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Dave Sikula
Vancouver Jazz Orchestra: Vancouver Jazz Orchestra Meets Brian Charette
by Pierre Giroux
The Vancouver Jazz Orchestra's debut album arrives with a sense of purpose that feels both timely and reassuringly traditional. Formed to showcase the city's rich pool of jazz musicians while creating a platform for composers and arrangers, the VJO proves itself not through rhetoric but through sound. This release features a confident, well-rehearsed ensemble playing music almost exclusively by Vancouver writers, united here by the invigorating presence of Hammond B3 master Brian Charette. Steve Kaldestad's “Equestrian Interlude" opens ...
Continue ReadingBrian Charette: You Don't Know Jack!
by Pierre Giroux
Brian Charette's release You Don't Know Jack! is a heartfelt acknowledgement of the influence of the legendary organist Jack McDuff upon his career. This began unknowingly when Charette purchased his first Hammond B3 and learned it once belonged to McDuff. In this spirited endeavour, Charette has enlisted several bold-name players, including tenor saxophonist Cory Weeds, guitarist Dave Sikula and drummer John Lee. This quartet delivers a high-energy tribute while injecting a fresh contemporary vibe into the jazz organ tradition.
Continue ReadingNightcrawlers: Get Ready
by Pierre Giroux
The common thread between the Nightcrawlers and nightcrawler earthworms is that they both come out at night, and while the former is at home in a jazz club before a live audience, the latter is feeding on decaying organic material. Some may say that is a distinction without a difference. Nevertheless the latest nightly ritual for the Nightcrawlers is called Get Ready and it was recorded live at Frankie's Jazz Club in Vancouver B.C. This confident sextet is centred around ...
Continue ReadingNightcrawlers: Do You Know A Good Thing?
by Pierre Giroux
A nightcrawler is defined as a member of a fictional subspecies who are born with superhuman abilities. It is hard to imagine this is the definition tenor saxophonist Cory Weeds had in mind when he brought this band back together for a recording session. Possibly, he might have been thinking about the funky organ-based recordings exemplified by the Blue Note (1963) recording entitled Never Let Me Go with organist Shirley Scott, along with tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, conguero Ray Barretto, ...
Continue ReadingJerry Cook Quartet +: A Walk in the Park
by Jack Bowers
While some young lions can hardly wait to enter a recording studio and show the world what they have, a few older cats prefer to wait a while to make sure they get it right the first time. Veteran saxophonist Jerry Cook is one of those cats. Walk in the Park is Cook's first album under his own name. He is in his mid-fifties, and has gigged with some of the best musicians on the scene, especially in western Canada, ...
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