Pot Pourri

Azadi - Tamar Ilana & Ventanas

Azadi
Tamar Ilana & Ventanas
Lula World Records LWR04551A (lulaworldrecords.ca/product-page/azadi-by-tamar-ilana-ventanas-cd)

Toronto-based multilingual singer and dancer Tamar Ilana, of Jewish, Indigenous, Romanian and Scottish descent, grew up on the road learning from and performing with her ethnomusicologist mother Dr. Judith Cohen.

In three well-received previous albums Ilana’s world music band Ventanas (“windows” in Spanish), drew on her multiple roots and those of her Toronto bandmates. Their new studio album Azadi vividly extends the group’s musical purview, effectively mixing highly contrasting vocal and instrumental numbers over 12 tracks. As well as showcasing traditional Flamenco, Sephardic, Balkan and Brazilian songs in inventive arrangements, compositions by Ventanas members contribute contemporary themes. Ilana renders the lyrics in an impressive range of languages: Spanish, Ladino, French, Urdu, Greek, Portuguese and Bulgarian.

Meaning “freedom” in Urdu and Farsi, the album’s title track was inspired by the women’s freedom movement in Iran opening with the uplifting lines, “Sun breaks through the darkened and cloudy skies / Shining bright on open and peaceful eyes / Moving free with liberty…” As for the song Ventanas Altas, within the charm of its vocal melody lies a secret earworm power. I was compelled to listen to it several times. This old wedding-courtship song, popular among Sephardic Jews of Salonika Greece, was collected by Cohen in Montréal. Ilana’s unaffected light soprano sounds just right.

Ilana shares that she’s “always struggled with my multiple identities, both cultural and genetic. As the world also struggles with these issues on multiple fronts, this album is a deep reflection of these questions, and a musical response in the form of peace, collaboration and acceptance.” I’m feeling it too.

Crazy Talk - Howard Gladstone

Crazy Talk
Howard Gladstone
Sonic Peace Music SP000221 (howardgladstone.bandcamp.com/album/crazy-talk)

Toronto-based singer-songwriter Howard Gladstone’s eighth release is a 12-track recording showcasing his mature clear vocals, poetic storytelling lyrics in jazz to world to folk to rock music. He is joined by his core band members bassist Bob Cohen and guitarist/co-composer/co-producer Tony Quarrington, frequent pianist/vocalist Laura Fernandez and six other musicians.

Title track Crazy Talk, co-written with Quarrington, is a subtle tribute to Patsy Cline, the Beatles and Robbie Robertson. This lighthearted, jazzy country tune features a Quarrington guitar solo, Cohen bass solo, Fernandez back up vocals and Gladstone singing his witty lyrics like “That’s crazy talk… but then again, I’m crazy too.”

Latin/world music references resonate in Little Bird where Jacob Gorzhaltsan’s birdlike flute trills, tweets and high pitched melodies accompany Gladstone. Oh, the Waters is multi-section with colourful guitar and accordion echoing. Irish Rain is a rollicking Irish drinking song held together by drum taps and Gladstone’s classic vocals.

Longtime fans and new listeners alike should enjoy this hopeful, timeless Gladstone release.

Listen to 'Crazy Talk' Now in the Listening Room

Digno, Sophisticado Y Elegante - Jay Danley

Digno, Sophisticado Y Elegante
Jay Danley
Independent (jaydanley.bandcamp.com/album/digno-sophisticado-y-elegante)

Canadian composer and musician Jay Danley is a multi-instrumentalist with a passion for Cuban music. He has performed with Jane Bunnett, members of Buena Vista Social Club, and can be heard on recordings by Hilario Duran.

On Digno, Sophisticado Y Elegante, Danley takes you in spirit to eastern Cuba, where 19th century Spanish and African-influenced music and dance come together in a collection of original compositions that feature the tres, a three-course string instrument central to the Son Cubano tradition. On this ambitious self-produced instrumental recording Danley plays all the instruments.

In the slow dance opening track, Adiós Al Ayer (Goodbye to Yesterday) the delicate sound of the tres almost whispers as it recalls times past, and is reminiscent of the ache felt when listening to Duran’s interpretation of Mirame Así (Look at Me Like This), on which Danley plays. El Pasado Seacabo (The Past Is Over) takes us further into rural Cuba charming us with its graceful melody. This is small-setting music that is never rushed nor calls attention to itself.

On Guapachou Danley exceeds expectations by featuring the tres with a jazz improviser’s virtuosity. The tres follows multiple lines flying chromatically over the slow-moving chords. The single take tres solo is masterful. At the same time, amidst all this music mastery, one is left nostalgic for a time when the limitations of sampled horns and multitrack home recording was not required to bring engaging new music to the world.

Kanzafula: Afro Iraqi Sufi Music - Ahmed Moneka

Kanzafula – Afro Iraqi Sufi Music
Ahmed Moneka
Lula World Records LWR042A (ahmedmoneka.com)

Since being forced to flee Baghdad as a refugee after acting in a gay rights film in 2015, Iraqi actor and artist Ahmed Moneka has continued to share his bright light in film, art and music. His first album Kanzafula reflects his African, Iraqi-Arabic history to his eventual landing in Toronto, using poetic lyrics to describe his journey through three wars in Iraq and his continued activism. With his smokey, expressive vocals, Moneka gives his all to these songs, a flavourful collection of Arabic melodies infused with Afro grooves, soul, jazz and rock. The album wishes for love and peace during the often-fraught experiences from home countries at war, but even with the heaviness of some of the lyrics, the album remains joyous and uplifting.

The song Aman opens the album with a rock/funk vibe, asking us to keep safety and connection to our hearts, and to spread hope and love. Chil Mali Wali is a traditional Iraqi song in a melodic maqam, a protest song of British colonization from the 1920s. The song Sea is inspired by Afro-Arabic rhythm that defies sitting still. Khitar: ‘The Guest’ is a song dedicated to Indigenous Canadians and features Moneka’s silky bass vocals and jazz-flavoured chorus and solos from the band. 90 Days shares Moneka’s love of his home Iraq when he returns for a short period to work and is a gem of solo voice and instrumental. Oh Mother is a great blend of Maqam and rock and feels like party music, where Treed Trooh? is a funky slow meditation on separation. The album closes with Sidi Mansure, a traditional Tunisian ecstatic trance song that really drives one to dance.

Each track of the album is captivating, even without the lyrics, but the reward of reading the translations only deepens their reach, and solos from the top-notch band really bring them home.

Michael Cloud Duguay: Succeeder - MC Duguay; Various Artists

Michael Cloud Duguay – Succeeder
MC Duguay; Various Artists
Watch That Ends the Night (michaelcloudduguay.bandcamp.com/album/succeeder)

Glorious and gorgeous, Succeeder lives up to its name as it includes a community of musicians to make Michael Cloud Duguay’s songwriting and compositions explode in sonic splendour. The liner notes on Bandcamp (and on the artist’s website) provide a fascinating history of these songs and Duguay’s musical and life journey and I will not attempt a summary except to say it all makes for a rich and diverse background to this unique production.

A Very Fine Start begins the album with the rhythm section and a warm pedal steel providing a beautiful backdrop along with a female background singer. Amidst the lyrics about family and circumstances instruments are added, including a fine baritone sax solo, over the evocative soundscapes. Someone Else’s Blues has a funkier and soulful up-tempo beat with a horn section and harmony vocalists. Port Hope begins more delicately with a tremolo guitar, pedal steel and arpeggiated piano backing things up. There are 17 performers listed and the instruments include drums, bass, piano, vocalists, pedal steel, saxophones, percussion, guitar, flutes, jaw harp, accordion, hurdy-gurdy and pocket trumpet to list only a few. I would like the vocals to be mixed more clearly, but it is also fascinating how they blend into the orchestration and emerge as spots of insight.

The artist’s website declares “the album continues to mine the sumptuous, expansive rootsiness of Duguay’s earlier albums, yet also gestures toward the more outward experimentation of several of his upcoming projects through its careful, yearning ambiences.” I cannot improve on that description because the feeling of Succeeder with its evocative ambiences, its blending of folk, jazz and experimental idioms, and the joy of the Peterborough musicians who helped create this work are all important to its expansiveness. Please sit in a quiet place and let this album embrace you for a sumptuous 45 minutes.

Global Canvas - Ron Korb

Global Canvas
Ron Korb
Humbledragon Entertainment HD2024 (ronkorb.com/globalcanvas-cd)

Flutist, Ron Korb, has made a brilliant career, performing on not only the usual Boehm flute but also on an array of flutes and related instruments from other cultures, which is what makes him such an extraordinary musician. I can say without exaggeration that he has mastered an extraordinary number of instruments, all of which are of the flute family, but which are all different and present unique problems. In addition to the usual flute and bass flute, which figures prominently on this recording, Ron plays an oriental bamboo flute and several other oriental instruments.

Korb is joined by 19 musicians playing an assortment of western and oriental instruments, which add an extensive and highly unusual orchestration in which contrast has a striking role, as in track eight (Kindness), which begins with Ron playing the melody on the bawu, a side-blown Chinese reed instrument that sounds a bit like a clarinet, after which this same melody is repeated on the erhu, a 2- string Chinese bowed string instrument. In track three, (Desire), Korb begins with a contemplative melody on the bass flute and is joined unexpectedly by the tabla (Indian drum). He even delves into the absence of orchestration in track 16 (Peace Flute), an unaccompanied bass flute solo, in which the resonant bass sonority provides all that is needed.

Also featured are several Latin jazz tracks on which Korb uses a Boehm flute and to which Cuban-Canadian pianist Hilario Duran makes significant contributions.