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Jazz Articles about Dan Fortin
Dan Fortin Built 'Cannon' From the Bass Up
by Lawrence Peryer
Bassist Dan Fortin recorded much of his album Cannon (Elastic Recordings, 2024) in a Calgary condo during the early months of the pandemic, armed with just an electric bass guitar. What started as sketches for a solo record evolved into a series of remote collaborations with musicians across Canada, including saxophonist Karen Ng, vibraphonist Michael Davidson, and Dan's brother, Jos. Fortin. “I didn't know my electric bass recordings would become a record when I first started making them," ...
Continue ReadingAline's Etoile Magique: éclipse
by Neri Pollastri
Violinista di formazione classica e dagli attenti studi musicali (il padre è un musicologo), da sempre affascinata dal jazz, la canadese Aline Homzy presenta quest'assai singolare opera prima, dal gusto sicuramente cameristico e tuttavia venata non solo di jazz, bensì anche di colori etnici, sperimentazioni sonore, fantasia melodica, che concorrono alla creazione di atmosfere “astrali," coerentemente al titolo dell'album e di alcuni dei suoi brani. Gli undici che si susseguono nel programma sono tutti scritti dalla violinista, tranne ...
Continue ReadingAline Homzy: éclipse
by Pierre Giroux
An adage goes: “Patience Is A Virtue." That saying may be perfectly exemplified with the release of violin virtuoso Aline Homzy's recording Éclipse, which has been ten years in the making. This Canadian-American artist's long-awaited debut combines the jazz violin tradition into the contemporary world with improvisation and subtle composition. Joining Homzy under the rubric of “Aline's étoile magique" are vibraphonist Michael Davidson, guitarist Thom Gil, bassist Dan Fortin and Marito Marques on drums. Special guests are João Frade on ...
Continue ReadingAline’s étoile magique: éclipse
by Mike Jurkovic
Whether 23andMe.com, MyHeritage.com, or ancestry.com can positively divine gypsy blood in award-winning, Canadian violinist Aline Homzy is conceptually and musically neither here nor there. What is important is that she jumps from the gate on her robust debut recording with a zesty momentum which she mightily sustains throughout. Homzy, who has no problem mixing it up with any of Canada's musical vanguard, (guitarist & composer David Occhipinti, creative bassist Andrew Downing, the folky Weather Station, or pianist Amanda ...
Continue ReadingNicky Schrire: Nowhere Girl
by Dan Bilawsky
The search for identity is a sine qua non of any artist's experience and development. But for a musician like Nicky Schrire, it goes much deeper than most. Born in London, raised in South Africa, studying and entering the professional ranks in New York and working back through her initial points of origin before relocating to Toronto in 2020, this noted vocalist-composer has established herself as a globetrotter of the first order. Stylistically, as with geography, Schrire hits multiple points ...
Continue ReadingDan McCarthy: Songs of the Doomed: Some Jaded, Atavistic Freakout
by Dan Bilawsky
Songs of the Doomed is, in essence, the love child of self-stylized journalism and outré composition methodologies. Drawing inspiration from the work of Hunter S. Thompson, vibraphonist Dan McCarthy created the gonzo cypher to help translate some of the maverick's writer's lines into tone rows. The rules of serialism then cemented certain things in place while setting the leader and his bandmates on a course to another universe. Working with a two-guitar quintet, à la mallet great ...
Continue ReadingKarl Silveira: A Porta Aperta
by Dan McClenaghan
Toronto-based trombonist Karl Silveira opens his debut recording, A Porta Aperta, with no ego at all. The disc spins into life with “Nymark Plaza," featuring an arrangement which allows the rhythm section—pianist Chris Pruden, bassist Dan Fortin, with Nico Dann on drums—a good deal of room to stretch out after a brief beginning of understated harmony from the leader, and alto saxophonist Allison Au. The piano, bass and drums ease into an off-center, Andrew Hill-like rumination before the leader re-enters ...
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