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!