Jazz and Improvised

Besides gaining a reputation for its demographically diverse and eminently liveable neighbourhoods, when it came to improvised music starting in the early 1970s Toronto was actually a world-class city in more than civic boosterism. That’s because on the initiative of photographer/musician Bill Smith, Sackville records was issuing LPs by some of the most significant avant-garde players from New York, Chicago and St. Louis. Recorded for the most part in local studios, these discs – and affiliated concerts – documented these emerging stylists and designated Toronto as part of the international free jazz firmament. Now Chicago’s Delmark label is distributing CD reissues of the original Sackville records.

Probably the most significant session was the label’s one two-disc package, saxophonist and flautist Julius Hemphill’s Roi Boyé & the Gotham Minstrels (Sackville SKCD2-3014/15 www.delmark.com). It’s a solo session that’s a pioneering example of using multi-tracking to create a compelling audio drama. Best known as a founder of the World Saxophone Quartet (WSQ), Hemphill (1938-1995) was interested in programmatic story telling not reed bravado. One observation is that the often-delicate timbres of the reedist’s overdubbed flutes were showcased at a time when the cliché of advanced jazz imagined every player a discordant eardrum-assaulter. Even when playing astringent alto saxophone, as on the second track, Hemphill is so in control of his material that he doesn’t lapse into glottal punctuation. Instead he replicates a New York subway journey through an overdubbed choir of yelping saxophones. Exactly one year later, Hemphill and his WSQ colleague Oliver Lake recorded the duo disc, Buster Bee (Sackville SKCD2-3016 www.delmark.com) in Toronto. As notable as their teamwork was, it lacks the revolutionary force of the solo set. On “Roi Boyé” for instance, Hemphill devotes the final track to a narrative about a black artist’s life in a materialistic society, punctuating his story-telling with harsh squeals, discordant whorls and split tones. Another track replicates a butterfly’s attraction through stacked and harmonized reed tones that meander linearly; while a third is practically a capriccio, with the theme bouncing along, propelled by carefully stacked, overdubbed horn vamps, while reed-biting and pressurized vibratos from the alto saxophone come in-and-out of aural focus for contrast, ending with a distinctive contralto textural upturn. Hemphill doesn’t neglect jazz’s bedrock, the blues, either. One extended piece positions a soulful alto saxophone riff, basso lip-bubbling from the flute and a heavily breathed soprano saxophone line that could come from a country blues harmonica, while discordant pitches slide contrapuntally among them. Eventually the track reflects both the guttural despair and altissimo promise of the music.

Another pace-setting session took place a year earlier, with George Lewis’ The Solo Trombone Record (Sackville SKCD2-3012 www.delmark.com), the first session under his own name by the musician now as famous for his computer-directed music as for his brass mastery. Audacious to the nth degree, the disc’s Tonebursts is another example of overdubbing. But while Hemphill was 39, with years of gigging behind him when “Roi Boyé” was recorded, Lewis was all of 24. In spite of his youth, the 20-minute track is another tour-de-force with the trombonist evidentially able to stylistically replicate key attributes of older brassmen, calling upon the color of Tricky Sam Nanton, the sophistication of Lawrence Brown and the speed of J. J. Johnson at will and blending them as needed. Here expressive lines are sometimes replaced by a sudden staccato brays, or mid-improv, a trombone choir harmonizes, with its parts segmented among bass trombone pedal-point, alto trombone open-horn linearity, and the highest textures strained though a cup mute. There are even times during which you could swear a supple saxophone is soloing accompanied by phantom guitar strokes. Besides expressive glissandi, timbres are sourced from deep within the trombone body; capillary lines are lobbed from one ‘bone to another; or rubato tones share space with polyharmonies and polytones. Eventually techniques such as oscillated mouthpiece kisses are replaced with resonating runs that maintain an almost conventional jazz-styled line while at the same time making room for growling ostinatos and altissimo cries. Lewis also provides a solo interpretation of Lush Life, but more impressive are other tracks such as Untitled Dream Sequence. Taken at the same tempo as that Billy Strayhorn classic, the Dream Sequence’s note-slurping, double-tongued accents and speedy glisses from every part of the horn demonstrate that exciting improvisation doesn’t have to be fortissimo, super-fast or discordant.

Lewis was also more than just present a year previously when saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell’s Quartet on Sackville (SKCD2-3009 www.delmark.com) was recorded live at Toronto’s long defunct A Space gallery. The momentous session not only captures a then-rare example of the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s saxophonist performing without the other band members, but puts him in an all-star context. Other quartet members are pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, probably the most respected Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians founder, and Detroit guitarist Spencer Barefield. Mitchell and Lewis expose sonorous counterpoint on one duo track and the trombonist alone turns Mitchell’s Olobo into another brass tour-de-force, blending a near ballad exposition with guttural sniggers, near-silent breaths and a coda of overblowing. Group dynamics are memorable as well. Sonic tension is almost visible on Tnoona. With the theme built up from the saxophonist’s tongue flutters and split tones, guitar vibration, Lewis’ sliding plunger work and Abrams’ focussed note clusters, it finally dissolves without release. Aleatory as suggested by its title, Mitchell’s Cards is the CD’s most fully-realized composition. Chromatic forward motion is due to the pianist’s expressive low-frequency runs, but the linear form is punctuated by Barefield’s oscillating amp reverb. Meanwhile Mitchell’s reeds bark with clown-horn-like blasts and dilating split tones, as the trombonist contributes plunger grace notes and discursive pedal point. A coda of stentorian guitar strums completes the improvisation.

Other 1970s group sessions involve a rare excursion into focused European improvisations on All Kinds of Time (Sackville SKCD2-3010 www.delmark.com), by a duo of German pianist/vibist Karl Berger and British bassist Dave Holland, who now follows a more mainstream course; plus pianist Anthony Davis, best-known for operas such as X and Amistad, expressing himself with a suite and shorter composition backed by violin, cello and percussion. But it is Brahma (Sackville SKCD2-3023 www.delmark.com) from 1980 which best demonstrates the musical future which was partially ushered in by these earlier discs. Led by veteran drummer Barry Altschul, the unusually constituted trio introduced two players now in the prime of their career: trombonist Ray Anderson and bassist Mark Helias. Improvising jazz is never static, and unlike uncompromising abstraction that characterizes earlier discs in this set, swinging elements are now mixed with the risk-taking solos. These rhythmic components still go far beyond the conventional. Altschul’s solo on the 17-minute title track may hit a groove, but his bulls-eye beat is amplified with timbre scrambles using mallets and sticks, ratamacues and drags on toms and snares, plus numerous interjections that bring in cymbal shaking, bell-tree resonation, waterphone scrapes, cow bell thwacks and shrills from slide whistles. The finale involves shaking a thunder sheet for fortissimo oscillations; the mid-section is based on a martial beat from the percussionist and wide-angled stops and thumps from Helias. Overall, this drum finesse is synchronized with elephant-like grunts from Anderson’s sousaphone when the brassman isn’t altering themes with flutter-tonguing, freak note whinnying and gutbucket slurs. Capable of smooth balladry on Altschul’s mid-tempo Irina, Anderson also whistles and slurs his way through his own Spanish-tinged Con Alma de Noche backed by woodblock bops and opposite sticking from the drummer. And he enlivens the bassist’s Lism with triplet-extended brassiness, allowing Helias to hand pump and sluice his way up-and-down the strings with guitar-like expressiveness as the stop-time tune evolves.

Advanced improvisations featuring out-of-towners, not to mention the burgeoning local free music community, continue to be recorded in the GTA. These historically important and musically impressive albums show how one series of discs successfully captured musical changes.

33

Alex Pangman

Justin Time JTR 8569-2 (www.justin-time.com)

Toronto teems with jazz vocalists, but few, if any, are as faithful to the genre’s early years as “Canada’s Sweetheart of Swing” Alex Pangman. Reminiscent of Connee Boswell, Mildred Bailey and the youthful recordings of Fitzgerald and O’Day, smooth-voiced Pangman has carved out her niche by charming listeners the old-fashioned way. Beginning with a jubilant take on the seldom-sung I Found a New Baby, this, her fifth recording, is devoted to songs made popular in 1933.

In her ongoing quest to uncover hidden American songbook gems, some of the album’s best cuts include a cheerful homage to Connee Boswell (Hummin’ to Myself), a timeless Jack Teagarden specialty (A Hundred Years from Today) and a pair of Bing Crosby rarities (Thanks and I Surrender Dear, the latter a poignant duet with Ron Sexsmith). It is Pangman’s immaculate diction, delivered ever so earnestly, that makes her an ideal candidate to rescue these titles from obscurity. That said, lyrics aside, the success of this recording owes plenty to Alex’s seven-piece band, The Alleycats. Pianist Peter Hill swings mightily as always, as does Drew Jurecka, who skilfully doubles on violin and alto saxophone; both Hill and Jurecka contribute clever arrangements. Also sensational throughout are clarinettist Ross Wooldridge and trumpeter Kevin Clark. As Ella Fitzgerald would say, “this band will swing you to good health!” On that note, this is Pangman’s first recording since undergoing a double-lung transplant in 2008. A triumph!

At Somewhere There

Evan Parker; Wes Neal; Joe Sorbara

Barnyard Records BR0321 (www.barnyardrecords.com)

Without a hint of condescension, veteran British tenor saxophonist Evan Parker allies his skills with the talents of Torontonians bassist Wes Neal and drummer Joe Sorbara in this first-class essay in free improvisation. During the single track, recorded live at local performance space Somewhere There, rhythms, pitches and tones are mixed, matched, mulched and multiplied with a timbral blend that makes it seems as if the trio members have collaborated for years.

Balancing methodical plucks and brawny strums with a hint of sul tasto extensions, Neal marshals his strings to create an unremitting chromatic pulse. For his part, Sorbara pops, plucks, strikes and bounces rhythms on the sides and tops of his drums to tint and roughen the narrative. Delicate bell pings, rattling chains and, more frequently, the harsh application of a drum stick along a cymbal, mark transitions.

Meanwhile Parker, who has been involved in similar ad-hoc improvising since the mid-1960s, varies his output from intense flutter tonguing to glottal punctuation; and from flattement smears to cadenzas of bird-like twittering. Yet even as his inventive free-flowing timbres inflate, constrict or propel the performance in unexpected directions, he never loses its linear thread. A master of cooperation not dominance, even his intervals of nearly superhuman circular breathing are not challenges but an invitation to further group counterpoint. By the finale his occasional pan-tonal bent notes and nephritic explosions have become merely one element in this group’s sonic picture, separate but equal to the bassist’s double stopping or the drummer’s ruffs and rolls.

A key participant in the Koerner Hall Aspects Of Oscar concert series was bass ace Dave Young, who’s now recorded an 11-track studio version that swings with both simplicity and strength. Dave Young Quintet - Aspects Of Oscar (Modica Music MM0111 www.daveyoung.ca) features on six Peterson tunes and five standards A-list jazzers Robi Botos (piano), Kevin Turcotte (trumpet), Reg Schwager (guitar) and Terry Clarke (drums), all in top form. The opening OP classic Wheatland showcases authoritative bass propulsion and relentlessly appealing playing by bandsmen before Broadway standards time. Then it’s OP’s best ballad (When Summer Comes) given poignant treatment, as were Chaplin’s Smile and Bernstein’s Somewhere. The legend’s bouncy tune Cake Walk energizes Clarke, Just Friends roars, but perhaps the best jazz comes with OP’s rare excursion into the classical world, his Bach Suite (recorded with Young, Joe Pass and Martin Drew in 1986). Here are the utterly winning Andante and Fugue movements plus Bach’s Blues.

Nancy Walker has played enough piano to know how to keep listeners interested however hard she pushes the boundaries of familiarity. Her 11 original compositions on Nancy Walker - New Hieroglyphics (Indie NW 2011-01 www.nancywalkerjazz.com) are often fiercely inventive, while some amazingly seem ripe for dancing. The opening Mehndi pulses with life, drummer Ethan Ardelli permanently on fire, bass Kieran Overs a big-toned mainstay and guitarist Ted Quinlan always ready to wail or deliver strong counterpoint to the pianist’s delightful ideas, always confidently expressed - later he brings new levels of intensity to Federico. The title piece (and others) exploit elements of musical theory but you don’t need to drown in semantics to enjoy the off-kilter keyboard fancies plus a vigorous pulse. Imprint has bravura guitar and expansive imagination, Companion Moon has many memorable moments while with Take You There it’s back to the dance floor. A fine album well worth seeking.

The Walker-Overs team is also in action on Mikko Hilden Group - Nova Scotia (Addo AJR007 www.addorecords.com), the first recording by the Swedish-born, Hogtown-based guitarist, one of many trying to find an individual voice amid the tsunami of string practitioners. He just about succeeds, however, with ringing tones cleanly struck, a passion for lyrical melody and uncommon improv. Hilden penned the six originals – lasting just a miserly 38 minutes – which exercise a quartet rounded out by drummer Will Foster. Willowbrook has a bold core with good piano comping, Secret Sun’s forceful, unusual theme is compelling with Walker’s counter-theme rebellions, while Rocket Fuel catches fire when Hilden’s tough lines assault snaky piano phrases. The title tune has profound moments with expert idea development, generating a powerful sense of collective achievement. June 14 2008 mournfully commemorates the drowning death of E.S.T. leader Esbjorg Svensson.

Another stylish CD that boasts original content and elegant execution while examining different approaches is Reg Schwager Trio - Chromology (Rant Records 1039 www.regschwager.com). Schwager composed eight of the 11 songs and works comfortably with bass Jon Maharaj and drummer Michel Lambert. The album engages the listener for 53 minutes.

Self-taught Ottawa pianist Peter Hum is likely more known in the jazz community for his prodigious blogging but clearly has wordless talent too, as attested by his debut release Peter Hum Quintet - A Boy’s Journey (PJH001 www.peterhum.com). Leading three other Ottawa-born bandsmen - tenor saxman Kenji Omae, alto and soprano Nathan Cepelinski and bass Alec Walkington – plus drummer Ted Warren, the boss cruises through ten neat, original tunes secure in his players’ long-established musical camaraderie. However, more than once the apparent comfort level seems complacent, with tempos sedate and drive and urgency at a premium. Horns get plenty of room, with rugged tenor and alto slither easy to differentiate, and this aids interesting tracks like Take The High Road, Big Lou and Sojourner’s Truth, Hum showing electric piano skill on the last two. Best jazz comes with the energized Unagi and the cleverly structured closer Three Wishes with its snarling saxes.

A while ago I raved (in an unpublished review) about pianist Chris Donnelly’s debut disc Solo declaring it as good an entry in the crowded keyboard stakes as any recently experienced, with technical prowess, mesmerizing touch and effortlessly imaginative approach evident. The Canada Council commissioned him to compose music based on the work of Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher. The result is Chris Donnelly - Metamorphosis (Alma ACD32212 www.chrisdonnellymusic.com). More words from my earlier piece apply here too – “swashbuckling verve”, “truly accomplished” “crammed with subtlety”, “significant musical event.” There are ten movements, with the music working as a concert with minimal interruption. Of most note are the particularly dazzling You enter the fountain, the invigorating In the chimera of notes, the percussive You hear the voice and the bustling Saying you are the azure. I have two problems, however. It sounds too much like a classical recital à la Glenn Gould – and the cover art is absurd.

*The Dixie Demons CD Fossil Fuel won the 2011 Canadian Collectors Congress album-of-the-year award. The band narrowly beat out Jeff Healey’s Last Call and the Vic Dickenson–Jim Galloway Quintet’s Live In Toronto albums, says Congress spokesman Gene Miller. The Toronto-area Demons are co-leaders Dan Douglas (trombone) and Ross Wooldridge (clarinet) plus Steve Crowe (trumpet), Phil Disera (banjo), Chris Lamont (drums) and Doug Burrell (tuba). The 13^th annual award was presented at the annual meeting of the Congress, which specializes in classic and traditional jazz, on April 30 in Toronto.