Volume 30 Issue 4 | December 2024 & January 2025

Ilana’s world music

Ilana’s world music band Ventanas(“windows” in Spanish), drew on her multipleroots and those of her Toronto bandmates.Their new studio album Azadi vividly extendsthe group’s musical purview, effectivelymixing highly contrasting vocal and instrumentalnumbers over 12 tracks. As well asshowcasing traditional Flamenco, Sephardic,Balkan and Brazilian songs in inventivearrangements, compositions by Ventanasmembers contribute contemporary themes.Ilana renders the lyrics in an impressive rangeof languages: Spanish, Ladino, French, Urdu,Greek, Portuguese and Bulgarian.Meaning “freedom” in Urdu and Farsi,the album’s title track was inspired bythe women’s freedom movement in Iranopening with the uplifting lines, “Sun breaksthrough the darkened and cloudy skies /Shining bright on open and peaceful eyes /Moving free with liberty…” As for the songVentanas Altas, within the charm of itsvocal melody lies a secret earworm power.I was compelled to listen to it several times.This old wedding-courtship song, popularamong Sephardic Jews of Salonika Greece,was collected by Cohen in Montréal. Ilana’sunaffected light soprano sounds just right.Ilana shares that she’s “always struggledwith my multiple identities, both cultural andgenetic. As the world also struggles with theseissues on multiple fronts, this album is a deepreflection of these questions, and a musicalresponse in the form of peace, collaborationand acceptance.” I’m feeling it too.Andrew TimarSomething in the AirDownunder Jazzand Improvised MusicOffers both Unusualand Expected SoundsKEN WAXMANOften thought of as our rough-hewn, republican cousins fromdown under, Canadians and Australians share a similar historyas the best-known outposts of the former British Empire nowon our own within the Commonwealth. Situated on their owncontinent, distant from many other countries, Aussies have arguablyhad an easier time establishing their own cultural identity not beingstuck beside the American behemoth as we are. Australia’s creativescene reveals variations of sounds you’d hear elsewhere as well asthose unique to the continent-country, as the following discs prove.Probably the most genuinely Australian ofthis group is With Weather Volume 2:Gadigal Country (Split Rec 32 CD splitrec.bandcamp.com/album/with-weathervolume-2-gadigal-country),part of arecorded musical trilogy by Jim Denley andthe Eternity Orchestrating Sonoverse.Recorded in various locations in rural partsof Australia, it features the flute, wooden flute and voice of Denleywith the so-called Eternity Orchestrating Sonoverse actually beingsonic reproduction using two hard disc recordings of his improvisationsin the context of nature’s avian, mammalian, arboreal,amphibian, industrial and elemental sounds. Captured in real time inGadigal Country, a harbour area just east of the city of Sydney, thetwo-CD set makes natural sounds the backdrop, partner and contrapuntalmotif alongside Denley’s restrained and consistent playing.What that means in essence is that widening hollow puffs, transverseflutters, triple tonguing and circular breathed interludes share auralspace with ever-changing rustic and natural occurrences. In this wayinstrumental and vocal textures are framed by or play alongside thecacophony caused by impending storms, watery gurgles from nearbyponds, lapping waves, children nattering, seagull squawks, cockatooand other aviary cries, excited dog barks, cricket songs, pelting anddripping rain droplets, distant boat whistles and other Arcadian interruptions.One notable sequence is when a couple of crows nearbydecide to add their penetrating caws to Denley’s flute motif leading toa pseudo bird-and-human jam session. Singular itself, With Weatherspecifically defines the true sound of non-urban Australia.While there’s also plenty of conventionaljazz in Oz – as there is in Canada – moremeaningful are those musicians in bothcountries who stretch the form. A fineexample of this is Tapestry (Earshift MusicEAR 092 vazesh.bandcamp.com/album/tapestry) by the Vazesh trio which uniteslocals tenor and soprano saxophonist/bassclarinetist Jeremy Rose – who often switchesamong the horns on single tracks – and bassist Lloyd Swanton, who isalso one-third of The Necks, and Iranian-born, Sydney-based HamedSadeghi, an adept player of the Persian tar, a long-necked lute withthree double courses of strings and 28 adjustable gut frets. On 14tracks, in length from slightly over two to more than seven minutes,the tunes logically flow one into another almost without pause.Crucially, there are no gaps among the textures of the so-called exoticinstrument with the conventional ones during these notable improvisations.Rose’s chalumeau register clarinet slurs, feathery sopranosaxophone soars and Swanton’s paced pizzicato strops or sul tastoelaborations, harmonize, contrast or meld with the tar’s deep strumsor advanced finger picking. While a track such as Azure includes faintney-like twitters from Rose, despite being coupled with Sadeghi’swidening strokes, thick double bass stops keep it from becomingPersian music. Additionally while multiple tracks such as Zircon andCalabash for instance feature the tar’s pinched picking and ringingclicks that could come from a banjo, any intimations of Bluegrass orDixieland are swiftly dispensed by undulating tenor sax tongue stopsas Swaton’s arco buzzes create call-and-response interludes joiningslurred fingering from the tar. Overall the program takes into accountmultiple string interaction and a reed output that is alternatinglygritty and glossy. This is storytelling that is as deliberate as it isdashing, and confirms the trio’s strategy when the low pitches of theconcluding Saffron harken back to similar basement tones that beganthe suite.The country’s geographical location doesn’tpreclude Australian improvisers fromcollaborating with sympathetic internationalplayers, on home turf, overseas or telematically.For example since Vancouver drummerDylan van der Schyff is now a professor atthe Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, his68 | February & March 2025 thewholenote.com

wife cellist Peggy Lee is a frequent visitor. Not only have the twoformed a quartet with local improvisers, but also via the internet areable to collaborate with associates in B.C. and elsewhere. That’sprecisely what Forever Stories of Moving Parties (Earshift Music EAR098 peggyleecoleschmidt.bandcamp.com/album/forever-stories-ofmoving-parties)preserves. An outgrowth of the band Lee andVancouver guitarist Cole Schmidt lead at home, it expands the 14tracks with affiliated sounds from players in Vancouver, Montreal,Gothenburg, Amsterdam and Melbourne. While there are someunderstated folksy sequences from the two principals plus locals suchas drummer Mili Hong and trumpeter JP Carter, other tracks are morestriking. An example is for Ron Miles, where widening tones fromCarter and Vancouver violinist Meredith Bates plus Lee and Schmidtare supplemented by van der Schyff’s steady drumming. Van derSchyff also provides the backing on it will come back to intersect witha formal cello sweep and country-styled guitar licks, yet the vocalizingis from Melbourne’s Sunny Kim. More geographically unique ismercy. Synth bass pacing is from Vancouver’s James Meger, cracklingelectronics from Amsterdam’s Frank Rosaly, with the elevated trumpetand cello harmonies complementing intersecting wordless vocalssung by Montreal’s Erika Angell and Kim. Variations of this multicontinentmix and match are prominent throughout the disc. Yet theelectronic wizardry never interferes with the cohesion or flow of thedisc. Notwithstanding interjections in some tunes from unexpectedsources like Swede Lisen Rylander Löve’s mixture of electronicallyfractured Nordic chanting and saxophone flutters or Wayne Horvitz’skeyboard pressure, balance in the form of Carter’s linear portamentotrumpet, Schmidt’s finger-style comping and glissandi sweeps andstops from Lee, equilibrium is maintained. Instances of rocking outuniting Schmidt’s elevated riffs and Horvitz’s pressurized organpumps from Vancouver and splash cymbals and drum backbeat fromMelbourne via van der Schyff are also taken in stride.Homebody Aussies are also members ofinternational ensembles as evidenced bySydney-based keyboardist Alister Spence.While he leads his own bands and isinvolved in other collaborations, since 2017he’s been part of the Kira Kira quartet,which on Kira Kira Live (Alister SpenceASM 015 alisterspence.bandcamp.com/album/kira-kira-live) includes Japaneseplayers trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, pianist Satoko Fujii and drummerTatsuya Yoshida. Unlike many Tamura/Fujii combos, a good part ofthis CD’s five tracks focuses on the oscillations created by Spence’sfender Rhodes piano, effect pedals, preparations and percussion.These slippery and shifting dynamics mated with Yoshida’s drumstrategies, ranging from cymbal shivers to brawny backbeats, meansthat Fujii’s acoustic patterns are responsible for the lyrical, formalistand ultimately linear evolution of the sequences. Forthright, thetrumpeter’s interpolations include jagged bites, sudden rips, half-valvestrains and plunger expositions. Supple or striated interconnectionsare frequently set up between say drum paradiddles and trumpet riffsor jiggling slaps from the electric keyboard challenged by tripletskyrockets from Tamura. With interludes such as those on Bolognaisewhere motifs encompass both jittery nonsense syllables vocalized byall, the drummer’s understated swing beat and an antique harpsichord-likeinterlude from Fujii’s prepared piano jabs, discord is sometimessuggested, but is finally rightened to horizontal progression.More subtle than showy, these textural shifts can involve temporedefinition with electro-acoustic wriggles, gutbucket brass emphasisand cascading acoustic piano runs. Yet more spectacularly, on theextended Kite, and hovering elsewhere, rappelling or plummetinggroup sequences usually led by robust Rhodes keyboard dabs settleinto a persistent groove cemented by drum pops and trumpet peeps.Because of the distances involved, someAussie musical innovators expatriate permanentlywhen they find a sympathetic situation.That’s the case with Melbournepercussionist Steve Heather who has beenbased in Berlin since the turn of the century.Part of multiple bands, a notable one is**Y**, whose group Four Star Y (GrammarPhone Records GPHLP 102 danpetersundland.bandcamp.com/album/four-star-y)also includes Norwegianelectric bassist Dan Peter Sundland and American synthesizer playerLiz Kosack. Sophisticated drone-improv, the six selections includean underlying low-pitch throb, with Kosack using her instrument toalso add seeping pipe-organ-like undulations, elevated squeaks andstops, tremolo jabs and celestial-styled signal processing. Alternatingbetween surging pacing, occasional stops and jagged runs, Sundlandmaintains the rhythmic core, often in tandem with Heather’s backbeat.When not in that mode, the drummer’s Mylar and metal fluctuationskeep the buzzing expositions from becoming too oppressivelyrepetitive, with rim shot clicks, snare pitter patter, hi-hat slaps andextra beats from wood blocks. These roles are most obvious on theoddly placed at midpoint Closing Credits. Still, the concluding DreamPicnic wraps up the session in distinctive form by concentratingsynthesizer keyboard stabs, metallic percussion jutting and electrifiedbass string glides into a triple defined timbral termination.Often confused as residents of other English speaking countries,as Canadians are, creative Australian musicians continue to produceexceptional music at home and abroad.What we're listening to this month:62 AdjacenceDaniel Lippel62 One: New Music forUnaccompanied ViolinPatrick Yim53 encirclingDaphne Gerling, viola TomokoKashiwagi, piano54 Learn To Wait:Britten, Asheim & LigetiOslo String Quartet56 The Mata Hari SongbookPatricia O’Callaghan & JohnBurge56 Poetry ProjectD.D.Jackson59 Three of Twelve and AnotherGraham Flett60 Imagine Many GuitarsTim Brady60 Rebecca Bruton + JasonDoell: a root or mirror, blossom,madder, cracks; togetherQuatuor Bozzini, junctQín keyboardcollective61 Awake and DreamingKatherine Dowling63 HushRoberta Michel64 TryptiqueFern Lindzon, Colleen Allen,George Koller65 CannonDan Fortin65 You Are The Right LengthExit Pointsthewholenote.com February & March 2025 | 69