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Festival International de Jazz de Montréal 2019: Week 2
Festival International de Jazz de Montréal
Montréal, Canada
July 2-6, 2019
The festival celebrated its 40th anniversary this year with the usual dazzling array of musical offerings. And a few that were unusual: including concerts celebrating the 50th anniversary of ECM Records (founder
Holly Cole
vocalsb.1963
Tuesday, July 2
Biréli Lagrène
Virtuosic French guitarist
Bireli Lagrene
guitarb.1966
His world-class technical facility was on display immediately, improvising on a standard. At one point he briefly changed his guitar tuning (scordatura) on the fly. The second tune was fast and bluesy, with use of harp harmonics. In one section he employed a reverb pedal to alter the guitar sound, the first use of electronics (which were more prominent later in the set). After a ballad, he addressed the audience briefly (in French, without a microphone), saying how much he loved to come to Montréal. An audience member called out "Django!" Lagrène shrugged and said something too hard to hear—but no Django tunes were forthcoming.
The next piece began with a fast muted sound like galloping horses. He managed to play melodic lines while maintaining the muted strumming through the entire song. "All The Things You Are" was played as an up-tempo fantasia on the classic tune, ending with a humorous fanfare. He began the next selection moving firmly out of Django territory by employing a looping pedal to record a rhythm part, which he then soloed over. Transitioning to a second, faster loop, he began adding ostinato lines to the loop, resulting in a dense multi-guitar texture. For an encore he played a stately chord-melody piece, again employing live scordatura re-tuning, as well as a section with digital delay.
Lagrène's guitar technique cannot be overstated: it is truly awe-inspiring, and is balanced by a bit of puckish humor, if not always emotional resonance. As with many virtuosos, he sometimes appears to be more interested in exploring technical challenges than playing expressively.
David Helbock's Random/Control
Austrian pianist
David Helbock
pianob.1984
Andreas Broger
woodwindsJohannes Bär
tubaThe set began with
Abdullah Ibrahim
pianob.1934
Keith Jarrett
pianob.1945
Cedar Walton
piano1934 - 2013
Swedish pianist
Esbjorn Svensson
piano1964 - 2008
Paul Desmond
saxophone, alto1924 - 1977
Dave Brubeck
piano1920 - 2012
This group is really something special. Three remarkable musicians who create a kaleidoscope of sound, and are visually entertaining to boot.
Joshua Redman Quartet/Alex Lefaivre YUL Quartet
Bass guitarist
Alex Lefaivre
bassb.1982
Erik Hove
saxophoneMark Nelson
piano
Joshua Redman
saxophoneb.1969
Dewey Redman
saxophone, tenorb.1931
Much of the song list came from the quartet's current album Come What May (Nonesuch Records, 2019), the third in the group's twenty-year history. Redman played a long unaccompanied tenor saxophone introduction to "Circle Of Life," before the group launched into its long-line theme. At times the music almost sounded through-composed, with seamless transitions from written to improvised. It was the first indication of just how attuned these players are to each other, with perhaps an additional boost from the attentive audience and the occasion. "How We Do" moved from a start-and-stop theme into fast swing, and kept that contrast going throughout the solos.
Redman paused to announce the songs and introduce the band members, saying that he had played more gigs with these three players than any others in his career. He also complimented all of the Canadians present on the Toronto Raptors' first NBA championship, commenting "you just get one." "Come What May" featured a lyrical (and bluesy) double bass solo from
Reuben Rogers
bass, acoustic
Aaron Goldberg
piano
Gregory Hutchinson
drumsb.1970
Legendary bebop saxophonist
Charlie Parker
saxophone, alto1920 - 1955
Sonny Rollins
saxophoneb.1930
A remarkable performance, highlighting the trust and generosity these players have developed over the years. There was always room for surprise, for players and audience alike.
Butcher Brown
Virginia-based quartet
Butcher Brown
band / ensemble / orchestraAndrew Randazzo
bassMarcus Tenney
saxophone, tenorb.1985
Corey Fonville
drumsThe third tune had a neo-soul groove. Guitarist Morgan Burrs finally made his presence felt in a big way, with a long chordal guitar solo that brought
Jimi Hendrix
guitar, electric1942 - 1970
Butcher Brown is a real band, something that has become rare in the jazz world. And they have done it playing mainly instrumental music, an eclectic blend of jazz, funk, soul, rock and hip-hop.
Wednesday, July 3
Stéphane Wrembel: The Django Experiment
The "Django Reinhardt Cycle" continued with French guitarist
Stephane Wrembel
guitarb.1974
He began the set with three solo performances. They included "Improvisation No.2" (he noted the Debussy influence), which was a technical marvel. Played finger- style, it included rasgueado strumming, scordatura re-tuning, and artificial harmonics. He described Django's "Echoes of Spain" as being more like a distant memory, but the Spanish atmosphere was palpable.
Joined by his band (2nd guitarist
Thor Robert Jensen
guitar
Ari Folman-Cohen
bass"Dinette" is a swing tune, which finally gave space for a guitar solo from Jensen (he made the most of the spotlight, including a smooth passage in octaves) as well as bassist Folman-Cohen. He led the group through a dynamic build up back to the theme. "Nuages" (perhaps Django's most famous piece) again featured a lyrical solo from the 2nd guitarist; Wrembel began his solo with beautifully articulated artificial harmonics. "Le flots du Danube" ("Waves of the Danube," a famous Romanian waltz) began with Wrembel employing a bass doubler—his only obvious use of electronics—before going into a fast swing feel.
Wrembel is an excellent guitarist, who comes out of the gypsy jazz tradition but is not limited to it. Nonetheless this show was by far the most effective one in the series at conjuring a sense of Django Reinhardt's music (there was a third show on Thursday night).
Richard Reed Parry: Quiet River of Dust
Canadian guitarist/singer/songwriter Richard Reed Parry is a member of the acclaimed band Arcade Fire. Quiet River of Dust is a two-album project, a song cycle frequently dealing with environmental themes. Billed as "an immersive concert," the performances took place each night of the festival in a domed space (in the Society for Arts and Technology building across the street from the historic Monument-National Theatre) which created a 360-degree visual environment around and above the audience. The visuals were so arresting that one's focus soon shifted from the musicians in the front (a quintet of drums, guitar, Parry on vocals and guitar, electric bass and keyboards) of the room to the projection overhead, which was in constant motion.During the opening song "Long Way Back" there were mountains on the side walls and the ceiling had the perspective of looking up through a pond surface. Then the ceiling shifted to a moving field of coral, and after a brief electronic interlude we were underwater, surrounded by algae. Parry welcomed the audience, bringing us all back to reality for a moment.
The water imagery continued in the song lyrics: "I was alone, I was finally home...by the sea." At this point the side walls changed to coral, and then the entire visual field changed to a forest in the rain (lyrics "the rain, the rain, the rain"), and then back to a pond in the rain (including a large turtle passing overhead). The next transition was to a magical forest with floating globes with swimming human figures inside—the first fantasy element in the visuals.
The next major shift was to a snail moving slowly over a hillside. Fog rolled in, becoming clouds (lyrics: "made of floating water, moving slowly"). A close shot of a melting icicle included the sound of loud water drops, made massive by the scale. Then we were back under the pond surface for the song "It's All Around You" (lyric: "it's all around you, it finally found you"). There was a dramatic shift (both musically and visually) to a shoreline view, before returning to underwater, with waves breaking over the shoreline. We finally returned to the gentle pond. The band stood up, singing harmony a capella—signaling a focus away from the visuals for the finale. As various natural phenomena are invoked (wind, waves, moss) the phrase "tell them I'm coming" was repeated like a mantra.
And so the 75 minute spell was broken. It was a magical experience, quite unlike anything else at the festival.
Christine Jensen New York Quartet with Allison Miller, Helen Sung, and Noriko Ueda
Montréal-based saxophonist
Christine Jensen
saxophone
Noriko Ueda
bass
Allison Miller
drums
Helen Sung
pianoMiller is an absolute whirlwind on the drums: recordings do not do justice to the experience of seeing her play. Her energy and joy in playing are clearly visible, all of the time. She's no slouch as a composer, either. Sung's "H-Town" (titled for her hometown of Houston) included a brief unaccompanied piano introduction. The striking composition went from a rhythmically jerky theme into fast swing, which the whole band excels at. "Garden Hour" opened with a tenor saxophone/double bass duet. Jensen switched to soprano saxophone for Sung's "In The Shadowland," which also featured a rhapsodic unaccompanied piano solo. It comes from her album Sung With Words (Stricker Street Records, 2018).
The set closed with "Congratulations and Condolences" from Aliison Miller's Boom Tic Boom: Glitter Wolf (The Royal Potato Family, 2019). Recalled for an encore, Jensen confessed that the band had run out of prepared original material. So they played the standard "How Deep Is The Ocean." It was presumably an ad hoc arrangement, but it sounded like this band, and no other. It also featured Miller's only traditional unaccompanied drum solo. An excellent ending to an outstanding set. One can only hope that this group will continue: there was real magic on this night.
Thursday, July 4
Rachel Therrien Quintet
Canadian trumpeter/flugelhornist
Rachel Therrien
trumpetb.1987
Benjamin Deschamps
saxophone, altob.1988
Alain Bourgeois
drumsThey opened with "Why Don't You Try," which broke down to a trumpet/drums duet after the piano solo. It was apparent right from the start that they came to play. The next tune was Cuban, and it also broke down to a duet, this time a blazing drum solo accompanied by a piano ostinato pattern. The third selection was another original, with an angular head that transitioned into a fast swing feel. Page played a striking 6-string bass solo employing electronic effects; there was a free-sounding trumpet/alto saxophone duet; and the piece ended with a series of tempo increases, like playing a record at the wrong speed.
Therrien asked the audience if they like classical guitar...then apologized for not having one. But she likes to challenge herself with Spanish composer Francisco Tárrega's famous classical guitar composition Capricho árabe. The arrangement began with a long duet with the bass guitar playing accompaniment (primarily in the upper range, sounding much like a guitar). When the band entered Trudel's piano took the lead, before turning it back to the trumpet. They then went into an exciting salsa montuno. After a trumpet solo, the leader traded twos with the drums. "Out Of A Dream" was a fast bebop tune, no relationship to the standard "You Stepped Out Of A Dream."
This is an exciting band, and their long playing experience shows in their easy give and take. Not to mention the joy in playing on their faces.
Django Festival All Stars Featuring Samson Schmitt, Pierre Blanchard, Ludovic Beier
The Django Festival All Stars concluded the "Cycle Django Reinhardt" with an instrumentation that echoed the famous Quintet of the Hot Club of France: two guitars (
Samson Schmitt
guitarAntonio Licusati
bass, acousticThey were playful, and clearly did not take themselves too seriously: an example would be Schmitt's quote from the Pink Panther theme early on. The originals included "Reel for Charlie (Chaplin)," "Late Train," and their tribute to
Toots Thielemans
harmonica1922 - 2016
On "Chez Django," they encouraged the willing crowd to shout back the title during the chorus. Cuillerier sang that one, and proved a very capable vocalist, including a good scat solo. Schmitt made a brief Django allusion during his solo, which was as close as they came to playing any of Reinhardt's music.
Alan Parsons
Veteran English audio engineer, songwriter, musician, and record producer
Alan Parsons
multi-instrumentalistOver the course of the long concert songs included "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You," "Damned If I Do," "Time," "Don't Answer Me," and "Sirius." Parsons played keyboards and acoustic guitar, and did some singing. But the weight was largely carried by his accomplished band. In addition to the dedicated vocalists both guitarists sang, which helped to cover the variety of voices that had been employed on the original recordings. Parsons sang "Don't Answer Me," "As Lights Fall" (from The Secret), and the finale of the set, the band's biggest hit "Eye In The Sky."
Other highlights included a bass guitar solo with envelope follower on "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You," dual guitar parts on several tunes, and an unaccompanied keyboard feature (which displayed technical skills beyond that required to cover parts, and included clever quotes from several Parsons songs). Parsons encouraged the audience to use their cell phone flashlight as a special effect during "Limelight."
Called back for an encore, the band played two songs, concluding with "Games People Play." Not their biggest hit, but perhaps the most emotionally resonant. Certainly the capacity audience was satisfied.
Larry Grenadier
American double bassist
Larry Grenadier
bass, acousticb.1966
Oscar Pettiford
bass1922 - 1960
As on the album, saxophonist
John Coltrane
saxophone1926 - 1967
Paul Motian
drums1931 - 2011
Bud Powell
piano1924 - 1966
Thelonious Monk
piano1917 - 1982
Brought back for an encore, Grenadier chose the first song he wrote (not that long ago, he assured the audience). "State of the Union" appeared on the trio Fly's debut Fly (Savoy Jazz, 2004). The whole performance was a remarkable demonstration of the range of the double bass as a solo instrument, as well as Grenadier's voice on it.
Friday, July 5
Bobo Stenson
Swedish pianist
Bobo Stenson
pianob.1944
There were many lyrical passages, a clear Stenson signature. Motion came from occasional rippling arpeggios or bass ostinato patterns: at one point he broke out into a rhapsodic chord sequence, a contrasting gesture. The last part of the performance went into bluesy territory, then a bit of stride piano, before a gentle ending.
Called back for an encore, Stenson began playing a sprightly piece that sounded like a composed song rather than an improvisation. After about five minutes of exposition he introduced a new, slower chord sequence and melody. The ending was a gentle surprise, concluding on a single bass note.
Peter Frampton: The Farewell Tour
English guitarist/singer/songwriter
Peter Frampton
guitar"Something's Happening" from the famous Frampton Comes Alive! album (A&M, 1976) opened the set, complete with clever hall light illumination to accompany the line "turn up the lights, I feel like dancing." After introducing the green drum kit that had been used on Frampton Comes Alive! —which Frampton purchased on ebay—the band played some more hits, including "Show Me the Way." He said that the band has been varying their set list on the tour, introducing "Fig Tree Bay," the first track on his first solo album Winds of Change (A&M, 1972).
Frampton said he had rediscovered his love of the blues during a long tour with American guitarist
Steve Miller
guitar and vocalsThe first encore began with "Baby, I Love Your Way," which Frampton said had been written on the same day as "Show Me The Way," and under deadline at that! He has been hoping for another day like that ever since. "Do You Feel Like We Do" included more obligatory audience participation, as well as a guitar duel with keyboardist " data-original-title="" title="">Robert Arthurs (and some jokes sung through the guitar voice box effect). Later encores revisited the Humble Pie classic "I Don't Need No Doctor" and George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."
A wonderful performance, with stunning playing from Frampton and his whole band. The Farewell aspect permeated the event, but it was a joyful celebration of Frampton's career without a trace of sadness or self-pity.
Nik B?rtsch's Ronin
Swiss band
Nik Bärtsch
pianob.1971
After the first piece B?rtsch introduced the band:
Sha
clarinetb.1983
Kaspar Rast
drumsCalled back for an encore, they began a piece with electric bass, joined by the piano. After a freely played bass part, Sha took over for a saxophone solo: all proof that there was room for improvisation in this music, despite its minimalist, pattern repetition elements.
Saturday, July 6
Wray Downes
Before his performance veteran Canadian pianist " data-original-title="" title="">Wray Downes (who was a protege of pianist
Oscar Peterson
piano1925 - 2007
He opened with two pieces by Peterson that were composed in honor of his native country: "Wheatland" from Canadiana Suite(Limelight Records, 1964) and "Open Spaces" from Trail of Dreams: A Canadian Suite (Telarc, 2000). The second had its theme introduced by double bassist
Adrian Vedady
bass
Jim Doxas
drumsHis original blues "Jaden" was dedicated to his grandson (who had been onstage earlier to help accept the award), and included an especially vibrant drum solo. He played
Milt Jackson
vibraphone1923 - 1999
Blossom Dearie
piano and vocals1926 - 2009
Oscar Pettiford
bass1922 - 1960
Juan Carmona
French flamenco guitaristJuan Carmona
guitarSedano's keyboard contributions were mostly synthesized string pads, which took the group sound dangerously close to New Age territory. But it is a trade-off, since it likely makes the music more approachable to listeners who are not flamenco enthusiasts. His flute playing was an asset, as he proved adept at soloing as well as doubling Carmona's fleet, complex melodies. Bachiller also covered all of the bases: bass lines, solos, and doubling lead lines. On one tune Sedano and Bachiler accompanied guitar and percussion with palmas, traditional rhythmic flamenco hand clapping
For the encore Carmona first introduced the band members. Then he took down the temperature with a simpler tune with a folk-song like melody. After introducing a faster melody the concert ended with a round of solos from all of the musicians.
Kris Davis
Canadian pianist
Kris Davis
pianob.1980
"Grass and Trees on the Other Side of the Tracks" is an original composition written in honor of the late avant-garde pianist
Cecil Taylor
piano1929 - 2018
Thelonious Monk
piano1917 - 1982
Photo Credit: Dave Kaufman
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