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Francios Bourassa Quartet: Swirl: Live @ Piccolo
by Dan McClenaghan
Canadian jazz artist Francois Bourassa, a seasoned musician boasting eleven albums of his original music under his name, went into Studio Piccolo, Montreal in July of 2022 to record Swirl. He employs a quartet to realize his artistic vision here, a classic line-up of piano, bass, drums and a saxophonist who doubles on flute. The pianist proves himself here a writer of unorthodox beauty, crafting circuitous tunes full of intricate and unexpected twists and turns. The twelve-plus minute ...
read moreYves Léveillé: L’Échelle du Temps
by Troy Dostert
Although he has yet to achieve substantial acclaim beyond his native Canada, Montreal-based pianist Yves Léveillé has made an accomplished series of albums going back to 1999 with Signal Commun, the first of several releases on Effendi Records. Léveillé's music possesses a strong jazz vocabulary, but the pianist also has an abiding classical temperament. A disc like Phare (Effendi, 2019) offers excellent post-bop jazz, utilizing a conventional quintet. But on L'Échelle du Temps, it's the classical spirit that prevails, with ...
read moreJazzLab Orchestra: Loguslabusmuzikus
by Chris M. Slawecki
Jazzlab Orchestra has been a fixture on the jazz scene in Canada for nearly two decades. Their unique heavy sound features six brass and reed players with a relatively standard piano, bass and drum rhythm section, and they've captured that sound on several standalone recordings and presented it on more than 300 concert stages across North America and Europe. The music on Loguslabusmuzikus, nine new pieces written by bassist Auguste Le Prez under the subtitle “The New Experience: ...
read moreJazzlab Orchestra: Loguslabusmuzikus
by Jack Bowers
The Jazzlab Orchestra, formed in 2004 and based in Montreal, Canada, lies somewhere short of orchestra-size. It's actually an octet—but don't let that deter you; the unison passages are generally robust and pleasing. Jazzlab does play jazz of a sort, music that may best be described as contemporary cerebral. In other words, this is not akin to the Dave Pell or Marty Paich octets; it's more along the lines of Gunther Schuller, Jan Garbarek or William Russo. But even though ...
read moreFrancois Bourassa: L'Impact du Silence
by Dan McClenaghan
Solo piano outings often serve as a baring of the artist's soul. Montreal-based pianist Francois Bourassa does just that on his tenth album, L'impact du Silence. Influenced by the piano artistry of Chick Corea, Brad Mehldau and Bill Evans, Bourassa has concentrated on small ensemble work—trios and quartets—on his previous recordings. Bringing his classical music influences into play, he transforms the blank canvas of silence into a work of introspection, notes chosen with a solemn deliberation which allows the open ...
read morePierre Labbe Sextet: Tromper Eustache
by Dan McClenaghan
Saxophonist Pierre Labbe's Tromper Eusatchesounds as if it was written for a full orchestra, or a heavy metal rock band. He employs a sextet--two saxophones, guitar/piano/bass drums-for a dark, foreboding sound, with dense, near, drone textures on the opener, “Inquie Ouie." “Soup Au Lait" ups the ante on that atmosphere, guitar wailing over a thick, trudging bass/drum beat, saxophones weaving a gritty texture behind it. Then the guitar lays back and a searing sax solo ensues. It's a ...
read moreSamuel Blais/David Liebman: Cycling
by Dan Bilawsky
There's no accounting for how great music comes together on record. Sometimes everything is meticulously laid out for months or years in advance, as artists use planning and implementation to their advantage in the creative process; other times, sparks just fly at spur of the moment sessions. Cycling falls into the latter category. In October of 2012, saxophonist Samuel Blais organized a quartet tour that found him working alongside three of his favorite saxophonists--David Binney, Donny McCaslin, ...
read moreJohn Roney: Preludes
by C. Michael Bailey
Intelligent programming in a jazz release provides its own reward in seasoning the recital contained therein with a thoughtful foundation. Canadian pianist John Roney entitles his recording Preludes and proceeds to populate the disc with exactly that, “Preludes," those brief, often standalone keyboard compositions from the Romantic era. Preludes most often feature a limited number of rhythmic and melodic motifs that recur through the piece. Important in jazz, the prelude is an improvisatory piece of music capably malleable to an ...
read moreAtomic Five: Atomic Five
by Dave Wayne
Intriguing, multi-sectioned compositions carry the day on Atomic 5's eponymously-titled debut CD. Written by pianist Beavan Flanagan, guitarist Nicolas Godmaire and saxophonist Steven Salcedo, the nine originals that comprise Atomic 5 nevertheless have a continuous narrative flow that makes for a musically satisfying and conceptually fresh listen. The playing throughout is sharp and nimble, though drummer Aaron Landsberg stands out as a real spark plug. His dexterous playing gets exuberant at just the right times. He's no slouch with the ...
read moreJazzlab: Octo Portraits
by Raul d'Gama Rose
There is much more to Jazzlab's molten Octo Portraits than a sense that the ensemble is so finely attuned to each other as to create works of timbral excellence and nuanced textures. The outstanding voices of the individual instrumentalists are not hidden in this bubbling liquefaction, beaming radiantly through the crack in the door each time it is opened for soloing--which is every once in awhile. The result is an enriched mixture of programmatic and improvised music of the highest ...
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