murmuration on Cannon, a fascinating programme conceived and executed in a series of duets. Each track features Fortin and a procession of intrepid experimentalists, restless in nature, who allow themselves to be led into the unknown seemingly by following the vibrations of a single note. 

There is a kind of propulsive energy in each of the works and this gives poignant meaning to the title of the recording – Cannon – where notes and phrases appear (metaphorically and literally) to be slingshot out of the principal instrument (which is Fortin’s bass) rather than played in the customary sense that music might be played. Thus Fortin succeeds in drawing his duet-partners into the elliptical gravitational force of his music. 

Moreover, using pedals plugged into his electric instrument, as well as through what seem like an array of effects mixed in from synthesizers, Fortin creates a kind of seductive, otherworldly atmosphere beckoning the other instruments. Each of these – saxophone, guitar, piano, trumpet and drums – then becomes fused into the impressive wall of sound created by Fortin to become a shifting panoply of sound. Surrealist and intergalactic pictures emerge. 

Instruments seem drawn to the bass’ powerful centrifugal force. Uh Hundred is a good example. Other works evoke thunderous natural power, such as the rippling musical groove tumbling down the Eastern Side of The Ural Mountains. What a forceful musical ride…!

Listen to 'Dan Fortin: Cannon' Now in the Listening Room

Lumination
Joel Frahm Trio
Anzic Records ANZ-0091 (joelfrahm.bandcamp.com/album/lumination)

When I reviewed the Joel Frahm Trio’s debut album, The Bright Side, for The WholeNote’s Sep/Oct 2021 issue, I closed with the hope that we’d hear more from this tenor sax master in the cordless trio format. Lumination is the exciting follow up, featuring Frahm, once again, with long-time musical friends, collaborators and fellow Turboprop members, bassist Dan Loomis and drummer Ernesto Cervini.

Here again we are treated to ten original tracks: six by Frahm and two each by Cervini and Loomis, “illuminating” their talents not only as dynamic, virtuosic players, but also as gifted composers. Peppered throughout with good humour, the fun begins with Cervini’s The Nurse Is In, a swinging tribute to his beloved Toronto Raptors’ former head coach, jazz lover Nick Nurse, where, alongside the tight-knit, rhythmic interplay and improvisational “lay-ups,” you can catch Frahm’s quick quote of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. There’s some good-natured teasing in Frahm’s Disco Nern, a jaunty tribute to Cervini, with a cheeky quote this time from Istanbul (Not Constantinople). 

Frahm’s signature warmth and mellifluous playing are heard on his poignant Moonface Lament, written, apparently, during a sleepless night on tour. The mood changes with Loomis’ driving and kinetic False Spring, followed by Frahm’s cool contrafact, Kern You Dig It?, based on All The Things You Are by, you guessed it, Jerome Kern, and featuring Cervini’s deft brush work.

The Joel Frahm Trio is a classy, cohesive, collective of consummate musicians. Lumination is an ideal vehicle for their exceptional talents.

You Are the Right Length
Exit Points
Independent EP-501 (exitpoints.square.site/product/vinyl-lp-you-are-the-right-length/45?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false)

Now a staple of the Toronto improvised music scene, Michael Palumbo’s monthly Exit Points series at Arraymusic strikes a perfect balance of genre-bending collaboration between musicians across disciplines and capturing moments of pure serendipity. It is extremely fitting that an LP release featuring different performances from this series feels like it transcends the live album medium into something that feels significantly more alive, breathing. 

Track lengths range from under a minute to over ten, and these lengths feel quite deliberate; each piece brimming with energy and momentum, trains of collective thought that clearly state their destination without having to arrive there. Sitting at the extremes of this spectrum of duration are the pieces Falling into Echoes and Sonoluminescence, which bear incredible resemblances to each other, setting a tranquil groundwork, then eventually opting to draw from reserves of tension that are not pollutants; merely a texture etched a little deeper, or a new source of light. 

The consequence of choosing excerpts of larger pieces and then sequencing them a certain way is that the profound power of spontaneous composition is apparent in an entirely different manner than the act of circumstantially stumbling upon it. Instances that did not inform each other in the literal sense begin to touch on meaning they would not have in isolation, moments collide to change each other irrevocably. When unfettered process becomes crystallized in product form, there exists a chance of reincarnation as shimmering as this.

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Simpletrio2000
Anna Webber
Intakt CD 430 (annawebber.bandcamp.com/album/simpletrio2000)

Away from their academic roles, Canadian tenor saxophonist/flutist Anna Webber now at the New England Conservatory and American drummer John Hollenbeck who teaches at McGill, join long-time associate New York pianist Matt Mitchel, for a tenth anniversary reunion of their Simpletrio. The playing focus: ten enigmatically titled Webber compositions.

Bookended by two modest groove tunes that expose their innate interaction as they blend reed honks, patterning and splattering keyboard strokes and metronomic drum beats, the exuberant mood they express animates the entire album. Although a track like 8va is languid enough to highlight Webber’s expressive bass flute lowing matched with intermittent piano clips, tough pressure and sophisticated linear melodies with mercurial timbral divergences characterize most of the other tunes.

Idiom VII for instance is built around a repeated unison riff, with interludes of reed tongue slapping, drum press rolls and carousing piano pumps. Meanwhile Miiire is a spidery tune that becomes speedier and more dissident as it unrolls without losing its horizontal flow. Prominent are Webber’s transverse flutters and peeps and Hollenbeck’s rim clanks, which at points unfold in tandem with the piano for more prominent sound coloration.

Countering the old saw that those who can do, and those who can’t teach, is this session involving Webber, who is Co-Chair of NEC’s Jazz Studies Department and Hollenbeck who has taught jazz drumming at McGill’s School of Music since 2015. Alongside Mitchell they prove they can definitely do.

Peaks and Valleys
Teri Parker’s Free Spirits
Modica Music (teriparkermusic.com)

Paying homage to two irreplaceable legends of improvised music, Peaks and Valleys is about as refreshing, moving and ingenious as a tribute can be. Playing two pieces each from the expansive works of Geri Allen and Mary Lou Williams, Toronto pianist Teri Parker’s group makes the absolute most of them, with these renditions being sobering in their clarity and the care taken in bringing out every nuance of the original recordings, while feeling like something entirely new is constantly taking place. 

Geri Allen’s classic Drummer’s Song starts out as exactly that, with Mackenzie Longpre’s exhilarating drum intro slyly and gradually implying the song’s central pulse, and then when Allison Au enters with the saxophone ostinato near the one-minute mark, everything somehow perfectly falls into place, a moment that captures that intangible feeling of rhythmic alchemy unique to Allen’s music, where a listener is fully along for the ride without ever entirely reaching an understanding of why all these moving parts are so perfect for each other. 

Parker’s own original pieces comprise the other half of the tracklist, with some containing more easily identifiable parallels to the album’s influences (Gemini II for example, both shares a title with an iconic Mary Lou Williams piece and an opening progression that could easily be a nod to her later period). Others, like the mesmerizing, goosebump-inducing Bear Hug, sound like a heartfelt message expressed entirely sonically, the kind that offers receiving ears a sense of belonging.

Brett Hansen – Confluence
Brett Hansen; Mallory Chipman; Chris Pruden; Murray Wood; Joel Jeschke; Luis Tovar
Independent (bretthansen.bandcamp.com/album/confluence)

Confluence, the debut album from Edmonton guitarist and composer Brett Hansen, has its roots in jazz, but also injects many folk, rock and impressionistic elements. Most of the tunes feature the voice of Mallory Chipman. Perfect Intentions floats through its opening with Chipman singing the wordless melody, rocks out briefly, and then quiets down for Hansen’s solo which works through several restrained jazz moods. Chris Pruden adds a sparkling piano solo before it ends as it began. Starbathing is a winding and exploratory duet featuring Joel Jeschke (drums) and Luis Tovar (percussion). Moonshower begins with some nice guitar work before evolving into another Brazilian-influenced melodic section with Chipman singing. Jane’s Song is more folk influenced beginning with an arpeggiated guitar section before moving into a jazzy sung melody. 

Confluence is an engaging album where all the musicians contribute to the jazz/folk/fusion vibe giving it a coherent and identifiable sound. I look forward to Hansen’s next release and wonder what other moods he and his musicians will conjure.