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Live Reviews
Day 11 - Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, July 8, 2006
John Kelman
With the realization that there will always be more music coming at him than he can keep up with, John wonders why anyone would think that jazz is dead or dying.Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12
As the 27th edition of the Montreal Jazz Festival heads for the home stretch, two unique and diverse performances showed why it is one of the largest and most successful jazz festivals in the world. For many years, Montreal's festival has succumbed to the temptation to bring in big names which are at best (if even) peripherally associated with the broader jazz continuum. But it still brings in more than enough diverse jazz acts to justify its name. Every year it also manages to bring in artists who don't play any other festivals, giving the event a unique draw which attracts fans from around the world to come every year. Media coverage from across the globe also helps make it a truly international event.
For the final day of its four-day run, the Suono Italia series featured pianist Enrico Pieranunzi, who is finally gaining international exposure through a series of records for the Italian Cam Jazz label, including Fellini Jazz (CamJazz, 2004) and Duologues (CamJazz, 2005). But while North American audiences may be most familiar with these Cam Jazz releases, Pieranunzi also has a lengthy discography on EGEA, which sponsored the Suono Italia series, including Trasnoche (EGEA, 2004) and Les Amants (EGEA, 2004).
While Pieranunzi's earlier EGEA releases fully reflected the label's Mediterranean aesthetic, his latest, Danza di Una Ninfa: Storie de Tenco (EGEA, 2005), co-led by singer and composer Ada Montellanico, is a different kind of album. The label has made that clear by abandoning its usually austere jewel case packaging for a colorful digipak designed by Cecilia Valli. This release brings much-needed exposure to the work of Luigi Tenco, whose tragic suicide in 1967 at the age of 28 robbed the world of a distinctive poet and songwriter.
Danza di Una Ninfa features an extended ensemble which includes woodwind multi-instrumentalist Paul McCandless of Oregon fame. For the group's performance last night at the Place des Arts Cinquieme Salle (an intimate room about the same size as the 450-seater Gesu), Pieranunzi and Montellanico brought a pared-down quintet. Along with McCandless, the group also featured bassist Luca Bulgarelli and drummer Walter Paoli. While the music had a strong overall European flavor, it was—like Pietro Tonolo's ensemble from the previous night—also closely aligned with the American tradition, as manifested by its harmonic perspective and at least some element of swing. But there was also a strong taste of Italian folk music, along with an American folk approach sometimes used by McCandless. It made for an intriguing combination.
Even though McCandless is an in-demand player, he never seems to appear very high on the radar of jazz listeners. Perhaps that's because of the fact that even though he understands the language of jazz, he doesn't completely operate within its sphere—his 35 years with the seminal cultural boundary-busting group Oregon provide but one example of this. However, he's a fine improviser on the more difficult double reed oboe and english horn. His classical background also changes the complexion of his solos, as does the textural variety he introduces by playing (in addition to oboe and english horn) soprano and sopranino saxophones, penny whistle, wood flutes and bass clarinet. He's also a fine tenor player, as he demonstrated on Shapeshifter (Synergy, 2004), where he played convincingly close to the tradition's center.
Last night's show featured a combination of music and lyrics by Tenco, as well as some unpublished poetry by Tenco put to music by Pieranunzi or Montellanico. It also featured a couple of new tunes, including one where Pieranunzi made his debut as a lyricist. Only Italian speakers could know how good a wordsmith he is, but Montellanico—who encouraged him to take the leap—seemed happy enough to be singing them.
Montellanico is a treasure of a singer who has great technical facility and a strong range—sounding, in some ways, like an Italian Flora Purim. Her terrific articulation allowed her to scat along with Pieranunzi and/or McCandless on some particularly difficult up-tempo tunes. Her most appealing quality is her avoidance of the kind of vocal showboating in which singers so often indulge. Montellanico may not be as subtle as Swiss/Dutch singer Susanne Abbuehl, but neither did she rely on pyrotechnics. Instead, she interpreted the songs with reverence, delivering the lyrics passionately and adding some lovely improvised scats throughout the show that were perfectly in keeping with the material's overall elegance.
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