My first death threat came when I was 23 years old. I was a naive tyro cartoonist for the Vancouver Province—a morning daily. Several more threats of bodily harm were directed my way, ceasing on the west coast when I joined the Toronto Star. Still more threats came at me there (not all from the […]
Graham Pilsworth
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Jazz Fest review: The Fred Hersch Trio
New Yorker described “poet of a pianist” Fred Hersch must have wondered if he’d ever get to play the closer for this year’s Atlantic Jazz Festival. Fog had enshrouded Stanfield International Airport, diverting both Hersch and his bassist, Drew Gress, both flying in from NYC, to Bangor Maine. When a window of opportunity arose enabling […]
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Jazz Fest review: The Bell Orchestre
Lanky Richard Reed Parry (double bass) led bandmates Sarah Neufeld (violin), Stefan Schneider (drums), Pietro Amato (French horn), Colin Stetson (French horn, clarinet, bass and tenor saxes), Kaveh Nabatian (trumpet and melodica) and Mike Feuerstack (lap steel guitar) onstage at St Matt’s United Church to waves of energetic applause from a large, astonishingly mixed-age throng. […]
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Jazz Fest review: Dreamsploitation
Lean bespectacled 24-year old Halifax musician Chuck Blazevic slipped quietly into St Matt’s United Church last evening, 20 or so minutes ahead of showtime. He ambled purposefully up a side aisle, pulled the cowl of his hoodie over his peak cap and turned off into a room flanking the stage area. On stage, a stand […]
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Jazz Fest review: The Bad Plus
NYC’s The Bad Plus (the deadpan irony a clever joke) incite extreme diversions of opinion. Give you an example. In the elevator descending from the eighth-floor Baronet Ballroom in the Delta Halifax, one elated concert attendee, face creased in a huge grin, exclaimed, “That was great!” From somewhere back of the crowded car, a weary […]
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Jazz Fest review: Love Upstream with Erin Costelo
Who approached who really doesn’t matter. The fact that it happened and a large crowd in the Jazz Tent yesterday afternoon got to listen to and thoroughly enjoy Erin Costelo with Love Upstream was, well, beautiful. This was a playback for me of a nervy idea: namely for a group of Costelo’s finely wrought original songs to be rearranged by members of Love Upstream. Gyrated into fresh shapes, textures and colours, Costelo, bravely would then perform these new settings. With the band. In concert. I luckily got to hear that. Bowled me over then. Bowled me over again hearing those
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Jazz Fest review: Haggai Cohen Milo: The Secret Music Project
Friends, the secret of The Secret Music Project can now be revealed. Last night in the Sonic Temple’s intimate surroundings, Israeli composer/bassist/improvisor Haggai Cohen Milo revealed over a set of ridiculously infectious music that he’s in the soul restoration business. Yessiree. He is! Bandmates, exquisitely talented Spanish pianist Alex Conde Carrasco, Keita Ogawa, a flash-hand […]
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Jazz Fest review: Spontaneous Combustion Orchestra
Music scholars have concluded that The Beatles were greater than the sum of their parts. Unfortunately, last night’s Spontaneous Combustion Orchestra proved that the parts were greater than the whole. One musician seated nearby commented, “It’s trolling for moments.” As a presentation argument for spontaneously improvising chamber orchestras, the concept has encumbrances. And as the experiment unfolded, that became starkly apparent. On the Neptune Studio Theatre stage, each of the previous (and largely successful) Spontaneous Combustion units: guitars, strings and reed instruments with percussion, were positioned at ominous distances, orphaning them. Whereas the small groups thrived, thanks to close proximity
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Jazz Fest review: John Abercrombie Quartet
John Abercrombie found himself announced last night as a “living legend.” This vexed him. Made it sound as if he was near “off to higher gigging service in a tony celestial supper club.” Surely not. Then again, when he, a square-bodied, stiff-jointed, stiff-necked, grandpa-esque guy, shuffled on stage with his bandmates–to a man, seasoned veterans […]
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Jazz Fest review: V16
Stylishly boho in a loose-fitting dark, patterned shirt and soigne red scarf, Mister V16 himself stood behind a drum kit to address an anticipatory audience thronging the Festival Tent last night. Said Jerry Granelli, “We’re gonna play some music off our new CD (V16:Vancouver ’08)–a beat- and music we haven’t heard either.” Big laugh. Brandishing […]
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Jazz Fest review: Felix Stussi 5 with Ray Anderson
Swiss-born composer/bandleader/pianist Felix Stussi took the Delta Halifax’s Baronet Ballroom bandstand last night accompanied by a crack cadre of exceptional young Quebec musicians: Alexandre Cote and Bruno Lamarche on saxes, Clinton Ryder on double bass and drummer Isaiah Ceccarelli. Slide trombonist Ray Anderson was in from NYC. In a quote, Stussi said: “I have always […]
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Jazz Fest review: Spontaneous Combustion: strings
Imagine, if just for a moment, how difficult it must be. Sure. You know you’re a hot, go-to musician. Heck, you’ve been matched up with three other hotshot players by one of the very best himself, Jerry Granelli. You’ve chatted with the other guys. Good guys. Ya instantly liked them. The potential’s there for a […]