Andrew Hill: Andrew!!! Blue Note (Connoisseur series) 11437 Don Cherry: Where Is Brooklyn? Blue Note (Connoisseur series) 11435 Coat Cooke: Up Down Down Up Cellar Live 50605 ****** ****** ****** Don Cherry's third Blue Note album, Where is Brooklyn?, recently saw its first domestic CD release in the Connoisseur series. As with his first disc for the label the excellent CompleteCommunion- this is a quartet session, with bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Ed Blackwell, plus Pharaoh Sanders on tenor and piccolo, replacing Cherry's usual saxophonist of the time, Gato Barbieri. While Sanders might not be as in tune with Cherry's music as Barbieri, he still provides fiery solos. The music features classic versions of "Awake Nu" (a former Albert Ayler theme), "There is the Bomb" and "The Thing", all of which have become free jazz staples today. They were notably played by Ken Vandermark and Mats Gustafsson, whose trio is called "The Thing". While perhaps not on the level of his other two Blue Note productions, this album is still classic Don Cherry. FH This side is one of Coat Cooke's rare appearances, apart from the previouslyreviewed orchestra release. Appearing with bassist Clyde Reed and drummer Kenton Loewen, he performs at Vancouver's leading jazz den, now preserving and distributing performances via its own in-house label. In keeping with Sonny Rollins' SO-year-old tradition, Cooke plays nimbly with sympathetic support, both on alto and tenor saxes (though the back of the record perfunctorily lists him on "saxophone"). Difficult to say if they are actually playing written material in these 9 tracks, caught in June 2005 at one of the trio's Monday nights gigs. Albeit very open, there is nothing aggressive, nor challenging for that matter, to be found here. The tracks remain basically free-boppish, with tinges of blue and an unexpected quote in the opening cut from the old tune "Chicago". Cooke's tenor is quite mellow, his alto more rambunctious. At just under 73 minutes, this disc, however, does not have enough gripping moments to really hold us from start to finish. Come to think of it, 50 minutes would have been just right. MC After introducing Thelonious Monk in (__ :,2c:~:;;rnrnus1cOFANDRt.WHILI the late 40's and Herbie Nichols in the mid S0's, Blue Note found yet another unique pianist/composer in the 60's: Andrew Hill. However,while Monk and Nichols found a certain recognition for their work (posthumously for the latter), Hill is still working hard at it with a new Blue Note album, Time Lines, released in March. Reissued on CD for the first time, the 1964 Andrew!!! was Hill's fifth date for Blue Note, and came right after his classic Point of Departure. Bobby Hutcherson and Richard Davis remain from that earlier session,joined by Joe Chambers and tenor saxophonist John Gilmore, in one of his rare appearances away from Sun Ra's Arkestra. The music is adventurous, bridging hard bop and the avant-garde, with six versions of recognizable Hill themes plus two bonus alternate takes. Essential listening. FH John Surman: Way Back When Cuneiform Records Rune 200 ****** This previously unissued quartet/quintet date is a nice blast from the past. Baritone saxophon~::.::....:...:. ist John Surman, 25 at the time, convened some of his friends for a session just before leaving Britain in 1969. Heard are pianist John Taylor, playing the then-brand-new electric keyboard, bassist Brian Odgers, drummer John Marshall and, on two tracks, the sadly vanished altoist Mike Osborne. Only a few test pressings of the session exist and the master tape was, until recently, missing. Unavoidably, ·the music is dated because of the piano and the obstinate grooves seeping in from the nascent jazz-rock trend. The leader's spirit makes up for those wrinkles, however. On soprano sax, he careens through the first four tracks, a kind of suite ·that gives its title to this record. On the two . longer tracks, shared with Osborne, Surman shows his extraordinary prowess on the bigger horn, clearly reaffirming his position as a master of that axe. On the basis of those qualities alone this disc merits four stars, minus half due to three of the suite's tracks being alternate takes of the same tune. MC 14 the music scene Spring 2006 Now Orchestra and Marilyn Crispell: Pola Victo CD097 ****** Made up of some of the strongest voices on the Vancouver scene, the Now Orchestra is an ensemble with a difference, focusing on collective improvisation. This latest release finds them with an old friend and former collaborator, pianist Marilyn Crispell, who contributes the slowly evolving, contrast-rich "Yin Yang". Four of the other compositions are by artistic director Coat Cooke, and one comes from guitarist Ron Samworth. All six tunes could serve as models of thematic conciseness, balanced with collective development via improvisation. Two of Cooke's shortest pieces are compressed vehicles that show the band's ability to burn within the rigours of closely controlled writing. The musicians blaze with just as much intensity on the other, longer vehicles - notably Samworth's "M.C.", which embeds one of the most lyrical brass lines on the album, Cooke's ominous, almost Wagnerian "Broken Dreams," and the pointillist and poetic "Suffused with Blue Light". PS Tony Wilson: Horse's Dream Drip Audio MAX20152 ****** West Coast guitarist Tony Wilson plays the 0s instrument from u N many angles in a D wide-ranging program of pieces. Essentially a collection of tone poems composed on Hornby Island off the B.C. coast, the music is both intimate and imaginative. We seem to get the private musings of the artist collected for all to hear, from avantgarde noise pieces to introspective six-string meditations, silky jazz noodlings, a bluegrassballad delivered in idiosyncratic nihilistic tones, a spiritual harp-like rendering of Coltrane's "Venus/Offering", and, to close, a surprisingly fresh version of "Danny Boy". Mainly a solo CD (Bob Grant on woodstove and utensils, and JesseZubot on violin, make spot appearances), this is a state-of-the-art report on the electric guitar that rings true as a coherent artistic statement. It is, thankfully, not an album of self-indulgent shredding, nor the kind of suave elevator music that some prominent guitarists in jazz often concoct. PS Monday,April 10, 8:00 p.m. Monday,April 3, 8:00 p.m.-.1;---~ Redpath Hall - $5 Pollack Hall - $5 McGill Baroque Orchestra McGill Jazz Orchestrall Chantal Remillard, guest conductor Ron Dilauro, director Wednesday,April 12, 8:00 p.m. Thursday,April 6, 8:00 p.m. Pollack Hall - $5 Uanadian Impressions Pollack Hall - $5 - McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble Denys Bouliane, director In collaboration with the McGill Wind Symphony Alain Cazes,director Nicholas Francis, student guest conductor Works by Bell, Calvert, Cherney, Gougeon, Nin, Fromm Friday,April 7, 7:00 p.m. McGill Faculty Fridays Ellen Jewett, violin Elizabeth Dolin, cello Kyoko Hashimoto, piano Works by Mozart, Lutoslawski, Sokolovic, Bart6k Saturday,April 8, 8:00 p.m. St-Jean-Baptiste Church - $10 Dvotak's Requiem, Op. 89 Letitia Brewer, soprano Martina Govednik, mezzo-soprano Gaetan Sauvageau,tenor Marc-Antoine d'Aragon, bass The McGill Symphony Orchestra The McGill Symphonic Choir AlexisHauser,conductor Monday,April 10, 8:00 p.m. Pollack Hall - $5 Oriental Impressions McGill Wind Orchestra Alain Cazes,director works by Chance, Chang, Rogers,Barker, Mashima McGill Digital Composition Studio " Sean F~rguson,director With guest artist Denys Derome, horn Works by Sudol, Maresz, Cherney, Ligeti Thursday,April 20, 7:30 p.m. Pollack Hall - $15 / $10 CBC/fvlcGillSeries Super Nova String Quartet Mark Fewer, Scott St. John, violin Douglas McNabney, viola Denise Djokic, cello With Peter McGillivary,baritone JohnNovacek,piano ,. Works by Korngold, Vaughan Williams, Barber Wednesday,May 17, 8:00 p.m. Staff and Guests Series Recorders intrio Natalie Michaud, Sophie Lariviere Matthias Maute ;;'>, ,··;:dH.I.. I ) ,, i ' '\_