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Songs of Tales: Life is a Gong Show
by Hrayr Attarian
The collaborative Canadian quartet Song of Tales brings a unique mix of free improvisation and rock accessibility to its debut Life Is A Gong Show. Members of the ensemble have their individual styles yet they share a similar creative vision. All four are accomplished multiinstrumentalists as well as genre benders who draw from a wide range of influences in their work. All these attributes make this release intriguing. The energetic “Non-Fiction" is an otherworldly tune with folkish overtones. ...
Continue ReadingGordon Grdina: Safar-E-Daroon
by Mike Jurkovic
Safar e Daroon germinates from its dark, submerged interiors immediately and immediately brings you into the light. But a light of what? A lover's lamp? A hushed arena? An Australian wildfire? Take your pick and let your mind go. It's all going to happen and does so in spades on oudist Gordon Grdina's second go-round with his associates, The Marrow. As it has been on recent releases such as Gordon Grdina's Nomad Trio> (Skirl, 2020) with pianist Matt ...
Continue ReadingJoining the Dots from Partisans to Joey Berkley
by Nick Davies
Joining the dots here is creating a musical image in the listeners mind rather like a puzzle. You start at one point and finish at another, the image is created. Musically there are improvisers like Rich Halley, a master in Avishai Cohen and the band Partisans each contributing to the final picture. Playlist Partisans “That's Not His Bag" from Nit De Nit (Whirlwind Recordings) 1:58 Hot Heroes “Nogalez" fromDays after the Rodeo (Eclipse Music) 07:54 Gordon Grdina ...
Continue ReadingGordon Grdina, Karl Berger & Jason Kao Hwang, Byron Asher & Colin Hinton
by Maurice Hogue
Vancouver's Gordon Grdina is masterfully adept at guitar and oud, so that flexibility leads to many possibilities for playing opportunities, from jazz and improv settings to his world music group, Haram. This episode finds Grdina opening things up with music from two very recent recordings: Skin and Bones (with Matthew Shipp and Mark Helias) and Cooper's Park with his Quartet (Russ Lossing, Satoshi Takeishi and Oscar Noriega). You'll also hear some state-of-the-art improvisation from violinist Jason Kao Hwang and pianist/vibraphonist ...
Continue ReadingGordon Grdina: Cooper's Park
by Mike Jurkovic
Cooper's Park's eighteen minute centerpiece crashes into energetic existence sounding like someone just remembered to push record while the ensemble was in high flight mid jam. Flailing majestically away, guitarist Gordon Grdina, alto saxophonist/bass clarinetist Oscar Noriega and pianist Russ Lossing are heard early working overtime on every level from solo to tag-team tandem, giving, taking, trading instigating and echoing the rush of melodies that inhabit the track's sprawling, malleable margins. Ignoring musical boundaries comes second nature to these guys ...
Continue ReadingGordon Grdina Quartet: Cooper's Park
by Troy Dostert
Since the release of his first album in 2006, Think Like the Waves (Songlines), Gordon Grdina has sought a musical language that would allow him to incorporate his dual interests in the electric guitar and the oud. It is tempting to view this as an “East meets West" process, wherein Grdina's jazz and rock-infused guitar playing melds somehow with the Arabic influences that typically contextualize oud performance. But that is not entirely accurate, as Grdina's recordings are more likely to ...
Continue ReadingGordon Grdina, Francois Houle, Kenton Loewen, Benoit Delbeq: Ghost Lights
by Neri Pollastri
Titolo decisamente evocativo dei contenuti musicali, quello assegnato a questo CD dal paritetico quartetto franco-canadese, perché il baluginare di suoni all'interno di atmosfere perlopiù soffuse richiama davvero scenari nei quali la luce si manifesta per poi sparire, in cicli mutevoli e cangianti. Ma non si scambi questo Ghost Lights per un lavoro astratto o di atmosfere dilatate e algide: in esso infatti al libero aggregarsi di suoni --specie quelli della chitarra di Gordon Grdina e del pianoforte di ...
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