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SEPT
/OCT 2006
ISSUE329

Clarinetist and educator
Lori Freedman is just
one of a number of musicians
that now call Montreal home.

40031996

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HEARD AND SEEN

Swedish-ItaliansaxophonistAlberto Pinton'squintet,with trombonist
Mats iileklint, was the first half of a notable double-bill.

J

azz festivals resemble a kitchen in the
imagination, where all manner of possi bilities exist to be conjured at the will of the
master chef. This ~1st annual edition of the
Vancouver Jazz festival, served up an epic
feast geared to deliver adventurous music
to the unsuspecting listener. Here are
some highlights from ten days of music.
Paul Plimley's trio with visiting
Norwegians drummer Paal Nilssen - Love
and bassist Ingebrigt Hakker- Flaten was
a risky opening bid for the ever-sleepy
Vancouver audience, though within min utes they were pulling out all the stops. A
little like being pushed into the deep end,
the trio improvisation was inventive and
fun, with Plimley delighted by the quick
thinking and easy rapport in his partners'
playing. Nilssen - Love later demonstrated
great concentration in his ensemble playing with The Thing, a wild blowing trio
with
baritone
saxophonist
Mats
Gustafsson where Hakker- Flaten and
Nilssen-Love provided the dynamite
behind Gustafsson's rocket.
Under a clear blue sky, the free
Gastown festival events are a hit with the
crowds, old folks and young couples with
school kids tagging
along.
Marc
Atkinson's guitar trio held the audience's
attention in the baking hot sunlight by
playing it low key and casual. Atkinson's
music is of another time, acoustic jazz
guitar a la Django and the audience,
caught up by the festive mood, danced in
shady corners of the piazza. Michel
Donato's European band revelled in the.
carnivalesque downtown street setting,
with guitarist Michael Felberbaum and

10 CODA

trumpeter Piotr Wojtasik reeling off diamond sharp solos.
The NOW orchestra has been having a
busy year, and for this show were rejoined
by pianist Marliyn Crispell, one of their
earliest supporters. Their rendering of her
chart "Yin/Yang" renewed the chemistry.
Next evening, Crispell's trio performance
with Mark Helias and Dylan van der Schyff
delivered some of the fmest moments in
this year's program, a set of mostly original
pieces by Helias. Crispell has great expressive skills at the piano and her closing
reimagmmg
of Bill Evans' "Time
Remembered" drifted by without a murmur in the room, the audience deeply
moved by its soulfulness.
Bassist Michael Bates's Outside
Sources, fresh back from NYC,took a spin
at the Front with an audience of old
friends. Their concise tuneful music drew
an appreciative hand, trumpeter Russ
Johnson and reedman Quinsin Nachoff
responding with fireworks that blended
equal parts 1960s Ornette and middleeastern musics. Bates and drummer Mark
Timmermanns romped and ran circles
without missing the groove for a moment,
in places serving up some serious funk.
Travel must be good for the spirit.
The spectacular misfue of OrkestROVA's performance began as a bold
rethinking
of
John
Coltrane's
"Ascension." After a disarming solo set
from bass clarinetist Lori Freedman, the
Rova Saxophone Quartet plus seven other
players took the stage, with special guest
guitarist Nels Cline bringing the noise. In
his own trio performance with drummer
Scott Amendola and bassist Devin Hoff,
Cline had no problem keeping an opening
night crowd mesmerized, though with
Rova, his extended techniques on guitar
simply added to a wall of cacophony.
Nothing could be funnier than the sight of
Larry Ochs pointing at his monitor,
admonishing the soundman to turn him
up, even as sound pressure reached hurricane proportions inside the hall. The contributions of some fme musicians were
wasted in this extended audio spanking, as
soloists had no room to maneuver and
develop anything amid the roaring.

Equallyupsetting to some audience members was the unampl:ifJ.edduo set by clarinetist Phil Nimmons and pianist David
Braid at the acoustically perfect Van East
Cultural Centre. Though up there in years,
Nimmons's instincts are sharp as a tack, creating two hours worth of melodic improvisation broken up with story telling and interplaywith the audience, many of them anxious
to hear old standards. Nimmons, declaring
this tour to be his "last kick at the can," stood
his ground, with the duo playing some very
satisfying improvisations, some very free.
The musicians fearlessly jumped and the
music appeared, suddenly, vividly, alive.
Nimmons offered that, "the closest you can
get to utopia would be spontaneous improvisation when it's really happening." Quite a
surprise considering Nimmons's history as
one of Canada's leading composers that his
free playing in the company of the talented
young pianist would be equally captivating.
Jerry Granelli's octet delivered the
knockout punch of the festival performing a
compelling "audio-movie" concerning
Billy the Kid. Their tale of William Bonney,
a ~1-year-old gunslinger, connects tangentially to the outlaw notion of the jazz messenger, and Granelli's Sandhills Reunion,
powered by baritone saxophonist David
Mott, provided a gripping soundtrack for
narration by actor/singer Rinde Eckert.
Special mention must also be made of the
wonderful shows by visiting Swedes; the
Alberto Pinton Quintet featured a burning
frontline of vibes, trombone, and baritone
that turned up the heat on headliners Jim
Black's AlasNoAxis, who also gave a fme
show, at "the Cultch." Vocalist Jeanette
Lindstrom and her quintet were the revela tion of the festival, bringing a new take on
the jazz vocal tradition. Lindstrom's considerable vocal power and sense of musi cality puts her far in front of the legions of
singers in little black dresses who mimic
past masters like Billie and Sarah rather
than innovate. Her rapport with trumpeter
Staffan Svensson verged on telepathy, tones
of voice and harmonized horn spiraling in
the evening air. Thanks to Coastal Jazz and
Blues Society for the opportunity to hear
some great new music. c
STEVE VICKERY

F

or anyone listening to the recordings
of American guitarist Dom Minasi for
the first time, the word 'perplexing' might
come to mind. In two self-produced
releases issued since returning to record ing after a ~o-year hiatus, he revisits many
standards, including an all- Ellington program on the first disc. Yet his approach is
anything but standard. His style could be
labelled as 'Tayloresque' (a musician he
secretly wishes to play with), what with its
rapid flurries of notes. Unlike many a contemporary plectrist, he uses pedals sparingly and avoids gadgetry. 'Tm a note player," he states unequivocally, 'Tm not into
electronics, but prefer the warm sound of
the instrument. And because my playing is
already off-putting for some, I would just
lose them by adding electronics over that."
Now 63, the veteran has been in the business since the late '50s, when he got his first
union card at the tender age of 14. Over the
years, he has drawn from several
influences, starting with the somewhat forgotten Johnny Smith. He caught that legendary musician at the original Birdland,
thanks to the club's non-drinking section,
a.k.a. the Peanut Gallery. This afforded him
the opportunity to catch all the greats at
work, Miles and Trane topping the list. It
was in those formative years he realized that
horn players were far more ripping than
any of the guitarists around. In fact, he
admits not listening to guitarists that much,
preferring reedmen, with Eric Dolphy a
particular favourite. While he may appear

to be an out cat, Minasi remains a main streamer at heart, but one with no yen for
nostalgia either. Of late, he has sought out
such contemporary New York luminaries as
Matthew Shipp, Herb Robertson, Steve
Swell and Sabir Mateen, and even veteran
free jazz clarinetist Perry Robinson.
Minasi's career has been a long and
often tortuous road. In his early 3os, he
landed the big deal with Blue Note, only to
realize that the producers were grooming
him into the next fusion wunderkind.
Bailing out after two recordings and backing off from a subsequent deal with
Vanguard Records (as history was in dan ger of repeating itself), he plied his trade
away from the studios, honing his craft and
teaching privately. Encouraged by some of
his more recent collaborators-bassist
Dominic Duval, saxist Ras Moshe and cellist Tomas Ulrich-he sent a demo to
Cadence Records, which offered to cut an
album for its affiliate CIMP Records. More
recently, though, he was persuaded to create his own label, CDM Records.
Based on the four albums released to
date, Minasi has a knack of defying expectations. Of his Ellington tribute, he was at
first leery about putting it out, but was
coaxed into issuing the ~001 live performance recorded before an enthusiastic audi ence at the Knitting Factory. He was amazed
by the good reviews he got, "save for some
die- hard Ellington fans who were really
pissed off by it." Boosted by this first outing, he cut a studio side, divided between
standards and originals, which met with
more critical approval. But on his following
effort (D.D.T), a trio with Ken Filiano and
cellist Tomas Ulrich, (supplemented by
drummer John Bollinger and singer Carol
Mennie), the guitarist set out to explore
more original music, albeit in a more lyrical, less hectic vein. But as he sadly reports,
many thought he was going soft on them.
Undaunted, he decided to sally forth and
put together his most ambitious undertaking to date: The Vampire'sRevenge.
Inspired by the writings of Ann Rice, the
guitarist went on to spin out his own story,
both musically and verbally (the latter accessible on the journal part of his website). To
do so, he solicited a wide range of musicians,

including Peter Brotzmann (whose interest
was there, but not his schedule). "Save for a
couple of people, everyone graciously
accepted. But it was not so much getting people on board that was hard, it was trying to
work out schedules." Of the ten pieces on
this ~005 double set, four were devised for
larger ensembles of 10 to 14 instruments, all
of them having to be done in a very narrow
timeframe. Fortunately, all was nailed in the
studio on first takes. Minasi is quick to credit the conductor Byron Olson for making the
large ensembles pieces possible, pointing
out that he knew the music better than the
composer did, i.e. himself.
Now back on track, Minasi seems to be
making up for lost time. He has more
material in the can, most notably with
pianist Michael Jefry Stevens and Dutch
guitarist Johann Hammermann, but is also
intent on recording more with Matthew
Shipp and Borah Bergman (both making
cameos on the Vampire project). He's also
dedicated to composing, having recently
completed a solo cello piece for Tomas
Ulrich, as well as a catalogue of throughcomposed works for chamber ensembles.
As for his own musical take on things he
sums it up best: "Just because I play out, or
free form if you will, that doesn't mean I
play just anything. In our concert last night
(at the Montreal Jazz festival), we played
"Don't Get Around Much Anymore," but
we were sticking to the form. What I like
then, is to make something both very out
and very in at the same time." c

Au, RECORDINGSAVAILABLEON CDM REcoans

TakingtheDukeOut
[TRIO, 2001]

GoingOutAgain
[TBI0,2003)

DDT+~ - TimeWillTell
[WITH K. F1LIAN0, T. ULIIICH + JoHN
BoLLINGEB, & CABoL MENNIE, 200s)

TheVampire'sRevenge
[sMALLAND LABGEENSEMBLEPIECES, 2 CDs, 200s)

I'mnota sometimething
[NINE-PIECE BAND UNDEB THE LEADERSHIP OF
SINGER CAlloL MENNIE] 2004

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