Jazz and Improvised

Outstanding saxophonist and composer Quinsin Nachoff spends more time in New York than in his native Canada, releasing cutting-edge albums underlining the key niche he now occupies in contemporary jazz. His latest Quinsin Nachoff FoMo (Musictron, www.quinsin.com), with FoMo standing for ‘forward motion’, is just that, delivering almost 80 minutes comprising eight of his compositions that are splendid examples of imagination, wit and daring yet show keen understanding of jazz traditions. Big Apple trumpeter Russ Johnson is the bright foil to Nachoff’s tenor, while fellow Canucks (sinewy keysman Adrean Farrugia on Fender Rhodes and drummer Mark Kelso) alternately massage and bruise rhythms. The sound echoes provocative Ornette Coleman foursomes but with marginally softer surfaces and an inclination to sneak in pop-rock tags – and it thrills - the Rhodes surprisingly effective. On Devil’s Advocate the leader energetically tests new ideas alongside vigorous trumpet, Odyssic says soaring space flight over undulating beat, while the title track surges, its snaky lines urgently counterpointed. Mellow creations such as Three Trees and the surreal Astral Echo Poem allow dramatic contrast before the folksy rumble of African Skies concludes a session superbly shaping new musical scenery.

The diverse talents of elite Montreal jazzers is on show on Jazzlab - Octo Portraits (Effendi FND107 www.effendirecords.com), the octet’s fourth such outing featuring strong charts and stirring soloing. Power saxist Frank Lozano seems to lead with his assertive, technically accomplished work, but everyone deserves mention, each contributing a tune and solos – take bow. Saxmen Remi Bolduc and Alexandre Côté, trumpeter Aron Doyle, trombonist Richard Gagnon, pianist John Roney, bass Alain Bédard and drummer Isaiah Ceccarelli. Tracing The Chain is Lozano’s chance to wave the avant-garde flag before it retires to medium-pace thrust moderated by Doyle’s sunny tones, Bolduc’s Mrs BB has an intriguing narrative, Côté’s Phil’s Spirit is a bravura blast with sturdy trombone and tough tenor and the intense Roney revels in outside play on Trois Recits de Voyage.

Drummer Mark McLean could call Toronto home but seems permanently on tour performing with a multitude of music’s elites. His self-produced indie CD Mark McLean - Playground (www.markmclean.com) pictures an über-assured, relaxed jazzer who’s unquestionably the boss of a Hogtown band featuring guitarist-for-all-tastes Kevin Breit while also drawing on the considerable abilities of busy saxman Kelly Jefferson, bassists Marc Rogers or Pat Kilbride plus pianists Robi Botos or David Braid. Always controlled, all the way from cerebral to fierce, McLean makes jazz extremely appealing, his nine (of 10) compositions catchy and very much of our time, some obviously referencing his appearances with singers. Breit is a versatile force throughout, always in the middle of ominous rocking grooves and ruminative forays as McLean conjures rhythmic intricacies for every occasion with authority and flawless time feel. Lots to like here.

Toronto veteran Alex Dean has a deserved reputation as an exciting player on tenor who was most familiar romping through the changes with blistering phrasing, heated blasts and pinpoint timing. It’s been a very long time since he’s recorded as leader, and Alex Dean Quintet - At This Point (Cornerstone CD 134 www.cornerstonerecordsinc.com) comes up somewhat short on the fiery front. I miss his glorious over-the-top solos. Dean penned the attractive septet of tunes here, which benefit on three of them from immaculate, elegant work by guitarist Lorne Lofsky. There’s also predictably solid support from pianist Brian Dickinson, bass Kieran Overs and drummer Ted Warren. Mostly you hear warm, reflective tenor, the hard edges whittled away, the playing crafty as a fountain of ideas is explored – on the title track he bustles from mellow to meaty after offering charged-up swing, then shows more of his old self on Mr.B.C. and too-short vintage mayhem with Warren on Pat and Pat.

Mr. Marblesz is a quintet led by guitarist Tom Juhas with his brother Sly drumming, smart organist Daffyd Hughes, saxist Chris Gale and bass Tyler Emond. The self-titled debut release Mr. Marblesz (www.mrmarblesz.ca) shows jazz approaching à la burlesque, busy but uneven, rhythmically heady, with mercurial runs, unanticipated hairpin turns, a healthy appetite for innovation with unusual, inviting textures, yucky vocal background and an overall sound both retro and fresh. In other words, a bit odd – but not uninteresting.

Pianist-composer David Braid is a huge talent, his resourcefulness front and centre on David Braid, Canadian Brass - Spirit Dance (Opening Day ODR 7383 www.davidbraid.com). Eight of his originals plus a clever theme-and-variations manufactured from the standard Yesterdays make enjoyable crossover fodder for the Brass, who’ve been around since 1970 and are six-strong here. The music embraces far places and many moods, from the serene Interior Castles to the seemingly simple, delightful Temple Heaven Walk to the contrapuntal trumpet-fortified Prelude for Two Voices to the spiritual, two-part Resolute Bay. Great stuff.

Globalization, mass communication and travel have created situations where standardized hamburger patties or drum beats can be experienced anywhere in the world. Yet increased mobility in the 21st Century also allows like-minded musicians who live in different cities, countries or continents to instigate regular working ensembles.

This situation is particularly pronounced among improvising musicians. One top-flight instance is captured on Morning Glory (Maya Records MCD 1001 www.maya-records.com) by the trio of Augustí Fernández, Barry Guy and Ramón López. Although listening to the sensitive cooperation exhibited on the two CDS which make up this outstanding set suggests that the three members of the trio are inseparable, it’s not so. Pianist Fernández lives in Barcelona, bassist Guy in Switzerland and drummer López in Paris. Here material is divided among group compositions and those written by the pianist or the bassist. A prime example of López’s sensitive accompaniment occurs on Perpetuum Mobile where his press rolls back the pianist’s kinetic pitter-patter and tremolo chording which evolves in double counterpoint with Guy’s dobro-like twangs or bow taps against his instrument’s wood. Meanwhile A Sudden Appearance confirms the trio’s atonality, encompassing Fernández’s outlined single notes, Guy’s screeching sul ponticello sprawls and López’s rat-tat-tats. Other pieces such as The Magical Chorus and most of the second CD, recorded live in a New York club, redefine the trio, with splashes of pianistic color perfectly matched with vibrating cymbals, bowed strings or staccato plucks that presage cascading keyboard runs. Fernández’s Aurora suggests an Iberian take on Hispanic rhythms, with the tremolo patterns revealing keyboard notes in rapid succession, yet with the line stretched enough to keep the impressionistic narrative chromatic. Guy’s contrapuntal retort features scraped and stropped strings while the percussion undertow is mostly rim shots and the sounds of crushing crisp paper.

A similarly impressive global quartet is made up of Polish woodwind player Waclaw Zimpel, Ukrainian bassist Mark Tokar, German drummer Klaus Kugel and American pianist Bobby Few. Undivided - The Passion (Multikulti MPI 011 www.multkulti.com) is literally that, a modern re-imaging of Christ’s suffering and death. Lacking vocals or religious motifs, the seven-part suite is not overtly spiritual but musically superlative. A veteran of playing in churches, nightclubs and with spiritual jazz avatar Albert Ayler, Few takes naturally to the theme and throughout lets his frenetic chording and dynamic voicing create fantasias of their own. Clustered notes cascade like waterfalls or singular timbres are starkly outlined. Kugel’s steady clanks and cogwheel ratcheting is added to regular cymbal splashes as well as drum drags and ruffs for versatile percussion backup. Tokar’s perfectly balanced string slaps are mostly in the background, except when marking theme variations and transitions. Whether it’s with two-fisted piano clusters, spiccato runs or door-knocking thumps, each of the three cleanly intersects with Zimpel, who is equally expressive on clarinet, bass clarinet and tárogató, a Hungarian-invented saxophone cousin. Appropriately intense, Way of the Cross/Crucifixion/Death finds the reedist spitting out pressurized glossolalia, reed bites and emotional split tones as his solo varies from stopped silences to shrill speaking-in-tongues. Around him in a broken-octave concord are buzzing bass lines, vibrating drum tops and gospel-inflected processional chords from the pianist.

One important ingredient in Zimpel’s woodwind cornucopia is the unique timbres of the tárogató. Although French reedist Christophe Monniott doesn’t play it on This is C’est La Vie, the newest CD by his Paris-Budapest band Ozone (BMC Records BMCCD163 www.bmcrecords.hu) adds sounds from the equally indigenous cimbalom or multi-string hammered board zither, played by Miklós Lukács to those created by fellow Hungarians, keyboardist Emil Spányi and percussionist Joe Quitzke. Ozone’s CD is notable in its mixture of electronics and jazz standards such as Poinciana and Sophisticated Lady. With Monniott on low-pitched baritone saxophone the latter is treated uniquely as his smeary split tones and squeals brush up against reverberating arpeggios and string pops from Lukács. In contrast, Poinciana is backed into with keyboard splatters and signal-processed lines as the double-time treatment eventually encompasses Spányi’s multi-fingered syncopated runs and Monniott’s tongue vibrato on alto saxophone. It ends with vocoder modulations from the saxman and glissandi from the piano. More intriguingly, tracks such as the title tune welcome all influences. Here Monniott’s high-pitched, corkscrew-like vibrations operate alongside Lukács’ twanging harp-like arpeggios played andante and staccato, backed by jazz-grounded cymbal splashes and superfast piano comping.

Canadians are also involved in trans-border cooperation as demonstrated on Subsurface (Schraum Records 11 www.schraum.de) by the trio of Montreal-based bass clarinettist and alto saxophonist Philippe Lauzier, and two Germans, Berlin trumpeter Nils Ostendorf and Philip Zoubek from Köln on prepared piano. Here, the instrumentalists’ extended textures create a soundscape of buzzed and granular modulations as if electronics are involved. They aren’t. Instead, multiphonics arise from the piano’s stopped and striated strings, the reedist’s flat-line or pressurized vibrato and grace note flourishes from the trumpeter. On a track such as Spectral Radiance, Zoubek’s clipped and clanking chords are mixed with string pops that add wooden tones from then piano’s action, building up to a rough, broken-chord concordance with bubbling and buzzing staccato lines from the horns. In comparison, an interlude like Calm City lives up to its name as the pianist’s barely audible key strums accompany Ostendorf’s carefully shaped grace notes, as Lauzier’s extended reed puffs gradually swell in volume.

Unlike economic or political globalization, musical globalization is more benign. These sessions demonstrate the outstanding results when free-thinking musicians based in different locations are able to regularly create together.

Tracing Light

Laila Biali

Independent LB09102 (www.lailabiali.com)

Laila Biali has had quite a year – a new gig as backing vocalist with Sting, a new baby and now a new CD. “Tracing Light” is the third solo album for the Vancouver-raised, Toronto- and New York-based performer and composer.

Although Biali started out her still-burgeoning career as a jazz piano player who sang occasionally, with “Tracing Light” it’s her singing that predominates. All the tunes except two – an instrumental and another that features Sudanese vocalist Waleed Abdulhamid, both of which Biali composed – feature Biali’s light pretty voice, which is at times reminiscent of Sarah McLachlan. The disc starts strong with an absolutely stunning cover of Imogen Heap's Let Go, featuring Larnell Lewis's exquisite drumming. (Lewis is a standout throughout the disc, turning in some of the most exciting drum work I've heard in a long time.) The Best Is Yet to Come is shaken out of its customary casual groove and turned into a barn burner with Lewis and bassist and producer George Koller driving the tempo and Biali right there with them coolly and capably navigating multiple key changes. The disc closes out with Biali alone on Billy Joel's And So It Goes to which she adds a layer of harmonic complexity on piano and fathoms of emotional depth to the poignant lyrics.

Concert Note: Biali is performing a live-to-air concert with Lewis and Koller on December 6 on Jazz.FM91.

The Forgotten 1949 Carnegie Hall Concert

Nat King Cole

HEP Records CD 91

David Lennick, local music collector and archivist has, since the 90's, made a living restoring archival recordings. Recently he came up with a winner - a November 4, 1949 recording of Nat King Cole and his trio at Carnegie Hall, never issued until now.

Irving Ashby, guitar, Joe Comfort, bass and Jack Costanzo on bongos make up the trio and the programme consisting, for the most part, of familiar material flows along as smooth as silk with Cole's smoky voice making each song sound as if it were written for him. At the time the group was touring as a double bill with the Woody Herman Orchestra which plays on the last cut on this CD.

The concert was recorded on acetates, a not uncommon practice at Carnegie in those days. Bass and guitar are somewhat underrecorded, not the fault of the restoration process, and I would have liked to hear more of Nat Cole the pianist, but it does not take away from the overall feeling of being present at a pretty special event.

Congratulations to everyone involved in making this performance available. If you are a fan of Nat King Cole, and who isn't, you will want to add this one to your collection.

This CD is on HEP Records based in Edinburgh, Scotland, owned by Alastair Robertson. The label has a catalogue of historically significant recordings which can be accessed at www.hepjazz.com.