Articles by Robert J. Lewis
Deconstructing Free Jazz
by Robert J. Lewis
In the continuously evolving history of artistic expression, certain movements emerge that challenge the very foundations of our aesthetic sensibilities. In the early and mid-20th century, Expressionism and free jazz were two audacious musics that not only broke all the rules but broke the spirit of many well-intentioned listeners. If the terms are not quite interchangeable, Expressionism and free jazz share a common genesis that goes back to the early 20th century with the introduction of the 12-tone ...
Continue ReadingImprovisation Versus Composition
by Robert J. Lewis
What is it that attracts music lovers to jazz (improvised music)? Is it the loose structure, or the beat or the notes and melodies we have never heard before and will never hear again, unless the performance has been recorded? Or is it the musician's uncanny ability to spontaneously translate feelings that inform the notes into the language of music? Perhaps it is the musician's audacity and courage --daring to play without a script; to make it up as they ...
Continue ReadingListening To Music On Its Own Terms Fallacy
by Robert J. Lewis
It is an all-too common complaint. The under-appreciated or ignored composer/songwriter accuses the listener of not engaging with the work 'on its own terms.' It sounds straightforward, but the accusation is packed with all sorts of tangled ideas about what a listener's job is, and whether art has some kind of fixed value. When the composer speaks of having to listen to music on its own terms, he invariably conjures a specific, often rigid, paradigm of ...
Continue ReadingOpusjazz
by Robert J. Lewis
From her earliest years, pianist Julie Lamontagne was immersed in classical music, but after attending a concert by the great Oliver Jones, she switched to jazz in her mid-to late teens. However, her musical mother tongue and first love remains classical, to which she returns to after a long hiatus, but with a new angle: she wants to integrate classical music with the more open-ended structure of jazz, leaving herself room to improvise. The result is Opusjazz, a music that ...
Continue ReadingFrancois Bourassa: Quid Pro Piano
by Robert J. Lewis
François Bourassa 2010 Festival International de Jazz de MontréalChapelle historique du Bon-PasteurMontreal, CanadaJune 30, 2010 When pianist/composer François Bourassa performed in the mid-1980s at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the sound he produced registered like a doubled-up fist of angry, aggressive music that, stylistically, recalled attack dog pugilist Roberto Duran, when he was at his bellicose best. And then, a chance encounter in 2008, with an up-and-coming local club singer, demonstrated ...
Continue ReadingSylvain Provost: Desirs Demodes
by Robert J. Lewis
Sylvain Provost Désirs Démodés Effendi Records 2009
If you've been among the very best in your chosen field (of jazz piano) over a long career, there will inevitably come a time when what you say carries as much weight as what you play. So when pianist Oliver Jones, second perhaps only to the great Oscar Peterson in the genre, sings the praises of Montreal jazz guitarist Sylvain Provost, people take notice--and listen. ...
Continue ReadingJean Vanasse: Vibraphonist Unsurpassed
by Robert J. Lewis
For most people it is impossible to be equally disposed toward all musical instruments and their generic sound; some immediately resonate, others never, even over an entire lifetime. A musician who manages to win over those previously indifferent or worse--through the power of sound, invention or understanding of the possibilities of the instrument--is to be ranked among the select few who significantly expand our musical horizons.
Until I heard Canada's Kevin Breit, I was never a ...
Continue ReadingVoo Doo Scat: Reminiscing
by Robert J. Lewis
It takes no small courage to record a CD of standards, all of which have been recorded hundreds of times by the very best the genre has to offer, including Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington.
So if the entry level criterion is you better have something to say and say it well, Reminiscing, from Montreal's Voo Doo Scat, deserves A-major consideration. The group is a quartet with its nucleus comprised of guitarist JF Giguère, ...
Continue ReadingJohn Roney: Il Penseroso of the Piano
by Robert J. Lewis
Far too often in jazz, a musician posing as a songwriter decides to immortalize a catchy sequence of notes or simple chord progression by inverting, converting, coloring, varying, flipping and reformulating it. But however dazzling is the musicianship, the acrobatics are not to be confused with composition. Saxophonist Branford Marsalis states unequivocally, “One of the problems I have with a lot of today's jazz is the lack of melody and overemphasis on harmonic associations. To put it unkindly, too much ...
Continue ReadingJim Doxas: Beat and Beatitudes
by Robert J. Lewis
Very much in demand, Montreal drummer Jim Doxas divides his time playing with piano great Oliver Jones, the John Roney Trio and Chet Doxas Quartet. Through the power of his startling invention, he makes the case that percussion can be every bit as performative as a lyrical instrument. What distinguishes Doxas' approach to improvisation is that he refuses to play it safe, allowing the moment--and not received wisdom--to dictate the kind of framework that will contain, shape and guide the ...
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