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ITACA: Vortex
by Neri Pollastri
Il quartetto ITACA, protagonista di questa diciassettesima uscita di nusica.org, deve il proprio nome all'incontro dei due paesi d'origine dei suoi componenti. La sua denominazione è infatti l'acronimo di Italia --da cui provengono Nicola Fazzini e Alessandro Fedrigo, le due anime di nusica.org -e Canada--paese degli altri due musicisti, il clarinettista Francois Houle e il batterista Nick Fraser. È in Italia che la formazione ha preso vita, grazie a due residenze del 2016 a Novara Jazz e a ...
Continue ReadingDan Pitt Quintet: Wrongs
by Troy Dostert
Maybe it's a case of false humility, or a stab at irony, but guitarist Dan Pitt seems to prefer self-deprecating album titles. The Toronto-based musician's 2019 trio release, Fundamentally Flawed (Self-Produced), featured bassist Alex Fournier and drummer Nick Fraser, and his current offering, Wrongs, adds saxophonists Naomi McCarroll-Butler and Patrick Smith to the mix. For an artist who actually gets it right most of the time, these releases could have been more accurately named. But we can forgive him that, ...
Continue ReadingLina Allemano Four: Vegetables
by Troy Dostert
Trumpeter Lina Allemano is one of those artists whose boundless creativity requires numerous outlets for its adequate expression. Her Ohrenschmaus trio is a hard-driving unit that possesses a tenacious energy but somehow leaves room for adventitious excursions. The group's Rats and Mice (Lumo Records) was one of 2020's most intriguing releases. She's also an intrepid innovator on her instrument, particularly renowned for using a range of mutes that expand the options available for her artistry, heard to fine effect on ...
Continue ReadingPeripheral Vision: Irrational Revelation And Mutual Humiliation
by Friedrich Kunzmann
Irrational Revelation & Mutual Humiliation sees Peripheral Vision celebrating their outfit's ten-year anniversary of collaboration. During that time, the group has released four studio albums and one live recording (Spectable: Live!, 2011), each time presenting fresh and stirring new music written by the leaders Don Scott and Michael Herring. More than anything though, the Canadian quartet always makes an effort to demonstrate truly synergetic interplay and democratically fashioned tapestries of sound, as much rooted in jazz tradition as in modern ...
Continue ReadingPeripheral Vision: Irrational Revelation And Mutual Humiliation
by Hrayr Attarian
The fifth release of the Canadian quartet Peripheral Vision, the stimulating double album Irrational Revelation & Mutual Humiliation crystalizes the band's creative vision of over a decade into 14 captivating originals. Composers Michael Herring on bass and Don Scott on guitar contributed all the tracks that range from the personal to the socially conscious with a definite abstract and spiritual trait running throughout the intriguing music. A language-barrier problem inspired Scott's whimsical “Schleudern." Opening with drummer Nick Fraser's ...
Continue ReadingRob Clutton Trio: Counsel of Primaries
by Troy Dostert
Bassist Rob Clutton has been a regular presence in the Toronto jazz scene for some time, having begun his recording career in the mid 1990s, subsequently working within a cluster of fellow Canadian improvisers, including efforts with Lina Allemano, Nick Storring, Nick Fraser, and Karen Ng. The latter two are integral components of Counsel of Primaries, a compelling venture into well-crafted music that straddles the line between an abstract chamber aesthetic and jazz-based improvisation. Clutton is credited with ...
Continue ReadingPeripheral Vision: Irrational Revelation And Mutual Humiliation
by Dan McClenaghan
The Toronto-based quartet Peripheral Vision offers up Irrational Revelation and Mutual Humiliation, the group's fifth release in a discography that began in 2014 with Sheer Tyranny Of Will (Step3). The leaders, guitarist Don Scott and bassist Michael Herring, anchor a tight rhythm section with drummer Nick Fraser, rounded out with alto saxophonist Trevor Hogg. Distinctively modern in sound, toe tapping grooves abound, powering ahead with a momentum as in synch as that of Chick Corea's' Elektric Band. Irrational ...
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