Volume 28 Issue 4 | February - March 2023

a lot. There are moments where each musician
almost sounds like they’re crafting an
independent piece.
Such is the case in the closing minute
of Symphony of Love, with Bird’s loose
reframing of the melody evasively circling
around Farncombe’s increasingly zestful
comping. There are magical moments where
each musician sounds like they’re completing
the other’s ideas before they’re conceived.
Such is the case in the closing minute of the
aptly titled I’ll Go Where You Lead, with
Farncombe’s thoroughly intentional calls
concerning how the beginnings of each
phrase coincide with Bird’s. Fact is, there are
magical moments everywhere to be had on
this album, because Bird is in control of his
songwriting craft and Farncombe is as adaptable
and willing an accompanist as they
come. Bird’s vocals may not need an accompanist
to make profoundly interesting and
layered music, but Farncombe expands what
is possible in that regard. The sum here far
exceeds its parts.
Yoshi Maclear Wall
POT POURRI
Hooked
Dizzy & Fay
Independent (dizzyandfay.com)
! Dizzy & Fay are
at it again. With
Hooked, their
second release
in just two years
(thanks lockdowns!),
the duo
(keyboardist, songwriter,
arranger
and producer Mark
Lalama and Juno-nominated singer and songwriter
Amanda Walther) continues to build its
persona, reminiscent of smoky jazz clubs, late
nights and one too many martinis.
Hooked ventures beyond the duo and
their considerable playing and singing skills
though, with arrangements rich with woodwinds
(Johnny Johnson) horns (William Carn
and Jason Logue) drums (Davide DiRenzo)
and bass (Rich Moore). The City of Prague
Philharmonic even makes a couple of appearances
and Drew Jurecka’s orchestrations on
those tracks really shine.
As great as all of those accoutrements are,
what draws us in most is the songwriting.
Inspired by the Great American Songbook,
Lalama and Walther have given us a set of
songs that are both lyrically and musically
strong and stylized, yet heartfelt. Themes of
love and longing dominate but no modern
album is complete, it seems, without at least
one song about the pandemic and I’m Alright
elegantly shrugs it all off while Good News
cleverly evokes the strange mix of ennui,
despair and coziness many of us felt. Hooked
is playful and cool but will break your heart
if you let it.
(The duo’s virtual world, the Dizzy & Fay
Speakeasy, complete with tour dates and
merch, can be explored at dizzyandfay.com.)
Cathy Riches
Concert note: Dizzy & Fay perform in
Toronto at Reid’s Distillery on February 8
and again on March 8, and then can be heard
in Kingston March 9 (Next Church), Ottawa
March 10 (Options Jazz Lounge) and London
March 12 (Aeolian Hall).
Song
Sheku Kanneh-Mason
Decca B0036196-02 (deccaclassics.com/
en/artists/sheku-kanneh-mason)
! Since winning
BBC Young
Musician in 2017
cellist Sheku
Kanneh-Mason
has been much in
demand from every
musical quarter,
traversing a road
to glory, the envy of many musicians, some
twice – even three times – his age. It is now
safe to say that the music world is Kanneh-
Mason’s oyster, albeit with room to spare for
all his über-gifted siblings.
But the cellist has – to all intents and
purposes – pride of place in music’s rarefied
realm. His Shostakovich First Cello Concerto
unearthed real depth. From evidence of his
various Decca recordings he seems to have
soaked up every experience in the glitz and
gush of what you might call his formative
years. At the time of reviewing Song, with its
repertoire culled from the classical and the
popular, and from secular and sacred pieces,
Kanneh-Mason is set to perform his interpretation
of Elgar’s monumental Cello Concerto
in E Minor Op.85 – a work long held out of
bounds because of Jacqueline du Pré’s iconic
1962 recording – with the Toronto Symphony
Orchestra. (Unfortunately, that will have
taken place by time of publication.)
However, Song amplifies the truth that
Kanneh-Mason may have inherited Du Pré’s
crown. The freshly radiant interpretation of
Beethoven’s Variations on Ein Mädchen oder
Weibchen, Mendelssohn’s Songs without
Words (both also feature his brilliant pianistsister,
Isata), Stravinsky’s Chanson russe and
Bach’s sacred music are spectacular. But Same
Boat, a song composed by Kanneh-Mason
(with vocalist Zak Abel) is the album’s apogee.
In this simple song lies notice of Kanneh-
Mason’s glowing compositional genius.
Raul da Gama
My America 2: Destinations
Jim Self; Various Artists
Basset Hound Music
(bassethoundmusic.com)
! Unless you’ve
been living in a
cave with no access
to media for the
past 40 years,
you have heard
the tuba playing
of Jim Self. A
legendary fixture
in Hollywood recording studios, he has
performed on countless sessions for film and
television and is probably best known for his
performance as the “Voice of the Mothership”
from Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the
Third Kind. And all the while, Self has maintained
an impressive “live” career in many
groups, including the Los Angeles Opera, the
Hollywood Bowl Symphony, as a jazz musician
and a celebrated tuba soloist.
His latest solo release, My
America 2: Destinations (a sequel to My
America released 20 years ago) is a jazzy
romp through places in the USA that have
been important to him throughout his long
career. (As the cover states: “We hold these
tunes to be SELF-evident.” Cute.) It goes
without saying that Self’s solo tuba playing is
amazing and his backup band made up of top
LA studio musicians is as tight as one would
expect, but what makes this album memorable
are the arrangements by his longtime
friend, Kim Scharnberg. His eclectic, inventive
writing, his creative scoring (and, of
course, Self’s stellar tuba playing) will have
me returning to this disc time and time again.
Scott Irvine
i’d Love to Turn…
John Oswald
fony (pfony.bandcamp.com/album/
id-love-to-turn)
! Prolific Canadian
composer/
performer John
Oswald is back
with an illustrious,
boundary-crashing
release, dedicated
to Phil Strong. Four
main tracks are
online streaming, with additional five bonus
tracks. videos and main track PDF scores for
downloading.
The main four tracks are Oswald’s selfdescribed
plunderphonic Rascali Klepitoire/
hybrids combining elements from liveperformance
recordings with studio-based
additions and plunderphonic transformations,
primarily focused on music he discovered
in the mid-1960s. Fee Fie Foe Fum is
complex, surprisingly easy listening based
on the 1966 pop hit, and Oswald’s research
between Frank Zappa’s first album release
thewholenote.com February & March, 2023 | 67