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!