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Virtuosity has no boundaries - The Globe and Mail -Toronto 2008 |
June 26, 2008
TORONTO JAZZ FESTIVAL
At various locations
in Toronto on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday
In his book Is Jazz Dead? critic Stuart Nicholson makes the argument that much of today's most creative jazz has its roots in European music, not the African-American tradition. Certainly, a number of European musicians have found a way into the music that avoids blue notes and swing-based rhythm entirely, and it would be foolish to presume (as jazz fans once did) that European jazz is but a pale imitation of its American cousin.
Still, the situation is hardly as cut and dried as Nicholson describes.
Take, for example, the Michel Donato Trio, which performed at the Enwave Theatre on Tuesday as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival. The instrumentation - accordion, lightly amplified guitar, double bass - could hardly look less European, and the trio's sound often seemed more suited to a Parisian café than a Manhattan jazz club.
But bassist Donato and guitarist Jon Geary are both Canadian, with impeccable mainstream jazz credentials, making accordion virtuoso Marin Nasturica the group's only European. And while it's true that they brought an eloquent air of melancholy to the Gypsy-tinged Nocturno, the three also played NHOP Blues (a tribute to Danish bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson) as straight bop - and, more to the point, were equally impressive in both styles.
Nordic Connect, a quintet lead by trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, offered a similar conundrum with its set later that evening at the Rex. All five members - Ingrid, her saxophonist sister Christine, pianist Maggi Olin, bassist Mattias Welin and drummer Jon Wikan - have Scandinavian blood, but Swedes Olin and Welin are the only actual Europeans; the Jensens are Canadian, while Wikan is American.
No matter. Nordic Connect's music is the important thing, and while it was possible to catch a whiff of Scandinavian tunefulness in some of the writing, what ultimately stood out was the dynamism and originality of the playing. Despite the occasionally inhospitable environment (that is, the incessant nattering of some of the Rex's younger, more boorish patrons), the quintet ranged from the quiet delicacy of Garden Hour to the full-throttle roar of Travel Fever, at its best evoking the lean, cerebral drive of Miles Davis's classic late-sixties quintet.
Of particular interest was the way both Jensens avoided the showy athleticism often associated with their instruments. Trumpeter Ingrid had a wonderfully warm tone no matter how fast she played, and made impressive, aggressive use of the instrument's lower register. Saxophonist Christine, meanwhile, maintained such a relaxed tone that it was easy to miss how technically demanding some of her solos were; in her playing, ideas mattered more than dazzle.
It was quite the opposite Sunday evening, when the United Alto Summit played Nathan Phillips Square. Featuring four giants of the alto saxophone - Red Holloway, Donald Harrison, Greg Osby, and Bobby Watson - it was essentially an old-school cutting contest, with each of the soloists doing his best to upstage the other.
Not that it was much of a contest. Although each was capable of tossing off the sort of fleet-fingered bebop run that would have left Charlie Parker panting for breath, what ultimately mattered was less a matter of pure technique than musical ingenuity. That's why, despite the fireworks Osby unleashed in his fevered rendition of What's New, his playing was less satisfying than the gritty, vocalized tack offered by Holloway on Do You Know What Love Is. And while Harrison delivered the evening's most technically demanding solo during the closing blues, it was Watson's impishly brilliant, utterly idiosyncratic take on Cantaloupe Island that stole the show.
The summit's format doubtless spurred the four to showier heights than a solo show might have, but it doesn't always take competition to get an alto saxophonist to show off. Edmonton's P. |
| J.D. CONSIDINE |
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