Jazz and Improvised

A Giving Way
Peggy Lee Band
Songlines SSL1636-2 (songlines.com)

The cellist Peggy Lee has been – with The Peggy Lee Band – very prolific in a composing career that has stretched across several years and, with A Giving Way, six riveting albums. Her work is always deeply thoughtful and often radiantly effusive, a sort of synthesis with masses of seething counterpoint set in a seemingly perfect acoustical sound-world. The songs played here are typical of the elegant compositions, innovatively interpretated, with richly laced textures and extravagant climaxes by musicians who – by virtue of their long-term association with Lee – know her music almost intimately.

This is repertoire full of the slithering and bittersweet glissandos of Lee’s cello, the elegant burbling of brass and winds from Brad Turner, Jeremy Berkman and Jon Bentley respectively. Together they make a joyful noise with guitarists Ron Samworth and Tony Wilson, with the tumbling rhythms of André Lachance’s bass guitar and rattle, hum and sizzle of Dylan van der Schyff’s drums and cymbals. 

It is difficult to fathom why Lee is not better known for the eloquence and uniqueness of the music that she creates around the solemn atmosphere of her cello. Perhaps this may have something to do with attempting to define it in terms of this genre or that. However, the uniquely beautiful sonorities of (for instance) Internal Structures, Justice / Honour; even the interpretation of Whispering Pines, and other songs on A Giving Way, show Lee to be an artist with a breathtakingly singular voice.

Is This a Dream?
Will Bonness
Manitoba Film & Music (willbonness.com)

The fourth album, Is This a Dream? by the pianist and composer Will Bonness, is an outstanding recording, informed by big-hearted originals and standards performed with brazenly romantic beauty. While each of the works is conventional in form, by turns tender and ardently lyrical, and feature the pianist’s favourite vocalist Jocelyn Gould, the head-turners are the seven (of nine numbers) that feature the scintillating young clarinetist Virginia MacDonald, with the inimitable alto saxophonist Allison Au doubling up with MacDonald on the final track, Cole Porter’s Don’t Fence Me In.

Bonness is a pianist with a naturally poetic bent of mind. In his pianism chromatic notes sigh – and often gush effusively – the harmonic cushioning always falling where you least expect it to. This often makes for the kind of surprise you expect, but never know when it will issue from his fluid right-and-left hand combinations. This is what makes his originals – particularly Round and Round and Contraption – full of great tunefulness. Both songs also feature MacDonald who, with her expressively woody clarinet sound, adds emotional depth and rhetorical eloquence to Bonness’ already-rich harmonic language. 

On the album’s finale the music reaches quite another level as Bonness’ score includes an alto saxophone, Au, who responds with glowing tones and the liquid grace of her notes. The album’s superb repertoire is further embellished by bassists Daniel Fortin and Andrew Goodlett and the irrepressible drummer Fabio Ragnelli.

Who Are You? The Music of Kenny Wheeler
Duncan Hopkins; Reg Schwager; Ted Quinlan; Michel Lambert
Three Pines Records TPR-0015 (duncanhopkins.com)

The late Kenny Wheeler (1930-2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet/flugelhorn player with an international reputation who pushed the boundaries past jazz standards and into free improvisation. He lived most of his life in England and recorded many albums, primarily for the ECM label. 

Who Are You? is Duncan Hopkins’ celebration of Wheeler’s music and includes Reg Schwager and Ted Quinlan on guitars with Michel Lambert on drums while Hopkins holds down the bass duties. Having two excellent guitarists provides an intriguing interpretation of Wheeler’s compositions and the interplay between Schwager and Quinlan creates many musical highlights. For example, their “almost unison” playing enhances Foxy Trot’s up-tempo melody and each solo is excitingly different. 

The final three tracks, Montebello, Kitts and Salina St. are named after St. Catharines (aka “Kitts”) and the neighbourhood where both Wheeler and Hopkins lived. Kitts and Salina St. were composed by Wheeler and re-arranged by Hopkins. Montebello is a Hopkins original named after the park at the end of Salina St. where they met. This suite of three songs adds a very personal and delicate touch to the album.

Don’t Ask Me
Sam Dickinson Trio
Independent (samdickinsonguitar.com)

Don’t Ask Me is an enjoyable album from Toronto guitarist/composer Sam Dickinson who has studied at Humber College, the New England Conservatory, McGill University and received a Doctorate from the University of Miami in 2019. The album is an engaging and diverse set of works displaying his substantial guitar chops. 

Dickinson’s trio includes Jim Vivian on bass, with Adam Arruda and Terry Clarke alternating on drums. South Florida Task Force has a funky 7/4 groove and the guitar part is fusion inspired, effortlessly jumping through lithe melodies. Old Folks is a beautiful piece featuring acoustic guitar which begins slowly as a solo with some jazzy folk chords, then bass and drums enter and it builds into some expressive solo lines. Memory Lane also has some very nice acoustic playing and features Vivian›s bass, initially playing an exquisitely bowed melody and then evolving into intriguing pizzicato lines. Don’t Ask Me is an impressive and assured debut album and we look forward to more work from Dickinson.