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Mark Godfrey: Square Peg
by Dan McClenaghan
Mark Godfrey has done his fair share of commuting in furtherance of his jazz career. Toronto--his home base--to New York has been a regular journey. The near five hundred mile trip would certainly be shorter (timewise) via airplane. But the decision was made to roll in a 2006 Dodge Caravan, due to the fact (we can guess) that an acoustic bass is a bulky yet fragile beast, susceptible to in transit damages. In your own vehicle, you can treat the ...
Continue ReadingNick Fraser / Kris Davis / Tony Malaby: Zoning
by Jack Bowers
What can be said in a positive vein about Zoning, an essentially inward-leaning and dissonant exercise in avant-garde or “free" jazz by drummer Nick Fraser, pianist Kris Davis and saxophonist Tony Malaby (supported on three numbers by tenor Ingrid Laubrock and trumpeter Lina Allemano). Well, it is music, of a sort—and it is (largely) improvised, or appears to be, which places it somewhere in the inclusive jazz sphere. And despite its often chaotic and generally unmelodious contours, the music's interpreters ...
Continue ReadingNick Fraser - Kris Davis - Tony Malaby (with Ingrid Laubrock & Lina Allemano): Zoning
by Troy Dostert
Nate Cross' Astral Spirits imprint has steadily become one of the go-to options for fans of adventurous music. With over a hundred releases in its five-year existence, including well over thirty in 2019 alone, the label has maintained an impressive commitment to both quality and quantity. However, an output this extensive can result in a few worthy releases falling through the cracks. Hopefully, that won't happen to Zoning, a particularly strong record which features the collective talents of drummer Nick ...
Continue ReadingPeripheral Vision: More Songs About Error And Shame
by Friedrich Kunzmann
The first half of 2018 sees the Toronto Jazz-scene bursting with fresh sound and innovation, bringing new and exciting nuances to what appears to be today's Status Quo. After the architecturally intense exploration that was saxophonist Gordon Hyland's Never Die!, by his group Living Fossil in February, the object of this review exposes shared similarities with the latter in its compositional approach. On Peripheral Vision's More Songs About Error And Shame, Toronto-based leaders Michael Herring and Don Scott establish a ...
Continue ReadingPeripheral Vision: More Songs About Error And Shame
by Anya Wassenberg
More Songs About Error And Shame by Toronto's Peripheral Vision offers sophisticated, melodic modern jazz with an esoteric bent and eclectic tastes. Co-founders Michael Herring and Don Scott are joined by Nick Fraser on drums and Trevor Hogg on tenor sax in seven original tracks that combine elements of contemporary jazz with a garage band vibe and a groovy Sixties flavor of cool that includes swinging guitars and a strong rhythmic pulse. With tracks titles like “And the ...
Continue ReadingPeripheral Vision: More Songs About Error And Shame
by Dan McClenaghan
The Juno Award-nominated jazz quartet, Peripheral Vision, delivers a spontaneous set of modernistic music on More Songs About Error And Shame. The sound has a live-in-the-studio freshness, with studio tweakings to embellish their forward-leaning approach. The group's appraoch is a brash and metallic, a mesh of the teaming of Trevor Hogg's sharp toned tenor sax with the luminescence of Don Scott's resonant electric guitar. The Canadian quartet shares a decade-long history of live performance that translates to a ...
Continue ReadingNick Fraser: Is Life Long?
by Mark Corroto
There is a pulse, maybe better stated a pace, drummer Nick Fraser is partial to on his recording Is Life Long?. His quartet, originally named Towns And Villages, is assembled around a concept. It is a two string (bass and cello), saxophone, and drum outfit. The music trawls an insouciant path through six original compositions. Being that it is the quartet's fourth recording, they must be doing something right.Where another drummer might be eager to display labor-intensive feats ...
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