Jazz and Improvised

I Am Doing My Best
Curtis Nowosad
Independent CN002 (curtisnowosad.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-doing-my-best)

With I Am Doing My Best the hard-driving percussionist is wearing his emotions on his sleeve – even carrying the weight of living on his shoulders. Nowosad belongs to the “bracing change” in this literal sense. Edgy and unpredictable, an ensemble that is invigorating as a shower of ice-cold water on a day that is by turns hot and cold. 

This album is set out in eight short and vivid movements, each with an evocative title. For example: What We Do, Choices (A Butterfly Breaks Free), Mythologies (The Stories We Tell). Nowosad brings together several guests: the brilliant vocalist Joanna Majoko, the JUNO-Award winning singer and songwriter Joey Landreth and guitarist Andrew Renfroe whose harmonics scorch the fretboard. All the while the performers brilliantly subscribe to the leader’s vision and artistry with which this gritty music is conceived and articulated.

Nowosad’s music shifts from a fecund kind of beauty to a dirty bluesy volatility. On What We Do we feel the unexpected jolts of a man’s forsaken cry, loosed upon the rumble and thunder of his drums, and in the quiet sizzle of the well-tempered and singing tissue of his brass, superbly aligned to the bronzed, glistening voice of Majoko. (I’m Learning To Be) Kind is a gush that pushes wind into the song’s sails. The Archer (I’m Doing My Best) featuring Landreth and Majoko closes out a fine album.

Dream
Nancy Newman; Jennifer Scott; Rene Worst; Buff Allen; Bill Buckingham
Independent (nancynmusic.com/new-album-dream)

Women who interpret standards with allure and uncommon wisdom and grace can be all-too rare, but for this Nancy Newman certainly gets my vote. She is an erudite vocalist, a natural stylist who can work with any kind of material and interprets standards with a completely independent mindset. Her phrasing is brilliant and so is the emotion she puts into a phrase. While digging into every word, she emerges like a breath of fresh air, giving each work a special grace. 

Newman is not fazed by the limitations of her range. On Dream, a repertoire that includes film songs and other standards, she has set down authoritative accounts of what is billed as the Great American Songbook. Newman’s interpretations of Bond theme songs are quite special. On every one of them it feels as if she has a new story to tell. And with each one, the story of Mr. Bond takes on a new, more graceful, often more menacing, and energetic face.

Multiverse
Nicolas Ferron Trio
Independent (nicolasferron.bandcamp.com/album/multiverse-2)

The organ trio setting is truly a dream for guitarists. One is able to play chords as they might in a trio with bass and drums, but there is ample harmonic accompaniment available when needed, rivalling that of a quartet with piano. To an audience there is a funky accessibility present on gigs and recordings that utilise organ, regardless of how esoteric the repertoire may get. Modern jazz doesn’t necessitate esotericism, but I was thrilled to hear such fresh and interesting new sounds when I first experienced Multiverse.

The 2020s experienced a renaissance of very traditional jazz guitar playing, ranging from players who honour their valuable influences, to those who sound stuck in a bygone era. Guitarist Nic Ferron eschews any entrapment in nostalgia, whilst staying grounded in the rich tradition of the instrument. He’s joined by Jonathan Cayer on organ, and Louis-Vincent Hamel on drums, who function beautifully as a rhythm section. 

The album’s namesake and title track Multiverse features an upbeat groove and energetic trading between Cayer and Ferron in its solo section. This sets the tone for the tracks that follow, which are each simultaneously contrasting yet unified. Valencia begins with a guitar pattern that would sound apropos of either Radiohead, or Leo Brouwer, and moves on towards groovier territories. Each time I’ve listened to Multiverse it’s felt like a brief vignette, but at just over 47 minutes in duration, it’s no doubt a full album. That is a shining endorsement of its intrigue.

Stars, Engines
Valley Voice
Elastic Recordings (harrisonargatoff.bandcamp.com/album/stars-engines)

I first came across the beautifully creative noodlings of native Torontonian Harrison Argatoff somewhere around 2020 while walking through a local ravine underpass, where I came upon the saxophonist using the cement structure as a resonance box, creating long tonal phrases and rhythmic rounds which became the Toronto Streets Tour album. I’ve been hooked on Argatoff’s warm, thoughtful playing ever since. 

His newest project is the group Valley Voice and their debut album is called Stars, Engines. It features a quartet of some of the city’s finest cohorts: Michael Davidson on vibraphone, Dan Fortin on bass, and Ian Wright on drums; the album refers back to Argatoff’s earliest relationships to the natural world. Despite the contrary themes, this collection of compositions has the feel of emerging from his Streets Tour album in melodic structure and tone, now paying homage to his rural British Columbian Doukhobor roots and his relationship to his grandmother. Continuing his formal training as a composer, add Argatoff’s experience as a contact dancer, and you get the lyrical, flowing lines and phrases of an authentic artist not afraid to de-couple his instrument from the standard jazz repertoire. Even with the addition of the vibraphone the group still manages to avoid the typical/traditional jazz memes. 

Outstanding tracks for me were Analemma, a spacious and luminous tune with a wishful quality, and the titular Stars Engines, a sweet, gentle accompaniment to a memory his grandmother shared years ago relating to seeing the stars at night. Deftly supported by his award-winning bandmates, this new quartet promises to be a Canadian group to watch.