Artistic Director Speaks: Snapshot # 5

Artistic Director Speaks: Snapshot - Final Weekend
June 30, 2014
by: Ken Pickering - Artistic Director / Co-Founder
twitter: ken_pickering
photography: Chris Cameron unless otherwise noted.

Today's post is a selective photo journal (and a few choice words) of our final weekend - with some great (and not so great - mine) shots by Chris Cameron and John Orysik from the David Lam Park Jazz Weekend, Ironworks and Performance Works.

This was the final show last night - following Human Feel - UK pianist Alexander Hawkins, Francois Houle and Harris Eisenstadt at the Ironworks Sunday night.  It was their first concert - after one rehearsal - they brought out a book of tunes that included originals by each member - some Steve Lacy and more. Harris and Alex have been playing together for years (intercontinental quartet with Taylor Ho Bynum and Dominic Lash) - Harris and Francois began working together at my suggestion for Francois' 5 + 1 project - tour and Songlines disc. However Francois had never met Alexander. Simply put - they nailed it to the wall. This is a new trio and they should keep this thing going. Super heavy!

They also perform at Performance Works on Canada Day - so don't miss that show! (photo kp)

Hard to believe that the festival is nearly over - however there is still MORE music to be heard. Today (Monday) at Performance Works you can hear Montreal's Trio Jérôme Beaulieu at 1:30pm (2 sets) and tomorrow is our annual Canada Day jazz celebration at Granville Island with music on four stages - notably at PWorks with Cat Toren, Michel Edelin (Paris), The Westerlies (a brass quartet NYC - don't miss their great Songlines debut of Wayne Horvitz tunes), another shot at this unbelievable new trio with Alexander Hawkins (UK), Harris Eisenstadt (NYC) and Francois Houle, plust Quatuor André Lachance and the Mike Allen Quartet - the festivities begin at noon and continue to 11pm!

This dude is one of biggest fans - we call him Big Dave (from Eugene, Oregon) and you can find him at all the hippest jazz / improv shows - Roundhouse, Ironworks, Performance Works. Big Dave is extremely knowledgeable and supportive of the music, both local and international - this man has been visiting the festival for years. It was great to see him stand up and implore us to support our local musicians because they're world class! He knows lots of the musicians and they all (and we) love Big Dave! (photo kp)

Whenever I think of Big Dave - Torsten Müller comes immediately to mind. This version of Distant Relatives with Big Dave's favourite singer - UK's Phil Minton, Dylan van der Schyff - drums and our two new Vancouverites (not really - it just seems like it) here all of June on a great residency program supported by the Swedish Arts Grant Committee - allowed us to engage with Lisa Ullén - piano and Mats Åleklint - trombone, monster musicians both. The sound was superb and the hook up between Minton and Åleklint amazed. One of the tastiest DR gigs yet! Great sound in the room too! (photo kp)

Here we have drummer Michala Ostergaard-Nielsen, myself, Maggi Olin and Chris Cameron outside the Roundhouse on Saturday. Michala and Maggi are with the fantastic Swedish / Danish band David's Angels. (photo John Orysik)

David's Angels - with David Carlsson, Sofie Norling, Michala and Maggi. Wonderful art songs - Nordic style - you might remember Maggi from Ingrid Jensen's band a few years back. I discovered this quartet on CD and then was lucky to hear a gorgeous showcase in Bremen at Jazz Ahead in 2013 that convinced me that they must come to Vancouver. We helped them tour some of the Canadian festivals. This was one of John's favourite shows ... very cool! Super nice people too .. we certainly had fun hanging out a the Ironworks bar on Saturday night. Sofie Norling is a singer to watch for!

We were also treated to a great piano performance from Jon Ballantyne solo - so great to hear this supremely talented, underrated Canadian pianist (based in NYC) on his program of originals, plus Freedom Jazz Dance (Eddie Harris) and Shade of Jade (Joe Henderson) and another great set from French pianist Baptiste Trotignon with tenor saxophonist Mark Turner exhibiting a sweet tone and great control of the upper register. Both shows at the Roundhouse.

Harris Eisenstadt's Golden State subbed in Michael Moore (ICP Orchestra) on clarinet for Nicole Mitchell to great effect along with the awesome Mark Dresser - bass, Sara Schoenbeck - bassoon in support of their recent Songlines album. Not too many improvising bassoonists on the scene that I know about (I do remember Karen Borca) - watching Sara stretch on that unwieldy instrument is a sight and sound to behold. A very unusual chamber jazz ensemble - I really dig this group. Destroy Vancouver followed with Nate Wooley solo and DJ Olive. Nate's solo was a showcase for some extreme extended techniques - totally out. He's also a member of Eisenstadt's Canada Day band in a slightly more conventional jazz oriented context. Quite a night at the Ironworks. Great to team up with VIVO Media Arts.

Tigran - Shadow Theater Trio with Armenian (piano, keys)  Tigran Hamasayan presiding roared at Performance Works - his first appearance (and not the last we hope) at the festival. An intense captivating performance. From piece to piece his touch ranged from super heavy to very delicate. A new kind of fusion.

Sunna Gunnlaugs Trio from Iceland sounded great in the Roundhouse - another pianist with a beautiful touch on the piano - lots of nice feedback on their set. Her recent album Distilled has been spinning constantly in our household.

Chicago cellist (AACM) and TD HSJI leader/conductor Tomeka Reid - here performing with Michel Edelin and Dylan van der Schyff (not in photo).

The TD High School Jazz Intensive was a great success under the helm of Tomeka Reid (and the support of Bob Rebagliati and Flora Ware) - the kids  were challenged to go beyond standard big band repertoire and managed to pull of a Sun Ra tune and Anthony Braxton's - Composition # 134 - not an easy feat - before relaxing into some deep funk grooves.

Flora Ware (coordinator of HSJI, Bob Rebagliati, myself, the legendary Dal Richards and our new festival executive director Mike Forrester.

Human Feel are Chris Speed, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Andrew D'Angelo and Jim Black. This bands roots go back (with us) 25 years. Chris and Jim are from Seattle - around 25 years ago I received a call from Chris telling me they were performing at a small gallery in Gastown (this we pre Glass Slipper etc) and that I should come on down. So I did (along with another 2/3 folks) and the rest is history. At that time they were all completely unknown and in the interim they've all gone on to establish international careers as band leaders and collaborators around the world. Both Jim and Chris cut their teeth in Tim Berne's Blood Count in NYC in the 90's. Human Feel rarely gets back together, but this time they did - and we're happy to have them close out the 10th day of the festival at the Ironworks. This was a show I absolutely had to catch - (meaning I had to miss a fantastic  Cassandra show) in order to keep the cosmos aligned. Felt like a full circle. When I arrived - it was like - thank gawd you're here dude! What a night.

This is French flutist Michel Edelin - playing with cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Dylan van der Schyff for the first time yesterday at the Roundhouse. On Canada day Michel teams up with bassist Clyde Reed and Dylan at Performance Works.

Finally a selfie by Francois Houle, with me and Alexander Hawkins - our grins tell you all you need to know. We wrapped out Ironworks pretty late last night. Hope that Franky's in good shape for recording Lisa Ullén today!

That's it for today - off to Performance Works and a house gig with Phil Minton and Torsten Müller this afternoon and then some rest to get in shape for another long day of great tunes at PerformanceWorks and other GI venues on Canada Day! Its not over until its over - see you there!

Artistic Director Speaks: Snapshot # 4

Artistic Director Speaks: Snapshot - All About Friday
June 28, 2014
by: Ken Pickering - Artistic Director / Co-Founder
twitter: ken_pickering
photography: Chris Cameron unless otherwise noted.

My fave espresso (thankfully they're a sponsor) - at Milano Gastown this time!

Quite unbelievable, but the reality is that the festival is roaring by at whirlwind velocity and this morning finds me sitting at the office at 10am after having downed my morning Americano hit over at our local Milano on 8th Ave. Managed to be awake very early this morning - but while checking mail, twitter, FB I was surprised by a mail from Harris Eisenstadt, up even earlier due to a wake up call from his young son Owen (who is out here with him and Sara).  This post is mostly going to be a photo gallery (Chris Cameron of course) with some impressions of the music I heard (and didn't hear if that's possible) yesterday. Before I do that - please note that today signals the David Lam Park Jazz Weekend (mostly free to the public) - some great music to be heard - low ticket cost for the Roundhouse ($5 per show or $25 for the 6 show package covering entire weekend). Today starting at 1:30pm (until 6pm) we've got the Swedish / Danish quartet David's Angels (beautiful art songs with the incredible voice of Sofie Norling, plus Maggi Olin, David Carlsson and Michala Ostergaard-Nilseen), great NYC based Canadian pianist  Jon Ballantyne playing solo and from France - another fantastic pianist Baptiste Trotignon (2nd festival appearance) in duo with American saxophonist Mark Turner (Fly). Tonight its the aforementioned Harris Eisenstadt's Golden State (you can read my blog post for more info on Harris and Alex Hawkins) and Destroy Vancouver featuring Nate Wooley and DJ Olive at the Ironworks, Tigran - Shadow Theater Trio at Performance Works and Quantic Live with Bassos Rancheros opening at Fortune Sound Club.

Gary Versace and Joel Miller (photo kp)

Yesterday (Friday) I managed to blast out of the office sometime after 1:30pm with the best of intentions to head straight to Performance Works for Joel Miller's Quartet - but I forgot to make the left and ended up on the Cambie Street bridge (not enough coffee or fuel?) heading downtown - and there was no Tom Lee workshop Friday. I eventually made it to PW in time for the last half hour of what appeared to be a  hard swinging show to a near capacity house. People were digging it! Joel Miller is a Montreal treasure (partner of Christine Jensen) and a muscular saxophonist who digs deep into his material. I heard some blues and a quite spectacular synthesis of salsa and Trane - called Salsa Coltrane (that I've got on iTunes, I know Eduardo digs it). His quartet included killing NYC pianist Gary Versace (mostly know for his organ work), bassist Fraser Hollins and drummer Greg Ritchie. The free afternoon shows at Performance Works are our gift to the jazz / improv fan - the highest quality music at no cost making the music accessible to all!

Tyson Naylor, Russell Sholberg, Skye Brooks (photos kp)

Over to the Ironworks (Crosstown Traffic, all you do is slow me down, and I got better things on the other side of town - Hendrix) then back to Performance Works then back to Ironworks ... oops. So managed to get a nice taste of the Tyson Naylor Trio's 5pm set (another free to the public series) at Ironworks Afternoon - always a pleasure to hear these three - with Russell Sholberg and Skye Brooks. Their first album Kosmonauten on Songlines has been out for a couple of years now - I'm hoping that there might be a new one on the horizon. But if you haven't heard it you should. Tyson is a thoroughly modern musician - as a pianist / keyboardist he eschews virtuosity for its own sake - similarly to some of the influences - maybe Misha, Horvitz  - his tenure with songwriters Dan Mangan and Kenton Loewen's the Crackling have given him the opportunity to really focus on the core elements of the song. A great Vancouver talent. His accordion playing is fine too!

Ironworks Afternoon MC - Christine Spinder sports cool red shoes!

The final three bands of the day have already received extended blog posts from your's truly, so I won't say too much more - except that Friday evening was spectacular and as the evening progressed it just got heavier and heavier - and I mean that in the most positive sense. Such a beautiful night of music.

Ambrose Akinmusire

Ambrose Akinmusire was out of the gate at 7:30pm at PWorks - with his first ever performance in Vancouver!  The quintet: Walter Smith - tenor, Sam Harris - piano, Harish Raghavan - bass, Justin Brown - drums. Such a beautiful burnished trumpet sound, Ambrose has enormous talent, originally a west coaster (Oakland), the man has been gaining much traction in the last 2/3 years on the strength of his two Blue Note albums - both worth hearing. The back doors of PWorks were open and the birds on the roof were going crazy - they were totally sitting in. I have no idea if you could hear the birds in the middle of the room, but it was a trip - very Vancouver. Nice set that was only marred by some booming bass in places. Really nice to connect with Ambrose before the show in the green room. Great start to the evening. You can read my previous blog post on Ambrose here.

Darius Jones and Eric Revis

Then back crosstown (Vancouver's newest neighbourhood?) to Ironworks for the Darius Jones & Tar Baby set (Orrin Evans  - piano, Eric Revis - bass, Nasheet Waits - drums). A highly anticipated show with a killer band - very special and stunning actually - the guys in Tar Baby have been incredibly supportive of Darius in playing his music (mostly from Book of Ma'bul on AUM Fidelity) - what a treat to hear these guys together. Darius Jones was preaching - this was music for the spirits. Very soulful! In so many ways their music, though absolutely in the now and of this time, took me back to the 60's avant garde of Shepp, Ayler, Marion Brown that I found so attractive in my youth. That music turned me on! Tar Baby were the perfect foil for his deep alto saxophone sound. Thank you Darius, Orrin, Eric and Nasheet - and Rainbow for working so hard on their tour. Highlight! You can read my previous blog post on Darius here.

Charles Lloyd

So then what? Charles Lloyd Quartet - that's what. Jeezuz what a concert. I'd heard three lovely shows by Charles last year in Molde and John Orysik heard him in Chicago last September with Bill Frisell, but neither of us had heard his new band with Gerald Clayton, Joe Sanders and Gerald Cleaver. The quartet was about ten minutes into their set when I arrived - so I headed straight downstairs and through the Vogue labyrinth to the side of the stage and stood behind Mr. Cleaver for at least 45 minutes. What a great vantage point to hear not only one of my favourite drummers, but to hear the whole band. Justin Brown was curled up right in front of me! That exquisite tone is like liquid tone. Charles Lloyd is most definitely a master (and recognized as such this year by the NEA). This concert really hit a nerve with a lot of people - social media was buzzing. You can read my previous blog post on Charles here.

Tony Wilson with Pugs and Crows

That was it for me - as much as I love our friends in Pugs and Crows I just didn't have it in me to head back to Ironworks for a final set after that profound Charles Lloyd experience. I remembered that the last time I saw Charles Lloyd and Nasheet Waits was back stage at Tim Berne's concert in Molde, Norway last summer!

Artistic Director Speaks: Snapshot # 3

Artistic Director Speaks: Yet Another Snapshot - Mostly Wednesday & Thursday
June 27, 2014
by: Ken Pickering - Artistic Director / Co-Founder
twitter: ken_pickering
photography: Chris Cameron unless otherwise noted.

Axel Dörner, Rudi Mahall, Fredrik Ljungkvist

The Deciders (from Norway, Germany, Sweden) arrived in town and Wednesday was the day they owned Vancouver. Ole Morten Vagan (bassist, leader) and Fredrik Ljungkvist (tenor saxophone, clarinet) began their day at the 1pm workshop at Tom Lee Music Hall. They did some duo playing on both completely free and standard material plus talked at length about how and why they do what they do. The challenges of developing form and a framework without a safety net - the balance between finding a path between the easy and challenging in communicating their musical ideas - finding new ways to think about and perform the music rather than playing standard bebop phrases or relying on what worked yesterday and their need to be present in the now and the thrill of finding that special  moment for the first time. Also discussed were cultural references, their love of the jazz tradition and developing vocabulary. Ole got off a great quip - when talking about the bass players role - "the bass players job description is to never stop playing - ever - unless there's a drum solo". That was in the context of discussing space and silence and when not to play.

Axel Dörner, Fredrik Ljungkvist, Ole Morten Vagan (photo kp)

That evening at 9pm The Deciders (the full quintet) with the addition of Rudi Mahall (clarinets), Axel Dorner (trumpets) and Jon Fålt (drums) delivered a potent energetic and wide ranging performance that was among the freshest of the festival. An all acoustic band, but far from old school, the Deciders deal with that interesting zone between structure and freedom, tension and release, a tactile approach to collective improvisation that works because of the strength of the players and some very interesting material. Each musician is most certainly a virtuoso - and they did play off the stand without a PA - Rudi Mahall and Fredrik Ljungkvist play with velocity and power. Loudly but not too much so. Its always a treat to hear the real sound of the instruments. The tunes were mostly if not all from their first Jazzland disc - We Travel The Airwaves. Forward thinking European jazz / improv bands like the Deciders give the festival a unique flavour that set us apart. Here's my blog post from a couple of weeks back - if you'd like to know more. A highlight of the festival for this listener.

Chris Donnelly (photo kp)

Earlier in the day I caught most of a set by Toronto's Myriad3 - their first performance at the festival - a trio that includes fine pianist Chris Donnelly, Daniel Fortin (bass) and Ernesto Cervini (drums). To my ears their take on the piano trio was overly formal and maybe a bit twee at times,  that said there's no doubting the capabilities of all three musicians and I'm ready to hear more. The audience really enjoyed the set - for me - I'll need to come back to them with some fresh ears and another listen.

Dylan van der Schyff, André Lachance, John Paton, Tony Wilson (photo kp)

At the Ironworks Afternoon Sessions (5pm) we heard BC legend - guitarist Tony Wilson's Flowers for Albert - a project dedicated to the late 60's avant saxophonist Albert Ayler. The band was excellent with Dylan van der Schyff (drums), André Lachance (bass) and the fine young John Paton (tenor sax). The music conjured the spirit of Ayler - relaxed, melodic lines alternating with textural abstractions - Tony evoked the power of Sonny Sharrock in some passages.

Always fun (serious fun) - it was great to connect with Jane Bunnett & Maqueque - her all girl Cuban band. I've know Jane for almost thirty years, so the opportunity to reconnect with her in the dressing room pre-show and catch up on stuff and to meet the band was cool. The show was a rollicking good time and it was also nice to see the doors open at Performance Works, keeping what can be a sweltering room on hot days just a little bit more chilled out.

Maceo Parker

The evening wrapped up with a strong performance (I'm told) that I had to miss by The Nightcrawlers and Dawn Pemberton - and a marathon performance by the always funky Maceo Parker at the Vogue Theatre (that I did catch 45 minutes of). Maceo never fails to impress and he's been performing at the festival for decades. I really dug the Chris Cameron shot from 1993 taken outside the venue with Maceo on Chris' motorcycle that he brought  to the show for Mr. Parker. Great memories!

Antonio Miguel, me, Benedikt Jahnel, Owen Howard (photo: John Orysik)

Three Seconds of Benedikt Jahnel

Thursday brought the expansive Benedikt Jahnel Trio to Performance Works (1:30pm) for a free show.  Yet another fantastic "new generation" piano trio - these guys have two albums out with the latest being Equilibrium on ECM. Loved seeing a nearly full house and even more so almost two sets of extremely beautiful piano trio music. The rhythm section included Spanish bassist Antonio Miguel (tagged with a Canadian name Edmontonio) and Canadian drummer Owen Howard (originally from Edmonton and living in Brooklyn for the past couple of decades). Benedikt (hailing from Germany) was a cut up on stage - delivering lots of great one liners - especially ribbing Antonio about the World Cup. The music ranged from burners to impressionism (ECM style) ballads with precise, crisp drumming from Owen Howard that was a key to the trios success - lots of conversation between Owen and Benedikt (lovely touch) on many of the tunes which built tension and excitement. Shows of this calibre offered free to the public are a gift.

Skye Brooks and Tommy Babin (photo kp)

I only caught the beginning of what promised to be a very interesting late afternoon set of solos from drummer Skye Brooks (Fond of Tigers, Tyson Naylor) and bassist Tommy Babin (Paul Plimley, Benzene) at a nicely attended Ironworks. One doesn't get to hear too many solo shows these days - especially shows that are non-piano oriented. Reminds of the solo 70's era - when so many great players performed solo - from Anthony Braxton and Steve Lacy to Evan Parker and Wadada Leo Smith.  Great to see so many friends out.

Jeff Ballard

The final two shows of the day for me were: Jeff Ballard Trio with Miguel Zénon and Lionel Loueke at Performance Works and Nels Cline and Julian Lage - guitar do at the Ironworks.

Lionel Loueke

The Jeff Ballard show was pretty darned awesome - everyone sounded great on mostly material rolled out from their Okeh album Times Tales as well as a unusual abstracted take on A Very Good Year, a tune (by Irvin Drake) made famous by Frank Sinatra. Wow!  Enjoyed meeting the guys and having a friendly chat with Mr. Ballard. Francois Houle mentioned that their trio sound had similar sonics, albeit less edgy, to Tim Berne and Marc Ducret. It was a helluva smoking show. The new global jazz.

Nels Cline and Julian Lage

Finally Nels Cline and Julian Lage - damn - this show should keep people talking for years to come. Nels (best known for Wilco and his improv projects) eschews his pedals and effects for some straight up jazz guitar in duet with the equally talented Julian Lage (Gary Burton) in a packed to the rafters intimate Ironworks concert. The tunes were primarily originals by both guitarists - with a dedication to Jim Hall and notably a beautiful heart felt version of Jimmy Giuffre's Brief Hesitation. You could hear a  pin drop - John Orysik and myself were like statues standing at the back of the room for the duration. The sound projected perfectly and the 100 minute set reached epic proportions.

That's all for now - we're into Friday afternoon and that means I'm off to my first show of the day - Joel Miller Quartet at Performance Works. Heavy lifting today: Tyson Naylor Trio, Ambrose Akinmusire, Darius Jones and Tar Baby, Charles Lloyd Quartet. You might want to catch Chris Gestrin opening for Mr. Lloyd at the Vogue, Cory Weeds and Harold Mabern at Pyatt Hall, finally Hugh Fraser and VEJI and the Official Jazz Jam at Pat's Pub. Tomorrow signals the David Lam Park Jazz Weekend!

Artistic Director Speaks: Another Snapshot

Artistic Director Speaks: Another Snapshot - Mostly Tuesday
June 26, 2014
by: Ken Pickering - Artistic Director / Co-Founder
twitter: ken_pickering
photography: Chris Cameron unless otherwise noted.

We've hit the mid-way point of the festival and so far so good. What a great vibe! The weather has been amazing and more importantly, by and large the music on our stages is knocking people out - bands have come to play and we've had some dynamite shows. My last post left off at the Bridge Quartet show at Performance Works on Monday,  so that's the point from which I'll carry on. Unfortunately I missed the Arturo Sandoval set that night and I'm sorry I did after getting stellar reports that his show was one of the festival highlights for many folks.

Satoko Fujii New Trio + One

I found myself over at Satoko Fujii's New Trio + One Monday evening (the one being husband and ace trumpeter Natsuki Tamura). Satoko (Tokyo based) has been a regular visitor to Vancouver for a decade and more - having performed in various constellations for example in trio with Jim Black, Mark Dresser or in duo with Carla Kihlstedt. She continues to impress - John Orysik heard her in three different formations at the Chicago Jazz Festival last September (he enjoyed the shows immensely) and was curious as to how this her new band would sound and how it might differ from what he'd already heard. Question answered. The concert was a knockout, with American - Tokyo based bassist Todd Nicholson and drummer Takashi Itani (likened to a Japanese Han Bennink - adding garbage cans and the floor to his percussive arsenal) the band wove through an intense volcanic set that had the audience spellbound. A virtuosic pianist Satoko Fujii is always in the moment - she's a restless searcher in a continual state of renewal and presently one of the most important artists to be reckoned with on the modern jazz scene. On that note, she mentioned that she's sometimes asked if she considers her music jazz - to paraphrase - she quipped "yes of course I consider my music jazz - jazz is always changing - so yes my music is jazz - mainstream jazz!" She loves Vancouver and we love her - her hard core audience in this town continues to grow.

Michael Blake's workshop on Tuesday found him speaking to some of his lengthy history in this music, particularly how he met and dealt with the challenges of the NYC scene upon his arrival there (from Vancouver) in the mid 80's as an emerging big toned tenor saxophonist steeped in the standards. We heard about his sense of being an outsider - not quite fitting in at first, but then beginning to find himself through budding friendships with Medeski, Martin & Wood, Lounge Lizards and Steven Bernstein in particular - the making of his first album Kingdom of Champa (produced by Teo Macero), Slow Poke (the great quartet with Tronzo, Scherr, Wolleson that played low key versions of Neil Young and more), his association with Ben Allison and the Jazz Composers Collective, working with a younger generation of Danes including drummer Kreston Osgood, reconnecting with the Vancouver scene, the Komagata Maru project and his investigation into the music of Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins today. A fascinating workshop.

Torsten Müller and Lisa Ullén (Photo kp)

Next I hit Performance Works - a sublime duet with excellent Swedish (Korean) pianist Lisa Ullén and Canadian (German) bassist Torsten Müller. Lisa is in Vancouver for a Swedish residency program (along with Mats Åleklint) to connect with the local jazz/improvising community. Clearly they shared a rarefied improvisational language - hearing the detail in Torsten's nuanced extended techniques clearly and how that fit perfectly with the music was made possible by (Marc L'Esperance's)  Neumann microphone - placed directly under the bridge of his bass. The amplified sound was natural allowing us to hear his flawless arco technique and beautiful tone. Yes there was poetry in them there sounds.

Then it was John Paton's Soft Morning City - with two guitars - Cole Schmidt and Sam King (no bass), Kevin Elaschuck - trumpet and Scott Wannop - drums,  this band deals with composition, space and texture rather than any extemporized solo blowing. Paton is one of our most talented young saxophonists - and I loved hearing him at length in the Sun Ra Star System earlier in the festival. That's not what you get here - the tunes are lovely and the feel wouldn't be out of place on an ECM record. Very Nordic sounding. Word is there might be a recording in the works soon.

Christian McBride - Christian Sands - Ulysses Owens Jr.

Over to Christian McBride Trio with Ulysses Owens Jr - drums and Christian Sands - piano. Not much to say about this trio that most of us and you don't already know. Performance Works was packed out to capacity and this super heavy trio delivered the straight up goods. They were in a good space, on fire and swinging so hard! Loved their rendition of I Mean You. Superlative - eclipsed the previous night's Jason Marsalis program by a wide margin. Was also very cool to have Cory Weeds in the house to introduce the guys - too bad he didn't bring his horn along - (they asked) - would've been been nice to hear him sit in for a tune!

David Virelles

Off to hear Cuban pianist David Virelles (brought to Toronto by Jane Bunnett, ending up in NYC to study with Henry Threadgill) at Ironworks. Not having heard David play recently made this a highly anticipated gig for me -  also nice to know that he's been making an impact in NYC working with Chris Potter and being cited in the NY Times as one of the next generation pianists to watch. His trio Continuum included young talented bassist Thomas Morgan (Craig Taborn, Jim Black, Samuel Blaser) and Eric McPherson - drums (Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill, Fred Hersch). A supremely talented  trio that rarely works in the traditional  areas associated with the classic jazz piano trio. We heard some of his influences (at least I think I did) shine through from Cecil Taylor to Andrew Hill - building tension through repetition, avoidance of 4/4 and going for odd time signatures, chord clusters in uptempo pieces were some of the devices in play - there was also some lovely Paul Bley'ish open, spare, ballad playing with mallets inside the piano. There's no doubt we'll be hearing more from David Virelles - along with pianists like Craig Taborn or Kris Davis - the next generation of left leaning pianists is in good hands.

King Khan

I didn't make it over to the King Khan & the Shrines show (his second festival performance in recent years) but many of you did (high marks from Rainbow, Alex and Mike). Another one that I wanted to hit - but you can't be everywhere all the time - damn when the cat is described as equal parts James Brown, Sun Ra and Andy Kaufman you can't help but be intrigued. Next time!

Jill Barber (photo: Francois Marchand)

My final stop on Tuesday was at Jill Barber's Vogue show. The semi circle stage setup and the lighting was impressive - it just looked amazing. The band sounded great - Jill's stage presence exuded warmth and confidence and she delivered the songs with aplomb. Although she's far from a jazz singer, Jill has a great ear and a knack for good material - her instincts for composing material that hits a nerve with today's listeners (while solidly rooted in the past) is uncanny. A true romantic, Jill Barber is taking this town by storm!

That's it - I'd hoped to fit Wednesday into this post - but I'm too long winded. Who would've thunk that?

Artistic Director Speaks: Snapshot

Artistic Director Speaks: Snapshot 
Opening Weekend 2014
June 23, 2014
by: Ken Pickering - Artistic Director / Co-Founder
twitter: ken_pickering
photography: Chris Cameron unless otherwise noted.

On a early Monday afternoon the weather seems to turning grey with a few sprinkles of rain. But that's cool - John and I just returned from hearing most of a Performance Works set with the burning Bridge Quartet with Phil Dwyer, Darrell Grant, Tom Wakeling and Alan Jones. Fresh, relaxed, top calibre hard-bop from a band that can hold their own with anyone on the scene. A treat to hear Qualicum's Phil Dwyer in this unfettered context with Oregonian (Cascadia) musicians that he goes back quite a few years with - everyone's great - drummer Alan Jones in particular is a regional treasure that we don't hear enough of on this side of the border. Their fiery version of I Hear a Rhapsody was a highlight.

The Bridge Quartet (photo: John Orysik)

The rest of this post will be a snapshot of our weekend festivities - outdoors and indoors - with a bit of commentary sprinkled in. The Downtown Jazz Weekend was a record setter for us - blessed with two days of unbelievably gorgeous almost tropical (for Vancouver) weather that blew away both artists and audiences alike - along with the new big screen, the bar was raised a few notches. The addition of that big screen at Georgia Stage brought increased audience engagement from patrons listening outside of the best sight lines and in the beer garden - creating massive audience buzz for artists like Ester Rada, Lady and Nomadic Massive.

The Komagata Maru incident of 1914 inspired two very different musical projects - still there was a common thread in personnel that tied the two together - both André Lachance (bass) and Chris Gestrin (piano / keys) were in both bands - Michael Blake quipped that they could be the Funk Brothers of Vancouver.

Neelamjit Dhillon's Komagata Maru (photo: kp)

Neelamjit Dhillon (tabla / sax) fronted a quartet at Performance Works on Saturday afternoon that was completed by drummer Dan Gaucher. Their presentation was a multi-media performance with moving emotionally charged photography from the archival documents of the incident to augment the music and Neel's extensive contextual words between the songs. Shore Committee: Bonds of Ancestral Kinship was beautiful, as was J. Edward Bird: Reflections on Justice. Powerful music- the energy in the capacity room was electric - with the audience erupting spontaneously during the quasi trading fours between Dan's drums and Neel's tabla. Overall a concert that was something more, something much heavier than I'd anticipated - another festival highlight.

Nicole Wray with Lady

Ester Rada

Nomadic Massive

That's what I'm talking about - these two ladies - Nicole Wray (Lady) and Ester Rada set the house of fire, or at least the Georgia Stage was awfully HOT on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Nicole's old school soul stylings and Ester Rada's (Israeli born Ethiopian) reggae tinged, urban world funk was explosive. Montreal's Nomadic Massive took it to overflow! The capacity crowds were shaking it hard! 

Michael Blake's Komagata Maru Blues

Another festival highlight - Michael Blake's Komagata Maru Blues at the Ironworks on Sunday night - incredible music that showcased the improvisatory talents of Vancouver's highly rated jazz community - JP Carter, Ron Samworth (a stalwart throughout the opening weekend - killing performances with Electric Miles, with MB, Film in Music, Hard Rubber), André Lachance, Chris Gestrin, Peggy Lee, Dylan van der Schyff and Neelamjit Dhillon sitting in for one piece.

Susanna

Susanna's concert at the Ironworks was crystalline and pure - with Helge Sten on guitar (Supersilent, John Paul Jones) and Frederik Wallumrod drums  - seriously - I  just adore her voice and those well crafted songs that imprint in the memory in a good way. I was pleased to hear some of my favourites from the Wild Dogs album. Wolf in the Garden anyone? Only a Norwegian would write that song.

Norma Winstone

Norma Winstone / Glauco Venier / Klaus Gesing - this chamber jazz trio features one of the finest vocalists in any genre - UK's Norma Winstone.  So unbelievable - with three superb ECM discs to their credit, this concert was highly anticipated by aficionados and didn't disappoint. Another festival highlight: Friulian folk songs to Fred Neil and Madonna - Norma Winstone tackles a diverse repertoire with an instrument that eschews vibrato - preferring a clear and perfectly enunciated poetic approach that is deeply touching - her wordless vocals work superbly with this music and never irritate. Just an incredible musical conversation that enthralled the audience at Performance Works.

Ellen Brekken / Hedvig Mollestad

Norwegian power trio led by guitarist Hedvig Mollestad tears it up Sunday on the Georgia Stage. As Morgan Childs tweeted - CRUSHING! I heard them in Molde last year and knew what to expect. Check out their discs on Rune Grammofon.

This post is starting to get just a little long - and I know you're not supposed to do that if you want folks to read this stuff. But what the hell - here's a final few shots from the weekend.

Even Helte Hermansen - guitarist with the other Norwegian power trio - Bushman's Revenge (they brought vinyl!) were also ripping Georgia Street to shreds with the amazing Gard Nilssen - drums and Rune Nergaard - bass.

Madison and Bobby McFerrin Sunday night at the Orpheum. I wish I could have stayed for the entire Bobby McFerrin concert! Damn - he really is that good and I just love this project of spirituals - spirityouall indeed. 

Rudresh Mahanthappa's Gamak was crushing it at Performance Works. What a killer band - with Rez Abbasi - guitar, the monster Dan Weiss - drums and Rich Brown - bass. This was a superb performance - a fusion of raga and hard edged jazz - no clear antecedents, but I was reminded of early Oliver Lake with Michael Gregory Jackson, M-Base and Mahavishnu. Looking forward to bearing witness to this band's continued development. I'm sure there's more to come.

No photos: but I'd like to give honourable mentions to the beautiful Sun Trio (from Finland) - exquisite at Performance Works Sunday afternoon. The burnished trumpet sound of Jorma Kalevi Louhivuori was a treat for tired ears. Gorgeous trio music augmented by tasteful electronics. (JP Carter uses similar devices to different ends).

Finally - I wrapped it out last night at the Ironworks with Sun Ra's Star System - organized by drummer Dan Gaucher (Fond of Tigers, Monk's Music, Cat Toren etc). A fantastic assemblage of the younger tip of the local scene - they've got fresh take on Ra's music. Great to hear John Paton, Skye Brooks +++ old guard Tony Wilson anchoring on guitar. This is a band that I'd like to hear a lot more of. Accessible interplanetary jazz for the people.

That's it - more shows to come. Satoko Fujii at Ironworks tonight - also Jason Marsalis at Performance Works.