Voici en quelque sorte une nouvelle branche qui pousse sur l’arbre déjà très touffu de l’étiquette Ambiances Magnétiques. Celle d’un jazz plus "standard" que les explorations que l’on retrouve habituellement à son catalogue. Aperçu quelques fois, à l’Off Festival de Jazz ou au Suoni per il popolo, l’ensemble offre avec ce premier disque une musique étonnamment mature, d’une écriture sobre et sans flafla. C’est peut-être un peu trop "contenu" d’ailleurs; on semble toujours sur le point d’éclater sans jamais y arriver. Les deux compositeurs de l’ensemble, le pianiste Alexandre Grogg et le souffleur Philippe Lauzier (sax et clarinette), sont d’excellents instrumentistes, comme leurs acolytes. Une formation à surveiller.3,5
blogue@press-2649
press@2649
According to my research, idiolalla is a psychiatric condition in which those afflicted are compelled to make up their own private language. It’s kind of like a fundamentalist-free version of speaking in tongues, and chances are that if we encountered an idiolallite on the street, we’d scurry away, unnerved by their unfathomable barrage of words. Strange, then, that seeing two idiolalla victims on-stage, backed only by a drummer, should prove so fascinating.
Of course, singers Christine Duncan and DB Boyko don’t really suffer from the syndrome; they’ve just named their new group after it. Idiolalla, in which the two are joined by Duncan’s percussionist partner, Jean Martin, is an exploration of improvisational mouth music, and a chance for three serious musicians to have way too much fun.
That much was obvious from their VOX-festival set’s closing number, which began with Martin laying down an idiot-simple drum beat, like a kindergarten version of rock ‘n’ roll. The two singers then introduced a set of awkward and naive lyrics about rich people and poor people, skinny people and fat people: it was obvious the song was a cover, but of what? At last it dawned on me: this was Philosophy of the World, the title track from what some critics believe is the worst album ever — and thus pure genius in its own special way.
The chorus of “Philosophy…” is simple: “You can never please everybody in this world”. But by ending its debut show with a slice of the Shaggs — no doubt a first for any new-music festival, anywhere in the world — Idiolalla pleased at least as many in the musically literate crowd as it puzzled. In fact, the whole set was a blast.
Duncan and Boyko can sing anything, although the former is known for her jazz and gospel stylings while the latter has trained intensively in Java and Bali. Together, they seem bent on pushing each other ever-further into wordless glossolalia and gibberish, but because their approach is one of complicity rather than confrontation, those out-there warblings smack of effervescent joy. Martin adds colour and punctuation. Although it’s easy for music like this to slip over into self-indulgence, Idiolalla’s performance was too smart, nuanced. These three are on to something, and we wait with interest to see where they go next.
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press@3071
Ensemble en pièces new album, Jardin d’exil, is now available. Let yourself be engulfed by their intelligent and wonderfully interpreted jazz.
Avantjazz’s outer edge isn’t only razor sharp; it’s also broad enough to accommodate a range of artists who at once push the envelope of improvisatory music to glorious effect, but also, at times, test the patience of the casual listener’s attention span.[…]
And the fact that some of these performers are pretty far out there only adds merit to their accomplishments. That a vocalist squealing and grunting in French and slapping her torso in time to her accompanist’s caterwauls on various whistles can come across not only as listenable, but enjoyable and oddly soothing, is a tribute not only to the artists’ abilities but to the patience of an open-eared audience.[…]
Derome and Hétu performed for an hour, their unique sound occasionally living up to their performance moniker: "We Pierce the Ears." Oddly, for as challenging as their sound was - and "challenging" isn’t a pejorative when it comes to Edgefest - the duo frequently found harmonic plateaus that, while frequently dissonant, had an unmistakable beauty.[…]
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press@2636
Trombonist Tom Walsh and his trio Phat Hed (with guest trombonist Steve Swell) were one of highlights of the 2003 Montréal Jazz Festival. Happily, Tom Walsh has released most of the performance on this album. Included in the eight tracks are two from a live performance in Slovakia with bassist Szandal Matyas and drummer Balazs Elemer, two Hungarian associates of Tom Walsh replacing his regular rhythm section of Miles Perkin and Thom Gossage. Tom Walshblends in samples that are usually snatches of popular song and works the group’s improvisations off these themes in ways that are most musical and unpredictable and very often witty. Highlights include playing against the guitar sample on 1958 and the funky propulsiveness of Perkin on Backwood Song.
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press@2637
Pour fêter leurs 25 ans, les Productions SuperMusique lancent Canevas «+», un disque sur lequel nous retrouvons certains de ceux qui font de la scène actualiste montréalaise une communauté si vivante. Les 14 extraits proposés proviennent de cinq concerts entre 1998 et 2004 de l’Ensemble SuperMusique. Cette compilation nous offre un large spectre de la création expérimentale d’ici avec des musiques autant écrites qu’improvisées. Le disque a la qualité de ses défauts: le résultat est quelque peu touffu. Malgré tout, Canevas «+» réjouira les habitués et titillera les oreilles curieuses. Puisque la musique actuelle s’écoute mieux avec les yeux, il y aura pour l’occasion un super concert, le 20 octobre à la Sala Rossa. 7,5
blogue@press-2639
press@2639