Jazz and Improvised

Bien ensemble - Mimosa

Bien ensemble
Mimosa
Cellar Music CMF060623 (mimosamusic.bandcamp.com/album/bien-ensemble)

French/English Vancouver-based jazz quintet Mimosa is celebrating its 25th anniversary as a band in 2024. Their fourth release, Bien ensemble (Good Together) is self-described as being “about connection through friendship and music.” Mimosa’s members’ different backgrounds, personalities and languages inspire unique music from each other, along with jazz, Brazilian sambas, French 60s pop and Cabaret music influences. Mimosa is Rebecca Shoichet (vocals, accordion), Anna Lumière (piano, accordion, Fender Rhodes, organ, Moog, vocals), Karen Graves (sax, flute, vocals), Conrad Good (bass) and Bernie Arai (drums). Special guests here are Heather Anderson (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Susana Williams (percussion).

Lumière composes most of Mimosa’s music. She also collaborates with band members like title track Bien ensemble with Shoichet. Calm opening jazz piano and French vocals develop into faster colourful instrumental solos above a snappy drum backdrop. English vocals return to slower closing. Lumière’s High in the Sky is classic instrumental jazz with quasi backdrop English vocals. Tight ensemble supports many instrumental solos, especially the outstanding trumpet solo. Mimosa’s Graves sings Birds at 4 am, her English composition co-written with B. Murphy. Slow depressing lack of sleep storytelling with piano/drums backdrops to hopeful decrescendo cymbals and piano ending. Guests Anderson and Williams join Mimosa in the closing Lumière track Trouble. The sax solo followed by a subtle accordion solo adds colour and then loud piano chords. Love everyone singing at the ending!

This release achieves its celebratory purpose as musicians, vocalists, composers along with excellent production, create perfect music!

Accolades of Time - Ruth Saphir

Accolades of Time
Ruth Saphir
Orchard of Pomegranates (ruthsaphir.com)

With lyrics that poignantly reflect on identity and relationships as they transcend the passage of time, an expressive band that fits this elegant thematic tapestry and a consistently goosebump-inducing vocal performance from Ruth Saphir, Ancestral Shadows is a musical odyssey that feels immensely rewarding with each listen.

Revolving around the central quartet consisting of Ruth Saphir (voice, flute), Kate Wyatt (piano), Adrian Vedady (bass) and Mili Hong (drums), it truly feels like each musician’s contributions are valued and paced perfectly throughout the album. The incredible one-two punch of Where Do Dreams Go? and Hand-Me-Down-Clothes feature Vedady’s bass as the most prominent instrument in the mix, with the warm breadth of his tone and tasteful nature of his bass lines making every pause in the melody feel full of vitality. This careful, concerted dance between ensemble and songwriter continues in magical moments such as the gradual foray into double time following the effortlessly graceful way Saphir stretches the phrase “I know you wanted to” during Lost at Sea, a swinging number if there ever was one. When we’re in the flow I feel the undertow intrude feels directly addressed to a rhythm section that sits so on top of every beat it practically anticipates it, yet invokes feeling in a very unsuppressed manner.

Autobiographical in one instant and familiar in the next, this music makes for a truly ecstatic listening experience.

Moon Over Lake - Roddy Ellias

Moon Over Lake
Roddy Ellias
KWIMU Music KW-007 (roddyellias.bandcamp.com/album/moon-over-lake)

When inevitably transfixed and immersed in the sheer lushness that emanates from Roddy Ellias’ guitar, it is easy to forget you’re listening to a collection of songs, rather than one self-contained piece. When faced with such a dizzying array of odd pulses, phrases without clean endings, and several texturally rich sections where Ellias sounds like he has cloned himself, there can arise a temptation to overanalyze, attempting to grasp a firm hold of all that feels increasingly less tangible. To give into these urges keeps the listener at a distance, which stands at odds to the vulnerability of Ellias’ creative endeavour.

Short, imagery-laden track titles complement the spacious, meditative feeling of listening to multiple voices interacting within one instrument, punctuated by the occasional audible breath (such as the one in Flower) and chord that reverberates through a physical space. Hope deals in resonances, finding hidden melodies within its chordal elements while allowing the inner voices to color much of the mood, each sustained tone lingering as if to convey a sense of yearning. Chant rides an intricate groove through its entire runtime without belabouring it, but always implying it through blissful syncopated runs and occasionally reintroducing its titular refrain in fragments before the triumphant outro.

Nary a composition here overstays its welcome – the overall listen is quite brisk – but they are all intricate parts of a fulfilling, harmonious whole.

Wintertides - Sam Wilson

Wintertides
Sam Wilson
Studio 204 (samwilsonmusiq.bandcamp.com)

The state of the Canadian guitar in the key of jazz has never been in such good shape as it is today. You only have to consider the contributions to jazz literature made by such masters as Ray Norris,Diz Disley, Ed Bickert,Lorne Lofsky, Nelson Symonds, Lenny Breau, Oliver Gannon, Sonny Greenwich, and from Bill Coon to Reg Schwager and Jocelyn Gould. You could fill an entire library of jazz music with those names alone.

To that roster you would have to add the name of Sam Wilson. The young east coast composer and virtuoso instrumentalist displays skill and mature judgement in the performance of her original works. She puts on an exquisite musical display on her fourth recording Wintertides, a homage to the landscapes of the two disparate coastlines of Canada.

Weaving ornate tapestries featuring wonderfully colour-laden notes and phrases Wilson – together with bassist Gordie Hart and drummer Jen Yakamovich – offer subtle, often striking, interpretations of Wilson’s superbly-crafted and affecting miniatures.

Despite meditating on the single theme of relocating “bi-coastal” landscapes to a canvas of soundscapes the settings of each of the ten works couldn’t be more different. Melodic lines are eloquently ornamented. Slowly unfolding harmonies are stimulating, heightening the impressive, sweeping canvases from earth to sky. Dancing urgency of rhythms dapple the music as if adding curved brushstrokes to these musical canvases. The Moon Song and Wintertides are masterpieces.

Tidal Currents: East Meets West - Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra

Tidal Currents: East Meets West
Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
Chronograph Records CR-109 (winnipegjazzorchestra.com/cd-details---tidal-currents--east-meets-west)

Tidal Currents: East Meets West is the latest offering from the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra. It’s the seventh release by this ensemble, and fits beautifully into their catalogue without sounding derivative or too similar to their previous recordings. Composers Jill Townsend and Christine Jensen provide the repertoire, based on themes from their respective upbringings on the East and West coasts of Canada. United in the landlocked geographical center of the country, the WJO gives a slick and polished performance of pieces by both composers, featuring soloists from the group as well as Jensen on soprano saxophone.

“Short but sweet” is the best way to describe Tidal Currents, at a runtime of just under 30 minutes. If the group had decided to add an additional track or two, they would not be unwelcomed, but after several listens through the album in its entirety, I’m not left feeling owed anything either. We have gone from an era of 70-plus minute CDs to one focused more around singles and EPs. Whether this programming choice was deliberate or not, Tidal Currents might just be the perfect length to satiate the modern attention span.

It is an impressive feat that the album’s four tracks alternate composers while still functioning together as a suite. This is a testament to both the ensemble playing, and visions of the composers. There is unity throughout an organic set of music, but ample contrast to keep listeners engaged. Albums may be getting shorter, but this means us listeners have no excuse not to digest statements like Tidal Currents in their entirety as intended.

Listen to 'Tidal Currents: East Meets West' Now in the Listening Room

Horns of Hope - Aimee-Jo Benoit; The New Assembly

Horns of Hope
Aimee-Jo Benoit; The New Assembly
Chronograph Records (chronographrecords.com/releases/horns-of-hope)

Calgary-based jazz vocalist/composer, Aimee-Jo Benoit has just released her sophomore recording – a compelling, highly creative collection of music that is a joyous celebration of some of her most seminal influences including songs from Canadian luminaries kd lang, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Daniel Lanois and Sarah Harmer. Benoit’s voice is a warm, rich, sonorous instrument – and like a fine violin, and through her masterful communication skills, she is capable of transporting the listener to any emotional plateau desired. Joining Benoit on this exceptional recording are a fine Calgary-based ensemble, including arranger Carsten Rubeling on trombone, Mark De Jong on tenor saxophone and trombone, Andre Wickenheiser on trumpet and a tight rhythm section comprised of bassist Jon Wielebknowski, keyboardist Augustine Yates and drummer Dan Gaucher.

The eight-track programme (including one original from Benoit) kicks off with Barefoot, filled with powerful horn lines, dynamic rhythms and a pitch-pure, velvet-like vocal, which wraps itself around every part of lang’s lyrical poetry, and Rubeling’s innovative and stirring horn-infused arrangement is nothing short of magnificent. A dynamic solo from Wickenheiser is a highlight, as well as the stripped-down coda.

Other delights include a refreshing take on Mitchell’s Little Green, infusing the tune with jazz elements that would delight Mitchell. Goucher’s gorgeous bass work holds this beautiful tune lovingly in his hands. Harmer’s notable You Were Here is presented in the stark resonance of De Jong on baritone, eventually joined by the full ensemble. Benoit sails through and above everything – gracing all with a brush of the wings of her magnificent voice, her skills and her taste.

Listen to 'Horns of Hope' Now in the Listening Room

Fatrasies - François Houle; Kate Gentile; Alexander Hawkins

Fatrasies
François Houle; Kate Gentile; Alexander Hawkins
Victo cd 137 (victo.qc.ca)

Three masters of the improv craft from three different countries confirm not only creative music’s universality but also how so-called abstract music can be as definitive as any other. Each of the five instant compositions blend American Kate Gentile’s restrained drum pops and rumbles, the UK’s Alexander Hawkins’ refractive pianism ranging from meditative to mauling and Canadian François Houle’s output from two clarinets and electronics that encompasses textures ranging from hissing trills to bagpipe-like drones.

Used sparingly to amplify tones, electronics underline Houle’s versatility since by playing both clarinets at once or dismantling them for extra timbres he produces distinctive sounds from the near opaque to free-flowing. Not to be outdone, Hawkins creates immediate responses to either player’s musical thrusts. For instance on La petite bête he doubles his speed to intersect with the clarinetist’s rappelling up the scale. On Tart ara mon cueur, as blowsy basset clarinet tones widen and intensify, the pianist moves from gentle clinks to splayed percussive pedal action. Gentile responds quickly as well and hard thumps plus cymbal colours join the piano patterns to properly frame Houle’s dual clarinet output so that it becomes moderate and linear.

There are numerous instances of the interaction flowing the other way such as electronic whizzes meeting piledriver piano runs or hollow-sounding reed flutters extending an a capella piano introduction. The (so-far) shared democratic heritage of these countries could serve as a metaphor for how well these three interact.