Volume 27 Issue 8 | July 1 - September 20, 2022

Impulse
Jordan Bak
Bright Shiny Things BSTC-0162
(brightshiny.ninja)
! Jordan Bak’s
debut album,
Impulse, transports
the listener
into a viola dreamland
from the very
first note. Here is
the place we get to
hear the viola in all
its glory and bask in all its abundant colours.
And we hear it through diverse compositional
voices of contemporary composers of vastly
different backgrounds.
The young Jamaican-American violist
pulls out all the stops on this album. Bak is
a powerhouse musician, with a strong voice
and compelling sound. He is not afraid of
occasional grittiness in service of music but
generally favours an aesthetic of beauty and
refinement in sound. Impressively, and true
to the title of the album, Bak’s interpretations
and phrases are often flowing and shifting,
firmly rooted in one moment and flexible
in another, yet always maintaining rhythmical
clarity.
The album opens with the lush, impressionistically
Romantic Untitled, written by
early-20th-century violist and composer
Rebecca Clarke, and closes with the monumental
A String Around Autumn by Toru
Takemitsu arranged by Toshio Hosokawa.
Pianist Ji Yung Lee is an astute collaborator
on these pieces, well attuned to
Bak’s style of playing. In between, there
are five compositions for solo viola. Anne
Leilehua Lanzilotti’s ko‘u inoa and In
Memory by Quinn Mason create meditative
worlds, one from constant movement,
the other from stillness. This album also
features the world premiere of Tableau XII
for Solo Viola by Tyson Gholston Davis,
an expressive monologue that continues
with Joan Tower’s Wild Purple and Jeffrey
Mumford’s wending.
Impulse would make a great addition to
the music libraries of contemporary music
aficionados.
Ivana Popovic
Ben Duinker; Architek Percussion – 6
Changes
Architek Percussion
Independent (architekpercussion.com)
! The Montrealbased
quartet
Architek
Percussion, founded
in 2012 by McGill
University music
graduates, has
established itself
along the lines
set in the last century by other classical
music-based percussion groups such as
NEXUS. They are equally comfortable in the
20th-century percussion ensemble repertoire
now considered “classic,” as well as in new
works generated via commissions and collaborations.
Consisting of Noam Bierstone, Ben
Duinker, Alexander Haupt and Alessandro
Valiante, Architek Percussion has toured
Canada multiple times and commissioned
works by composers from some 11 countries.
Six Changes, an extended collaboration
between Duinker and his bandmates, takes
the group in a novel direction. In six parts,
the album charts a stylistic path referencing
electronica, percolating pulse-based
minimalism and the experimental fringes
of rock, all snapped to attention by a closely
miked drum kit. Stock keyboard percussion
instruments also make an appearance, as do
airy synth chord pads, which drift in and out,
occasionally interrupted by growling bass
synth melodic lines.
Yet another element here is the transformation
of rhythms the inventive Duinker has
encountered in daily life. For example, his
transcribed rhythms from an MRI machine
feature in On Sitting the Next Few Plays Out,
layered into a multi-pulse mesh. And he first
heard the ostinato in Dark Horse Fan in a
malfunctioning ceiling fan.
It took much of the album to get fully into
Six Changes, but in the end the superimposition
of clever rhythms, vernacular harmonic
modulations, kicked in the pants by an
assertive groove, won me over.
Andrew Timar
JAZZ AND IMPROVISED
Lou Pomanti & Friends
Lou Pomanti & Friends
Vesuvius Music VMI - 009
(loupomanti.com)
! Consummate
pianist/arranger/
composer/producer
Lou Pomanti has
often been recognized
for his
impressive list of
professional collaborations,
but here
Pomanti speaks in his own creative voice
by presenting a project rife with original
compositions and inspired pairings with
artists with whom Pomanti has previously
co-created. The jazz, R&B and pop luminaries
here include vocalist Emilie-Claire Barlow,
iconic trumpeter Randy Brecker, soulful
vocalist and lead singer of Blood, Sweat and
Tears David Clayton-Thomas, contemporary
crooner Matt Dusk, masterful singer/songwriter
Marc Jordan, the funkadelic Oakland
Stroke blue-eyed soul singer John Finley,
gifted vocalists Dione Taylor, Irene Torres,
June Garber and Robyn Black, drummer
Larnell Lewis and guitarist/synth wizard
Sam Pomanti. The material here is a virtual
potpourri of eclecticism and perfectly curated
tracks – effortlessly pairing the right artists
with the right tunes, brilliantly arranged and
performed by the A-List musicians in the stirring
charts created by Pomanti.
First up is a largo, come-hither take
on Lennon/McCartney’s Come Together
featuring the magnificent Jordan and emerging
vocalist Black, set in an inspired arrangement
that oozes sophistication. A true
standout is the swinging and soulful rendition
of Mose Allison’s Your Mind is On Vacation
featuring the made-in-heaven vocal match
of Findley and Clayton-Thomas, followed by
the irresistible Laura Nyro hit, Stoned Soul
Picnic, reimagined by Pomanti, replete with
an in-the-pocket tempo and featuring the
breathtaking Barlow as well as a groovy facemelter
from Brecker.
Pomanti’s “ten piece touring funk juggernaut,
Oakland Stroke” is represented here
with a bluesy and thrilling version of Me and
Mrs. Jones, graced by the incredible pipes
of George St. Kitts. Of special, luminous
beauty is the haunting Windmills of Your
Mind perfectly rendered by the incomparable
Garber – who doesn’t just sing the lyrics, but
imbues them with deep emotional content
and flawless interpretation. Of special note
is Pomanti’s composition, What Remains –
a loving tribute to his adored wife of more
than 20 years – made all the more moving by
featuring the still-besotted Pomanti on vocals.
Lesley Mitchell-Clarke
Venez donc chez moi
Laura Anglade; Sam Kirmayer
Justin Time (justin-time.com)
! Francophone
jazz lovers rejoice.
Laura Anglade and
Sam Kirmayer have
released an album
of 11 songs, entirely
in French. The
French-American
singer, now based
in Toronto, and the
Montreal-based guitarist collaborated on this
collection of classic songs from the not-toodistant
past made famous by artists such as
Barbara and Charles Aznavour. Unadorned by
other instruments (except for accordion on
two tracks) or fancy production tricks, Venez
Donc Chez Moi (So Come to My House) is
simply two exceptional musicians presenting
beautiful songs. Some swing gently, but
ballads dominate and Anglade’s gorgeous
voice and Kirmayer’s solid and sensitive
guitar accompaniment handily navigate all
paces and styles.
Both Kirmayer and Anglade get in some
brief, melodic improvisations – not easily
done in such a stripped-down environment
– otherwise the songs are delivered in a
straightforward, true-to-the-original manner.
The most familiar songs (to this Anglophone)
thewholenote.com July 1 - September 20, 2022 | 55