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Browsing: Jazz contemporain

Jazz Off the Record

By Marc Chénard on 27 January 2021 Jazz contemporain

John Hollenbeck Songs You Like a Lot Flexatonic Records 001 Just released on John Hollenbeck’s newly created imprint, this album is the final installment of a trilogy of big band recordings dibe with the HR radio jazz orchestra in Frankfurt. Like his previous efforts, Songs I Like a Lot and Songs We Like a Lot, Hollenbeck has flexed his arranger chops once more, driving the crew from his drum set. The tune selections, it must be noted, were actually chosen by the listening audience who were asked to submit its picks. The selections are decidedly pop with numbers by Joni Mitchell…

David Murray (P. Langlois)

Short Takes from an Extended Festival

By Collectif Jazz on 7 July 2019 Jazz contemporain, Scena Jazz

Suoni per il Popolo June 4-23, 2019 At 19 days, Montreal’s Suoni per il Popolo festival certainly has few rivals, if any, in terms of duration, and artistic scope. Since its inception in 2001, it has dedicated itself to all forms of non-traditional musics, variously labeled as “creative”, “experimental”, “free form”, or whatever one cares to call these, if need be. Jazz, for its part, has always had a place in its program, more specifically from this music’s avant-garde (from Free Jazz to all non-idiomatic practices of improvisation). Yet, its presence has varied from one edition to the next, some…

Musique actuelle: Book Review

By Marc Chénard on 28 May 2019 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Jazz contemporain

A keen observer of the new music scene in Montreal, Réjean Beaucage has taken to the task of demystifying that slightly strange bird known as musique actuelle. His book on this subject, released last February, is but a logical extension of his first one of eight years ago that recounted the history of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec. In close to 200 pages, he embraces a good half a century of musical activity, its alpha point in 1961 with the Semaine de musique actuelle and further manifestations such as the FIMAV, founded in 1983 and still around to this…

Record Roundup From Modern to Contemporary

By Marc Chénard on 3 April 2019 Jazz contemporain, Scena Jazz

In our February jazz section, we discussed the meaning of the above terms in jazz. The three recordings under review serve to illustrate the points made. Effendi Jazz Lab / Quintessence – Effendi FND 152 If “modern” jazz is defined as a music that relies on its own history, this release from Quebec’s Effendi label fits that bill. Pianist Felix Stüssi heads this eight-man unit as guest composer, penning all nine tunes, including three older ones re-arranged. The musical language bears the twin imprints of jazz and blues, with no less than three numbers based on the latter form. The…

QJLQ: Backroom Revolution

By Marc Chénard on 3 April 2019 Interviews, Jazz contemporain, Scena Jazz

In its day, the late 1960s, the Quatuor de Jazz libre du Québec (QJLQ) was the first local band dedicated to the cause of free jazz, the era’s most radical music. Remarkably, it grabbed headlines, joining forces for a while with singer Robert Charlebois, then the leading pop icon. As unlikely as it was, that pop-free jazz encounter was part of the order of the day, when musical genres clashed at will. This episode is but one of many dealt with in a new book (in French) on this trailblazing jazz ensemble. Entitled JAZZ LIBRE et la révolution québécoise: Musique-action,…

(Photo: C. Knudsen)

The Quiet Radical – John Heward (1934-2018)

By Collectif Jazz on 23 November 2018 Jazz contemporain, Scena Jazz, Visual Arts

Artists generally confine their work to one field. Painters and sculptors, for instance, are not so involved in any of the performing arts. These require an audience, which is the raison d’être for all musicians, dancers and actors. Thus, the solitary pursuit of visual art runs counter to the dispositions of stage performers. But there are exceptions, people whose creativity flourish in both worlds. John Heward was one of them. For close to half a century, this full-blooded Montrealer pursued twin careers, one as a visual artist, the other as a musician. In spite of a long career, he was a…

Soprano Hyunah Yu in the middle, flanked by players from Piffaro and Prism, at the premiere of “The Anchoress” at the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia); photo by Pete Checchia/Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

“The Anchoress” – Songs of a Soul in Solitude

By Charles Geyer on 4 November 2018 Art Song, Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Classical, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Interviews, Jazz contemporain, La Scena Online, Music Competition, Musical Theatre, Opera, Theatre, Vocal, World Music

REVIEW: of The Anchoress, a world premiere of a new musical monodrama/song cycle composed by David Serkin Ludwig with text by Katie Ford, performed by soprano Hyunah Yu, accompanied by saxophone quartet PRISM and ancient-instrument ensemble Piffaro; on Wednesday, October 17, at the Perelman Theatre of Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and on Thursday, October 18, at New York City’s DiMenna Center for Classical Music (the latter performance reviewed here); and INTERVIEWS: with composer David Ludwig and poet Katie Ford. The impulse to retreat from the world in search of spiritual insight or purity has manifested throughout human history. Twenty-one centuries of Christianity…

The Monster (baritone Joshua Jeremiah) from Gregg Kallor's Frankenstein Suite; presented by The Angel's Share; photo by Kevin Condon

New York City October Surprises: Lang on the High Line, Kallor in the Catacombs

By Charles Geyer on 31 October 2018 Arts Industry, Chamber Music, Choral, Classical, Classical Music, Contemporary, Education, Jazz contemporain, La Scena Online, Musical Theatre, Musique populaire, Opera, Orchestral, Piano, Scena Arts, Technology, Theatre, Vocal

REVIEW: of works by composers David Lang and Gregg Kallor – The Mile-Long Opera by Lang, performed on the High Line; and sketches from The Frankenstein Suite, plus the monodrama “The Telltale Heart,” by Kallor, performed in the Catacombs of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Some uncanny musical surprises graced unusual locations both above and below New York City street-level during the early part of Halloween month. Here’s a diary retrospective. Going the Extra Mile Beginning at twilight on six consecutive evenings (October 3 through 8; viewed October 7), Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer David Lang and a host of collaborators presented a unique choral…

Photo: Pierre Langlois

Trading Places at the Suoni: Vancouver-Lisbon-Montreal (Encounters of the Free Kind)

By Collectif Jazz on 21 June 2018 Jazz contemporain, Scena Jazz

By Paul Serralheiro Cross-pollination in the arts is always a good thing. An example of this is when musicians from different geographical locations get together to share their experiences in a concert setting. This is especially exciting in improvised music, because you never know what might happen. Such was the case on two different nights at the Suoni per il popolo festival last week. June 12 featured a Lisbon-Montreal encounter at the Casa del popolo, which was the first part of an evening devoted to daring improvisational music (the second part featured Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Haker-Falten’s Texas band The Young Mothers…

Joe McPhee (Photo: Pierre Langlois)

Free Jazz Lives!

By Collectif Jazz on 14 June 2018 Jazz contemporain, Scena Jazz

by Paul Serralheiro At the Suoni per il popolo last week fans were treated to three installments of free jazz performed at the highest level by some senior stellar talents. Free jazz is alive and well even after nearly 60 years. While many of its pioneers, the likes of Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, Paul Bley, and Steve Lacy are no longer with us, some most notable practitioners are very much alive and well. Four of them came by recently at the Sala Rossa. Joe McPhee, 78 years old; Milford Graves, 76; Kahil El’Zabar, 64; David Murray, 63 – are all…

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