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tured throughout the album. There are also
fine solos from cellist Mike Karoub and pianist
Mike Karloff.
All in all an enjoyable album from four
musicians who respect and understand the
traditions of the music. As the back of the
jewel case accurately says: “Classic jazz with
a unique fresh sonority.” Thank you Hugh
for your seemingly tireless dedication to the
jazz of an earlier era. To buy the CD contact
lealjazz@gmail.com. $15 and it’s yours.
—Jim Galloway
POT POURRI
when I Arrived You were Already There
Aviva chernick
Independent AvGc-002
avivachernick.bandcamp.com
! This is the solo
CD debut for Aviva
Chernick, who also
performs as lead
singer of the JUNOnominated
group Jaffa
Road. Jaffa Road, like
many of the other
groups she performs
with, explores a wide variety of world music.
This recording reflects her work leading
devotional music in the Jewish community,
including at a number of Toronto’s temples
and synagogues.
Her melodies on English and Hebrew texts
are presented in a lovely, simple and accessible
chant-like style. They transport the
listener with a meditative and transcendent
character, while the accompanying musicians
on a number of exotic instruments provide
more intricate and varied textures elegantly
lending elements of rock, jazz and world
fusion. One of the songs, Chadesh yameinu,
borrows its melody with a tip of the hat to the
Indian-Persian duo Ghazal.
Aviva maintains a forthright manner and
purity of tone in her vocal style, as do her
many notable guest singers. The relationships
of breath/spirit, creativity/divinity,
nature/renewal, family and community are
explored on many levels in this deeply heartfelt
and personal offering. The title When I
Arrived You Were Already There is an invitation
to the listener to look deeply within and
return to peace.
—Dianne Wells
Andrew Timar looks at
Life Death Tears Dream,
the latest from Vancouverbased
world music trio,
Orchid Ensemble. Online at
thewholenote.com.
Always find more reviews online
at thewholenote.com
Few cds will garner the immediate
interest of Test of Time
(Cornerstone Records CRST
CD 140, cornerstonerecordsinc.com),
previously unreleased
material recorded in 1999 by the
trio of saxophonist Mike Murley,
guitarist Ed Bickert and bassist Steve
Wallace. The trio’s only previous CD
won the 2002 Juno Award for best
mainstream jazz album, shortly
after Bickert’s 2001 decision to
retire from playing. Bickert may
be Canada’s most distinguished
jazz guitarist (his tenure with
Paul Desmond might be enough
to establish that) but all his
gifts are in evidence here, the
gentle propulsion of his chording,
the perfect voicings when he’s
comping and the brilliant linear
flow of his improvised lines.
There’s likely no better forum to
showcase his gifts than this trio
without drums, his every nuance
clearly audible and Murley and
Wallace ideal associates to bring
out his best as both soloist and
accompanist. East of the Sun stands out.
Myriad 3 is a group of young Toronto musicians
in the traditional jazz piano trio format,
with Chris Donnelly on piano, Dan Fortin on
bass and Ernesto Cervini on drums.
Tell (ALMA ACD13112, almarecords.com),
however, doesn’t
strongly suggest any traditional
trio approaches. Instead the
group’s affinities are with more
recent paradigms, like Sweden’s
EST or the American trio Bad Plus.
Myriad 3’s style is distinctly spare
and strongly rhythmic, with elements
of classical and pop music frequently
appearing. The opening Myriad
may suggest Satie in its modal grace,
while Drifters emphasizes forceful,
broken rhythms and dramatically
unexpected piano chords. There’s
a sense here of an equality of parts,
each member playing in a sparse,
assertively gestural style. When older
jazz elements appear, they’re
equally lean and specific,
whether it’s Duke Ellington’s
almost monotone C Jam Blues or
the bluesy Horace Silver-style bop
of Donnell’s Mr. Awkward.
The Lina Allemano Four has
achieved remarkably consistent
form, maintaining the same personnel
for their fourth consecutive CD (beginning
with Pinkeye in 2006). Trumpeter Allemano
is joined by Brodie West on alto saxophone,
STUART BROOMER
Andrew Downing on bass and
Nick Fraser on drums on Live at
the Tranzac (Lumo Records, linaallemano.com),
the Toronto
bar providing a comfortable setting
for these close-knit, highly
conversational dialogues on
the leader’s compositions.
The style is free jazz, the band
reminiscent of Ornette Coleman’s
original quartet, but the music
couldn’t be more disciplined,
the band working hand-in-glove
to realize the most from each of
Allemano’s tunes.
Tenor saxophonist Michael
Blake has long been established in
New York, where he’s best known
for his decade-long membership in
John Lurie’s high-profile Lounge
Lizards. He still maintains strong
ties to Vancouver, however, and
he has just released In the Grand
Scheme of Things (Songlines
SGL159-2, songlines.com) featuring
a quartet with Vancouver
musicians. It’s a heady musical
blend that delights in contrasting
sounds, from Blake’s own, often straightahead
tenor in lyrical ballad or forceful
up-tempo mode to passages of eerie, electronically
altered trumpet from JP
Carter, techno and ambient electronic
sound from Chris Gestrin
on Fender Rhodes electric piano
and a Moog Micromoog synthesizer
and percussion that ranges
from traditional trap drumming
to the metallic grit of scraped
cymbals from Dylan van der
Schyff. It’s evocative work, but it’s
Blake’s warm, keening tenor on
the soulful Treat Her Right that
leaves the strongest impression.
The American composer and
bandleader Sun Ra died in 1993,
but his influence persists in
new recordings from Montreal
and Toronto. Bassist Nick Caloia
has been building the Ratchet
Orchestra since the early 90s. At
times it’s been as small as a quartet,
but the current personnel numbers
around 30. While the band has
performed and recorded Sun Ra
compositions in the past, here the
influence is apparent in Caloia’s
own writing. It’s a mad explosion
of sound that layers Caloia’s ceremonial
melodies over processional rhythms and a
thick undergrowth of improvising percussion.
As heard on Hemlock (Drip Audio DA00820,
dripaudio.com), the band has also assembled
58 thewholenote.com February 1 – March 7, 2013