Because of the pandemic, there was so much uncertainty about even being in a room together.
—Andrés Vial
Lyricism is the order of the day on When Is Ancient?, the sixth album by Montreal pianist-composer Andrés Vial, releasing in the U.S. September 30 on his own Chromatic Audio label. Recorded with a trio featuring bassist Martin Heslop and drummer Tommy Crane, the album is an expressive affair packed with rumination, sensitive interplay, and stunning melody. Initially released as a streaming-only album on December 31, 2020, When Is Ancient? has already garnered considerable acclaim, including a 2022 Juno Award (the Canadian Grammy) nomination for Jazz Album of the Year.
As its June 2020 session date might suggest, it’s a small miracle that When Is Ancient? happened at all. Both Heslop (Kevin Dean, Devin Brahja Waldman) and Crane (Aaron Parks, Melissa Aldana) are old friends of Vial’s, but the three had never performed together before. “Martin, who I’ve played with for 15 years, was moving to Toronto to go to law school and work at a legal clinic for refugees. I wanted to cut a record with him before he left town,” the pianist recalls. “Tommy had moved to Montreal a few years before, but he was always on tour or teaching in Italy.”
The COVID-19 pandemic kept all three of them in the city, of course, but hardly encouraged a group effort. The session was scheduled, then delayed several times over. “There was so much uncertainty about even being in a room together,” Vial says.
What they finally captured once together is well worth the effort. The somber tones of “La Nuit Est Un Soleil Voilé” and “Spring 2020” carry a powerful resonance, but it finds a complement in the understated joy of “Jabok” and “Mister Mystery.” This shadows-and-light balance is also studded with idiosyncratic gems, such as the Afro-Latin meditation “Senderos” and the surprisingly down-home “The Map Is Not the Territory.”
There are some themes running across When Is Ancient?, among them the musicians’ shared intensity after months of silence and a marking of lost time (“Spring 2020”) and people (the title track was inspired by the deaths of McCoy Tyner and Harold Mabern, along with Keith Jarrett’s loss of performing ability). The album’s true throughline, however, is its lyrical richness. Not one track is untouched by the trio’s confluence of melody, grace, and uncommon delicacy that keeps calling out to the listener well after the last notes have faded.
Andrés Vial was born January 25, 1979 in Montreal. From his first memories, Andrés was seated at the piano of his father, an accomplished amateur musician, making up little songs. He eventually began taking classical lessons, also learning pop and Latin records that he heard around the house. But when he was 11 his mother came home with a copy of John Coltrane’s Blue Train, which altered his trajectory forever.
Andrés joined his middle school and high school jazz bands, then enrolled in the New School in New York, where his teachers included Hal Galper, Joe Chambers, Bill Charlap, and Buster Williams. After graduation, he returned to Montreal and became a full-time musician playing jazz, funk, hip-hop, and reggae (and writing commissions for films and contemporary dance). He also became a member of the city’s Kalmunity Vibe Collective, a grassroots assemblage that welcomes players and ideas from black musical forms all over the world. Vial had the opportunity as well to perform with visiting musicians including Ingrid Jensen, Michael Blake, Greg Cohen, Bassekou Kouyate, and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble.
Members of Kalmunity, including singer Malika Tirolien, appeared on Vial’s debut recording, 2007’s Trio/Septet. He followed it up with 2011’s The Infinite Field, a minimalist effort on which he played piano and vibraphone. While these two albums featured all original compositions, the next, conception/oblivion(2015), concentrated on a variety of American and Argentine composers, and Sphereology Volume 1 (2018) explored the music of Thelonious Monk. Vial the composer re-emerged with 2019’s Gang of Three (a trio record with bassist Dezron Douglas and Eric McPherson) and 2021’s Music for Film and Contemporary Dance Vol. 1 (a collection of Vial’s commissioned works). He continues in that vein with When Is Ancient?
Andrés Vial will be performing with his trio at GigSpace, Ottawa, ON, Sat. 10/1; with his quintet at l’OFF Jazz Festival in Montreal, Thurs. 10/13; and with the Joe Chambers/Andrés Vial Ensemble at l/OFF Jazz Festival, Sat. 10/15.
As its June 2020 session date might suggest, it’s a small miracle that When Is Ancient? happened at all. Both Heslop (Kevin Dean, Devin Brahja Waldman) and Crane (Aaron Parks, Melissa Aldana) are old friends of Vial’s, but the three had never performed together before. “Martin, who I’ve played with for 15 years, was moving to Toronto to go to law school and work at a legal clinic for refugees. I wanted to cut a record with him before he left town,” the pianist recalls. “Tommy had moved to Montreal a few years before, but he was always on tour or teaching in Italy.”
The COVID-19 pandemic kept all three of them in the city, of course, but hardly encouraged a group effort. The session was scheduled, then delayed several times over. “There was so much uncertainty about even being in a room together,” Vial says.
What they finally captured once together is well worth the effort. The somber tones of “La Nuit Est Un Soleil Voilé” and “Spring 2020” carry a powerful resonance, but it finds a complement in the understated joy of “Jabok” and “Mister Mystery.” This shadows-and-light balance is also studded with idiosyncratic gems, such as the Afro-Latin meditation “Senderos” and the surprisingly down-home “The Map Is Not the Territory.”
There are some themes running across When Is Ancient?, among them the musicians’ shared intensity after months of silence and a marking of lost time (“Spring 2020”) and people (the title track was inspired by the deaths of McCoy Tyner and Harold Mabern, along with Keith Jarrett’s loss of performing ability). The album’s true throughline, however, is its lyrical richness. Not one track is untouched by the trio’s confluence of melody, grace, and uncommon delicacy that keeps calling out to the listener well after the last notes have faded.
Andrés Vial was born January 25, 1979 in Montreal. From his first memories, Andrés was seated at the piano of his father, an accomplished amateur musician, making up little songs. He eventually began taking classical lessons, also learning pop and Latin records that he heard around the house. But when he was 11 his mother came home with a copy of John Coltrane’s Blue Train, which altered his trajectory forever.
Andrés joined his middle school and high school jazz bands, then enrolled in the New School in New York, where his teachers included Hal Galper, Joe Chambers, Bill Charlap, and Buster Williams. After graduation, he returned to Montreal and became a full-time musician playing jazz, funk, hip-hop, and reggae (and writing commissions for films and contemporary dance). He also became a member of the city’s Kalmunity Vibe Collective, a grassroots assemblage that welcomes players and ideas from black musical forms all over the world. Vial had the opportunity as well to perform with visiting musicians including Ingrid Jensen, Michael Blake, Greg Cohen, Bassekou Kouyate, and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble.
Members of Kalmunity, including singer Malika Tirolien, appeared on Vial’s debut recording, 2007’s Trio/Septet. He followed it up with 2011’s The Infinite Field, a minimalist effort on which he played piano and vibraphone. While these two albums featured all original compositions, the next, conception/oblivion(2015), concentrated on a variety of American and Argentine composers, and Sphereology Volume 1 (2018) explored the music of Thelonious Monk. Vial the composer re-emerged with 2019’s Gang of Three (a trio record with bassist Dezron Douglas and Eric McPherson) and 2021’s Music for Film and Contemporary Dance Vol. 1 (a collection of Vial’s commissioned works). He continues in that vein with When Is Ancient?
Andrés Vial will be performing with his trio at GigSpace, Ottawa, ON, Sat. 10/1; with his quintet at l’OFF Jazz Festival in Montreal, Thurs. 10/13; and with the Joe Chambers/Andrés Vial Ensemble at l/OFF Jazz Festival, Sat. 10/15.
For more information contact Terri Hinte Publicity.
