Volume 28 Issue 1 | September 20 - November 8, 2022

premiere at York University in February 1975,
I recall walking into the installation. The
exhibition space was populated by transformed
sculptural loudspeakers, the acoustic
environment eerily evoking Tudor’s descriptive
title.
The CIE performance of Rainforest IV on
this album was taped in 1977 at the Center for
Music Experiment in San Diego. We’re greeted
by a dense aural ecosystem of twittering,
squawking and chattering sounds reminiscent
perhaps of nighttime insects, amphibians,
bird calls and choruses. Clanging,
clicking, whistling, sustained underwater
and alien sounds slowly crossfade during the
record’s almost 69 minutes.
The scene was vividly captured by two
musicians, who traversed slowly through the
space, wearing binaural microphones on their
heads. While not a definitive documentation
of the work, listened to with headphones this
evocative binaural recording is as close as you
can get without being in the space. There’s
something magical in Tudor’s synthetic forest
of sight and sound.
Andrew Timar
JAZZ AND IMPROVISED
Tactile Stories
Colin Fisher; Mike Gennaro
Cacophonous Revival Recordings CRR-015
(cacophonousrevivalrecordings.
bandcamp.com)
! Following their
first release, Sine
Qua Non, guitarist
and saxophonist
Colin Fisher and
drummer Mike
Gennaro – two
of Canada’s most
visible improvising
experimental musicians – have recorded their
second album, Tactile Stories, an exhilarating
four-track collection of free-improvised
pieces. Fisher and Gennaro play off of one
another with impressive musicality and effusive
bravura. Their combined sound is lavish
but never swanky and the delivery of ideas is
as brilliant as it is ravenous – the two musicians
truly connected in their improvisatory
impetuses.
The first track, Ex Nihilo is a powerful
example of why Fisher and Gennaro have
become some of the most in demand improvising
experimental musicians in Canada. The
music is virtuosity set free in the wild while
making room for more contemplative interludes.
Dynamic and driving explorations
continue in the tracks Ekstasis and Epinoia
while the track Esse offers a more sensitive
atmosphere.
Fisher’s guitar playing is a stunning
combination of swells, prickly quirks and
dramatic runs. Gennaro draws from an
endless cache of stylistic realms that makes
for a propulsive energy. Tactile Stories is
exactly that – a collection of sonic narratives
revealing why these two musicians are at the
fore of free-improvised music.
Adam Scime
The Lighting of the Lamps
Grant Stewart Quartet w/Bruce Harris
Cellar Music CM110521 (cellarlive.com)
! Picture the city
at dusk, a shroud
of darkness blanketing
the bustling
life within,
bringing a certain
air of mystery and
veiled passion. The
collection of tunes
on famed tenor saxophonist Grant Stewart’s
newest release calls forth images just like that
in the listener’s mind. The tenorist himself
mentions that listening back on this session,
he was “reminded not of daybreak but rather,
dusk… as the city becomes a buzz of activity
once more.” Stewart has gathered a group
of top tier musicians to bring these pieces
to life; Bruce Harris on the trumpet, David
Wong on bass, Tardo Hammer on piano
and Phil Stewart on drums. The songs are
mostly original compositions, arranged by
the likes of Elmo Hope and Thad Jones. For
the jazz lover looking to add a little pizzazz
to their collection, this is a record to get your
hands on.
For musicians, the nightlife is when things
really start moving, when the magic truly
starts happening. This album is filled with a
sense of new beginnings, teetering on that
border of exciting tension just waiting to
spill over into passionate energy; just as the
approach of dusk brings a “second awakening”
to the city. Tunes like Little Spain
and Mo Is On are spectacular examples of
the quickness and vigour of city life whereas
Ghost of a Chance is a representation of the
other side of nightlife, the mellowness and
suppressed desires.
Kati Kiilaspea
Just the Contrafacts
Adam Shulman; Jeremy Pelt; Cory Weeds;
Grant Stewart; Peter Washington; Billy
Drummond
Cellar Music CM110321 (cellarlive.com)
! The pandemic
was a hard hit on
the music industry,
with the absence
of live music and
limited use of
physical studio
spaces. But it also
ended up being
a chance for several musicians to produce
“COVID albums,” many of which are excellent
examples of how music can be a voice
and outlet during the toughest of times.
Renowned pianist Adam Shulman’s newest
release is an example of a stellar album born
out of lockdown. A hark back to traditional
jazz, with a certain whimsical and hopeful
twist added, this collection is a surefire way
to get your head bopping along on the darkest
of days. All tunes are penned by Shulman
himself; a backing band of fantastic musicians
featuring Jeremy Pelt on trumpet, Billy
Drummond on drums and Cory Weeds on
alto saxophone, among others, allows these
tunes to soar to new heights.
What makes this album unique is the fact
that these songs are all contrafacts as the
title of the record suggests, meaning “new
melodies [written over] the chord structure of
standard tunes” or borrowed chord progressions.
Shulman has masterfully added soaring
and catchy new melodies overtop chord
progressions taken from songs from the Great
American Songbook, adding his own unique
mark to them. These pieces are filled with
a lightness and playfulness, an “[escape] to
different times,” letting the listener be carried
away from hardships as only the power of
music can do.
Kati Kiilaspea
Orbit of Sound
Max Johnson Trio
Unbroken Sounds U01
(maxjohnsonmusic.com)
! Equally proficient
as composer
and double bassist,
New York’s Max
Johnson has the
invaluable help of
Canadian tenor
saxophonist/flutist
Anna Webber and
local drummer Michael Sarin to interpret five
of his intricate but easygoing tunes. That’s
easygoing not easy, for Johnson’s bass thumps
or sul tasto strokes, Weber’s reed cries and
gurgles and Sarin’s power pops and rim shots
are anything but elementary.
Instead, the sometime slippery and often
buoyant tunes evolve with defined and
emphasized heads and narratives that usually
involve double or triple counterpoint and
brief solos. Johnson’s touch can be stentorian
but on an extended piece like Over/Under
his timbral digging involves high-pitched
scraps to contrast with low-pitched body
tube murmurs and mid-range blowing from
Webber. After reed split-tone yelps stand out
over other-directed percussion strokes, measured
bass thumps relax the exposition back
to the initial theme. Nearly continuous string
drones provide an effective balance, scenesetting
on The Professor, then joined to strident
reed bites and drum ruffs. Webber’s
reed-biting whorls and arabesques advance to
irregular tongue stops and percussive smears,
but the reassuring narrative, anchored by
bass strokes, preserves the flow and holds the
exposition to defined swing elaborations.
thewholenote.com September 20 - November 8, 2022 | 61