Jazz and Improvised

East Meets West: Connections - Jean-Nicolas Trottier and Fred Stone
Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra
Chronograph Records CR-115 (winnipegjazzorchestra.bandcamp.com/album/east-meets-west-connections)

Winnipeg has produced countless great musicians, many of whom leave the prairie metropolis for other parts of the continent. Those who remain have curated a vibrant musical community, taking advantage of a city that is simultaneously intimate enough to celebrate local talent, but large enough to provide artists with opportunities and exposure. 

The Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra marked their eighth release with East Meets West: Connections. The album commissioned composers Fred Stride and Jean-Nicholas Trottier, from the west and east of the country respectively, to pen a nine-movement suite that features the who’s who of Winnipeg jazz. I had the pleasure of reviewing the group’s penultimate release Tidal Currents, which I described as “short but sweet.” Connections offers listeners an album just shy of 50 minutes in duration. It flies by, but not without plenty of musical goodness to sink one’s teeth into. The suite flows organically, and eschews track numbers. 

Niall Cade plays the first improvised solo on the album, on Trottier’s Sounds of Joy. This was my first time hearing Cade, and I’m sure it won’t be my last. It is tough to feature everyone as an improviser when the ensemble is this large, but we are graced with solos from many unique artists, including pianist Will Bonness, trumpeter Jonathan Challoner, and a nylon string guitar solo on The Healing Song from Larry Roy. 

I haven’t named each individual soloist, or addressed each track of the suite, but a more chronological description wouldn’t do the album’s production arc justice. I recommend this recording to keen contemporary jazz fans, and suggest listening to it in its entirety. Each track can stand on its own, but the album truly flows when heard uninterrupted. 

Jacob Wutzke - You Better Bet
Jacob Wutzke; Rachel Therrien; Lucas Bubovic; Bryn Roberts; Ira Coleman
Cellar Music CM090224 (jacobwutzke.bandcamp.com/album/you-better-bet)

Tony Williams (1945-1997), not only made a spectacular impression as an innovative jazz drummer when he debuted with Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet at the age of 17, but the songbook of sophisticated compositions that he left behind means that both his music, as well as his dynamic drumming, continues to be mined by subsequent generations of jazz players. On You Better Bet, Jacob Wutzke’s terrific second recording following 2022’s Show Yourself, the Montréal, now New York-based, drummer and composer, explores Williams’ creative legacy, not only in terms of his percussive approach, but his ensemble style and compositions.

Although it would be logical to think then that the catalyst for this recording would be Williams’ ongoing influence on the young Wutzke, the story does not end there. Instead, things crystallized when longtime Williams bassist Ira Coleman relocated to Montreal and took a teaching job at Wutzke’s alma mater  McGill University, from where he graduated with a Masters in 2022, and the two musicians began to collaborate. Using some of the original charts that Coleman had kept from his tenure with Williams, written in the late drummer’s hand no less, a group was formed, along with an idea to compose some additional stylistically synchronous music and record the proceedings. Enter the immensely talented Rachel Therrien, Lucas Dubovik and Bryn Roberts, on trumpet, tenor, and piano respectively, and this fine new hard-hitting recording is the result.

Tippin'
Carl Allen; Christian McBride; Chriss Potter
Cellar Music 011424 (carlallen.bandcamp.com/album/tippin)

Canadian Cory Weeds’ Cellar Music is an extremely well curated label, and they’ve accomplished the commendable feat of achieving a unified sound amidst a diverse catalogue. Tippin’ is drummer Carl Allen’s first album as a bandleader in over two decades, and he’s chosen to showcase himself in an intimate trio format. Allen’s work as both a sideman and a leader features grounded and swinging aesthetics, and he’s chosen 12 unique pieces of music that allow him to shine in a playful and interactive manner. 

The drummer is joined by two fellow Americans, saxophonist Chris Potter and bassist Christian McBride. They are all stalwarts of the New York jazz scene, and the album is recorded across the Hudson River at the legendary Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey. The trio becomes a quartet for Kenny Barron’s composition Song For Abdullah, when Canadian multi-instrumentalist John Lee joins the group on piano. Lee has released several albums with Cellar Music and fits right in as a guest on this uplifting number. 

The trio takes advantage of contrasting sounds and textures, with Potter doubling on soprano sax and bass clarinet, and McBride contributing some immaculate bowed melodies and solos. Allen penned two of the album’s compositions, Hidden Agenda, and Roy’s Joy, a nod to the late trumpeter Roy Hargrove. These fit neatly alongside a smattering of contemporary jazz pieces and torch songs.  

Charlie Parker’s Parker’s Mood is the first track of the album, and it sets the mood for what’s to come. A recording that’s simultaneously spot-on and virtuosic, but “chill” and intimate enough for a more casual jazz listener to enjoy.

Old Adam on Turtle Island
Dikeman/Hong/Lumley/Warelis
Relative Pitch RPR 1203 (relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/album/old-adam-on-turtle-island)

As intense as it is international, Old Adam on Turtle Island’s two extended tracks showcase the collective skills of four Amsterdam-based players in creating modern layered improvised music. The disc is built around the seemingly inexhaustible ability of American tenor saxophonist John Dikeman to propel note bending screaming smears, split tones and altissimo shrieks with constant ferocity as rolling clips from Polish pianist Marta Warelis alternately decorate or drive the expositions. Korean drummer Sun-Mi Hong’s measured clunks or reverberations underline sequences with beats more felt than heard, while Canadian bassist Aaron Lumley divides his string sweeps between rhythmic continuity and interludes which add to the strident polyphony without upsetting linear motion.

The encounter reaches its apogee on Groove - Choral - Manifest, the second track, which is introduced by Lumley’s multi-string sul ponticello slides and stops. Superseding weighted drum ruffs and tolling keyboard clips, hefty pizzicato sweeps prod Dikeman and Warelis to filet enough discursive keyboard shakes and bellicose overblowing to reveal a moderated horizontal group finale.

With enough solid interludes to allow each musician to depict progressive and reactive skills, the session is also elevated to a definition of creative music sophistication.