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Jean Martin • résidence: Toronto, Ontario, Canada • compositeur • interprète (batterie, tourne-disques) — membre de: Barnyard Drama • Morphologic
Articles sur Jean MartinLes critiques de disques se retrouvent dans les pages de chaque disque (via l’onglet «discographie»).
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Jean Martin’s Farmpar David Dacks in Exclaim! (Canada), 1 novembre 2008 |3671|
«(Barnyard Records) has become a focal point of the bustling Toronto improvisers scene over
the past several years.»
Former industrial lands are notorious for being colonized by artists. This is particularly true of Montreal, but Toronto has seen its fair share of artsy activity in abandoned downtown buildings. Toronto’s artists’ districts of this type are in decline, reclaimed by condos or awaiting further development, yet a few holdouts remain. The southern stretch of Sterling Road is one example. There’s a pleasing ratio of fully to partly demolished factories alongside reclaimed artist spaces and there are plenty of moody concrete piazzas for inspiration. The southern edge of one of these blank concrete fields is where you’ll find Jean Martin’s Farm.Martin is a drummer and engineer whose studio (and label, Barnyard Records) has become a focal point of the bustling Toronto improvisers scene over the past several years. He explains: “‘The Farm’ comes from when Christine [Duncan, singer] and I lived in an abandoned farm, in Burlington, ON. We were there for about a year, and the name stuck even when we moved in town. Now the property has been bought by rich people to house fancy cars and spoiled kids, probably.” That may well happen on Sterling Road, but condos aren’t baying at his door just yet.Martin’s live/work space is a haven from the bleakness outside. It’s a typical single room loft space whose walls are crammed with CDs, books and records. Being part of the top floor, the room benefits from the pleasant glow of a skylight. A grey cat and several dozen dolls of various cultural origins — yes, it’s funny/creepy — preside over the space. Beautiful hardwood floors dominate, and the stuff of everyday life is the only sound insulation. There’s no control room, isolation booth or acoustic tile anywhere. You’d hardly know this was a studio were it not for the discreet rack of gear and telltale dual computer monitors that scream “professional artist” — although his Nuendo recording platform runs on a PC, not a Mac. He’s never had any problems working on PC, and it’s much less expensive. The Farm is as much about composition as recording. Martin often has a collaborative role, either as a player or an engineer, in Farm projects. Most Barnyard releases contain a fair bit of studio craft verging on out and out dub mixing, in stark contrast to the verité approach to recording of most free improv releases. Martin believes that if you want to hear what a band sounds like, go see them live, but a recording session should be about using the studio creatively. “I always believe that a record should be a piece of art,” he asserts.
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They don’t take requestspar Mike Chamberlain in Hour (Québec), 12 juin 2008 |3586| Montreal’s OFF Festival de Jazz offers welcome respite for players like Lina Allemano “I’m booking this tour, and one presenter wanted to know what percentage of originals we play. We play all originals! ‘And is there a singer?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh man…’” Lina Allemano’s voice trails off. “It’s nice to find people at the OFF Festival who actually want to hear original music, something that’s different than the usual thing. Thank God.” The Toronto-based trumpeter’s sentiment expresses exactly why the OFF Festival de Jazz, now (amazingly) in its ninth edition, is important to jazz musicians and fans in this city, with its stated mandate to present original music by local musicians in settings most conducive to getting the music across. The 34-year-old Allemano, born in Edmonton, is the type of musician who all too often falls under the radar because of our national inferiority complex. But her quartet, who play the beautiful and venerable Lion d’Or on June 16, make music that is every bit as interesting and unpredictable in its risk-taking as most of what comes out of the States. Besides that, she has received the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from Downbeat as a talent to watch. But she’s just one of the talents to watch at this year’s OFF, running from June 13 to 21 at the Saint-Ciboire, Lion d’Or, Dièse Onze and Sala Rossa. Among these are Swedish accordionist Lars Hollmer with Fanfare Pourpour, who kick off the festival tomorrow evening, bassist Miles Perkin’s shining project Common Thread (June 17, Lion d’Or), a rare presentation of Normand Guilbeault’s Riel (June 21, Lion d’Or), the debut of pianist Marianne Trudel’s Septet (June 21, Lion d’Or), and performances by Erik Hove’s Soundclash, the Alexander Bellegarde Quartet, the Isaiah Ceccarelli Sextet, Jean Martin’s Barnyard Drama and more in a 32-concert lineup that is long on variety and originality. actuellecd.com Jean Martin: presse |
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