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Volume 30 Issue 3 | December 2024 & January 2025

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  • Thewholenotecom
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Our 30th annual "turning of the year" December/January issue, Janus-like looking back and ahead at a world on edge: think of every listing in this magazine as a potential crumb of consolation – the opportunity to congregate for any and all reasons from the sacred to the just plain silly. Find some peace however you can. And thanks for reading. Viva la musica.

that allow the space for

that allow the space for musicians – pianistStu Harrison, bassist Nick Arsenault,drummer Andrew Scott (and saxophonistAlison Young on Mexico) – to excavate richdetails of articulation and tone colour. Theproducing hand of the celebrated ElizabethShepherd is felt everywhere.Raul da GamaA Change of PaceGreg Amirault TrioIndependent (gregamirault.bandcamp.com)! Greg Amiraultis a Montrealbased jazz guitaristand A Change ofPace is his fourthalbum as leader; itcontains six originalcompositionsand three standards.One of this album’s strengths is howwell Amirault plays with the other membersof the trio (Adrian Vedady, bass and AndreWhite, drums) partly because they have beenhosting a weekly jam session in Montreal forover a year.I am immediately impressed by the clarityof Amirault’s tone whether he is swinging,voicing gorgeous chord solos or playing lyricmelodies. All the jazz pieces are performedwith assurance and style by everyone in thetrio. Two originals stand out: Ballade pourLa Butte is a beautifully rendered folk-influencedhomage to the Acadian village whereAmirault grew up and Ancestral Roots whichis similarly inspired by his Acadian andAboriginal roots. Both works offer a spacefor Vedady to present his sensitive solo bassplaying. The top-notch performances, themixture of standards and original jazz tunes,plus the folk influences, make A Change ofPace a unique and engaging album.Ted ParkinsonPortrait LandscapeJeanette Lambert; Various ArtistsIndependent (jeannettelambert.bandcamp.com/album/portrait-landscape-2)! The liner notessay “my biggest fansare visual artists,”and that makesperfect sense.Lambert is a painterwith words, everyquiver of her voice,and these incrediblesuites of endlessly rewarding concepts anddazzling stylistic convergences, illustrate this.Everything from the phrasing to the melodiesfeel like they’re conversational, existingalmost independently from their surroundingsand yet also such an integral piece of thelandscape.Frankly, one might think their computer isglitching, they accidentally opened anothertab, or they’re hallucinating by the time theprogrammed drums (and the spoken wordof Lambert’s young son beamer!) come inon Away from the Wildfire, but Lambertis expertly striking that delicate balancebetween discordance and harmony, in a waywhere the listener knows deep down thatthe image fits together, even if they have notadjusted their gaze quite yet. This dream-like,hyper specific balance feels like somethingentirely unique to Lambert’s music, and yet itpermeates this entire album. There are lyricalgems that will give you pause, especiallyout of context, (“air-conditioner loominglike a benevolent robot” is a wildly hilariousbar that is also incredibly evocative). If youfollow the vignettes Lambert sketches, everybreath, emphasized syllable and illustrationfeels incredibly meaningful. Each roomfeels inviting and lively, the shifting perspectivescolouring in all the lines around us. Theinstrumentation has a simultaneous lushnessand intimacy to it, allowing for gaps unfilledwhile letting every emotion hit like a truck.Yoshi Maclear WallLaila Biali – WintersongsLaila Biali; Jane Bunnett; Venuti StringQuartet; chamber orchestraIndependent (lailabiali.bigcartel.com/product/wintersongs)! Just in timefor you-knowwhat,Laila Bialihas releasedWintersongs, agorgeous, contemplativeode toCanada’s downtroddenseason. Bornout of a retreat at the Banff Centre for Arts andCreativity that the talented singer, piano playerand songwriter went on in November 2021, thealbum is very much a product of its environmentwith most of the songs being studies ofsnow and wind and pine trees.Resplendent with strings courtesy of theVenuti String Quartet and a 20-piece chamberorchestra led by Rob Mathes (Sting, BruceSpringsteen) and with Biali’s warm, purevocals floating over top, the reverie is real.There are a few heart-starting moments tosnap us out of our trance, though, as Keep onMoving, with a guest choir, amps things upmidway through the album, before returningus to our winter wonderland. A standout trackfor me is Winter Waltz, a gently lilting instrumentalwith an Argentinean vibe, thanks toDrew Jureka’s bandoneon work. We also geta taste of Christmas as the album closes outwith a wonderful chamber-jazz instrumentaltake on Jesus, He is Born a.k.a The Huron Carolfeaturing the great Kevin Turcotte on trumpet.With this lovely album for company, evendiehard winter-haters might learn to embracethe season.Cathy RichesConcert Notes: Laila Biali will performWintersongs & Holiday Classics with specialguest Jane Bunnett on December 14 at theAurora Town Square Performance Hall,December 15 at The Concert Hall at VictoriaHall in Cobourg and December 19 at AeolianHall in London.Colin Fisher – Suns of the HeartColin FisherWe Are Busy Bodies (colinalexanderfisher.bandcamp.com/album/suns-of-the-heart)! Enchanting.Mesmerizing.Hypnagogic.Enveloping. Warm.Stunning. Ofcourse, stunning iswhat happens whenthe finished productwe are left with isitself a love letter to the artistic process thatbirthed it. The facts (from Bandcamp): multiinstrumentalistColin Fisher and engineerDavid Psutka went into the studio, Fisherdid live improvising, looping, layering andsampling, they bounced wonderful ideas offeach other and this is the result. That is all Ineed, because despite many of these soundsbeing absolutely unlike anything else thathas entered my ears, I oddly do not desireto know where they came from or how theywere created. That they are here, that oneperson generated them live and that theywere ultimately the result of a partnershipin their current form is a gratifying enoughanswer in itself.This music has so much allure to it, somuch intricacy, so much to pull from, that thelimits of descriptive language immediatelymake themselves known. One could try – onecould talk about the gut-wrenching distortedguitar melodies on Deus Absconditussounding like the broken broadcast transmissionof stomach tissue being torn apart,pitched to the melody of an uncannilyfamiliar lullaby that has never been playedbefore. The most warped moments soundlike angels, the click-clacking of the keys onFisher’s horn sound like heartbeats, everythingfeels like it’s being held up by the mostfragile material, yet everything will foreverremain suspended in air.Yoshi Maclear WallBreaking StretchPatricia Brennan SeptetPyroclastic Records PR35(pyroclasticrecords.com/release/breaking-stretch)! Having demonstratedher skillsin solo and quartetsettings, Mexican-American vibraphonist/marimbaplayer Patricia58 | December 2024 & January 2025 thewholenote.com

Brennan ups her game further by adding ahorn section and electronics to her highlyrhythmic program. The voltage boost is usedsparingly, mostly to extend the brassiness ofAdam O’Farrill’s trumpet leads and add oscillatingwhizzes to the mallet instruments.However, layering trumpet and saxophonistsJon Irabagon and Mark Shim’s reed riffsbroaden the foundation of Brennan’s compositionsfurther, defined by the billowingcrunch of Kim Cass’ bass, Marcus Gilmore’sdrums and Mauricio Herrera’s percussion.Unlike a standard Latin-Jazz romp, refinedwriting and arrangement means that, forinstance, on the title tune an emotionaltenor saxophone break surges into multiphonicswhile doubled with metal bar popsthat eventually dominate the sound field ontop of unrelentless idiophone smacks. Oron Five Suns, O’Farrill’s mariachi-like blastsevoke similar cries from Irabagon’s alto sax,both balancing on wave form squeezes andunvarying hand percussion.Earendel, the final track, wraps up thesession with slackening horn bites and slurswhich put finer points on the initial sympatheticelectro-acoustic double bass and vibesharmonies. This too pinpoints the program’sdexterity, since, especially when she resonateswoody marimba echoes, Brennan, and to alesser extent Cass’ string solos, evoke relaxedsequences which frame in bolder relief morefrenetic motifs.Without making her nine compositions toodainty or too dissident, the expanded bandhelps stretch Brennan’s musical approach in asophisticated fashion.Ken WaxmanGolden CityMiguel ZenonMiel Music (miguelzenon.bandcamp.com/album/golden-city)! Grammywinningalto saxophonist,producerand composerMiguel Zenon hasjust released his16th recordingas leader, an epicsuite inspired bythe diverse culture and political evolution ofSan Francisco – stretching from pre-SpanishColonialism to the contemporary tech boomof today’s Silicon Valley, commissionedby SF Jazz and the Hewlett Foundation.The creation of this historically significantproject propelled Zenon into extensiveresearch that embraced explorations into theIndigenous Mexican population of California,the infamous 1882 Gold Rush, Asian migration,prison camps filled with ethnic JapaneseAmerican citizens and more. The recording iscomprised of ten interconnected movements,and Zenon’s talented line-up is superb.First up is Sacred Land, a stirring, brassladentribute to the Indigenous Ohlonepeople, whose proud descendants are stillliving among us today. Diego Urcola’s trombonesolo here scales the potent musical landscape,bringing to mind our ancient, sharedDNA. Acts of Exclusion is an unsettling piecethat disrupts the very question of humanlife and security. Informed by the ChineseExclusion Act of 1882 (which prohibited theimmigration of Chinese laborers into theUnited States) Zenon’s solo reflects the injusticeand immorality of such an act – musicallytwisting in the wind above raging politicalforces. The heartfelt ballad, 9066, revisits theshameful incarceration of nearly 120,000Japanese Americans, two thirds of whomwere U.S. citizens. Matt Mitchell’s stark pianolines in counterpoint with Chris Tordini’sfacile bass encapsulate aspects of this horrificexpression of xenophobia and paranoia.The closing track, Golden is a powerful,bitter-sweet post-lude inspired by the conceptof “The Golden Ratio,” and is not only asuperb display of brass dynamism, but alsoplaces focus on the incomparable rhythmsection of Mitchell, Tordini and Dan Weiss.Lesley Mitchell-ClarkeBrian Landrus plays Ellington & StrayhornBrian LandusBlue Land Records BL202301(brianlandrus.com/albums/brian-landrusplays-ellington-and-strayhorn-download)! There areprecious few musicianswho havethe taste, skill andcreative vision oflow woodwindspecialist BrianLandrus. With therelease of his latestcreation, not only has Landrus selected 14sumptuous compositions from the immortalDuke Ellington and his frequent collaboratorBilly Strayhorn, but he has also manifested hisown embodiment of Ellington’s lush orchestralsound – replete with stunning arrangementsfeaturing his performances on hiscornucopia of instruments, including baritoneand bass saxophones, bass and contraalto clarinets, piccolo, C melody as well asalto and bass flutes. Joining Landus here arenoted guitarist Dave Stryker, accomplishedbassist Jay Anderson and iconic drummerBilly Hart. This fine complement of collaborators(including two guest arrangers) accompanyLandrus on his journey through someof the most complex compositions in thehistory of jazz.The opener is the rarely performed Agra.Exotic percussion from Hart and mysticalreed lines plumb the lower depths and alsotransport the listener into the outer stratospherewith perfectly placed, flute driventonal clusters. An absolute standout isChelsea Bridge. Composed by Strayhorn, thishaunting melodic line floats through bopmodalities and extended woodwind linesin contiguous synergy with a fine, swingingbaritone solo. Also superb is A Flower is aLovesome Thing, on which Stryker renders amoving guitar solo rife with sensitivity andintriguing harmonic choices, all the whilesubstantiated by Anderson’s sonorous, satisfyingbass lines. Also exceptional are theBossa Nova infused Daydream, and thecloser, Sophisticated Lady, which findsLandrus alone, with his unique bass saxophoneinterpretation.Fine production, timelessness of thecompositions, innovative arrangements andmusicianship par excellence make this one ofthe most original and compelling jazz recordingsof the year.Lesley Mitchell-ClarkeInside Colours LiveJulie Sassoon; Lothar Ohlmeier; MiaOhlmeierJazz Werkstatt JW 244 (jazzwerkstatt.eu/jw-244-inside-colours-front-rgb)! Musical familiesare no novelty;neither are familybands. Yet this twoCD set allows usto hear the slightredefinition ofone clan’s bandas progeny addsburgeoning talent to an established group.British pianist Julie Sassoon, who composedall 13 tracks here, has lived for many years inBerlin with her German husband, tenor andsoprano saxophonist/bass clarinetist LotharOhlmeier. Working together or singly in othergroups, they’ve been praised for their sophisticatedmusic that stretches conventions whileavoiding sonic tumult. As a duo they aptlydemonstrate that skill with a set of languid,meditative and impressionistic performancesrecorded during a live concert in Regensburgthat make up the first CD.Recently the duo has expanded to a trio,as their 19-year-old daughter Mia Ohlmeierhas become an accomplished drummer.The second CD, recorded at the BerlinerPhilharmonie, was at that point the largestvenue at which the three played together.Perhaps it’s because of Mia’s rhythmic instrumentor perhaps her youthful exuberance,but the five trio tunes appear more energetic.Sonic provocation is mixed with pastoralthemes. Sassoon’s textures are sometimesmore vigorous as she hums along with herthoughtful keyboard improvisations, andOhlmeier more often than elsewhere sticks tolower tones as he projects thick tenor saxophoneslurs and sinewy bass clarinet smears.This is a notable introduction to thegroup. Future releases will hopefully fullydefine the partnership as will discs with Miasans famille.Ken Waxmanthewholenote.com December 2024 & January 2025 | 59

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