Volume 25 Issue 2 - October 2019

Come Back
Emma Frank
Justin Time JUST 262-2 (justin-time.com)
!!
It’s not often that
you come across a
multi-faceted voice
that could fit into
any genre of music
imaginable. Boston
native Emma Frank
demonstrates her
ability to seamlessly
blend genres within songs and navigate
between them with her stellar voice on
her latest release. Frank’s pieces are introspective,
telling stories in such a way that any
listener could directly relate to. Her vocal style
is reminiscent of highly acclaimed Canadian
indie pop singer Feist with a delicious hint
of Diana Krall that aids in creating the
perfect blend of jazz and art pop throughout
the album. This album provides a welcome
updated jazz sound that is suitable to listeners
new to the genre and aficionados alike.
Frank’s songs are of a milder tempo but
have plenty of movement, allowing the
listener to fully process every musical element
and nuance within the pieces without
growing weary. The soundscape is strewn
with plenty to listen and pay attention to
thanks to musicians such as Aaron Parks on
piano and synthesizers, Tommy Crane on
drums, Zack Lober on bass and co-producer/
guitarist Franky Rousseau with whom Frank
has previously collaborated. While her record
has a modern touch, it is pleasing to hear
hints of traditional jazz throughout, especially
within pieces such as Sometimes, Promises
and See You. This fourth release by the stunning
and golden-voiced vocalist is an incredibly
pleasing journey through genres that
leaves something new to discover around
every corner.
Kati Kiilaspea
Mirror Image
Matt Herskowitz
Justin Time JUST 263-2 (justin-time.com)
!!
To play jazz
on the piano, a
musician must
– at some point
– come to terms
with the weight of
the instrument’s
history. The modern
drum kit started
to come together in the 1920s; the electric
guitar, which, unlike its classical forebears,
would be played through an amplifier,
primarily with a plectrum, would not be
manufactured until the 1930s. But the piano
– so central to the sound of mainstream jazz –
predates the genre by over 200 years.
On the solo album Mirror Image, released
on Montreal’s Justin Time Records, the
accomplished pianist Matt Herskowitz
demonstrates his command of both the jazz
and classical traditions through a mixture of
original pieces, compositions by the likes of
Ravel, Satie and Schubert, and a jazz standard.
The fusion of jazz and classical has
its own rich history; third stream music
has enjoyed a degree of popularity since
the 1960s. This synthesis is used to great
effect by Herskowitz, not as a way to showcase
two separate skill sets, but as a framework
with which to display an intelligent,
well-developed, honest approach to music
making that honours the pianist’s personal
experiences on the instrument. Highlights
include bluesy, gospel-tinged flourishes on
Gottschalk’s The Last Hope, the percussive
title track Mirror Image, and My One
And Only Love, which closes the album.
Herskowitz’s truest success, however, is the
thread with which he so effectively and confidently
connects the album’s many elements
into a sensible whole.
Colin Story
Counterstasis – Refracted Voices
Bill Gilliam; Glen Hall; Joe Sorbara
Independent MPBG-006
(gilliamhallsorbara.bandcamp.com)
!!
Counterstasis
– Refracted Voices
is a new album of
improvised music
from the trio of Bill
Gilliam (acoustic
piano, preparations),
Glen Hall
(woodwinds, electroacoustics)
and Joe Sorbara (drums, percussion),
recorded at Number 9 Audio Group
in Toronto. Gilliam, Hall and Sorbara are
veteran improvisers, and bring a wealth of
creative experience to their shared practice,
which takes its influence from a variety of
musical traditions. The heart of this project,
as described in the liner notes, is to “counter
stasis, to foster change, to create a music in
which [the musicians’] individual voices can
be bent by, refracted through the voices of
their co-conspirators.” To these exploratory
and interactive ends, Hall uses an assortment
of live effects, including the OMax AI improvising
software and the CataRT synthesis
program, both by the Paris-based Institute
for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/
Music (IRCAM).
Hall’s electronic contributions range from
subtle additions to the trio’s acoustic instruments
(as on the opening track, Sinuous
Movements), to major structural components
(as on Radio Chatter, which does indeed
feature radio chatter, and Cave Ritual, the
album’s longest offering, in which eerie
atmospheric sounds form the basis for the
overall shape of the tune). Throughout the
proceedings, Gilliam, Hall and Sorbara play
with maturity, confidently committing themselves
to the realization of a shared musical
vision that privileges communication over
individual athletics. The album offers many
highlights, but is best heard in one listen, as
the spontaneously composed event that it is.
Colin Story
Triio
Alex Fournier
Furniture Music Records
(alexfournierplaysbass.com)
!!
Torontoborn
bassist Alex
Fournier has
gotten together
some exceptionally
talented musicians
for this newest
album simply titled
Triio. Fournier
himself has penned every song on the record
and it is a true and great testament to his
compositional talent. For those wondering
about the interesting spelling of the album
title, the band leader himself mentioned that
he merely added in another ‘i’ to indicate
that the group is not a true trio; it was meant
to originally have four members but eventually
grew into the sextet that is heard on
the record.
The album as a whole is an interesting
musical journey. It offers plenty of opportunity
for experimentation and improvisation
but also manages to have a certain character
and, to an extent, structure, throughout. It is
very easy to lose yourself completely in the
unique sound of the record. The music has a
variety of textures, almost as if you can physically
feel the different character and flavour
of each piece. The track ESD is almost what
you could call “trippy,” a complete improvisational
journey that fittingly starts off the
record. Giant-Dad and Noisemaker have
some underlying elements of traditional
jazz slyly inserted into the bigger musical
picture. Dusk has beautifully captivating
and haunting melodies by great talents Bea
Labikova on alto sax as well as flute and Aidan
Sibley on trombone. This record offers something
for both seasoned listeners of jazz and
for people new to the scene.
Kati Kiilaspia
There From Here
Tune Town
Independent TSLCD-310
(tunetownjazz.com)
! ! There From
Here is the debut
album from a fresh
collective on the
Canadian jazz scene,
a scintillating trio
of Canadian talent:
Kelly Jefferson on
saxophones, Artie
Roth on acoustic bass and Ernesto Cervini
on drums. With grooves that get your foot
tapping to captivating melodies and rhythms,
74 | October 2019 thewholenote.com