Jazz and Improvised

Farahser - John Kameel Farah; Nick Fraser

Farahser
John Kameel Farah; Nick Fraser
Elastic Recordings ER010 (elasticrecordings.com/farahser)

In this collection of musical dialogues between two virtuosic and creative musicians, Nick Fraser and John Kameel Farah provide some answers to Fraser’s question: “Where does improvisation end and composition start?” The opening track’s ambiguous opening sequence is like a musical voicing of the question; Fraser and Farah answer it with inventive exchanges that explore their shared, diverse musical influences.

Based in Toronto, Fraser is a Juno-winning drummer known for stylistic breadth and progressive playing, earning him respect in the international improvised music community and a key role in Canada’s new jazz scene. Farah is a Canadian composer and pianist living in Berlin whose adventurous improvisatory performances include keyboards and electronics, incorporating aspects of baroque and early music, contemporary classical, jazz and modal melodies evoking his Palestinian heritage.

Fraser suggested the collaboration when the pair reconnected 20 years after their first meeting. They started in the studio with 26 improvised duets; from this raw material, they selected some ideas or approaches which became the eight tracks on the album. The ambient mood of the opening track, Flatland, gives way to different energies such as a sequence featuring Farah’s trademark sinewy melodies in Insect Mountain. Dirge featuresa hypnotic walking bass over which unfolds beguiling melodies, all interrupted by a flurry of activity from drums and synths. The closing track, Elevator, showcases Farah’s pianistic prowess with rippling upward motifs, while Fraser gives us a masterclass in brushwork.

Even listeners who might be hesitant about experimental improvisation will find things to delight them on this album. Recommended!

Traces - Will Régnier

Traces
Will Régnier
Independent (willregnier.com)

Will Régnier is a Montreal drummer, composer and producer who has played in progressive rock and jazz bands over the past 15 years while finishing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in jazz performance and composition. Traces is his first album and reveals a calm sophistication, infused with catchy riffs and melodies, with some edgy fusion thrown in for spice.

The title track demonstrates Regnier’s diverse influences, beginning with a folk-rock arpeggiated guitar intro which then moves into a solid piano melody (doubled with guitar), then some counterpoint between drums and bass; midway through Marcus Lowry performs a beautiful guitar solo with classical undertones. Lights Out opens with a delicately funky bass line and then a subtly distorted and complex guitar melody. Throughout the album there are multiple examples of sophisticated interplay between piano and guitar. The pieces in Traces move effortlessly across styles aided by the accomplished and inspired playing of Régnier, Lowry, Yannick Anctil (piano) and Alex Le Blanc (double bass). Each song mixes composed and improvised sections which showcase evolving narratives. Traces is an excellent debut album and is always compelling.

Listen to 'Traces' Now in the Listening Room

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.