06 Lina AllemanoFlip Side
Lina Allemano’s Ohrenschmaus
Lumo Records LM 2024-16 (linaallemano.bandcamp.com/album/flip-side)

Forget other recordings of wholly improvised music – not that this is better than Arve Henriksen, Nate Wooley and the rest – it’s merely that such comparisons are redundant. When the musicians of Lina Allemano’s Ohrenschmaus begin to improvise, you get the wondrous impression that they seemingly don’t believe the first bar of a work ought to herald its beginning, nor do they believe that works on this recording, Flip Side, need end with a rousing conclusion.

The result is a meta-work that creates myriad associations, resonances and new perspectives, not just between the lines and spaces of each work but also within the whole cycle of songs from Sidetrack (the recording’s opening salvo) to its explosive end, Sidespin

In between this panoply of musical gestures trumpeter Allemano, bassist Dan Peter Sundland, drummer Michael Griener and accordionist Andrea Parkins (who also comes to the party with found objects and electronics) continuously let listeners know that they may have stepped into an ongoing dialogue. Sidetrack is initially mouse-like, creeping and scurrying, but subsequent creations do more than suggest that the musicians simply nibble at this ongoing feast.  

Everyone contributes wonderfully to the heft of the music. Allemano is particularly engaged, drawing the other musicians into the frenzy of the improvisations. This is especially true of the whirligig velocity of such pieces as Sideswipe and Stricken, from where irruption bursts forth. Overall, this is a muscular, exhilaratingly voiced and lucidly inventive musical excursion.  

07 Bria SkonbergWhat It Means
Bria Skonberg
Cellar Music CM072624 (briaskonberg.bandcamp.com/album/what-it-means)

Back in the second half of the year 2000 aficionados, jazz bandleaders and critics were busy extolling the virtues of a young musician from Vancouver. Her name was Bria Skonberg and she played trumpet and sang with seductive vulnerability. Two decades later Skonberg reminds us why so many fell in love with her music, returning to what Hugues Panassié rightly described as le jazz hot

Skonberg’s 2024 installment – her eighth album, entitled What it Means – is red-hot indeed. As with her earlier recordings this one too is eloquent, enterprisingly and imaginatively programmed and reshapes classic repertoire as she propels “hot” charts into a whole new world of her music making. 

In Skonberg’s playing, there’s the familiar virtuosity and refinement that marked her previous albums. She embraces the full resources of her trumpet to recreate classics such as Louis Armstrong’s Cornet Chop Suey and Sidney Bechet’s Petit Fleur. Her originals, In The House and Elbow Bump, show a native’s grasp of the New Orleans idiom and are a triumph of music-making. Her eminently captivating voice adorns John Lennon’s Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy).

Skonberg is helped along the way by New Orleans “royalty” including banjoist Don Vappie, drummer Herlin Riley and the adorable vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa.

08 Caity GyorgyHello! How Are You?
Caity Gyorgy and her trio
Independent (caitygyorgy.com)

With Hello! How Are You? Caity Gyorgy continues on her path toward world domination of the vocal jazz scene. Jokes aside, since embarking on her career a few short years ago, the singer and songwriter has released two EPs and three albums – two of which have won JUNO awards – and completed a Master’s degree, all before turning 26. With her fourth album Gyorgy not only gives us her trademark brilliant vocals, but her songwriting just keeps getting stronger, too. All but three of the tracks were written by her, in the style of the Great American Songbook, yet they sound very fresh, as Gyorgy combines sophisticated lyrics with interesting musicality.

The album launches with the hard-swinging title track, showcasing Gyorgy’s scatting skills alongside her super tight trio of Anthony D’Alessandro on piano, Thomas Hainbuch on upright bass and Jacob Wutzke on drums. Standout tracks for me are Just My Luck, a slightly melancholy and totally gorgeous piece of writing and music-making, driven by sparse yet compelling rhythm section work. The sharp wit of Letter From the Office Of is a nice contrast. Being a sucker for a heartbreaking ballad, I’ll be listening to Familiar Face on repeat for the next while. I also really liked the rhythmic take on Rodgers and Hart’s It Never Entered My Mind, which manages to make the song’s already poignant lament even deeper.

With this accomplished album I predict yet more accolades in Gyorgy’s future. “Hello Grammy committee! How are you?”

Listen to 'Hello! How Are You?' Now in the Listening Room

09 Dun Dun BandPita Parka Pt. 1: Xam Egdub
Dun-Dun Band
Ansible Editions 007 (kunudusuvuntu.bandcamp.com/album/pita-parka-pt-i-xam-egdub)

When the music, instrumental credits (i.e. Craig Dunsmuir on single line electric guitar and P___r P____r, Colin Fisher on the “Hahahacksaw” Jim Duggan, Mike Smith handling keyboard transcombobulations), themes and textures defy categorization, why bother trying to categorize them? Pita Parka, Pt.1: Xan Egdub is the latest from Dun-Dun Band, which is an incredible improvised music project that has yielded truly unique odysseys across the sonic spectrum. As a ten-piece outfit sporting an impressive lineup of perpetual experimenters on their respective instruments, it is astounding to witness the places they go throughout this album, and perhaps even more inspiring to experience long stretches of restraint. 

Leader Dunsmuir’s influences include elements of minimalism and post rock, which is manifest in the strong devotion to repetition and atmospheric build throughout these compositions. No.1 in particular has hypnotic qualities to it, with the cyclical nature of its primary sequences continuously hooking and holding the listener in a trance, daring their ears to become lost in minute detail rather than any overt changes to each steadfast rhythmic pattern. Throughout, there is a tangible sense of interconnectedness and deep listening between musicians, primarily evident in magical instances where a sound or idea crawls to the forefront, and the rest of the ensemble immediately uplifts it on a whim. Why bother trying to categorize all this? Mileage may vary, but one thing is for certain: however you try, categorizations won’t stick.

10 Ryan OliverLive in Vancouver
Ryan Oliver Quartet
(ryanoliverquartet.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-vancouver)

Toronto saxophonist extraordinaire Ryan Oliver’s sizzling new release takes us on a journey back in time to the 60s and the world of jazz at the time. The record is full of Oliver’s unique and catchy takes on classic tunes, such as John Coltrane’s Equinox and the American traditional folk song The Wayfaring Stranger, covered by many famous artists such as Johnny Cash and Burl Ives. Elevating the tunes to new heights is a group of star-studded musicians, some of Canada’s best: Brian Dickinson on piano, Neil Swainson on bass and Terry Clarke on drums. Oliver has this to say about the idea for this record: “I wanted to showcase compositions from the jazz lexicon associated with some of my influences while also adding in original music and new takes on existing repertoire.”

A notable aspect of this album is that it is recorded live, from a two-night stint that Oliver and company had at Frankie’s Jazz Club in Vancouver a year ago. Live records always have a certain magical quality to them, the raw emotions portrayed in the songs and the musicians’ talents, personalities and styles of playing come to the forefront, there’s less of a “polished” quality to the tunes. Take The Wayfaring Stranger for example, where the loneliness and ruggedness of the journey through life is expressed and heard directly through Oliver’s wailing saxophone melody. For an immersive musical experience, check out this album.

11 Frank London EldersSpirit Stronger than Blood
Frank London; The Elders
ESP Disk 5099 CD (espdisk.com)

While much music is a celebration of life and birth, a subcategory exists dealing with death and dying. However, few creations approach eventual demise with the same combination of remembrance and defiance as this disc by New York trumpeter Frank London’s quartet. Recently diagnosed with myelofibrosis, a rare and fatal blood cancer, London’s compositions celebrate other artists who have died from cancer. Aiding him are veteran improvisers, New Yorkers drummer Newman Taylor Baker and bassist Hilliard Greene, Toronto pianist Marilyn Lerner, and on four of the six selections, the trumpeter’s long-time associate and now ordained rabbi, tenor saxophonist Greg Wall.

Despite the topic the tracks are anything but downers, instead they usually move with relaxed bounces or swaying swing. They also inhabit the juncture where freylekhs meet funk, with the instrumental language and rhythms often as much Latin as Ladino. Sound tapestries include cymbal sizzles, thick string pulses, chiming keyboard patterns and reed bites and squeezes. As well, when not playing in unison with Lerner or Wall, London’s tone is much closer to Garbriel than the graveyard. He tongues triplets, projects half-valve and bent notes with davening intensity and moves from meditative respiration to guttural growls that push The Elders into sounding like a Judaic Jazz Messengers.

A common medical-philosophical theory is that dying is just another stage in a person’s life, where acceptance eventually overcomes grief. Add audacity and London’s band aptly demonstrates those concepts on this CD.

12 Peter Van Huffels CallistoMeandering Demons
Peter Van Huffel’s Callisto
Clean Feed CF 667 CD (cleanfeedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/meandering-demons)

With tandem harmonies comparable to those of the classic Gerry Mulligan quartet, baritone saxophonist Peter Van Huffel from Kingston, ON and Toronto trumpeter Lina Allemano do more than put a contemporary spin on these seven Berlin-recorded tracks. Their polyphonic counterpoint includes spiky and smeared timbres, fragmented and stretched by the electronics used by Van Huffel and pianist Antonis Anissegos, yet with the expositions steadied by drummer Joe Hertenstein’s concentrated rumbles.

Alongside horizontal narratives, massive space remains for all four to personalize the expositions with raging triplets and half-valve growls from Allemando, bitten-off snarls, thickened overblowing and basement slurs from Van Huffel and just enough keyboard clips, stops and voltage-altered textures to overcome the expected. On Ravenous Hound for instance a concluding lockstep horn march is emphasized only after an impressive display of drum patterning and key clicks. With Interdimensional Planet Hopper the jokey veracity of the title is established as multidirectional tempos and pitches billow. Electronics expand and contract motifs created by raunchy reed vamps, strained brass bugling, celeste-resembling tapping from Anissegos and Hertenstein’s thickened ruffs and ratchets until all return to earth with a four-part unison finale.

Although throughout quartet members can create raunchy narratives seemingly without stopping for breath, thematic control is always evident. While some sounds expressed suggest the fun pinpointed in the disc’s concluding track title – Barrel of Monkeys – it’s clear that these musical devils can also meander into the music of angels.

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