Jazz Articles
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Shuffle Demons: Are You Really Real
by La-Faithia White
The Shuffle Demons are a Canadian jazz fusion band from Toronto. The band features a powerhouse ensemble of saxophonists Kelly Jefferson, Richard Underhill and Matt Lagan, anchored by the deep pocket of acoustic bassist Mike Downes and drummer Stich Wynston. The title track “X Marks The Spot" opens with an intriguing dialogue between bass and drums exploding into rapid-fire saxophone lines. Jefferson and Lagan exchange double-line runs, blending harmonies and layering multiphonics in a thrilling display of saxophone ...
Continue ReadingShuffle Demons: Are You Really Real
by Anastasia Bogomolets
Celebrating four decades of genre-blending jazz, the Shuffle Demons return with Are You Really Real, a studio album that fuses funk, post-bop, theatrical satire and spiritual jazz. Influences ranging from Eric Dolphy and Alice Coltrane to the Red Hot Chili Peppers shape the band's eclectic high-energy aesthetic. The opening track, “X Marks the Spot," sets the tone with multivoiced saxophone lines and a rhythm section that oscillates between swing and funk. Tenor saxophonists Kelly Jefferson and Matt Lagan ...
Continue ReadingShuffle Demons: Are You Really Real
by Pierre Giroux
There is a unique brand of musical madness that only the Shuffle Demons can conjure--a whirlwind of saxophones, humour, groove and a palpable sense of daring. With Are You Really Real, this storied Canadian outfit delivers a recording that captures the very essence of what made them both a cult favourite and respected presence on the international jazz scene. Bristling with invention, personality and raw performance energy, the album feels like a live set caught in a studio net--exhilarating, unfiltered ...
Continue ReadingHilario Duran: Cry Me A River
by Pierre Giroux
Hilario Durán is a renowned Cuban-Canadian jazz pianist and composer known for contributing to Latin jazz. He does not release big band efforts often, but with the release of Cry Me A River, he has reconstituted his Latin Jazz Big Band to take us on an extraordinary musical journey, effortlessly blending myriad genres into his singular style. Durán's Afro-Caribbean cultural attachment informs the nine works of both originals and covers in this outing, resulting in a unique tapestry of sound. ...
Continue ReadingFlorian Hoefner Trio: First Spring
by Dan McClenaghan
Many piano trios reach back to past masters for inspiration, playing in the style of Bud Powell, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson. Others craft their sounds under the influence of contemporary players: Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, McCoy Tyner, Kenny Barron, Ahmad Jamal. On the other hand, the occasional piano trio comes down the road rolling its own idiosyncratic way. Pianist Florian Hoefner is one of the latter group, with his immersion in “the ethos of traditional songs and the high lonesome ...
Continue ReadingMyriad3: Vera
by Jerome Wilson
The number of contemporary jazz piano trios that take their inspiration from non-jazz sources seems to grow all the time. To a list that includes The Bad Plus, Phronesis, and E.S.T. add the Canadian group Myriad3 which draws from concepts in classical music and progressive rock. They often begin their pieces with one repeated figure and spin hypnotic webs of variations and countermelodies from there. Their style can produce works of singular beauty. On “Diamond," a quiet piano ...
Continue ReadingMyriad3: Vera
by Dan Bilawsky
Vera, the fourth album from the Toronto-based trio collective Myriad3, is a fascinating example of how fastidious design principles and shrewdly executed extemporization can truly complement and even counterpoise one another. There's serious attention to detail in each of these ten pieces, but the music benefits greatly from its embrace of uncertainties and creative expression(s). Opening with pianist Chris Donnelly's “Pluie Lyonnaise," Myriad3 immediately taps into a minimalist stream with a maximalist mindset. Characterized by hypnotic tides ...
Continue ReadingRotem Sivan Trio: Antidote
by Dan Bilawsky
Heartbreak knows no true cure, but music can act as something of an antidote or coping mechanism to assist in dealing with it and suffering through it. That's what guitarist-composer Rotem Sivan discovered after a long-term relationship came to a swift and unexpected end. He turned to music to help him grapple with his demons and confront his new reality, emerging from the experience a year later with a newfound sense of emotional well-being and this powerful album.
Continue ReadingMyriad3: Moons
by Dave Wayne
Myriad3's third release, Moons follows very much in the vein of their first two, Tell (Alma Records, 2012) and The Where (Alma Records, 2014), yet there are subtle differences both in instrumentation and their approach to their material. In short, a lot of growth is evident when one compares Moons to its predecessors. Tell, recorded a scant 2 years after the trio's formation, is essentially a virtuosic acoustic jazz album: three young cats flexing their well-developed chops. The thing that ...
Continue ReadingMyriad3: Moons
by Dan McClenaghan
Someone's always trying to take a tried and true format out on a new tangent. Consider the piano trio: Bill Evans introduced deep, classically-influenced harmonics and a democracy of instrumental input in the late fifties and early sixties. The Esbjorn Svennson Trio (e.s.t.) brought in classical, rock, pop and techno elements; The Bad Plus plays with avant-garde jazz and pop/rock influences, and they can be loud. Even the tried and true changes. It's all good; and some of it is ...
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