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KMJO: Common Ground
by Jack Bowers
KMJO is shorthand for the Kirk MacDonald Jazz Orchestra, and Common Ground is the third recording by the splendid Toronto-based group, following the well-received Deep Shadows (2011) and Family Suite for Large Ensemble (2012). This time around, the orchestra performs compositions by MacDonald arranged by one of Canada's premier co-pilots, Joe Sullivan. The ...
The Brian Dickinson Quintet: The Rhythm Method
by Dan McClenaghan
Toronto-based pianist Brian Dickinson explores the “quintet with a two sax front line" on The Rhythm Method. He takes his lead from the somewhat overlooked pianist/conceptualist Lennie Tristano, who broke the ground with his historic 1949 Capitol Sessions featuring Lee Konitz on alto sax and Warne Marsh on tenor sax; and with his 1956 recordings with ...
Stu Harrison: Volume 1
by Dan McClenaghan
Toronto-based pianist Stu Harrison doesn't boast much of an internet presence, so we'll go with the music: Stu Harrison: Volume I is a celebration of the standard piano trio format, a joyful immersion into ten familiar tunes, beginning with Lerner & Lowe's “The Street where You Live," from My Fair Lady soundtrack. The lively take on ...
Kirk MacDonald: Symmetry
by Edward Blanco
It is no secret that Canada is the home of some of the finest jazz musicins in the world and Toronto-based saxophonist Kirk MacDonald, a long-time active educator, is one of those established stars and veteran of the Canadian jazz scene. He has appeared on over fifty albums as both a sideman and leader and Symmetry, ...
Humphrey Lyttelton: In Canada
by Hrayr Attarian
The most prolific of the British trad jazz revivalists, trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton had a long and varied career both as a musician and a broadcaster. In 1983 Lyttelton lead a Toronto based group on a session for Sackville interpreting eight songs penned by him. In Canada now reissued on Delmark showcases not only Lyttleton's superb trumpet ...
Kirk MacDonald: Symmetry
by Jack Bowers
Following two splendid albums as leader of his own big band (Deep Shadows, Family Suite for Large Jazz Orchestra), Toronto-based saxophonist / educator Kirk MacDonald has returned to a small-group format for Symmetry, the thirteenth recording on which his name has been listed atop the marquee. In this case, however, any member of MacDonald's quintet could ...
Woody Shaw: The Complete Muse Sessions
by John Kelman
The past couple years have been banner ones for reviving the legacy of Woody Shaw, a trumpeter and composer who--emerging in the early '60s on albums by extant jazz stars like Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill, McCoy Tyner and Horace Silver, and contributing to on-the-rise names including Larry Young and Chick Corea--has all-too-often been overlooked. Still, with ...
Buddy Rich: In a Zone of His Own
by Jack Bowers
One of the channels that came with my Dish Network package is Classic Arts Showcase, which is a treasure trove of film clips documenting classical, ballet, folk, pop and other forms of music that one is unlikely to see anywhere else (although some footage is presumably available on YouTube, which more and more seems to encompass ...
Montreal Jazz Festival: Montreal, Canada, June 28-July 7, 2012
by Greg Thomas
Festival International de Jazz de MontréalMontréal, CanadaJune 28-July 7, 2012From the time of the airplane's descent to the airport in Montréal, I knew something was different and perhaps special about this place. Instead of a square or rectangular grid style of suburban housing plots, from my window I saw circular formations of housing, ...
Peter Appleyard: Sophisticated Ladies
by Edward Blanco
Celebrated Canadian vibraphonist Peter Appleyard made some waves on his last instrumental album, revisiting the past in a previously unreleased recording that captured a select group of jazz giants on the historic The Lost 1974 Session (Linus, 2011). Now, this 84 year-old jazz legend focuses on the present and surrounds himself with a phenomenal group of ...
