Russ Brannon – Sojourn
Russ Brannon; Various Artists
Independent (russbrannon.com)

Cruising, nocturnal, tasteful, groove-laden, melodic and velvety in equal measure, Sojourn is a pleasure to sit through, and then sit through again, and then again. The ensemble Russ Brannon recruits here is on the larger side, and yet rather than a wall of sound, what greets the listener is more like a warm breeze. 

Consisting entirely of Brannon’s original compositions, the subtleties are what arrest and surprise the most here. Pauline’s shuffling beat gives way to a buoyant waltz, one that feels lighter than air while also being on the looser side, hanging back nicely in the beat. Thistle Street moves effortlessly through unison lines between the guitar and saxophone, into more open sections that give the piece time to breathe. Soloing is nicely paced, while the actual blowing has a feeling of palpable intent (not to be mistaken for sounding contrived, there is still much freedom here) behind it, as if each catchy melody was contending with the others for real estate in the listener’s mind. 

When the band arrives in a spot together, it feels like second nature, even down to every last premeditated rhythmic hit. Adding considerable richness to these arrangements are a full string section and Lori Cullen’s voice; the former uplifting numerous sections with ambient swells while the latter provides a unique ethereal quality to the more harmonic passages. To sojourn is to stay temporarily, but Sojourn will remain with you for a while.

Sam Broverman – Memories of You
Sam Broverman; Morgan Childs; Jacob Gorzhaltsan; Peter Hill; Leslie Huyler; Drew Jurecka; Jordan O’Connor; Tony Quarrington
Independent (brovermusic.com)

Toronto-based, Winnipeg-born jazz singer and songwriter Sam Broverman is back with 11 original songs written alone or in collaboration with others, and two covers. Broverman, perfect and inspirational in his musicianship, has performed worldwide. He also has a Ph.D in math and is Professor Emeritus in Actuarial Mathematics at the University of Toronto.

Broverman sings about the ups and downs of love relationships in a positive reflection. He is joined by seven A list musicians. The title track is upbeat rhythmical storytelling. He sings his memorable melodies with clear phrasing and colour, with instrumental solos midstream. The heart wrenching lyric “now a ghost of you is all I have” becomes positive with the held note “memories” at the ending. 

Broverman’s voice is emotional and controlled in the cover Have a Heart by DiNovo and Mercer. Tony Quarrington’s guitar performances give powerful support to Broverman’s vocals here, with a beautiful jazzy solo. Broverman and Quarrington’s unforgettable jazz composition I’ll Still be Loving You features great Quarrington solos and Broverman’s passionate clear, emotional singing. Their composition As a Matter of Fact opens with a drumkit solo. Broverman’s upbeat singing gives a positive feel and encourages singing along. Jordan O’Connor’s bass solo with Peter Hill’s virtuosic piano accompaniment are both so musical.  

Perfect songs, singing, instrumentals and production are simultaneously jazzy and contemporary: it is impossible to feel depressed while listening to Broverman.

Ilya Osachuk – The Answer
Ilya Osachuk; Tyler Henderson; Donald Vega; Kai Craig; Billy Drummond
Independent IOM01 (ilyaosachuk.com)

It is always exhilarating to hear the upright bass harnessed as a melodic instrument to the extent that Ilya Osachuk does on his delightful debut album. It is even more satisfying when it is in a piano trio (or perhaps, bass trio in this case) format, as the bass is allowed more space to breathe in the higher registers, and there is infinite potential for musical interplay. It helps even further then, that the trios on this album are just about the tightest and most dynamic on planet Earth. Piano duties are shared by Tyler Henderson and Donald Vega, with drums provided alternately by Kai Craig and Billy Drummond.

Osachuk’s intricate, labyrinthine original works are a joyful listen, particularly when played with such clarity and verve. The rhythmic hits on Lviv Perspective are incredibly lively without ever once masking the melody, which itself brings to mind the Geri Allen Trio with how seamlessly all the mini-sections are weaved together; moments of pure synchronicity between bass and piano occurring organically yet also selectively. February and its intro have their own music video, which among other things offers an incredibly moving glimpse into the moments of real quietude in the studio, particularly leading out of Osachuk’s spellbinding solo, when there is a glance shared, a head nod, but that second of true silence also finds a profound moment of rest. It is a beautiful thing when music can afford to do that, fill the air with an abundance of gestures that all come together perfectly, and then catch its breath.

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Forbidden West
Robert Lee; various artists
In The Sun Records ITSCD 102 (inthesunrecords.com/robert-lee-forbidden-west)

Within a country that celebrates multiculturalism as Canada does, it’s truly great to see a musician with a diverse cultural heritage diving into where his roots come from. Such is the focus of Canadian-born Korean bassist and composer Robert Lee’s newest record. In his own words, he has “delved deeper into exploring his identity as a Korean Canadian, questioning what it means to simultaneously straddle two contrasting cultural identities.” He has showcased this exploration in a beautiful way in his compositions. The album features some renowned players, such as Allison Au on the saxophone, Andrew McCarthy on drums and Todd Penteny on piano. It is also a treat to see several Asian-identifying musicians featured, adding to the authenticity of the cultural experience of the tunes. 

What really stands out is a certain openness and soul-baring quality, present throughout the album. It is as if Lee is exposing a part of his soul and being, exploring his multifaceted cultural background and the struggles - but mostly positivity - which comes out of trying to balance two cultures simultaneously. Lee manages to prolifically weave elements of Korean traditional music into his modern compositions, the zither-like sound of the gayageum, played by Roa Lee, intertwining with expressive bass melodies, soaring saxophone solos and captivating piano chords which are reminiscent of the pentatonic scale often used in Asian cultures. If you’re looking for a true cultural and musical experience in one, this album is for you.

Little Knox
Gary Williamson Trio
Modica Music (modicamusic.bandcamp.com/album/little-knox)

The late inspired and inspiring jazz pianist, Gary Williamson, left us in 2019. Although a much-in-demand figure in the Toronto/Canadian jazz scene and his musical legacy is extensive (including jazz education and sharing the stage with an impressive array of jazz luminaries), it still seems as if Williams was under-acknowledged. Although often compared to the iconic Bill Evans, ironically, he rarely listened to Evans. Williamson’s intuitive melodic ideas, his technical facility and of course his deep understanding of lyrics – the intent of a tune, and of a particular song’s emotional vocabulary – are his own.

Modica Music has just released this posthumous, historic and pristine trio album,  recorded at Williamson’s home on August 12 and 15, 2003. Joining Williamson on the date was  the iconic percussionist Marty Morrell and bassist Dave Young. Beautifully produced by noted bassist, Roberto Occhipinti, the CD features 14 tracks – an elegant mash up of gorgeous ballads, jazz standards and bebop burners. This fine CD (Williamson’s only trio recording) is not only a tribute to a magnificent musician, but it should be a primer to every emerging jazz musician.  

Although every track is a gem, a highlight is Fun Ride. On this snappy opener, Williamson’s dynamic, lush sound is literally breathtaking, and the work of Morrell and Young is both enhancing and supportive – just as it should be. Williamson’s facile pianistic attack insures that every melodic nuance lays itself before his feet. His soloing is exquisite and takes a swinging turn when Morrell switches from brushes to sticks. The title track, Little Knox, again showcases Williamson’s incredible sensitivity, enhanced by Morrell’s brilliant percussive choices. Also superb are Williamson’s delicious, swinging performance on Rodgers and Hart’s classic I Didn’t Know What Time it Was, and of sheer, nearly unbearable beauty is the trio’s rendition of Ellington’s sensual ballad, Prelude to a Kiss.

The Lockdown Sessions
106 Ontario Collective
Modica Music (modicamusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-lockdown-sessions)

Roberto Occhipinti is truly a jack of all trades, staunchly eschewing the “master of none” trap that can accompany that descriptor. He is a multi-genre bassist, a contractor of bands and orchestras, a music educator, and someone who’s occupied most roles in countless recording studios. Occhipinti’s latest offering The Lockdown Sessions features its leader not only performing the double-bass parts but producing and mixing the record as well. 

It’s essentially three albums in one, featuring two trios and a quartet. Maybe 2.5, as the final product comes out to 13 tracks. This is too much music to describe track by track in a short review, but each group has a distinct sound that gives a great context through which to discuss the album. 

The quartet portion of The Lockdown Sessions features guitarist Lorne Lofsky and pianist Adrean Farrugia, with Occhipinti and drummer Terry Clarke rounding out the rhythm section. They play contemporary arrangements of four jazz standards, with a synchronized yet exploratory approach. Lofsky’s stellar 2021 release The Song is New is also on Modica Music, and to me, his playing on The Lockdown Sessions is more probing and “live” than the shorter studio arrangements heard prior. 

The rest of the album is piano trio, featuring Ewen Farncombe on the next four pieces with drummer Davide Corazza, and Farrugia returning for the final five with Ernesto Cervini on drums. Listeners get to hear three different drummers approach this repertoire, but it’s a testament to the album’s leader that all three groups coexist organically.

Living Things
Nicola Miller
Cacophonous Revival Recordings CRR-025 (cacophonousrevivalrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/living-things)

Nicola Miller is an Ontario-born, Nova Scotia-resident alto saxophonist and composer who has taken a circuitous route to her first recording as leader, earning a BA in jazz performance from a Toronto college nearly 20 years ago, teaching fiddle to children in Mohawk territory near Montreal and getting an MA from the Jazz Institüt Berlin. Based on Living Things, it was all worth it. It’s as impressive a debut as one might want to hear – mature, thoughtful, passionate work in the company of masters.

She’s assembled a fine Canadian band (trombonist Doug Tielli, as witty as he is exploratory, drummer Nick Fraser, both precise and energetic, and bassist Nicholas D’Amato, a sensitive bulwark of form), topped off by her German mentor Frank Gratkowski, playing mostly bass clarinet here with just a single turn on his more usual alto saxophone. Loading a debut with stellar sidemen can conceal a neophyte’s virtues, but that doesn’t happen here. Miller‘s conception may be rooted in Ornette Coleman’s mercurial voice, but hers is lighter, a voice that is engaged in its own discoveries. 

Her compositions welcome elastic interpretation, but they also have strengths of their own, summoning up the soundscape of Miller’s Maritime home. The opening Barge Is a night-time description of dock, water and whistles, while Seaweed and Seagulls are similar tone poems, but all go beyond programmatic atmosphere to summon a sense of teeming life, a continuum between sonic subject and the quintet’s creative impulses.

Folio #5
Brulez les meubles
(tourdebras.bandcamp.com/album/folio-5)

Electric bassist Éric Normand is best known for somehow making Rimouski, Quebec a national hotbed of improvised music with his improvising orchestra GGRIL and frequent international guests. Normand has also developed a far gentler (and composed) side with Brûlez les meubles (Burn the furniture), his duo with electric guitarist Louis Beaudoin-de la Sablonnière. Here they are joined by special guests: tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, pianist Marianne Trudel and vibraphonist Jonathan Huard.   

There are seven pieces here, with compositions contributed by Normand, Beaudoin-de la Sablonnière and Trudel, but the effect is virtually that of a linked suite, a series of ethereal nocturnes, often with moonlight glittering in Beaudoin-de la Sablonnière’s sustained lyricism, whether subtly lifted or trailed by Normand’s muted bass lines. The ensemble shifts through multiple combinations, sometimes reduced to just the essential duo, at other times in permutations that range to full quintet. The guitarist’s Conscience de tragique is particularly multi-hued, with Laubrock, generally emphasizing her pastoral side here, beginning with a contrasting a capella explosion that dances between Stan Getz-like lyricism and expressionist multiphonic pitch-bending. Trudel’s opening exposition of her La vie commence aujourd’hui is as limpidly graceful as flowers floating on water, her long solo piano exploration gradually opening to ringing electric guitar and gauze-like saxophone. 

The concluding Folio is serenely beautiful, its suspended melody passing evocatively among Laubrock, Trudel and Beaudoin-de la Sablonnière in a final performance that’s at once spectral and sublime.

Horizontal Depths
Dan Pitt Quintet
Independent DP005 (danpitt.bandcamp.com)

This album’s oxymoronic name, Horizontal Depths, exemplifies the quirky and playful nature of the Dan Pitt Quintet. This band plays hard, as in the opener 27 Hours which spends a couple of minutes getting its funk on with a solid ensemble riff before a ripping tenor sax solo from Patrick Smith brings us to a sputtering and rockingly distorted guitar solo from Pitt himself. Eventually everyone returns to the opening riff and slams it home. Naomi McCarroll-Butler’s bass clarinet provides some excellent background texture and Nick Fraser’s drums are, as always, solid, intelligent and innovative. Let’s not forget the great bass work from Alex Fournier which is a solid, and often contrapuntal underpinning for the rest of the hijinks. 

On This is Fine, Fournier shows off some nice bowing work. Horizontal Depths - Part One is a shorter and more delicate piece displaying nice jazzy minor scale runs from Pitt’s guitar. The Sorrow shows off the cleaner, more traditional jazz side of Pitt’s guitar chops before a languorous bass clarinet solo. All the tunes on Horizontal Depths were composed by Pitt and display his combination of inventiveness and effortless groove and the players excel in their interpretations.

Rare
Sophie Agnel; John Butcher
Victo CD 138 (lesdisquesvicto.bandcamp.com/album/rare)

French pianist Sophie Agnel and British saxophonist John Butcher are among the most distinguished members of the European free improvisation community. Agnel is  one of the elite musicians featured on the soundtrack of The Brutalist – winner of the 2025 Academy Award for best original soundtrack (Daniel Blumberg). Butcher is a sonic creator with few peers, exploring for over three decades the specific resonances of his tenor and soprano saxophones, creating compound sounds, sometimes investigating hyper-resonant spaces (a mine, a gasometer, caves). The duo’s music is a model of close listening and multi-dimensional response, their continuously shifting roles expanding the moment’s potential.

Rare documents their first North American performance at the 2024 edition of Festival International Musique Actuel Victoriaville (FIMAV), Canada’s premier festival of “outside” music. Attending the concert was a significant experience, but the detail of the recording adds more sonic subtext and microscopic detailing. From the outset, one Is in an exalted acoustic world. The grand piano can suggest an enormous ukulele or a steel mill; the saxophone’s multiphonic burble passes from woodland birds to a bank of oscillators. Instruments’ interiority becomes our interiority. Then, at any moment, not birds but intense free jazz takes flight. 

The longest of the five improvisations, the 18-minute rare ii, is both tour de force and Odyssey, stretching between looming terror and impending revelation, then moving to microscopic details, reveries of air and materiality, wind and touch, memory and futurity.   

Rare validates an essential possibility of free improvisation: no matter what you’ve heard, you haven’t heard this.

Temporal Driftness
Floris; Bauer; Hertenstein
Evil Rabbit ERR 3738 (matthiasbauer.bandcamp.com/album/temporal-driftness)

Still innovating at 72, veteran Greek reedist Floros Floris has created this 11-track program of abstract improvisation with the same zeal and confidence he’s exhibited since recording Greece’s first free jazz LP in 1979. On Temporal Driftness he’s joined by slightly younger players, bassist Matthias Bauer and percussionist Joe Hertenstein, in Berlin where he now lives.

Floris, who also composes film music, and the others, make each of the tracks as distinctive as individual movie scenes. Overall, they harmonize enough to make the equivalent of a feature film.  Moving among clarinet, bass clarinet and alto saxophone Floris will frequently mate chalumeau register bass clarinet tones with double bass thumps to toughen the low pitch textures of the improvisations. Elsewhere squeaky bites from one of the higher-pitched reeds amplify Bauer’s clenched arco slides. Meanwhile Hertenstein adds tom-tom slaps, bass drum pounding or cymbal scratches accenting the unrolling sound picture. 

Some of the most spectacular scenes occur as Floris alternates his actorly persona as on Drift 7 where his continuous flutters move from arched trills to strained honks and double-tongued bites with the timbres surrounded by the bassist’s spiccato buzzes and the drums measured patter. A track like Drift 3 on the other hand abstracts the thematic scenario further and faster connecting comb-and-tissue paper-like reed strains, string strops and boiling drum ruffs. 

As cinema this CD wouldn’t be standard popcorn fare, but would be appealing as well-wrought experimental film making.

Stradivatango
Denis Plante; Stephane Tetrault
ATMA ACD2 2886 (atmaclassique.com/en/product/stradivatango)

The Canadian duo of bandoneonist/composer/arranger Denis Plante and cellist Stéphane Tétreault are back with memorable tango performances. The title Stradivatango is a contraction of the words Stradivarius and tango, the cello Tétreault plays and the music style the duo performs, respectively. Their close collaboration since 2018 makes for beautiful, tightly performed, colourful sounds that expand the sonic world of tango.

Plante’s composition Stradivatango is an eight-movement work influenced by baroque, classical and tango elements. The first movement, Le prince écarlate is Plante’s self-described tribute to Antonio Vivaldi, with both styles’ repeated notes, accents, melodic conversations and descending cello lines. There are more baroque theme and variations references with tangos in Chaconne. La camarde is a rhythmic dance with bandoneon opening and cello backdrop. A higher pitched bandoneon solo is even more tango flavoured, with close back and forth with the cello.

There are inspirational performances of Plante arrangements of “classic” tangos by Piazzolla, Gardel, Pugliese and Villoldo. Plante reorchestrates three of Piazzolla’s popular works including Libertango which has a bright and light cello melody with a nicely percussive bandoneon backup. Plante’s original Tango romance is a slower sombre piece with subtle tango feel in the rhythmic groove and colourful virtuosic melodic embellishments on the bandoneon. 

Plante and Tétreault’s continued dedication to the development of the tango style, and their intelligent moving musicianship is inspirational.

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Ajdad – Ancestors | Echoes of Persia
Amir Amiri Ensemble
Fifth House FH-101 (amiramiriensemble.bandcamp.com/album/ancestors-ajdad)

Amir Amiri Ensemble’s latest recording project is nothing short of masterful. Sadly, this celebration of Iranian/Persian culture could never have been manifested under Iran’s current theocratic, repressive regime. Amiri, an icon of the santur, and his gifted collaborators, Reza Abaee (ghaychak), Omar Abu Afach (viola), Abdul-Wahab Kayyali (oud) and Hamin Honari (tombak, dayereh and daf) have gifted us with 12 original compositions that explore the ancient connections between Persian and other Middle Eastern musics – relationships that were obliterated following Iran’s 1979 cultural and political upheaval. 

Amiri wears several hats here, as performer, producer, arranger and composer, and the project is rife with musical complexities rendered on primarily traditional instruments by his coterie of skilled musicians. This CD is an emotional journey framed by a series of original compositions. In particular Baran (Rain) contains diatonic descending lines intertwined with unison motifs, invoking the cleansing, healing rain, woven into a fabric of melancholy. Amiri and Afach shine here, with stunning, facile technique. Another delight is Raghseh Choobi (Dance of the Wooden Sticks), which clearly and harmonically illustrates the joy of the unfettered Iranian and other Middle Eastern peoples. Also stunning is the melancholy Sarzamineh Madaran (Towards My Motherland) – a moving lament that will resonate with every newcomer and ex-patriot. Afach is featured in a solo viola sequence here, filled with sonorous, motifs of lament and longing.

Kayyali displays breathtaking technique in his solo sequence, Sarzamin (Spirit of Our Land) on a stringed instrument that pre-dates the Western Lute, and the ensemble unites on the rousing Raghseh Sama (Sama Dance) utilizing dynamics and incendiary percussion to flame the excitement. This gorgeous disc closes with the title track, an ode to the ensemble’s ancestors – brave, courageous and artistic, whose unique DNA lives on in the Iranian people.

Breath | Ah |Aliento
Farnaz Ohadi
AIR Music Group (Farnazohadi.com)

Persia and Spain seem too geographically apart for the musical traditions to collide. But ancient travel does throw up incredible surprises, such as when the Persian scholar Zaryab established a conservatoire in Cordoba 1000 years ago. Persia’s music also bears the influence of Mughal North India. Afghan, Azeri traditions are also intertwined with Persian ones as are those of Andalusia that might have come via Arabia. 

The Canadian-created double-CD Breath owes its magical veritas to Farnaz Ohadi who “blends” Persian maqam (modes) seamlessly with the flamenco guitar of Gaspar Rodríguez. 

Listening to Farsi lyrics sung, mystically, Sufi-style by the smoky-voiced Ohadi is quite eye-popping and spectacular. Moreover, the flamenco-style strumming and dark chords by Rodríguez makes for a very unusual, but spectacular encounter with Ohadi’s vocals. 

Ohadi’s and Rodríguez’s musical ingenuity goes a step further by orchestrating the music incorporating Lebanese or Phoenician traditions. This provides a brilliant new fluid dynamics, making everything fit like a velvet glove.

Both discs are superb. Disc one’s Anda jaleo – the bulerias flamenco – is exquisite, providing much freedom for improvisation, and variable metre. The song Oriyan, a hypnotic solea, and Resurrection, which melds the chanted seguidillas rhythms to close out the disc, are superb. After three eloquent vocal songs – especially the Persian folk song, Yar – disc two closes out with five instrumentals. Of these, the song Erev and the instrumental rendition of Oriyan are truly spectacular.

Distilled Extractions
Emad Armoush’s Rayhan
Afterday AA2401 (afterday.bandcamp.com/album/distilled-extractions)

Bringing together the ensemble Rayhan for Distilled Extractions becomes a stroke of genius when paired with Emad Armoush’s lineup of traditional Arabic songs and original compositions. The ensemble – all veteran Canadian improvisors – have both the skill and the chemistry to explore beyond the basic songs to bring an evolutionary vision to the album. The result is simply beautiful.

Armoush’s oud, ney, and vocals lead the ensemble through these pieces but leave space for the group to expand with improvisations and occasional electronics, giving the album a modern feel but never losing the essence of the traditional tunes. Rayhan, comprising clarinetist François Houle, Jesse Zubot on violin and effects, JP Carter on trumpet, Kenton Loewen on drums (and Marina Hassleberg guesting on cello) is exquisite in their delicate balance and chemistry, but much could be also be praised for Houle’s perfectly balanced and creative mastering ensuring the primary focus and authenticity remains with the traditional songs.

The entire album flows seamlessly, enriched by the group’s improvisations, electronic explorations and occasional jazz influences, and I loved every track. From the opening improvisation of El Helwa Di, to Lahza, beginning with a breathtaking trumpet and effects solo before evolving into a rhythmic groove, to Zourouni, starting with a free improvisation featuring Houle’s clarinet at the forefront, the album effortlessly blends traditional and contemporary elements, eventually gathering the entire ensemble and bringing the album to a conclusion that left me seeking out where this group will be performing next.

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