Volume 29 Issue 3 | December 2023 & January 2024

Rituals
Kelly Jefferson
Cellar Music CMR022023 (cellarlive.com)
! When the
Canadian JUNO-
Award winning star
of the saxophone –
curved or straight
– Kelly Jefferson
decides to bare key
moments in the
past decade or so of
his life it must be something special. When
he plays the momentous music with a stellar
trio of his peers – pianist Amanda Tosoff,
bassist Jon Maharaj and drummer Morgan
Childs, whose idiomatic interpretations mark
this music – then the album of songs does,
indeed, become something truly special.
The title of the album – Rituals – suggests
a rite of passage for Jefferson. Each of the
nine charts marks the memory of a milestone
that, as the lyric of the iconic Sam Cooke
song suggests “a change is gonna come,” or
in Jefferson’s case, a change did, in fact come.
What these events were, are poured into
deeply songful charts by the saxophonist.
Each is suited to a particular horn – tenor,
alto or soprano – and his playing will drive
listeners, happily, into a state of frenzy.
Whether it be Kindling, or No Time Like
The Present, or even Dimmer Switch, each is
suited to his alternating ultra-virtuosity and
languor. With hallmark rapid crescendos and
decrescendos, accelerandos or decelerandos,
sometimes within a few bars, almost as if a
grenade has been tossed into the saxophone,
Jefferson announces his unique musical charisma
to us, his rapt audience.
Tosoff, Maharaj and Childs, fully attuned to
Jefferson’s vision, remain inspired choices to
bring this music to fruition.
Raul da Gama
Hummingbird
Ashley Wey
Independent (ashleywey.bandcamp.com/
album/hummingbird)
! When pianist,
vocalist and
composer Ashley
Wey opened for the
great Lisa Fischer
(of Rolling Stones
and 20 Feet From
Stardom fame)
in Wey’s hometown of Victoria in 2018, she
wrote a song for the occasion, inspired and
actually titled by Fischer! Thus, Hummingbird
became the name of both the album and
title track of Wey’s most recent release. It’s
also her first to feature mostly original music
(written over a 15-year period).
Wey is an “uncategorisable” artist who,
while firmly grounded in the jazz tradition, is
equally at home in the worlds of alternative
folk and indie pop – “genre-blending,” rather
than genre-bending. I had the pleasure of
hearing Wey perform live in Victoria this past
spring, at Superior Jazz, a project by Victoriabased
jazz vocalist, Heather Ferguson (whose
debut album I reviewed in the Feb/Mar 2023
WholeNote). Wey impressed me with her
versatility, generosity, energy and playfulness,
qualities, along with some of that genreblending,
apparent throughout the album.
An overriding feeling of expansiveness
repeatedly came up for me in listening to
Hummingbird. It’s there, in abundance, in
the title track, as well as in other instrumental
tracks, Sterioso, Initially and Finally and
Destiny – a lovely, fluid, Metheny-esque expansiveness
that I found beautifully compelling.
Along with her solid piano work were
Wey’s breezily playful vocals on that old
nugget, Just Squeeze Me. I could “hear”
her smiling!
Joining Wey are her longtime trio
collaborators, Louis Rudner on bass
and drummer Nicholas Bracewell, both
masterful. Hummingbird will indeed leave
you humming.
Sharna Searle
Kind Mind
Josh Cole; Karen Ng; Michael Davidson
Cassiar Records CR02 (cassiarrecords.
bandcamp.com)
! Through much
of jazz history, from
New Orleans beginnings
to free jazz,
the music’s shifting
character has been
defined by relationships
between
formal structure
and improvisation. In recent years that
has changed, with some individual musicians
embracing everything from completely
composed to through-improvised forms.
What distinguishes Josh Cole’s Kind Mind is
not its place on the spectrum but the rough
division into those extremes.
Kind Mind, both CD title and band name,
is bassist/composer Cole’s trio with Karen
Ng (alto saxophone, clarinet and synthesizer)
and Michael Davidson (vibraphone, marimba
and pedals). That attention to sonic variety
extends to Cole’s sampler, field recordings
and synthesizer. Of 11 tracks on a concise
38-minute CD, six are credited to Cole, five
to the three trio members. Those credited to
Cole emphasize overlapping melodic gestures
spread among Cole, Ng and Davidson. The
effect is both lyric and timeless, almost
ambient, made by instrumental sounds as
engaging as you might hear, all apparent in
Cole’s opening The Subway with Ng largely
reconfiguring melodic content. Next up,
talking makes it worse, credited to all three
musicians, is taut free improvisation, marked
by Cole’s scratching pizzicato and the flow
of passionate saxophone and abstract vibraphone.
In two tracks, totalling just 6’30” Kind
Mind has constructed two different musical
worlds, with several more to come.
With some variations that pattern
repeats, but with some looping and extensive
field recordings enriching the experience,
becoming increasingly hypnotic. The
dilemma for the reviewer? I found I could
listen to it forever.
Stuart Broomer
The Speed of Time
Andrew Rathbun; Gary Versace; John
Hebert; Tom Rainey
Steeple Chase SCCD 31950
(andrewrathbun.com)
! Andrew
Rathbun is a saxophone
player
and composer
who grew up in
Toronto, earned
a Master’s from
the New England
Conservatory
in Boston and a PhD in Jazz Arts from the
Manhattan School of Music. His compositions
and performances have appeared
on his own and others’ albums for over 20
years. Rathbun states that the works on The
Speed of Time are «all connected with how
the world has unfolded over the past few
years» and are «influenced by the strange
fluctuations» of his «perception of time
during that period.»
The Speed of Time offers pieces that are
both sophisticated and funky. For example,
the title composition has a very grooving
piano ostinato that leads to a melodically
complex saxophone line; the solos
swing while also showing a strong intellectual
component. Rathbun has a forceful and
urgent tone on tenor sax that is not overblown.
Widen the Doorway injects some
great sax harmonies to add colour and
contains vibrant sax and drum solo work.
Rathbun’s soprano sax on Wandering is
clear and beautiful. He cites Wayne Shorter
as an influence but on Velocity Unknown I
also hear the playful lyricism of Steve
Lacy. The Speed of Time is an excellent album
greatly aided by the subtle and fiery musicianship
of Rathbun, Gary Versace (piano)
and Tom Rainey (drums).
Ted Parkinson
If I Had
Curtis Nowosad; Andrew Renfroe; Luke
Sellick
Independent (curtisnowosad.com)
! Curtis Nowosad,
a drummer and
composer born
in Winnipeg and
currently living
in New York City,
released his first
album in 2019.
64 | December 2023 & January 2024 thewholenote.com