CD Review : Poise by François Houle, clarinet and Benoît Delbecq, prepared pianoforte

Afterday Audio  AA2016

©Laurence Svirchev

Poise is François Houle & Benoît Delbecq’s fourth album as a duo, their first being Nancali (1997). From day-one to the present they are mutual mid-readers, recording and sharing stages in multiple ensemble settings over the course of twenty-seven or so years.

The mien of . . . → Read More: CD Review : Poise by François Houle, clarinet and Benoît Delbecq, prepared pianoforte

Ron Samworth: “The Trick Is Not to Lose the Sense of Yourself”

©Laurence Svirchev 2024 (Note This essay, mildly edited, was originally published in the year 2000 in the bulletin of the Jazz Journalists Association).

In the silence of the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, the Talking Pictures concert had already started even though the stage was empty. The concert audiences at . . . → Read More: Ron Samworth: “The Trick Is Not to Lose the Sense of Yourself”

Kartet: Silky Way CD Review

Kartet plays a music that opens doors to the trance states where clarity and mists commingle. Silky Way is Kartet’s seventh CD since its 1991 formation, the tight core from day one being French musicians Guillaume Orti (alto and soprano saxophones), Benoit Delbecq (piano), and Hubert Dupont (bass). In this iteration Samuel . . . → Read More: Kartet: Silky Way CD Review

Sheila Jordan: Comes Love Lost Session 1960

“For reasons that my fate knows best” sings Sheila Jordon as the opening seven words on Comes Love. For reasons known only to the Fates, it took sixty-one years after the recording for those words to be heard. To anyone who knows the distinct articulations of the great vocalists of the . . . → Read More: Sheila Jordan: Comes Love Lost Session 1960

Recoder: the François Houle 4

François Houle has always been an artist who works with a surgeon’s precision but equally with an expansive musical palate. Recoder consists of seven through-composed works by Houle, the co-musicians being Gerry Hemingway, Mark Helias, and Gordon Grdina, and a surprise organizational quirk in the form of eight completely improvised duets. The opening . . . → Read More: Recoder: the François Houle 4

Žiga Koritnik’s Cloud Arrangers: Musical Photo Impressions

©Laurence@Svirchev.com

Introduction

Cloud Arrangers: Musical Photo Impressions is Žiga Koritnik‘s book of music photography, mainly but not exclusively jazz and improvising musicians. He comes from Ljubljana, Slovenia, an ancient cross-roads of Slavic, Germanic, and Romance languages, a small slice of it nested on the western shore of the Adriatic, . . . → Read More: Žiga Koritnik’s Cloud Arrangers: Musical Photo Impressions

Essay: Aquarelle, a CD by Big Band RTS & Samuel Blaser

Aquarelle is a collaboration between the Big Band RTS of Belgrade Serbia and Samuel Blaser, Swiss trombonist and composer. Blaser composed all the titles, the majority of which were arranged by Serbian band members Vladimir Nikolov and Ivan Ilić. RTS stands for “Radio Television Serbia.” The band was formed in 1948 as a . . . → Read More: Essay: Aquarelle, a CD by Big Band RTS & Samuel Blaser

Thelonious Monk: Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960 CD and Movie Review

Photo Courtesy of Arnaud Boubet

On the evening of Monday July 27, 1959, Thelonious Sphere Monk took his working quartet (Charlie Rouse, Sam Jones, Art Taylor) and guest saxophonist Barney Wilen into the Nola Penthouse Sound Studios at 111 W. 57th St., New York City. There he taped eight compositions for . . . → Read More: Thelonious Monk: Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960 CD and Movie Review

Bob Dylan & The Nobel Prize for Literature

“Folk songs transcended the immediate culture” -Bob Dylan

©Laurence@Ssvirchev.com

Give or take a few hundred, two thousand seven hundred years ago there was a blind man who rambled through kingdoms, mountains, and plains, probably swayed to the rhythm of waves on the Mediterranean Sea. He earned his bread, vegetable, . . . → Read More: Bob Dylan & The Nobel Prize for Literature

Moderne: Georg Graewe at the 2016 TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival

Moderne: Georg Graewe at the 2016 TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival

Rimbaud: “il faut être absoluement moderne.”

Richard Feynman: “Poets do not write to be understood” from Six Easy Pieces.

Georg Graewe’s invitation to the 2016 TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival was felicitous: he had not been seen . . . → Read More: Moderne: Georg Graewe at the 2016 TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival