Review Spotlight
Avec Le Soleil Sortant De Sa Bouche. Zubberdust! Zubberdust! blasts off with whimsical punk-rock exuberance into a patchwork quilt of insistent interlocking grooves, fluorescent panels of synthesizer, and various could’ve-been aural hallucinations. Both hypnotic and jagged, the music of Avec Le Soleil Sortant De Sa Bouche transfixes[...] Read more
Lina Allemano's Titanium Riot. Kiss the Brain. The Toronto-based trumpeter Lina Allemano has created a substantial body of work with the quartet she calls Four, releasing five CDs over the past decade. The last four (since 2006) have included the same musicians—alto saxophonist Brodie West, bassist Andrew Downing, and drummer Nick[...] Read more
Tilting. Holy Seven. One of the linchpins of Montreal’s Musique Actuelle potpourri, bassist Nicolas Caloia is, underneath it all, a jazz musician, and this session shows off his mastery of the idiom. With the group Tilting, he elaborates his take on jazz by utilizing the talents of fellow travellers[...] Read more
Gorilla Mask. Bite My Blues. With a program built around his rugged compositions, Canadian expatriate alto saxophonist Peter Van Huffel and his Gorilla Mask trio mine the seam of improvised music with implements forged equally from effervescent melodies reminiscent of Ornette Coleman’s electric bands and the[...] Read more
Ryan Driver Quintet Plays The Stephen Parkinson Songbook. Since 1999, the Ryan Driver Quintet (as well as his Sextet and Quartet) has been serving up a unique, cooked take on jazz balladry—especially at its monthly residency at Toronto’s Tranzac venue. Ryan Driver Quintet Plays the Stephen Parkinson Songbook, its first studio recording[...] Read more
Susanna Hood, Scott Thomson. The Muted Note: Songs Based on Poems by P. K. Page. The songs on The Muted Note are an outgrowth of work made by trombonist Scott Thomson and singer-dancer Susanna Hood as part of The Rent, a Toronto quintet that was initially dedicated to performing the music of the late saxophonist and composer Steve Lacy—including his extensive[...] Read more
Marc Sabat and Lorenzo Pompa, Wave Piano Scenery Player; Chiyoko Szlavnics, Gradients of Detail. Maria De Alvear is a consistently intriguing composer whose World Edition label also releases recordings of music by unique composers of concert music—most recently, Berlin-based Canadians Marc Sabat and Chiyoko Szlavnics. While Sabat is perhaps best[...] Read more