Volume 21 Issue 9 - Summer 2016

Beat by Beat | Mainly Clubs, Mostly Jazz!
Even Richer
Than Usual
BOB BEN
It’s Toronto Jazz Festival time again! Time for a few great players
from out of town to play with and among the vast pool of equally
great Toronto players. It really is eye-opening to look at the listings
for the Jazz Festival (torontojazz.com ) and realize just how many of
the gigs listed are gigs that happen year round, and would continue
happening, festival or no. When it comes to the jazz scene in this city,
we truly have an embarrassment of riches. It’s just that around the
end of June we get a little richer.
And I will talk about all of that in just a minute, but first, it’s
anecdote time.
When I was in high school, I was a big progressive rock geek,
which, I know, is utterly unsurprising because a lot of young jazz
nerds started off that way. I don’t know why – maybe it was just the
challenge – but I loved working out the time signatures of songs in
which it wasn’t immediately obvious, or in which the number of
beats changed from bar to bar. Of course, this is neither a ubiquitous
nor an essential feature of progressive rock, nor is it one exclusive
to the genre, but it attracted me nonetheless. And to be frank, while
counting odd time signatures fascinated me in high school, I can think
of few things more tedious now.
My cousin, also a music geek, offered me a challenge one day. He
played me a 20-second sample of bassist (not to be confused with
the jazz trumpeter of the same name) Avishai Cohen’s Ever-Evolving
Etude from his 2008 album Gently Disturbed, although I didn’t know
the title at the time, nor would I have remembered the name. I wasn’t
into jazz back then, much less what I was hearing here. It was unlike
anything I’d ever heard before. It was unconventional, complex,
difficult to parse. The bass and piano threw forth a fury of notes
that seemed, to my untrained ear, to have the rhythmic logic and
constancy of a person trying to kill a particularly evasive mosquito.
It was chaotic, furious and wonderful.
What kept it grounded for me were the pitches, satisfyingly tonal,
and the timbre, new to my ear at the time, of bass and piano playing
in unison, to which I am now much more accustomed.
He asked what the time signature was. When I couldn’t figure it out,
he said he’d be better off not knowing anyway; how can you enjoy it if
you’re counting?
Flash forward six or seven years. I’m in the final year of my music
degree and the great New York drummer John Riley is making an
appearance at our school. During a large portion of his lecture, Riley
deconstructs the very excerpt my cousin had showed me years earlier.
And so, I learned the answer.
I gained a lot from that lecture, but to this day I cannot count the
pulse of the Ever-Evolving Etude and certainly couldn’t notate it. Not
on my life. And it really is better like that.
As my ears grew (both figuratively and literally), I started to hear
Cohen’s music differently. Although I always heard, and still hear, the
progressive and fusion elements in it, I started to hear elements of
Latin American music; when I hear a heavily syncopated vamp and
complex, adventurous percussion, what else comes to mind but salsa?
This is especially true on the album Unity, on which Antonio Sanchez,
compared by some to an octopus for his remarkable limb independence,
is responsible for the drumming.
You can explore Cohen’s music for yourself, in preparation for his
Toronto appearance on June 30 at the St. Lawrence Centre.
There’s no shortage of out-of-towners I’m excited to see listed for
the festival – among them Laila Biali, Phil Dwyer, Mark McLean’s
Playground and Robert Glasper, the latter two of whom I’ve been
lucky to see perform in person on more than one delightful occasion –
but if I wrote about every single one, I would be here all night.
Avishai Cohen
I also must reluctantly
mention that Rich
Brown’s rinsethealgorithm,
about whom I’ve
written in the past, will
be playing a reunion show
at The Rex on Canada Day
after four years apart. I
say “reluctantly” because
I hate crowds; my rates
of happiness are generally
inversely proportional
to my proximity to strangers’
bodies. Yet I will,
and must, bear it for the
music: rinsethealgorithm
is back, and everyone
who wants to know must
know. Downbeat at 8pm.
Enjoy the festival, friends. Plan your routes carefully and buy your
tickets early. May your ears be well-fed, and may your lines of vision
be unobstructed.
Bob Ben is The WholeNote’s jazz listings editor. He
can be reached at jazz@thewholenote.com.
D. In the Clubs (Mostly Jazz)
120 Diner
120 Church St. 416-792-7725
120diner.com (full schedule)
June 1 6pm Genevieve Marantette & Robert
Scott; 8pm Lisa Particelli’s Girls’ Night
Out Jazz Jam. June 2 6pm Ross MacIntyre
& Kelly Jefferson; 9pm Nerissa Kay &
Friends. June 3 6pm Sinners Choir. June 4
6pm Cohen, Cohen & Willett; 8:30pm Stevey
Ross and the Blue Mambo Swing. June 5
5pm Peter Donato; 8:30pm Marilyn Lightstone.
June 7 6pm Joey O’Neil; 8pm Arlene
Paculan. June 8 6pm Genevieve Marantette
& Robert Scott; 8pm Lisa Particelli’s Girls’
Night Out Jazz Jam. June 9 6pm Ross MacIntyre
& Stu Harrison; 9pm Wonderfest. June
10 6pm Music Can Heal presents. June 11
6pm Heidi Lange. June 12 6pm Bella Canto;
8:30pm Carolyn Credico. June 14 6pm Megan
Worthy; 8pm Marshall Jacklin. June 15 6pm
Genevieve Marantette & Robert Scott; 8pm
Lisa Particelli’s Girls’ Night Out Jazz Jam.
June 16 6pm Ross MacIntyre & Mark Keiswetter.
June 17 6pm Elvira Hopper Trio. June
18 6pm “Sistah’s Telling” with Sistah Louis and
Friends. June 19 6pm Fathers’ Day with The
Owls; 9pm Bless Your Purple Heart: Prince
Tribute. June 21 6pm Christine Gaidies; 8pm
Emilie Mover; 10pm Klezfactor. June 22 6pm
Genevieve Marantette & Robert Scott; 8pm
Lisa Particelli’s Girls’ Night Out Jazz Jam.
June 23 6pm Ross MacIntyre & Sophia Perlman.
June 24 6pm Gabi Epstein $20. June 25
12pm Debbie Fleming $20; 5pm Kate Unger
$20; 8pm Ori Dagan $20; 11pm Ryley Murray
$20. June 26 12pm Shannon Butcher & Ross
MacIntyre $20; 5pm LJ Folk $20; 8pm Lady
Be Good $20. June 27 8pm Stu MacDonald
$20; 11pm Brownman Akoustic Trio $20. June
28 6pm Mel Côté $20; 8pm Stacey MacIntyre
$20. June 29 6pm Judith Lander $20; 8pm
Lisa Particelli’s Girls’ Night Out Jazz Jam.
June 30 5pm The Ault Sisters $20; 8pm Jacelyn
Holmes $20; 11pm Janet Whiteway $20.
July 1 6pm Lisa Particelli $20; 9pm Mandy
Goodhandy’s Musical Cabaret $20. July 2
12pm Aucoin, Davidson, & Samaras $20. July
3 5pm Julie Michels & David Restivo $20; 8pm
Genevieve “Gigi” Marantette $20.
Alleycatz
2409 Yonge St. 416-481-6865
alleycatz.ca
All shows: 9pm unless otherwise indicated.
Call for cover charge info.
June 2, 4, 23, July 7 Wendy Robins The Quiet
Storm. June 3, 11, 18, 24 Lady Kane. June
9 Solo & Duets Concert Series. June 10, July
2 Jamesking. June 16 John Nicholson Jazz
Quartet. June 17 Taxi. June 25 Parkside Drive.
June 30 Carlos Morgan & The Flow. July
1 Pussy Cats.
Artword Artbar
15 Colbourne St., Hamilton. 905-543-8512
artword.net (full schedule)
June 2 8pm Big Fat Greek Jewish Music
Night feat. The Horables, and The Friends
of Markos $15(general)/$10(students).
June 3, 4 8pm Micah Barnes “New York
Stories” $15(adv)/$20(door). June 9 8pm
Doug Murphy (guitar) with Nicola Moore
(voice), Mike Ricci (sax, flute), Oscar Galbraith
(drums), Alana Gunn (bass), and more
$10(general)/$5(students). June 10 8pm
Chris Wallaces’ (drums) Many Names with
Adrean Farrugia (piano), Artie Roth (bass).
June 11 8pm Elizabeth Herrera Rodriguez.
Bloom
2315 Bloor St. W. 416-767-1315
bloomrestaurant.com
All shows: 19+. Call for reservations.
June 30 7pm Fredy Suares (voice) with Jorge
Maza (flute), Johan Urbizo (percussion),
Roberto Riveron (bass) $45 (includes dinner).
Blue Goose Tavern, The
1 Blue Goose St. 416-255-2442
62 | June 1, 2016 - September 7, 2016 thewholenote.com