Volume 29 Issue 2 | October & November 2023
With this issue we start a new rhythm of publication -- bimonthly, October, December, February April, June, and August. October/November is a chock-a-block two months for live music, new recordings, and news (not all of it bad). Inside: Christina Petrowska Quilico, collaborative artist honoured; Kate Hennig as Mama Rose; Global Toronto 2023 reviewed; Musical weavings from TaPIR to Xenakis at Esprit; Fidelio headlines an operatic fall; and our 24th annual Blue Pages directory of presenters. This and more.
With this issue we start a new rhythm of publication -- bimonthly, October, December, February April, June, and August. October/November is a chock-a-block two months for live music, new recordings, and news (not all of it bad). Inside: Christina Petrowska Quilico, collaborative artist honoured; Kate Hennig as Mama Rose; Global Toronto 2023 reviewed; Musical weavings from TaPIR to Xenakis at Esprit; Fidelio headlines an operatic fall; and our 24th annual Blue Pages directory of presenters. This and more.
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mid-trill, prompting one to rewind the track<br />
and locate the exact source of the inciting<br />
gesture. The snaking 11-beat pattern that<br />
follows serves as the backdrop for continued<br />
Fournier arco explorations, cyclical and<br />
possessing the assurance of having always<br />
occupied its indelible spot in the piece’s<br />
conscience. The pattern begins to open up<br />
gradually, with Pitt emphasizing offbeats and<br />
Fraser dropping open cymbal hits like stones<br />
in a glassy stream. Synchronized with this<br />
increased generosity, Fournier begins to show<br />
his hand as well, weaving what will become<br />
the primary motif into his solo.<br />
Part Two is Stages’ shortest song, and<br />
a great chunk of its runtime is Fournier’s<br />
intro, but it encapsulates the album’s overall<br />
tendencies. Gentle, satisfying phrases are<br />
meditated on for stretches that manipulate a<br />
listener’s time perception, gliding along an<br />
axis with ease while each musician applies<br />
careful changes with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it<br />
subtlety. This music feels truly nurtured.<br />
Yoshi Maclear Wall<br />
Open Spaces – Folk Songs Reimagined<br />
Daniel Hersog Jazz Orchestra<br />
Cellar Music CMR010123 (cellarlive.com)<br />
! Vancouverbased<br />
composer,<br />
arranger, trumpeter<br />
and conductor<br />
Daniel Hersog<br />
leads a 17-musician<br />
ensemble in<br />
his renditions of<br />
four well-known<br />
folk songs, and six of his own compositions<br />
on this, his second album. Recorded<br />
in Vancouver, Hersog’s takes on the familiar<br />
folk tunes are varied, musical, jazz flavoured,<br />
improvised, yet always true to the original<br />
and all performed perfectly.<br />
Gordon Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the<br />
Edmund Fitzgerald is given a jazz rendition<br />
with classical orchestration and harmonies.<br />
Held notes lead to Lightfoot’s memorable<br />
melody, repeated with gradual entrance<br />
of jazzy countermelodies and variations<br />
performed by Dan Weiss’ lively drums, Noah<br />
Preminger’s improvised tenor horn solo, Kurt<br />
Rosenwinkel’s solo/comping guitar and Frank<br />
Carlberg’s flourishing piano solo. A brief<br />
silence leads to closing gradual instrumental<br />
entrances of legato high-pitched rhythmic<br />
lines and held-note melody. Unbelievable<br />
how respectful, sad and beautiful this all is.<br />
Hersog’s adaptation of Red River Valley<br />
features repeated bass notes from Kim Cass,<br />
full orchestra theme and alternating solos,<br />
with Rosenwinkle’s guitar leading back to<br />
the famous song, now a big surprise, sung by<br />
the musicians to closing loud full orchestra<br />
and drum cymbal crashes. How Many Roads<br />
is Hersog’s self-described “re-composed”<br />
version of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind.<br />
His Dylan melody sounds simultaneously<br />
familiar yet different, especially in the<br />
calming yet fast colourful Carlberg piano solo<br />
above Weiss’ drum rolls and orchestral glissandos.<br />
Hersog’s compositions are equally<br />
enjoyable. Rentrer opening Cass bass line is<br />
so intriguing, followed by lengthy colourful<br />
orchestral lines and solos. Hersog provides<br />
so much space for his musicians to improvise,<br />
and there’s so much musical fun for<br />
everyone!!<br />
Tiina Kiik<br />
Projet Seb Parent<br />
Sébastian Parent<br />
Independent<br />
(projetsebparent.bandcamp.com)<br />
! Projet Seb<br />
Parent, the debut<br />
album of Montrealbased<br />
drummer<br />
Sébastien Parent,<br />
leaves the impression<br />
of being long<br />
in the making.<br />
Tight jabs and stabs<br />
from the astonishingly cohesive 13-piece<br />
horn section inject the most tranquil of<br />
rhythm section passages with adrenaline.<br />
These sudden shots are surges of pure energy<br />
and chutzpah that leave pregnant pauses in<br />
between; fleeting voids of suggestion, soon<br />
to be realized. This method of tireless tension<br />
building through choreographed involvement<br />
places Projet Seb Parent on the small<br />
ensemble-big band continuum, clueing in<br />
while never quite revealing its exact coordinates.<br />
The results of Parent’s distinct sound<br />
facilitating style: a gleeful grab bag of tuneful<br />
goodies that feel equal parts organized and<br />
unrestrained.<br />
Mont Saint-Bruno features acoustic fingerpicking,<br />
an irresistible shuffle beat, a whimsical<br />
trombone melody and an assertive slide<br />
guitar solo played by Patrick Bourdon. Bling<br />
Bling’s unabashed usage of 808s, choppy<br />
horns and sub bass simultaneously conjures<br />
the approaching menace of a Metro Boomin<br />
intro, the vigour of a Comet is Coming<br />
beat and bravado of your local brass band.<br />
Station Du Collège is an absolute highlight,<br />
with Parent himself helming an elusive<br />
groove reminiscent of early Tune-Yards, not<br />
ever quite fully swinging or straight, which<br />
makes the song itself feel like it’s constantly<br />
lurching forward and backward; reflecting<br />
the profoundly danceable quality this whole<br />
album possesses.<br />
Yoshi Maclear Wall<br />
Plaît-il<br />
Allochtone<br />
Tour der bras tdb 000067cd<br />
(tourdebras.com)<br />
! Quebecrecorded,<br />
but ingeniously<br />
expressing<br />
its so-called foreign<br />
background with<br />
a band name that<br />
translates as nonnative<br />
person,<br />
Allochtone uniquely<br />
mixes currents of electronica, rock, folk and<br />
free jazz. Created at the Saint-Alexandre-de-<br />
Kamouraska music camp, 195 kilometres<br />
north of Quebec City, the group includes local<br />
percussionist/turntablist Rémi Leclerc; pianist<br />
André Pelletier from Saint-Pascal; guitarist<br />
Olivier D’Amours and accordionist Robin<br />
Servant from Rimouski; Montreal bassist<br />
Alexandre Dubuc and Parisian Cathy Heyden<br />
playing alto saxophone and bagpipe chanter.<br />
Each musician also uses some version of<br />
electronic instruments giving the eight selections<br />
electro-acoustic timbres that are as<br />
much otherworldly as they are terrestrial. The<br />
result can range from strained reed squeals,<br />
piano clicks and tremolo accordion vibrations<br />
meeting voltage buzzes and blats or keyboard<br />
clusters and metallic guitar flanges establishing<br />
a linear theme which must balance<br />
on top of consistent electronic drones.<br />
Throughout, almost ceaseless percussion ruffs<br />
are as prominent as programmed oscillations<br />
and stop-start voltage buzzing. Leclerc’s<br />
vinyl manipulation also means that tracks like<br />
rouge interject snatches of bel canto singing<br />
and backwards running syllables into the<br />
electronic- and percussion-dominated mix.<br />
The tracks aren’t all opaque however. The<br />
occasional calliope-like accordion squeeze<br />
and slide-whistle or split tone reed trill adds<br />
needed airiness at certain junctions.<br />
As an exercise in group improvisation<br />
fusing multiple sonic streams, Plaît-il<br />
achieves its goals. But more indications of<br />
what each musician can contribute individually<br />
could have prevented some sequences<br />
from descending into near-impenetrable<br />
density and lightened the mood.<br />
Ken Waxman<br />
Jeb Patton – Preludes<br />
Jeb Patton; John Ellis; David Wong; Quincy<br />
Davis<br />
Cellar Music CM091822 (cellarlive.com)<br />
! New Yorkbased<br />
pianist Jeb<br />
Patton has made a<br />
name for himself<br />
in the jazz world,<br />
having played with<br />
famed acts such as<br />
Etta Jones, George<br />
Coleman, the Dizzy<br />
Gillespie All Stars and many more. On this<br />
72 | <strong>October</strong> & <strong>November</strong> <strong>2023</strong> thewholenote.com