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Nicola Miller: Living Things
by Mike Jurkovic
It is more than fair enough to say that Nova Scotia-based saxophonist/composer Nicola Miller's vision and understanding of things is peppered with oddly curious axioms and an astute ear for the undertow that pulls us all further out to sea or crashing into the breakers. At least that is what Living Things, Miller's first bold statement as a leader leads one to believe given the odd shapes and delineations that such serpentine wanderings of the lead-off “Barge"--its slippery, open ...
Continue ReadingFarahser: Flatland
by John Chacona
As Farahser, Torontonians John Kameel Farah, a classically trained pianist, and drummer/producer Nick Fraser roam the frontier where improvised and notated music meet. It is well traveled territory these days, but on their eponymous release these sonic explorers find a borderland between memory and legend, imagination and investigation. Echoes of the Palestine of Farah's ancestors ripple through his spare, often interrupted modal melodies like the faded details of an antique photograph. Fraser's rustles and shivers emerge and recede with the ...
Continue ReadingJohn Kameel Farah & Nick Fraser: Farahser
by Glenn Astarita
On their entrancing debut duo outing Farahser-- Toronto/Berlin-based keyboardist and composer John Kameel Farah and eminent Toronto area drummer Nick Fraser--engage in a thrillingly unpredictable and genre-defying musical conversation. Drawing upon their respective backgrounds in classical, jazz, and experimental music, Farah and Fraser craft a series of spontaneous compositions which distort the lines between structure and improvisation due to acoustic and electronic textures, cerebral complexity and visceral emotion. The duo has constructed a work of striking ...
Continue ReadingDan Pitt Trio: Stages
by Dan McClenaghan
Shades of Link Ray's “Rumble," from 1958. Shades of Dick Dale's 1963 hit “Miserlou." Shades of every guitar/bass/drum band that has ever set up in someone's garage in an attempt to work on their hard rock and roll chops, trying to become the next heavy metal band to hit the charts. Canadian guitarist Dan Pitt rolls with the guitar trio format on his Stages, though his trio is a good deal more intricate and musically skilled than the ...
Continue ReadingLina Allemano Four: Pipe Dream
by Troy Dostert
Recorded in the winter of 2021 during the heart of the COVID pandemic, it is understandable that Pipe Dream, the latest offering from the Lina Allemano Four, has an air of ominous foreboding. Indeed, much of the album is devoted to the “Plague Diaries," a suite inspired by some of the darker themes of that period (with song titles like “Hunger and Murder" and “Doom and Doomer" giving an indication of what is in store). But like all of Allemano's ...
Continue ReadingThe Brodie West Quintet: Meadow Of Dreams
by Chris May
It may or may not be because of a recent series of programmes about Impressionist art on British television, combined with a passing knowledge of intoxicants, but for some reason the album title Meadow Of Dreams suggests one of Claude Monet's paintings of a field of poppies. As it happens, Monet's poppy paintings are a good fit for Toronto-based alto saxophonist Brodie West's sophomore album with his acoustic quintet. The music is beautiful, sunny, uncorrupted—and a million ...
Continue ReadingNick Fraser Quintet, Paula Shocron & Jörg Schippa
by Maurice Hogue
Toronto's noted drummer, Nick Fraser, kindly shared a preview track from If There Were No Opposites back in June as part of the 1200th show, and now the full album is ready to go, released by the much-respected Hat Hut label. Nick's got his usual crew of Tony Malaby, Rob Clutton and Andrew Downing, and the music they make is original and worthwhile. Other new releases opened for the first time include Chicago cellist Ishmael Ali, German guitarist Joerg Schippa ...
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