Volume 24 Issue 1 - September 2018

Beat by Beat | Jazz Notes
Swinging into
September with
Harrison Squared
STEVE WALLACE
Jazz Takes A Holiday: As with most things, when the dog days
of summer hit, jazz slows down a bit, particularly after the
festival season ends in early July. There was still jazz to be heard
at the usual Toronto venues in July and August, but many of the gigs
I attended or played were sweaty, sparsely attended affairs, owing to
so many people being away on vacation or simply trying to dodge the
stickiness of the city. Even The WholeNote takes a break and it was
certainly a slow summer for me and many of my colleagues in terms
of work, but I didn’t mind so much because a lot of the time it was too
hot to play jazz, or even think about it.
But now that September is suddenly upon us and the jazz programs
resume at York University, Humber College and U of T, live jazz will be
back in full swing, pun intended. The two are not unrelated; increasingly,
the Toronto jazz scene is impacted and shaped by the young
musicians studying and playing the music, interacting with so many
of the city’s veteran jazz players – the usual suspects - teaching it.
There have always been promising young players on the Toronto scene
– I myself was one of them
over 40 long years ago – but I
can’t remember a time when
there were so many as now, and
their presence will be felt at
the clubs in September and the
coming months.
For one thing, the students
form a large and enthusiastic
audience at jazz gigs, and for
another, Monday nights at The
Rex will again feature student
ensembles from U of T and
Humber playing short sets. This
allows for a wide array of styles
ranging from the contemporary
to the traditional (“traditional”
now meaning “bebop,” not
Dixieland.) I plan on attending
Harrison Vetro
these regularly and I urge Toronto jazz fans to do so as well. Not only
to support the students, which is important, but because these evenings
offer a kind of one-stop-shopping opportunity to hear varied
and interesting music played by talented young people who represent
the future of jazz. Well-known Toronto players not only direct
these groups but often play in them as well. This interplay between
the young and old(er) can produce satisfying musical results; jazz is
grown this way.
I want to touch upon one group that has sprung out of this studentteacher
cooperation which will play a couple of times in September
and which I find interesting, despite the fact that I’m in it: Harrison
Squared. It’s named after two young men who graduated from the U
of T jazz program in April: drummer Harrison Vetro and tenor saxophonist
Harrison Argatoff, with tenor saxophonist Mike Murley and
me cast as the mentoring oldsters. Not that either of these young men
need mentoring, as both are well on their way as advanced players;
we all simply enjoy playing together. We’ll be playing at The Rex on
September 1 and on September 30 at The Emmett Ray, another venue
where young Toronto players can be heard frequently and to advantage.
There are plans to record early in 2019, which I look forward to.
The group hatched out of a chance encounter between Harrison
Vetro and me in early 2016 at U of T. His drum teacher, Nick Fraser,
was on tour and asked me if I would teach Vetro a lesson, reasoning
that he might benefit from some pointers from a veteran bassist. We
worked on a few tempos and rhythmic feels and I liked his drumming
straight away: it was quiet but intense, creative yet swinging.
About halfway through the lesson he asked if it would be okay if his
friend Harrison Argatoff joined us on saxophone for a few tunes. Glad
of some melodic content I said sure thing, while wondering what was
up with all the Harrisons all of a sudden – my ensemble that year had
a very fine guitarist in it named Harrison Bartlett. Like Vetro, Argatoff
is a thinking, creative player, very much in the Lennie Tristano/Warne
Marsh vein. I cautioned Argatoff not to play so far behind the beat and
told Vetro not to follow him when he did so, but otherwise I really
enjoyed the instant musical chemistry between us. We resolved to get
together and play again but scheduling made this difficult, so finally
the two Harrisons took the bull by the horns, landing a gig at The Rex
in September of 2016 and asking Murley and me to join them; thus
was a band born. We didn’t rehearse, just agreed on a selection of
standards and some out-of-the-way jazz originals. The gig had a very
open, spontaneous feeling and was immensely satisfying – having
played together on countless occasions, Murley and I enjoyed the
stimulus of playing with fresh partners and the Harrisons upped their
game playing with such muscular and experienced veterans!
In their own words, here are Vetro and Argatoff on what they’ll be
up to musically in the near future:
Harrison Vetro: “I’m leading my own project called Northern
Ranger. I will be releasing a CD under this name on October 20 at
Gallery 345 in Toronto. It has been
funded by the U of T Faculty of
Music Undergraduate Association.
The album features Lina Allemano,
Harrison Argatoff and Andrew
Downing, as well as a few others.
This is a student/teacher project and
we had Nick Fraser come into the
studio as a producer. It was a lesson
in leading a band, making decisions
as a band leader, using studio time
efficiently.
The Northern Ranger album is
inspired by the Canada 150 celebration
and is a series of compositions
following my cross-Canada travels
in 2016 and 2017. My curiosity for
Indigenous music propelled me to
visit specific locations within the
six Indigenous cultural areas in Canada: Arctic, Subarctic, Northwest
Coast, Plateau, Plains and the Eastern Woodlands. My compositions
offer a new perspective on the landscape of Canada.
Proceeds from this album will assist outreach programs for youth
with limited access to music education. I have a tour booked for
this album release and will be performing at The Jazz YYC (Calgary)
and Yardbird Suite (Edmonton) winter jazz festivals, as well as The
Bassment in Saskatoon and some other dates on the east coast this
November. I have also been invited by Jazz YYC to give an improvisation
workshop in a high school on one of the reserves in the
Calgary area.
I also have a residency at the Tranzac on the fourth Wednesday of
every month, where I will present new music.”
Harrison Argatoff: “Having graduated from U of T this past spring,
my current plan is to continue making music in Toronto. This fall I’m
excited to be releasing my first CD, Dreaming Hears the Still, a collaboration
between pianist Noah Franche-Nolan and myself. The CD
exclusively features our original repertoire, most of which uses precise
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