Melissa Pipe Sextet: Of What Remains

Montreal-based multi-reedist Melissa Pipe's artistic vision is fully formed. Her debut recording, Of What Remains, features a sextet which explores darkness with deep tones—Pipe plays baritone sax and bassoon here—by delving into temporality, the shifting of time and being, via chamber music reveries and jazz grooves.

Noir is a word which comes immediately to mind on the disc's opener, "Complainte du vent," and its follow-up, "La part des anges." a pair of somber tunes which may evoke a lone protagonist wandering the midnight streets of an Old World city—someone deep in thought, and sad.

The instrumentation—Pipe's low-toned reeds, Lex French's trumpet, Philippe Cote's tenor sax & bass clarinet—is a rich, murky brew. The beautiful and intricate chamber-like interplay is the way this ensemble rolls. And this is an album which features cover art representing the music perfectly.

"In DueTime" features a jazzy front line which growls, screams and bops, followed by "Ici, ainsi," featuring guest Michael Sundell on contrabassoon. The tune has a light-stepping, positive vibe which rides the rhythm section's "serve-the-music" groove, with drummer Milli Hong supplying a distinctive, understated percussion approach.

Throughout, the bassoons, baritone saxophone and bass clarinet add an element of soul to the sound, an approachable, sympathetic humanity. Pipe's arranging skills are superb. Of What Remains is a cohesive set of sounds, from start to finish. Albums like this—and those on ECM Records- -with a consistent, deftly-crafted mood, are to be cherished. They are also a rarity in the "debut recording" category.

And the bassoon in jazz? Not that common, although 2022 saw bandleader Satoko Fujii employ bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck on Hyaku: One Hundred Dreams (Libra Records), while 2023 introduces us to Montreal's Melissa Pipe, on her excellent Of What Remains.