Volume 29 Issue 5 | April & May 2024

MOSTLY CLUBS, MAINLY

MOSTLY CLUBS, MAINLY JAZZ JOHN LAUENER Shakespeare: If Music Be (2010.) Peggy Baker (left) along with Stephen Dann, Barbara Hannigan and Joel Quarrington was one of Burashko's earliest Art of Time collaborators. while I’m happy if people walk away [from an Art of Time Ensemble performance] having learned something, I first and foremost want to turn people onto this great music.” As much as Burashko’s now well-honed skills as a raconteur, presenter of ideas, and a setter of appropriate performance contexts now appear effortless, these were, of course, a set of skills that he had to develop along the trajectory of the ensemble’s life. “It has been an incredible ride,” he acknowledges. “When Art of Time started, I was strictly a concert pianist. But since then, who knows how many hours I’ve spent conducting, staging, directing and producing. And now, the whole curation thing has really become a part of me with things unfolding in a way that I could not have predicted.” Hierarchical inevitability: With a nod to the inevitability of hierarchical career trajectories that promote competent people into opportunities requiring an entirely different set of skills from those they had mastered in their previous position, the success of Art of Time has meant a necessary move away from what initially attracted Burashko to a career in music in the first place. “It’s funny,” he says, expanding upon this point. “The more successful the organization became, the more I’ve had to compete with the machine that surrounds it and now overshadows the art. I am just tired of everything that goes into running an organization that has nothing to do with the art itself. The fundraising and the organizing. It all requires so much energy. And, well, life is short, and I just want to play, for lack of a better word.” Whether it was the pivotal pause-to-reflect that the COVIDlockdowns of the early 2020s unexpectedly bestowed, or the opportunity that a 25th anniversary affords to tie a nice bow on things, this has been announced as the Art of Time’s coda season. Burashko is quick to point out that he is not “hanging up the brand,” citing such upcoming projects as an animated film capture of the aforementioned Minnie the Moocher performance titled Jackboots to Jazz, a Sgt. Pepper’s Ontario summer tour, a Shakespeare show at Stratford, and, finally, a creative reimagining of Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale in October (complete with a newly commissioned libretto). And yet, despite all of this, there is something conclusionary about the feel of this season. “We have over 80 projects in our back pocket, at least a dozen of which I would love to see given some kind of life, so I’m hoping there will be more touring. But, in terms of what’s next, I honestly don’t have a clue. And, quite frankly, I’m finding that very exciting.” The Art of Time’s presentation of Both Sides Now will run from May 9 to 11 at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. Andrew Scott is a Toronto-based jazz guitarist (occasional pianist/ singer) and professor at Humber College, who contributes regularly to The WholeNote Discoveries record reviews. Looking forward to the JUNOs (after the fact) COLIN STORY Ah, awards season. That very special time of year when artists across a variety of fields experience the thrill of being nominated, grapple with existential issues of the validity of awards and rankings within the arts, eat a moderately expensive banquet salad, and rub shoulders with fellow Canadian musicindustry colleagues. (When I attended the JUNOs, in 2016, Canadian hip-hop legend Kardinal Offishall came up behind me, patted me on the shoulder and said “keep doing what you’re doing, man.” When I turned around, he said “oh, sorry, thought you were, uhh…” and promptly left. It remains a proud moment.) This year, I had a chance to interview four nominated musicians (Jocelyn Gould, Noam Lemish, Gentiane MG, and Laila Biali) in anticipation of the big event: about their projects, their thoughts on the big day, on other musicians, and on what comes after the JUNOs. By the time you read this, all that anticipation will be after the fact. The event will already have taken place – on Sunday March 24 2024, at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, hosted by national icon Nelly Furtado. As the winners themselves will doubtless remind us, looking out at their fellow nominees, there are no losers at an event which more than anything is a celebration of the Canadian music industry at a particularly precarious moment in the history of recorded music. So in that celebratory vein, we offer you the thoughts of four worthy contenders, and alongside their reflections, a list of the other nominees in all the categories we usually cover in the “Mainly Jazz” beat of this magazine. The icing on the cake: almost all the nominated albums were reviewed in this magazine’sDISCoveries section over the past 12 months. So you can see what we said about them before we knew they were going to be nominated. About their nominated albums The artist: Noam Lemish: Category: Jazz Album of the Year (Solo) Reviewed by us: Vol 28 No.3 “My album Twelve features my original compositions for a chambersized jazz orchestra (12tet) featuring myself on piano alongside an allstar cast from amongst Toronto’s finest jazz musicians. The six pieces in the record showcase long-form, 28 | April & May 2024 thewholenote.com

Clockwise from top left: Noam Lemish, Gentiane MG, Jocelyn Gould, Laila Biali through-composed music that embraces genre-bending as an essential feature. My own multi-cultural upbringing and life shapes the sounds of this record thus blending my rootedness in jazz and western art music alongside musical influences from my Israeli childhood and Eastern-European Jewish heritage.” The artist: Laila Biali: Category: Vocal Jazz Album of the Year Reviewed by us: Vol 29 No.1 “Your Requests was my response to 150 song requests submitted by friends, fans and followers over social media (Facebook, Instagram and “X”). I’ve always loved engaging community and crowd-sourcing material – and for Your Requests I decided to make the Great American Songbook the focus. It’s my first full album release of jazz standards and it features Kurt Elling, Emilie-Claire Barlow, Caity Gyorgy, Anat Cohen, Grégoire Maret, Kelly Jefferson, George Koller, Larnell Lewis, Ben Wittman and Manino Costa.” Napoleon. The album contains a combination of originals and lesser played standards that have significant meaning to me. On getting ready for the big event Gould: I won Jazz Album Of The Year: Solo in 2021, a year in which the JUNOs were hosted online due to Covid. Although I have already won a JUNO, I have never had the opportunity to attend. The biggest excitement for me is simply to get to be there in person and be surrounded by the immense amount of talent that will be present. I also love Halifax, and am thrilled to have an opportunity to visit such a beautiful city. The artist: Gentiane MG Category: Jazz Album of the Year (Solo) Reviewed by us: Volume 28 No.2 “Walls Made of Glass is my third trio album with this ensemble. Composing this music, my intent was to immortalize moments that felt particularly meaningful, just like one could do with a picture, but in this case, through music. I took a long time to create this album at every step of the way. Writing, workshopping, creating and thinking about the artwork, and every aspect of the recording process. A bit more than a year after the release, despite the fact that I am excited to start writing again and to explore new territories, there is nothing I would want to change about this album, and for me, this is a great artistic accomplishment.” The artist: Jocelyn Gould Category: Jazz Album of the Year (Solo) Reviewed by us: Vol.29 No.4 Sonic Bouquet is my third album as a leader. The personnel spans three generations of jazz musicians and contains mentors and peers of mine. The band is half Canadian and half American, and consists of an unusual front line of two guitars and clarinet. I co-produced this album with my mentor and friend, guitarist Randy thewholenote.com April & May 2024 | 29