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Volume 27 Issue 4 - February 2022

Gould's Wall -- Philip Akin's "breadcrumb trail; orchestras buying into hope; silver linings to the music theatre lockdown blues; Charlotte Siegel's watershed moments; Deep Wireless at 20; and guess who is Back in Focus. All this and more, now online for your reading pleasure.

Gould's Wall -- Philip Akin's "breadcrumb trail; orchestras buying into hope; silver linings to the music theatre lockdown blues; Charlotte Siegel's watershed moments; Deep Wireless at 20; and guess who is Back in Focus. All this and more, now online for your reading pleasure.

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Lester Young. Tributes of this sort are often<br />

penned in a heavy-handed manner, so I very<br />

much appreciate Doxas using influences as<br />

jumping off points rather than strict rules.<br />

The theme of obscuring influences permeates<br />

the entire album and feels apropos given<br />

the manner in which these three musicians<br />

improvise. Doxas’ compositions are detailed<br />

enough to unify the album’s sound, but openended<br />

enough to allow these unique improvisers<br />

to shine. This makes You Can’t Take It<br />

with You entertaining to listen to over and<br />

over again.<br />

Sam Dickinson<br />

Erlebnisse.<br />

Noam Lemish<br />

Independent (noamlemish.com)<br />

! In these times of<br />

reworked, remade<br />

and rebooted<br />

albums, movies<br />

and musicals, it<br />

is truly refreshing<br />

to encounter a<br />

CD of improvised<br />

music where each<br />

track has been recorded once… period. Noam<br />

Lemish’s debut solo album, Erlebnisse, is an<br />

engaging example of this.<br />

Toronto-based Lemish wears many hats,<br />

traversing diverse musical boundaries and<br />

incorporating numerous musical traditions<br />

into his art. A jazz pianist, pedagogue,<br />

composer, ensemble leader/director and<br />

accompanist, he is clearly a musician who<br />

happily defies categorization.<br />

Erlebnisse is a word/concept in German<br />

that means “deeply felt experiences.” What<br />

Lemish offers us on 16 tracks – each one<br />

an Erlebnis – is indeed an array of deeply<br />

felt experiences conveyed to us through the<br />

medium of music with all of its evocative<br />

powers on display. And, as Lemish explained<br />

to me, with “little interference from our<br />

meaning-making mind.”<br />

Listening to this extraordinary CD – one<br />

would be well-advised to do so, repeatedly,<br />

as an uninterrupted whole (preferably with<br />

a glass of red wine in hand) – Lemish takes<br />

us along on his soul-baring, improvisational<br />

journey, which is nothing short of stunning<br />

(and which may even feel a touch voyeuristic<br />

for the listener, given the deeply felt depths<br />

that he plumbs). Infused with elements of<br />

jazz, classical and Middle Eastern music,<br />

Jewish folk and Israeli popular song, Lemish’s<br />

extemporizations are at times poignant,<br />

propulsive, yearning, melancholic, contemplative<br />

and quixotic. And they are masterful.<br />

Erlebnisse is improvisation at its most<br />

inventive and intimate!<br />

Sharna Searle<br />

Shifting Sands<br />

Don Macdonald<br />

(donmacdonald.bandcamp.com/album/<br />

shifting-sands)<br />

! Awardwinning<br />

Canadian<br />

composer/<br />

performer/educator,<br />

Don Macdonald,<br />

composed,<br />

produced and<br />

performs/improvises<br />

on violin on<br />

his nine original jazz works here. His unique<br />

orchestration adds violin and mandolin to<br />

a traditional jazz rhythm section – guitar,<br />

piano, acoustic bass, drums—performed by<br />

predominately Canadian musicians. Each<br />

tune is jazz based, yet intriguing touches<br />

from other musical influences and the instrumentation<br />

makes these jazz fusion sounds<br />

appealing to all music lovers.<br />

Opening track Shifting Sands is so very<br />

happy and sets the musical stage. Pianist<br />

Dave Restivo’s quiet piano intro leads to a<br />

faster groove. Great full-band jazz to pop<br />

sounds, especially when guitarist Mike Rud’s<br />

solo contrasts with Macdonald’s violin high<br />

pitches. Dali’s Hourglass is darker, with<br />

contrapuntal detached piano chord opening<br />

until violin lead begins – a little bit of everything<br />

jazz with touches of minimalism in<br />

repeated lines. In Bayou, drummer Steven<br />

Parish’s solo opening sets up a Cajun groove<br />

in this tightly performed modern take on<br />

the familiar New Orleans style. Dreams of<br />

Ozymandias is slow and moody with closeknit<br />

instrumental conversations and underlying<br />

subtle rhythms. Four diverse tracks<br />

follow until the “sands shift” back to happy in<br />

the closing Homecoming with its fun, funky<br />

and florid party-time music. Bassists Rob<br />

Fahie and Jill McKenna, and mandolinists<br />

Dylan Ferris and Boston-based Jason Anick,<br />

also perform on select tracks.<br />

This is a must-listen-to joyous release.<br />

Macdonald’s virtuosic works and violin<br />

playing never disappoint. All the stellar musicians<br />

play exuberantly, with care and respect.<br />

Tiina Kiik<br />

Together Song<br />

Avi Granite; Daniel Carter<br />

Pet Mantis Records PMR013<br />

(petmantisrecords.com)<br />

! Through three<br />

pieces of varying<br />

length, multiinstrumentalist<br />

Daniel Carter (flute,<br />

clarinet, trumpet,<br />

tenor saxophone)<br />

and electric<br />

guitarist Avi Granite<br />

demonstrate the value of patience in a purely<br />

improvisational setting. This isn’t to say that<br />

more kinetic free-form music with a shorter<br />

attention span isn’t a compelling alternative<br />

approach, but Carter and Granite’s musical<br />

relationship is a thing of beauty. They not<br />

only seem to be listening closely to one other,<br />

they’re in perpetual dialogue concerning the<br />

ultimate destination of the form itself. It’s not<br />

just about finishing each other’s sentences,<br />

it’s about taking an idea and expanding<br />

upon it in a manner that opens up new<br />

possibilities.<br />

Carter and Granite both accompany in a<br />

way that feels far more like amplification<br />

than mere coexistence. Granite’s rhythmic<br />

reflexes constantly provide the context and<br />

environment in which Carter’s vignettes<br />

thrive. On the other hand, the intent and<br />

clarity of Carter’s own articulation gives the<br />

overall work a sense of unrelenting movement.<br />

Each piece feels like it’s constantly<br />

developing, and yet perhaps the characteristic<br />

that best defines this album is space. Rather<br />

than trying to continually build upon each<br />

passage until they hit a plateau, Carter and<br />

Granite opt to meditate on their surroundings,<br />

letting the music naturally mature rather<br />

than forcing a progression. In art, there are<br />

few things more inspiring than a creative<br />

bond this powerful.<br />

Yoshi Maclear Wall<br />

Zephyr<br />

Steph Richards<br />

Relative Pitch Records RPR 1132<br />

(relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com)<br />

! Dedicated to<br />

exploring an instrument’s<br />

every niche<br />

and extended technique<br />

is Canadianin-California<br />

trumpeter/flugelhornist<br />

Steph<br />

Richards, joined<br />

by percussive pianist Joshua White with a<br />

similar aim here. In the form of three multitrack<br />

suites, the two explore visceral episodes<br />

that go beyond brass, wood, strings, air and<br />

pressure.<br />

As Richards slides from one emphasized<br />

tone to another, she sometimes augments<br />

the output by plunging her bell into a watery<br />

vessel. The moist results add distinctive tinges<br />

to muted plunger tones. Sacred Sea expresses<br />

that in its most extended form when mated<br />

with broken-octave blowing reflecting<br />

outward after being aimed at piano innards.<br />

White’s string preparations jangle sympathetically<br />

there. But elsewhere with pedal extensions,<br />

slaps against the instrument’s wood<br />

and keyboard clips and arpeggios that are<br />

inclined more towards stride than solemnity,<br />

his accompaniment is dynamic as well<br />

as linear.<br />

Half-valve effects and rippling smears<br />

during all of the Northern Lights suite allow<br />

Richards to alternately advance greasy snarls<br />

and lyrical slides, finally culminating in handmuted<br />

gutbucket tones that squeak upwards<br />

52 | <strong>February</strong> <strong>2022</strong> thewholenote.com

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