Glances in the Rear-View Mirror

In an effort to keep tabs on a bunch of interesting stuff that’s happened at ST during the past few weeks, I’m offering up a few snapshots. I wrote these two last week but haven’t got around to editing and posting them before now:

Wednesday, 12 March

Arthur Bull, formerly of Toronto during the Music Gallery’s heyday, has long since set up shop in Digby Neck, NS. Luckily, he contacted me shortly after I’d opened ST while planning a Toronto trip and, since the program was still skeletal then, I was able to offer him a gig without any hassle. What luck! This guy is a real improviser’s improviser, and deals with the situation with a minimum of surface gloss and maximum ideas-per-minute. Since his original, exceptional trio with Nick Fraser and David Prentice in September, Arthur has been back twice, and this time with the ever-provocative pair of Nick and guitarist and ST regular, Eric Chenaux. Their music unfolded at a beautifully measured pace and, while each player was clearly taking the others' cues throughout, one could parse each player’s discrete musical ideas as they were introduced, developed, and wrapped up. Still, the lushness of Eric’s guitar and Nick’s exquisite snare attack assured that this was more than a musical chess match. To follow, March/April residents, Ronda Rindone’s Quorum, had a busy set featuring two-bassists (Aaron Lumley and Rob Clutton) that was lively enough, but no match for the subtlety brought to bear by Arthur, Eric, and Nick.

Thursday, 13 March

It was terrific to host two old friends from Montréal, gambist Pierre-Yves Martel (picture) and trumpeter Gordon Allen, who were joined by bassist Rob Clutton for a delicate and extremely thoughtful trio improvisation. It was lovely to hear Pierre-Yves and Rob hook up in actual or fanciful counterpoint, with plenty of little rhythmic and harmonic interplay, while Gordon (as he so often does) cleaved beautifully to his own breathy, almost ethereal furrow. The silences that permeated the set’s texture were an excellent contrast to the opening set, an in-concert development of their Piano Music collaboration by alto saxophonist Evan Shaw and drummer Jean Martin. Jean and Evan played extroverted duet music that kept an ongoing and productive connection with jazz tradition, without ever referring to it overtly. Jean’s capacity for simultaneous subtlety and ebullience, so often a key factor in any ensemble in which he plays, was certainly in evidence, but was muted a bit by his fumbling with an MP3 player to trigger saxophone-choir samples that is a hallmark of the duo’s recorded work. Unfortunately, each such moment brought the energy level of the music down considerably. Still, it was as-ever wonderful to hear these two deep thinker/feelers dig into long, jagged, superbly rhythmic streams of music for good chunks of their generally excellent set.