Dhaivat Jani PLUS is the brainchild of Toronto based composer, drummer and tabla player Dhaivat Jani. Originally hailing from Ahmedabad, India – the city of love, fun, food and heat – Dhaivat Jani and his group serve up original contemporary jazz music with a healthy dose of Indian classical music, rock and fluid improvisation. Sum // Parts represents the tally of Jani’s life so far, starting with his life growing up in India, to his migration to Canada, and everything in between: the struggles, the hustle, the joy, the tears, the fights, the victories, the ups, the downs, the spirit, and the smiles. Drawing inspiration from a diverse range of artists including Chris Potter, Brad Mehldau, Led Zeppelin, Trilok Gurtu, Radiohead, Brian Blade, and Tigran Hamasyan, Jani and his group emphasize storytelling and narrative in their performances, taking the audience on a deep musical journey. Day 21 and Peshkaar are driven by their distinctive North Indian rhythms; Unchain and It Might Rain fill the listener’s taste for rock without losing any of their improvisational edge; Kaleidoscope offers a novel listening experience with its polyrhythmic arrangement inspired by African rhythms. Sum // Parts is a beautiful and compelling musical statement from one of the most exciting young voices on the Toronto scene.
On October 15th and 16th, 2020, drummer Daniel Villarreal was joined by guitarist Jeff Parker and bassist Anna Butterss for two afternoons of recording in the backyard of Chicali Outpost in Los Angeles. For all three musicians, it was the first ensemble recording session they’d done in-person since the pandemic locked the world down just seven months prior. Some choice moments from these sessions made it onto Villarreal’s critically-acclaimed 2022 album Panamá 77, but most of the music remained unreleased. Lados B is a deep dive into the high-level spontaneous music made by Villarreal, Parker, and Butterss across those two days in 2020. Villarreal is heard leading the group through various rhythmic modes and structures for improvisation – flow as informed by the Latin funk of Fania Records as it is by the otherworldly humanity trance of Brain Records – while Parker and Butterss draw on their extensive experience playing free together (as heard on Parker's recently-released Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy, and the LA side of Makaya McCraven's 2018 LP Universal Beings) to build harmonic buoys for their spontaneous melodicism. The result is a beautifully vivid illustration of context, creativity, and collective composition from a particularly rich moment in history.
Projet Seb Parent is the eponymous debut album from 24-year-old Montreal drummer Sébastien Parent. While it was written with the rich tradition of big band music in mind, this music contains an eclectic range of stylistic influences from the genres that Parent grew up listening to, including rock, classical, neo-soul, country, trap and bossa nova. Each piece on the album represents a unique period in Parent’s young life. The album was recorded entirely during the depths of the Covid pandemic, between the summer of 2021 and winter of 2022. However, this was not a conventional studio recording: each of the 18 musicians recorded their parts separately, at home in isolation. For some artists, this process would seem impossible due to the lack of realtime communication, but Parent relished the challenge. Parent never intended for the album to be a showcase for his own playing first and foremost. This record is a celebration of 18 unique creative voices assembled together during a trying time. It doesn’t matter that the musicians recorded their parts separately: in fact, that distance only serves to reinforce the power that music has to unite people.
The playfully-titled "Place In The Sun", exudes the transcendent feeling of being in such beautiful natural environs-exudes a sense of spirituality and joyous mystery. The song features many musical keepsakes from Mosby's musical journey, including dreamy Sergio Mendes-style female vocals, a funk and Motown-like grooving rhythm section, and 1970s jazz-fusion musicality with Todd's lyrical but dexterous guitar playing. Todd Mosby is a musical storyteller and a landscape artist. His latest single from the soon to be released album, Land Of Enchantment, is a gorgeous sonic look at the visual, emotive, spiritual interactions Mosby experiences within the New Mexico borders. This tune also pays melodic homage to Tom Scott's "Tom Cat" album which was an early inspiration. A-list musicians include: drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, saxophone/aerophone Tom Scott, bassist Rhonda Smith, keyboard/synth Dapo Torimiro, vocalist Laura Vall, two-time Grammy winning producer Jeff Weber, and Emmy and Grammy-winning engineer Clark Germain.
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