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?