A previously unissued recording of legendary Canadian pianist Bernie Senensky, featuring saxophonist Bob Mover and trumpeter Sam Noto. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1944, pianist Bernie Senensky has been a stalwart member of the Canadian and international jazz scenes for over 50 years. He has toured with a multitude of his own ensembles over the years, and has played with a diverse array of internationally celebrated jazz artists, from Chet Baker to Moe Koffman, and from Elvin Jones to Pharoah Sanders (to name but a few). Senensky continues to play and tour extensively. Despite his kind and soft-spoken personality, his assertive keyboard style and consummate melodicism has ensconced him as a lynchpin of the current jazz scene.Senensky fits smack dab in the middle of the hard bop tradition. For those looking for a delightful romp through some new tunes in the style of the masters, you could do worse than to try out the Bernie Senensky Quintet. Bernie’s style sparkles with a lightness and playfulness that makes his solos so easy and fun to listen to. You don’t have to reach for anything; it’s all there.
Over the past twenty years, composer/pianist Yves Léveillé has established himself as a key figure on the Quebec jazz scene. Drawing from both contemporary and traditional jazz, classical, and world music, Léveillé’s distinctive musical aesthetic is noteworthy for its refined approach to melody and harmony. Hailed for his ability to suspend time with a musical phrase, Léveillé’s music explores the endless possibilities for interplay between tradition and experimentation. His work always feels poetic and intimately human. Léveillé has recorded nine albums for the Effendi and Atma-Classique labels, all of which have been received enthusiastically by audiences and journalists alike. His latest recording L’échelle du temps isa beautiful collection of eight pieces for piano and string quartet – a unique instrumentation in the world of jazz. For this recording, Léveillé recruited a top-notch ensemble of musicians, all virtuosos on their respective instruments, each with an uncommon capacity for expression and sensitivity. Léveillé and company deftly balance written and improvised material, creating a dynamic sonic world that is at once introspective and energetic. Léveillé has performed throughout America, Europe and China. He has been nominated for multiple awards in his career, and won the Opus Awards for Concert of the Year and Best Jazz Album two years in a row. In September 2018, he was the recipient of the the André Gagnon Award (for instrumental music) from
Toronto trombonist, composer, and University of Toronto educator Karl Silveira‘s debut album A Porta Aperta was recorded over the course of two intensely focused days in July 2021. This recording represents the culmination of a composition project that began in the early days of 2020, one that saw Silveira exploring two distinct aesthetic directions: one contemporary, and one more traditional. As a performer and composer, Silveira draws inspiration from a wide variety of musicians, including Mark Turner, Lennie Tristano, Thelonious Monk, Steve Lehman, and Wayne Shorter. Through intensive listening, he has cultivated a unique approach to composition and improvisation informed by many different aspects of the jazz tradition. Silveira’s writing covers a lot of ground emotionally as well as stylistically: his music can be energetic, introspective, thoughtful, and humorous. As a composer, Silveira’s primary conceptual focus is on the theme of multiplicity. His music often features musicians playing parts that are independent from one another, but that interlock in unexpected ways, presenting the listener with multiple possible focal points. The album title reflects this idea, depending on whether it’s interpreted as a phrase in Latin or in Portuguese (Silveira’s first language.) It can mean either “the open door” (in Latin) or “the door squeezes” (in Portuguese). While an open door can lead you to new places, you may also find yourself needing to shrink yourself in some way in order to fit through.
Is life online in the 21st century a blessing or a curse? One could make a case either way, but if you’re Toronto-based vocalist and songwriter Ori Dagan, one thing is certain: there’s great material to be mined for a lyric, something Dagan always delivers with a wry and agile sense of swing. Click Right Here, praised by John Devenish of JAZZ.FM91 as “fun, provocative, fancy-free and spirited,” and by journalist and author Jeanne Beker as “the perfect balance between modernity and nostalgia,” is Dagan’s first album of original material. It offers a joyful escape from, and timely reflection upon, a world spinning out of control. Themes include online dating, social media, technological troubles and the quest for freedom and equality in a divided world. Dagan’s rich bass-baritone is unmistakable; his irreverent songcraft speaks to the lineage of Nat Cole novelty numbers and the impeccably swinging humor of the late Bob Dorough and Dave Frishberg. His scat singing has the natural, fluid, bop-inflected feel of the best in that idiom. Click Right Here, his most ambitious project to date, is sure to take him to new destinations, onstage and online.
No comments:
Post a Comment