Jazz and Improvised

My World is the Sun
Dominique Fils-Aimé
Ensoul Records (singwithmi.bandcamp.com/album/my-world-is-the-sun)

Captivating Montreal-based vocalist and composer, Dominique Fils-Aimé has already left her indelible mark on the international jazz world, having received two JUNO awards for “Vocal Jazz Album of the Year” as well as the 2024 FELIX Award for Best Album for her release, Run Deep. Her fifth studio release, My World is the Sun, features mainly her own distinctive compositions, as well as a deep dive into the marriage of blues, soul, jazz and other contemporary forms. Fils-Aime is well-known for her skill at lyrical interpretation, and regularly takes her audiences on surprising, moving and soulful journeys – and this recording is no exception. A sonic, sensory and emotional treat, rife with thought provoking lyrics as well as diverse musical motifs.

Fils-Aimé has assembled a fine musical coterie for this project, including producer/engineer Jacques Roy; Claudette Thomas on upright/electric bass; Jacques Roy on drums; Harvey Bien-Aimee on keyboards; David Osei Afrifa on piano; Hichem Khalifa on trumpet, Elli Miller Maboungou on percussion; Shawn Mativetsky on tabla; Etienne Miousse on guitar and Steeve St-Pierre on violin. The programme begins with Ma Melodie (Intro) written by Patricia Carli and Leo Missir. A simple and beautiful air, performed with a single, unapologetic guitar and Fils-Aimé’s warm, supple alto voice. A remarkable track is Sea of Clouds, where a mystical, chant-like melodic line, morphs into an esoteric journey, replete with gorgeously arranged, diatonic layers of vocals. 

Also stunning is The River. Soulful and healing, Fils-Aimé’s powerful vocal performance and arrangement embraces the heart of African-American Gospel music (whose roots extend deeply into mother Africa). A true stand-out is the thoroughly delicious Going Home. Composed by Nans Clastrier and Fils-Aimé, this song features fine guitar work as well as compelling lyrics and an intoxicating mood.

Triago de Todo
Jay Danley
Independent (jaydanley.bandcamp.com/album/traigo-de-todo)

Jay Danley’s latest release is an album that feels less like a carefully plotted statement and more like an open musical sketchbook where styles drift in and out with playful ease. Drawing on jazz phrasing, Latin rhythms and funk textures, Danley builds a record that thrives on motion and curiosity rather than strict genre loyalty. What makes Traigo de Todo especially engaging is its sense of warmth. Even in its more meandering turns, the music is thoroughly inviting, full of melodic details that reward close listening. 

Soaring guitar lines intertwine with nimble percussion, while subtle keyboard colours expand the atmosphere without crowding it. There’s a relaxed confidence in the way the songs unfold, as though Danley trusts the listener to enjoy the journey rather than wait for a predictable destination. A great example of this can be heard in Coffee and Beignets, where the aforementioned elements combine into a satisfying whole. What also makes the album unique is its distinct hark back to ‘70s funk and soul sound, a noticeable element that carries through each tune. 

There’s a pleasant near restlessness that is also part of the record’s charm. Traigo de Todo ultimately plays like a musical travelogue, inviting listeners to wander through shifting sonic landscapes guided by curiosity, groove and quiet imagination at every turn along the way forward and beyond expectation or convention altogether. A great choice for listeners looking for something fresh, playful and alive.

The Call
Bellbird
CST Records CST190 (bellbirdband.bandcamp.com/album/the-call)

Together since 2021, this Montréal-based quartet demonstrates tight-knit cooperative performances during this set of group compositions. With Allison Burik on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, Claire Devlin playing tenor saxophone, bassist Eli Davidovici and drummer Mili Hong, the four work through tunes that are rugged and expanded when they should be and compressed and exquisite elsewhere.

The last adjective is a bit of an overstatement since Bellbird, the band, eschews aviary delicacy and instead often replicates the tonal flexibility coupled with squawking stridency sometimes found in wild fowl. Although Davidovici’s downward slaps mostly regularize the program, Burik and Devlin layer the expositions with aleatory honks, snuffles and cheeps, offering obbligatos or harmonization with the other reed, whether it’s for sliding toughness on the title track or gentling melancholy expressed on Morning Dove. Hong too switches constructively from ruffs and rumbles that, alongside Davidovici’s strident arco string swabs, buffer a forceful tune like Blowing on Embers, or overcome reed dissonance with brush strokes that promote Phthalo Green’s gentle harmonies. 

Overall, the quartet’s sound reaches its zenith on the extended Eternity Perspective. Contrapuntal as well as cooperative, snarly bass clarinet scoops paced by martial drum patterns centre the piece until one saxophone timbre floats over the other until following an interlude of reverberating double bass thumps, a false ending adumbrates a lush logical diminuendo.

Intertwined enough to suggest ESP, Bellbird is one aviary species that deserves watching and hearing.

Can You Hear the Birds?
Gentiane MG, Levi Dover; Mark Nelson
Effendi FND 178 (gentianemg.com/music)

Can You Hear the Birds is Montreal-based pianist Gentiane MG’s fourth album as a leader and features an exciting set of original trio music. The album has a unique design aesthetic, which Gentiane and her team have made ample use of in its promotion, but the musical performance speaks for itself as well.

The trio features bassist Levi Dover and drummer Mark Nelson. They act as creative partners in this endeavour, while simultaneously laying down the accompaniment and groove listeners expect from a traditional piano trio format. The music pleasantly obscures what is improvised and what is composed, adding to the suite-like flow of the album’s programming. There are open and sparse moments throughout Can You Hear the Birds, alongside tightly arranged sections, notably intricate basslines doubled in the piano’s low register on tracks like Standing on a Cloud. 

I try to avoid direct musical comparisons, for their tendency to cheapen a review, but an overarching sensibility present on this album is that of the finest European jazz. To me Quebec has always felt simultaneously more European, and more American, than other provinces in Canada. How does that relate to Can You Hear the Birds? There is both a stylishness, and an element of visceral grit present, that I don’t hear articulated on the average Canadian jazz album. In some ways this is inevitable, as Gentiane MG and her trio are in a league of their own far above “average.”