On this farewell tour, stopping at Sala tonight, longstanding members of the Willem Breuker Kollektief will provide an overview of the late leader’s compositions. The works span 45 years, and include pieces not previously performed by the band. This makes the show a must-see, even for fans who’ve caught their act at one of their many stops in our city.
And if you’ve never witnessed this Dutch institution, then be warned: this is your last chance.
Vancouver pianist Tyson Naylor has played in alt-rock and folk bands, studied improvisation with François Houle, spent three years in the Berlin scene and cites Thelonius Monk and Professor Longhair as early influences. These diverse interests all somehow coalesce on this highly enjoyable debut album.
The Thing’s recent collaboration with Don Cherry’s daughter Neneh went all indie-viral. Now that they are in the spotlight, it’s time to see if they can hold the attention of their newfound fans in the pop world. While The Cherry Thing did not compromise the trio’s howling aesthetic, revisiting rock anthems like the Stooges’ “Dirt” and Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream” while fronted by a sultry songstress is an easier sell than bludgeoning through 17-minute tracks of free jazz/noise. On a two-LP-only set from a Lithuanian record label. And with a guest known more for his classical training than his alt-rock cred.
Herbie Nichols spent most of his career playing under other leaders, and his death in 1963 from leukemia at age 44 left him a relatively obscure jazz pianist and composer. His idiosyncratic works have since undergone revival, championed by Steve Lacy, Misha Mengelberg and Roswell Rudd.
The mammoth Suoni per il Popolo festival occurs only in June, but three consecutive evenings of primo avant jazz, plus an afternoon workshop, merits a mini-Suoni tag. Or maybe mini-Guelph, since all performers also appear at the Guelph Jazz Festival this week. While jazz threads through each evening, the contexts vary, including elements of rock, world, noise and electro-acoustics. Like the main Suoni fest, acts hail from all over the globe, in this case South America and both coasts of North America.
John Cage was born on Sept. 5, 1912. He remains a polarizing yet immensely influential figure, 100 years after his birth. While Cage was not the first to create electronic music or bring chance operations into the compositional process, his methods were radical enough to generate catcalls.
This happened regularly at premieres of his works, including tape piece “Williams Mix” in 1952 and “Radio Music” for eight radios in 1956.
Cage did produce some music that met with more favourable reactions. “Sonatas and Interludes,” for a piano whose insides were prepared with rubber, metal, wood and paper to generate gamelan-like sonorities, and his 1950 “String Quartet in Four Parts” were innovative but generally appreciated. Nevertheless, his enduring legacy owes as much to his philosophy and writings about music as the music itself.
Vancouver’s Gordon Grdina has long been one of Canada’s finest jazz and free improvising guitarists, but his recent projects draw from an increasingly wide palette. His Box Cutter quartet’s two Spool CDs from 2006 and 2007 display an economical compositional wit, dominated by short songs with lightning bolt melodies. His 2010 release, Barrel Fire with guest Mats Gustafson, added a skronking thunder to the storm, while the East Van Strings improvised around textures reminiscent of modern classical composers such as Webern and Bartok. Both of these featured Grdina on oud in addition to guitar, and both betrayed a strong Arabic influence, foreshadowing this most recent release.
It is virtually impossible to think of a musical tradition not embraced by multi-reedist and composer Anthony Braxton. Emerging out of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in the mid-’60s, he has spoken enthusiastically of everything from the doo-wop of Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers to the various sax stylings of Desmond, Marsh and Coltrane, to the outer-limits of Stockhausen’s electro-acoustic compositions. Aside from his immediately recognizable brand of avant-jazz, he has recorded dozens of sides of jazz standards, a noise rock record with Wolf Eyes and the Trillium opera. His music is cumulative, in the sense that new works (“primary territories”) usually contain snatches of previous compositions (“secondary territories”) creating collages of colliding ideas
Having hosted over 500 shows since opening in June 2008, l’Envers is unquestionably one of Montreal’s most important artist-run venues. Founded by musicians Ellwood Epps, Philippe Battikha, Etienne Lebel and Sam Vipond as a combination living, practice and concert space, it has hosted international stars such as Sun Ra’s Marshall Allen, bassist Henry Grimes and European improvisers like Xavier Charles, Axel Dörner and Christian Wallumrød. It has also been a home to local acts like Michel F. Côté, John Heward and Nic Caloia’s Ratchet Orchestra, and has held multimedia events including CKUT’s Art’s Birthday and the Magic Soundbox.
Henry Threadgill was among the earliest members of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Having participated in polka, Dixieland and big band jam sessions, and having studied modern classical composers like Varèse and Hindemith, Threadgill was built for the AACM’s eclectic approach.
He’s led several bands over the ensuing decades, most notably Air with Fred Hopkins and Steve McCall, and Very Very Circus, a sextet featuring the unusual line-up of two tubas, two guitars and drums, along with Threadgill’s saxophones and flutes. Zooid has been around since 2001 and continues in this tradition of innovation within non-standard instrumentation.
