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Deconstructing Free Jazz
by Robert J. Lewis
In the continuously evolving history of artistic expression, certain movements emerge that challenge the very foundations of our aesthetic sensibilities. In the early and mid-20th century, Expressionism and free jazz were two audacious musics that not only broke all the rules but broke the spirit of many well-intentioned listeners. If the terms are not ...
Improvisation Versus Composition
by Robert J. Lewis
What is it that attracts music lovers to jazz (improvised music)? Is it the loose structure, or the beat or the notes and melodies we have never heard before and will never hear again, unless the performance has been recorded? Or is it the musician's uncanny ability to spontaneously translate feelings that inform the notes into ...
Listening To Music On Its Own Terms Fallacy
by Robert J. Lewis
It is an all-too common complaint. The under-appreciated or ignored composer/songwriter accuses the listener of not engaging with the work 'on its own terms.' It sounds straightforward, but the accusation is packed with all sorts of tangled ideas about what a listener's job is, and whether art has some kind of fixed value.
Opusjazz
by Robert J. Lewis
From her earliest years, pianist Julie Lamontagne was immersed in classical music, but after attending a concert by the great Oliver Jones, she switched to jazz in her mid-to late teens. However, her musical mother tongue and first love remains classical, to which she returns to after a long hiatus, but with a new angle: she ...
Francois Bourassa: Quid Pro Piano
by Robert J. Lewis
François Bourassa 2010 Festival International de Jazz de MontréalChapelle historique du Bon-PasteurMontreal, CanadaJune 30, 2010 When pianist/composer François Bourassa performed in the mid-1980s at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the sound he produced registered like a doubled-up fist of angry, aggressive music that, stylistically, recalled attack dog pugilist Roberto ...
Sylvain Provost: Desirs Demodes
by Robert J. Lewis
Sylvain Provost Désirs Démodés Effendi Records 2009 If you've been among the very best in your chosen field (of jazz piano) over a long career, there will inevitably come a time when what you say carries as much weight as what you play. So when pianist Oliver Jones, ...
Jean Vanasse: Vibraphonist Unsurpassed
by Robert J. Lewis
For most people it is impossible to be equally disposed toward all musical instruments and their generic sound; some immediately resonate, others never, even over an entire lifetime. A musician who manages to win over those previously indifferent or worse--through the power of sound, invention or understanding of the possibilities of the instrument--is to be ranked ...
Voo Doo Scat: Reminiscing
by Robert J. Lewis
It takes no small courage to record a CD of standards, all of which have been recorded hundreds of times by the very best the genre has to offer, including Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington. So if the entry level criterion is you better have something to say and say ...
John Roney: Il Penseroso of the Piano
by Robert J. Lewis
Far too often in jazz, a musician posing as a songwriter decides to immortalize a catchy sequence of notes or simple chord progression by inverting, converting, coloring, varying, flipping and reformulating it. But however dazzling is the musicianship, the acrobatics are not to be confused with composition. Saxophonist Branford Marsalis states unequivocally, “One of the problems ...
Jim Doxas: Beat and Beatitudes
by Robert J. Lewis
Very much in demand, Montreal drummer Jim Doxas divides his time playing with piano great Oliver Jones, the John Roney Trio and Chet Doxas Quartet. Through the power of his startling invention, he makes the case that percussion can be every bit as performative as a lyrical instrument. What distinguishes Doxas' approach to improvisation is that ...
