Award-winning, critically-acclaimed pianist/composer
Francois Bourassa's new album - Number 9, his ninth album of all original
music, dropping on October 27, 2017 on Effendi Records (distributed worldwide
by Naxos), features his Quartet of longtime collaborators,
saxophonist, clarinetist, and flutist André Leroux, bassist Guy Boisvert and drummer
Greg Ritchie. This elite squad of musicians, and their singular telepathy and
esprit de corps, was first revealed to the world on their album, Indefinite Time
(2002). Since that time Bourassa has built significantly on the power, agility
and emotional range that garnered him a JUNO award in 2001 (for his recording,
Live). With the release of Number 9 The Francois Bourassa Quartet stake a claim
as one of the most compelling groups active on the global jazz/improvised music
scene today.
In the album's liner notes, esteemed journalist Howard
Mandel describes Number 9 as offering, "sensuous imagination supported by
sterling technique." Indeed, the compositions crafted by the Montreal-born
Bourassa, empower the members of his Quartet to express themselves to the
fullest extent on this collective journey. Together they explore pure lyricism,
open sonic landscapes, swing, free improvisation, and more - all played with
empathy, and big ears! The members of this ensemble are so dialed in to one
another's instincts and mannerisms that they offer the listener a plethora of
moods, settings and styles that are all indispensable elements of the glorious
entity that is Number 9.
More on the music on Number 9 with Francois Bourassa
(excerpted in part from the album's liner notes by Howard Mandel): Given the
album's title, we of a certain age must wonder if it's a nod to another
four-man band that celebrated variety while maintaining its singular identity.
Does Number 9 refer to the haunting musique concrete collage on the Beatles'
White Album?
"I love 'Revolution 9" by John Lennon,"
acknowledges Bourassa, who is of that age (b. 1959). "It was influenced by
Stockhausen's electronic music." Then are the other names of the opening
track, "Carla and Karlheinz" referring to Bley and Stockhausen?
"I love Carla Bley's music of the early '60s like 'Ictus' and 'Barrage,'
played by Paul Bley," he says. "I also love 'Mantra for two pianos
and electronics' by Karlheinz, among many of his early pieces."
So yes, the first track's jaunty yet oblique line (try
humming it!), as improbable yet inevitable as Eric Dolphy's angular melodies,
or Ornette Coleman's, achieves its affect purposefully, linking two 20th-21st
Century innovators, never mind the gulfs between their worlds or
"styles." They may even conflict - the parts of "Carla and
Karlheinz" fit together unpredictably yet organically. Bourassa's deft, initially dry touch may
imply that of Paul Bley (another Montreal native), but he claims many other
piano modernists, bluesmen and prog rockers, too, as inspirations, and clearly
is steeped in Western European classicism. Consequently, the composer-pianist's
position is not bound or limited, and this Quartet achieves something beyond
genre: Collaborate as only its four members can. No justification necessary for
such an approach - we listen, accept, enjoy and are deepened.
The pleasures provided by this group make it easy. Applying
himself to Bourassa's themes and concepts, Leroux wields his tenor saxophone
masterfully; he's especially sensitive to attack and dynamics, floating the
theme of "5 and Less" (in 5/4, explains Bourassa, " with bars of
3 and 2") gently, but builds to blasting on the darkly epic
"Frozen" (which Bourassa says was titled by "a six-year-old
little girl who was playing with my son when she heard me run through it; maybe
for her it had something to do with the Disney animated movie, but if so I
don't know").
On "C & K," Leroux's flute has the urgency of
a jungle bird, and he uses the clarinet on "11 Beignes" (in 11/4
time) as an instrument of deliberation. He isn't troubled by the odd time
signatures, nor need you be, because Boisvert phrases firmly and gracefully on
his bass, and in flowing concert with drummer Ritchie, who never lets on
there's anything to count, merely rhythms to discern and enhance. He's a
talented, restrained colorist, barely touching his cymbals on the languid
"Past Ich" ("an old melody which I've never used before,"
Bourassa mentions), offsetting the subdued piano vamp and Leroux on soprano
sax.
"Lostage" is a word Bourassa invented, as he says,
"half-English, half-French, meaning loss of control," a state the
quartet depicts but doesn't venture - the lines connecting the four are too
strong. "18 Rue De L'Hotel de Ville" is the address of the Studio du
Quebec in Paris where Bourassa resided for six months in 2015. In this perhaps
most ruminative episode of Number 9, we are privy the strongest, most personal
emotions - the music evokes doubts, regrets, disappointments, fears, sadness,
and also puts them to rest. After that, "11 Beignes" is like a
cat-and-mouse hide-and-seek game set in a maze. Bass clarinet and piano tag
each other, slip off, and return, while bass and drums keep them from straying
far off track.
Ultimately, the songs on Number 9 speak for themselves. The
quartet covers a lot of ground from a complex of perspectives, new details
unveiled with each turn of the ear. Hear Bourassa, Leroux, Boisvert and Ritchie
commune. Return, repeat, replay, dig in . . . a world of remarkable music
awaits you.
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