06 Paloma SkyHold on to Me
Marie Goudy’s Paloma Sky
Independent (mariegoudy.bandcamp.com/album/hold-on-to-me)

Debut recordings can be haphazard; a slew of disparate ideas held by a slender thread and nary a cohesive theme. But certainly not Hold On To Me, a beautifully crafted vivid love letter, as if written from one character to another, where both characters come alive. It is no matter that there are subplots with secondary characters entering the landscape, it makes for a brightly coloured and multi textural soundscape. 

There may be more viscerally exciting contemporary ensembles around, who write and perform more daringly imaginative original work. But in Paloma Sky the wonderful Marie Goudy (vocals, trumpet, compositions) leads a group of musicians who are unfailingly musical. And where others may dazzle with gratuitous pyrotechnics Paloma Sky replaces such musical egotism with compelling narrative performed with deeply lyrical intensity. 

Goudy leads with poetics redolent of exquisitely sculpted phrases, often rendered in molten curved shapes. The basis for all of this are her compositions themselves, which radiate heat from characters who are cast in the slow burn of emotional warmth. Vocalist Jocelyn Barth makes these stories come alive as if she has lived them herself. She and Goudy give thoughtful interpretations that allow the space for musicians – pianist Stu Harrison, bassist Nick Arsenault, drummer Andrew Scott (and saxophonist Alison Young on Mexico) – to excavate rich details of articulation and tone colour. The producing hand of the celebrated Elizabeth Shepherd is felt everywhere.

07 Greg AmiraultA Change of Pace
Greg Amirault Trio
Independent (gregamirault.bandcamp.com)

Greg Amirault is a Montreal based jazz guitarist and A Change of Pace is his fourth album as leader; it contains six original compositions and three standards. One of this album’s strengths is how well Amirault plays with the other members of the trio (Adrian Vedady, bass and Andre White, drums) partly because they have been hosting a weekly jam session in Montreal for over a year.

I am immediately impressed by the clarity of Amirault’s tone whether he is swinging, voicing gorgeous chord solos or playing lyric melodies. All the jazz pieces are performed with assurance and style by everyone in the trio. Two originals stand out: Ballade pour La Butte is a beautifully rendered folk-influenced homage to the Acadian village where Amirault grew up and Ancestral Roots which is similarly inspired by his Acadian and Aboriginal roots. Both works offer a space for Vedady to present his sensitive solo bass playing. The top-notch performances, the mixture of standards and original jazz tunes, plus the folk influences, make A Change of Pace a unique and engaging album.

08 Jeannette LambertPortrait Landscape
Jeanette Lambert; Various Artists
Independent (jeannettelambert.bandcamp.com/album/portrait-landscape-2)

The liner notes say “my biggest fans are visual artists,” and that makes perfect sense. Lambert is a painter with words, every quiver of her voice, and these incredible suites of endlessly rewarding concepts and dazzling stylistic convergences, illustrate this. Everything from the phrasing to the melodies feel like they’re conversational, existing almost independently from their surroundings and yet also such an integral piece of the landscape.

Frankly, one might think their computer is glitching, they accidentally opened another tab, or they’re hallucinating by the time the programmed drums (and the spoken word of Lambert’s young son beamer!) come in on Away from the Wildfire, but Lambert is expertly striking that delicate balance between discordance and harmony, in a way where the listener knows deep down that the image fits together, even if they have not adjusted their gaze quite yet. This dream-like, hyper specific balance feels like something entirely unique to Lambert’s music, and yet it permeates this entire album. There are lyrical gems that will give you pause, especially out of context, (“air-conditioner looming like a benevolent robot” is a wildly hilarious bar that is also incredibly evocative). If you follow the vignettes Lambert sketches, every breath, emphasized syllable and illustration feels incredibly meaningful. Each room feels inviting and lively, the shifting perspectives colouring in all the lines around us. The instrumentation has a simultaneous lushness and intimacy to it, allowing for gaps unfilled while letting every emotion hit like a truck.

09 Laila BialiLaila Biali – Wintersongs
Laila Biali; Jane Bunnett; Venuti String Quartet; chamber orchestra
Independent (lailabiali.bigcartel.com/product/wintersongs)

Just in time for you-know-what, Laila Biali has released Wintersongs, a gorgeous, contemplative ode to Canada’s downtrodden season. Born out of a retreat at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity that the talented singer, piano player and songwriter went on in November 2021, the album is very much a product of its environment with most of the songs being studies of snow and wind and pine trees.

Resplendent with strings courtesy of the Venuti String Quartet and a 20-piece chamber orchestra led by Rob Mathes (Sting, Bruce Springsteen) and with Biali’s warm, pure vocals floating over top, the reverie is real.  

There are a few heart-starting moments to snap us out of our trance, though, as Keep on Moving, with a guest choir, amps things up midway through the album, before returning us to our winter wonderland. A standout track for me is Winter Waltz, a gently lilting instrumental with an Argentinean vibe, thanks to Drew Jureka’s bandoneon work. We also get a taste of Christmas as the album closes out with a wonderful chamber-jazz instrumental take on Jesus, He is Born a.k.a The Huron Carol featuring the great Kevin Turcotte on trumpet. 

With this lovely album for company, even diehard winter-haters might learn to embrace the season.

10 Colin FisherColin Fisher – Suns of the Heart
Colin Fisher
We Are Busy Bodies (colinalexanderfisher.bandcamp.com/album/suns-of-the-heart)

Enchanting. Mesmerizing. Hypnagogic. Enveloping. Warm. Stunning. Of course, stunning is what happens when the finished product we are left with is itself a love letter to the artistic process that birthed it. The facts (from Bandcamp): multi-instrumentalist Colin Fisher and engineer David Psutka went into the studio, Fisher did live improvising, looping, layering and sampling, they bounced wonderful ideas off each other and this is the result. That is all I need, because despite many of these sounds being absolutely unlike anything else that has entered my ears, I oddly do not desire to know where they came from or how they were created. That they are here, that one person generated them live and that they were ultimately the result of a partnership in their current form is a gratifying enough answer in itself. 

This music has so much allure to it, so much intricacy, so much to pull from, that the limits of descriptive language immediately make themselves known. One could try – one could talk about the gut-wrenching distorted guitar melodies on Deus Absconditus sounding like the broken broadcast transmission of stomach tissue being torn apart, pitched to the melody of an uncannily familiar lullaby that has never been played before. The most warped moments sound like angels, the click-clacking of the keys on Fisher’s horn sound like heartbeats, everything feels like it’s being held up by the most fragile material, yet everything will forever remain suspended in air.

11 Patricia BrennanBreaking Stretch
Patricia Brennan Septet
Pyroclastic Records PR35 (pyroclasticrecords.com/release/breaking-stretch)

Having demonstrated her skills in solo and quartet settings, Mexican-American vibraphonist/marimba player Patricia Brennan ups her game further by adding a horn section and electronics to her highly rhythmic program. The voltage boost is used sparingly, mostly to extend the brassiness of Adam O’Farrill’s trumpet leads and add oscillating whizzes to the mallet instruments. However, layering trumpet and saxophonists Jon Irabagon and Mark Shim’s reed riffs broaden the foundation of Brennan’s compositions further, defined by the billowing crunch of Kim Cass’ bass, Marcus Gilmore’s drums and Mauricio Herrera’s percussion.

Unlike a standard Latin-Jazz romp, refined writing and arrangement means that, for instance, on the title tune an emotional tenor saxophone break surges into multiphonics while doubled with metal bar pops that eventually dominate the sound field on top of unrelentless idiophone smacks. Or on Five Suns, O’Farrill’s mariachi-like blasts evoke similar cries from Irabagon’s alto sax, both balancing on wave form squeezes and unvarying hand percussion.

Earendel, the final track, wraps up the session with slackening horn bites and slurs which put finer points on the initial sympathetic electro-acoustic double bass and vibes harmonies. This too pinpoints the program’s dexterity, since, especially when she resonates woody marimba echoes, Brennan, and to a lesser extent Cass’ string solos, evoke relaxed sequences which frame in bolder relief more frenetic motifs. 

Without making her nine compositions too dainty or too dissident, the expanded band helps stretch Brennan’s musical approach in a sophisticated fashion.

12 Miguel ZenonGolden City
Miguel Zenon
Miel Music (miguelzenon.bandcamp.com/album/golden-city)

Grammy-winning alto saxophonist, producer and composer Miguel Zenon has just released his 16th recording as leader, an epic suite inspired by the diverse culture and political evolution of San Francisco – stretching from pre-Spanish Colonialism to the contemporary tech boom of today’s Silicon Valley, commissioned by SF Jazz and the Hewlett Foundation. The creation of this historically significant project propelled Zenon into extensive research that embraced explorations into the Indigenous Mexican population of California, the infamous 1882 Gold Rush, Asian migration, prison camps filled with ethnic Japanese American citizens and more. The recording is comprised of ten interconnected movements, and Zenon’s talented line-up is superb. 

First up is Sacred Land, a stirring, brass-laden tribute to the Indigenous Ohlone people, whose proud descendants are still living among us today. Diego Urcola’s trombone solo here scales the potent musical landscape, bringing to mind our ancient, shared DNA. Acts of Exclusion is an unsettling piece that disrupts the very question of human life and security. Informed by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (which prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States) Zenon’s solo reflects the injustice and immorality of such an act – musically twisting in the wind above raging political forces. The heartfelt ballad, 9066, revisits the shameful incarceration of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans, two thirds of whom were U.S. citizens. Matt Mitchell’s stark piano lines in counterpoint with Chris Tordini’s facile bass encapsulate aspects of this horrific expression of xenophobia and paranoia. 

The closing track, Golden is a powerful, bitter-sweet post-lude inspired by the concept of “The Golden Ratio,” and is not only a superb display of brass dynamism, but also places focus on the incomparable rhythm section of Mitchell, Tordini and Dan Weiss.

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