Articles by Mike Chamberlain
Festival International de Jazz de Montreal 2023
by Mike Chamberlain
Festival International de Jazz de Montreal Montreal, Quebec June 29-July 8, 2023 Not many cities like a party like Montreal, and the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (FIJM) has been the biggest party in Montreal since its inception in 1980. Not even smoke from wildfires in northern Quebec could obscure the love that Montrealers and tourists from outside the city have for the festival. This year's 43rd edition of the FIJM was ...
read moreFestival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2023
by Mike Chamberlain
Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada May 18-21, 2023 This year's 39th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Victoriaville (FIMAV) was characterized by a new performance space, a good number of noteworthy performances, and trepidation about the future of the festival following artistic director Michel Levasseur's announcement that this would be his last year at the helm. The Centre des Congrès, a new facility next door to ...
read moreMichel Levasseur Leaves the Building
by Mike Chamberlain
The run-up to this year's 39th edition of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV, or Victo) has been anything but routine. First, it was announced in December that the City of Victoriaville had rescinded the festival's contract for the use of the Colisée des Bois-Francs arena as one of the festival's two main venues. Attempts to change the council's decision proved fruitless, and alternative venues had to be hastily arranged. Fortunately, they were, but the loss of ...
read moreThe Sam Rivers Sessionography: A Work in Progress
by Mike Chamberlain
The Sam Rivers Sessionography: A Work in Progress Rick Lopez 768 Pages ISBN: # 9 780578 948713 The Vortex2022 Twenty-five years in the making, Rick Lopez's 768-page opus The Sam Rivers Sessionography: A Work in Progress is a dizzying, stunning achievement of research and scholarship that stands as a one-of-a-kind standard for a genre that Lopez has practically invented by himself, starting with his previous William Parker sessionography (in print), and his online ...
read moreFestival International de Jazz de Montreal 2022
by Mike Chamberlain
Various venues Festival International de Jazz de Montreal Montreal, Quebec, Canada July 5-9, 2022 All hail the return of live music! After a three-year break imposed by Covid-19, the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal (FIJM) was back this year with a scaled-down but user-friendly slate of 350 concerts, about 2/3 of which were free. This was a year of transition for the festival, now under new management. In the past, the festival ...
read moreFestival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2022
by Mike Chamberlain
Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville Various Venues Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada May 19-22, 2022 The weekend of May 19-22, was the first time since 2019 that artistic director Michel Levasseur and the team at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV, or Victo, as it is popularly known) were able to mount a full program of concerts and other presentations (sound installations, films) without tight pandemic restrictions. This meant that, ...
read moreRene Lussier/Erick D'Orion/Robbie Kuster/Martin Tetreault: Printemps 2021
by Mike Chamberlain
The curious fact about this 52-minute improvisation by Rene Lussier (guitar and daxophone), Érick d'Orion (computer and electronics), Robbie Kuster (drums), and Martin Tétreault (turntables and electronics) is that, as far as we know, it was just the second indoor concert held in Canada after the pandemic started in March 2020, the second concert of the 2021 edition of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville held in May of this year. As such, it was the first time ...
read moreFestival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville
by Mike Chamberlain
Various venues Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville Victoriaville, Quebec May 21-23, 2021 It seems appropriate that a festival of forward-looking music should be the first organization to present live indoor concerts in Quebec in more than a year. After having to cancel the 2020 edition of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (aka Victo, or FIMAV) and facing the unpalatable prospect of a second year without a 37th edition, festival director ...
read moreSomething Else! Festival 2019
by Mike Chamberlain
Something Else! St. John the Evangelist Church Hamilton, Ontario June 20-23, 2019 I must confess that I spend very little time in churches, so I would not normally be inclined to spend the first weekend of summer in one. But sometimes exceptions must be made, and such an exception could only be made for a festival of creative music. A church can be a dodgy proposition for presenting music. Ideally, the ...
read moreFestival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2019, Part 2-2
by Mike Chamberlain
Part 1 | Part 2 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada May 16-19, 2019 The first two days of this year's FIMAV lived up to lofty expectations, and, if anything, Saturday's and Sunday's programs looked even more promising, with artists such as Roscoe Mitchell Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey, The Ex, and John Butcher on tap. Unfortunately, I had to miss Saturday's first concert by Thomas Korber with the ...
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