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Dan Costa was born in London to Portuguese and Italian parents. He has lived in eight countries. I mention this, because Dan is somewhat of a troubadour, frequently travelling from country to country and always absorbing the musical influences. He listens carefully, interprets, and then takes it to a new level entirely, and this
brings something essential to his music. It is not so much a sense of place but a sense of the world at large and its limitless possibilities. Nowhere is this more evident than in his second album ‘Skyness’. Check it out on the streaming platforms, and like me, you will return again and again. It is rare to encounter music with such heart-stopping beauty.
Costa is an interesting interview subject, partly because he is so well travelled, but also because he is expansive and erudite. In fact, he speaks eight languages and judging by his English, many fluently. He is an internationalist and an environmentalist. He is also an advocate for animal rights. All of the above illustrates the point that a good musician is not just about the notes. Character and lived experience are the ‘finishing school. This is refreshing to encounter.
Costa is deeply influenced by Brazilian Jazz, but I can detect other Latin influences like Flamenco and Fado. He is a thoughtful player who makes every note count. His voicings and time feel, especially at the slower tempos, are impeccable. It is no wonder that such fulsome praise is being heaped upon him by the likes of Jazziz, Jazz Word, Jazz Weekly, Musica Brasiliero, New York Music Daily etc.
And his collaborations with the likes of Randy Brecker, Seamus Blake, Hermeto Pascoal and the wonderful Ivan Lins have crafted wonder upon wonder. He creates such open vehicles; composed and arranged so as to invite maximum participation. The musicians he has worked with are quick to say so and their praise keeps coming.
His prior recorded output has set him on an interesting journey, so his newest album ‘Beams’ will be eagerly anticipated. It is about light in its different forms. With him on ‘Beams’ his core trio, John Patitucci and Paulinho Vicente, with guests Mike Stern, Dave Douglas, Dave Liebman, Anne Bocatto, Hermeto Pascoal and Teco Cardoso. The album teaser is posted here and I can’t wait to hear the rest of it. For information on albums and tours, go to his website www.dancosta.net
JL32 Good evening Dan. Thank you for giving me a few hours out of your busy schedule. As a traveller myself, I must say that I am impressed by how much of the planet you have covered to date.
DC Hi John, nice to connect, Yes, I have lived in eight countries and travelled to around 60 as a musician or tourist, but there is still a lot to see. It is an interesting world and I hope to live in more countries and to keep travelling. One of my friends is buying a house but I am not interested in that for me. I think that you need to live in a country for at least two years. That’s how you get to know the culture. It removes the fear of the unknown when you do that.
JL32 Increases empathy and negates racism right?
DC Exactly, music is also a multinational language and one that has many dialects but it brings people together. I like to associate the sounds I hear with colours. Harmony is just colour. I am looking at the painting behind you as we speak and I am immediately thinking of the French impressionist composers.
JL32 The painting is impressionistic and is of forest and sky. I love forests, the older the better.
DC Then you should visit the Amazon. When I was living in Brazil I spent some nights in the Amazon rainforest and in fact the title of my first album ‘Suite Tres Rios’ is inspired by the meeting of two great rivers in the Amazon. These rivers meet but keep their different colours. It’s a fairly unique phenomenon and it is a bit like my parents who each kept their unique cultures intact. That was my experience as I grew up. It was like two rivers meeting and when we moved to France or England new colours were introduced. Each keeps its essence but interacts. So the tunes on that album were inspired by the Amazon. For instance, one track is about the stars above the rainforest, the clearest stars I’ve ever seen.
And my album Skyness was inspired by the blue of Greek Island skies. The skies above the Greek Islands are different to other places. (We digress here into a long discussion on sky colours and rivers, so I recommend Cape Reinga where ocean and sea meet, as do the different colours touch each other)
JL32 Tell me about the Brazillian singer-songwriter Ivan Lins. I love his voice and I first encountered him on a recording with trumpeter Paulo Fresu and the Sardinian Jazz Orchestra.
DC I wrote to him asking him if he was interested in recording with me and I was pleased when he replied enthusiastically. He has written many great songs but we settled on ‘Love Dance’ which is one of the most recorded songs in musical history (everyone from Joe Pass, Quincey Jones, Sarah Vaughan and even Sting has recorded it). It is a love song and harmonically it has many interesting twists. He also has a house in Portugal so we recorded there and it was a nice experience as we recorded it in one or two takes. The studio was booked for two hours but most of the time was spent talking. He is a person who likes to be near different oceans or rivers. We had that in common, and we also connected because we like delving into musical styles.
JL32 And you collaborated with Randy Becker (check out the teaser on YouTube). I love that, he is another musician who has an affinity with South American music. Brazilian music is sometimes referred to as the ‘other swing’.
DC Yes, 1917 was the date of the first Jazz recording and also the first Samba recording. So with Randy Brecker, the tune was already recorded on my album ‘Skyness’ inspired by the feeling of closeness to Mediterranean skies and by the notion of international togetherness. I had originally recorded the tune solo, so I wanted to re-release it with Randy and he loved it.
JL32 What a great tune ‘Iremia’ is and how beautifully you both improvise around the melody lines.
DC So he came in on top and it was a special moment for me as he has played with some of the greatest stars in musical history. And many of the people who I recorded my first album with were also on his Grammy-winning album Randy In Brazil. The tune you mention is not Latin but the meaning of the name Iremia is peace in Greek. By coincidence, it was re-released at the moment the war started in Ukraine. It got quite a bit of attention, especially in Italy and it was featured on Sky News. This message of peace should be there at all times, but in times of war, more so. When I wrote it I was living on Paros in the Cyclades Islands, so it is about tranquillity and peace.
JL32 I must ask here. Do you have a working trio or involve different musicians in each project? Or to come at it slightly differently, is there a configuration that you prefer working with, solo, trio, quartet, or larger unit?
DC That is an excellent question. I am comfortable in all formats, in fact, the first concert will be in Hamilton with a big band. I have worked with orchestras but not with my music, but on every album, there is a different type of lineup. I enjoy that.
JL32 I love the tune ‘Skyness’, it is the sheer beauty and architecture of it. Those voicings, the time feel like your left hand is gently pushing at your right hand, conversationally, and by the time Seamus Blake comes in we are mesmerised.
DC My third album ‘Live In California’ was a solo album, my next album will be a trio with special guests. One month ago I recorded in New York with John Patitucci and I enjoyed that. But to answer your question, no particular format and I like to give a voice to everyone.
JL32 I saw Patitucci in a Roman amphitheatre, Verona, with Wayne Shorter, Danilo Perez and Brian Blade. Not an experience that I will forget. What’s the album called?
DC ‘Beams’ as in light, with John Patitucci and Paulinho Vicente as the core trio. The guests are Mike Stern, Hermeto Pascoal, Dave Douglas and singer Anne Boccato. Oh, and the saxophonist Tecō Cardosa, who is the only musician to appear on multiple of my albums. But I would record again with any of the above. I like the Brazilian percussionist Teco Cardosa very much. He is a multi-instrumentalist and plays flute, saxophone and percussion. There is really something special about him. He features in the piece ‘Compelling’ on the second album.
JL32 Yes an amazing and energetic track. People who don’t know this album or that piece need to check it out ASAP (on streaming platforms. Sadly, the physical album is hard to find but I located one).
DC I created a video for World Earth Day which is on my website. That was recorded with Teco on the flute. It is one of my favourite pieces as I really like the fusion of the flute and piano. What do you think about that combination?
JL32 Flute and piano and flute over a modal groove interests me greatly. Although it was always a significant presence in Brazilian Jazz, in American Jazz over the second half of the twentieth century the flute was often regarded as an instrument lacking sufficient expression. People who said that were clearly not paying attention and had not listened closely to Yusef Lateef, or Bennie Maupin. It is now regarded as an essential primary instrument as a renewed interest in Spiritual Jazz is evident. Yes, I love the combination.
DC I have several passions and interests beyond music. Things I have studied at University. I have worked as a language educator, I also studied philosophy for a time and history, both of which are interests of yours, I think. I’ve also worked a lot on environmental issues and especially animal rights. I am a vegetarian. Environmental aesthetics is extremely important and often overlooked. The environment and not only in the ecological sense but in everything that we do. And all of this is linked to my music. They are not separate worlds.
The new album is called Beams because it is a celebration of light in different forms, the light that shines too and from you. The album refers to physical light for example, the tune ‘Star Dial’ which I recorded with Dave Liebman. Then there is also the more metaphysical light. The light which shines from Animals. I wrote a tune called ‘Paw Prints’ when I was living on Pados, written for a dog that I saw mistreated (a homophone and play on the Shorter standard Foot Prints). And then a tune with Mike Stern called ‘Sparks in Motion’ which is about celebrating the city, the light of a city.
JL32 When you release an album, do you have a preferred label?
DC Self-release gives me my independence. Berkeley these days teaches musicians to do it for themselves and learn about the business that way, rather than waiting for a manager or a label to snap you up. Ethics and proper respect for music should be the impetus. Commodification makes an art form into something else.
JL32 Well, we’ve been talking for hours and I know it’s late there. Thank you for your insights and for your music. I have enjoyed it and I hope that your tour goes well. I am sure that anyone listening to your music live will be as delighted with it as I am.
DC I hope to see you at the concerts, John.
JL32 Ki kite
JazzLocal32.com is rated as one of the 50 best Jazz Blogs in the world by Feedspot. The author is a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association, poet & writer. Some of these posts appear on other sites with the author’s permission.
There are a number of things that should be on every music lovers bucket list. Experiencing a Basie Orchestra gig live is one of them. This band has the history of modern music in its DNA and after 83 years on the road, they are in their prime. Goodman was always referred to as the ‘king of swing’ but in my view Basie was a better contender for that title. His brand of swing had it’s nascent stirrings in 1927 when Basie joined Bennie Moten. When that band folded he took many of the musicians with him to form the Basie Band in 1935. The Basie band possessed a unique sound, fueled by a nine-piece line up featuring legendary greats like Lester Young, ‘Papa’ Jo Jones and Walter Page. Johnny Hammond heard them in 1936 and invited them to New York where at his suggestion they expanded to become a thirteen piece jazz Orchestra. At this time they were joined by Freddie Green and others. Skillfully, they incorporated the nimbleness of the Kansas City small ensemble swing-feel into a new sound.
Multi reeds and winds player Jay Rodriguez recently released an album titled ‘Your Sound’ and it could not have been more appropriately titled. It is an album which conveys the warmth of the man and his interesting musical journey from Columbia to New York; it lays bare his openness and his heart on sleeve humanity. It is a life and times offered up for appraisal, it is richly diverse and contemporary. Above all, it offers us joy. Put simply, ‘Your Sound’ is the sound of the Jazz life and it delights from start to finish.
In the months before Christmas, we were reeling from the twin body blows of Trump and Brexit. During this period of disbelieving paralysis, Norman Meehan, Paul Dyne and Hayden Chisholm came to town. What they played was a balm for our troubled souls, a sublime ballad gig. I reviewed the gig on November 27, 2016 (this site). A week later Norman Meehan and Tony Whincup launched a new book titled ‘New Zealand Jazz life’. This is a great read for anyone interested in New Zealand music history and a must for anyone interested in improvised music. Meehan’s prose is much like his playing, devoid of needless ornamentation but pleasing. he is a natural with words, but he also manages to impart vast amounts of information without the reader ever feeling force-fed. His interviews with significant New Zealand improvising musicians are carefully blended with personal observation. Musicians like Jim Langabeer, Lucian Johnson, Nathan Haines, Kim Paterson, Jeff Henderson, Anthony Donaldson, Frank Gibson jr and Roger Manins are featured. I highly recommend this book as a vital reference work and as a very good read. ‘New Zealand Jazz Life‘ is published by Victoria University Press and available at all good bookstores. 
Her Maps‘ anthology has seldom been out of my hands since. Szymborska communicates the Polish experience like few others. She evokes a sense of impermanence, an un-belonging that has characterised Polish life for millennia. I am descended from Pomeranian Polish stock and perhaps this adds a particular resonance in my case. This is a window into a floating world surprisingly free of rancour. ‘Maps’ in translation is published by Mariner Books.
The City Lights book shop in North Beach San Francisco has always been at the centre of my universe. Whenever I’m in that wonderful city I head there immediately. I had just spotted a verse from a Diane di Prima poem in a street pamphlet and I couldn’t wait to get a volume or two of her poetry. I have long been familiar with di Prima’s work, but the gifted female Beat poets were unfairly eclipsed by their male counterparts. A book published by Conari Press titled ‘Women of the Beat Generation’ is now back in print and it’s a good starting point for examining their body of work.
di Prima is still with us and some of her best work is contained in a recent volume titled ‘The Poetry Prize’ published by the City Lights Foundation. 
Lastly I will post one of my own recent poems, which rounds off the theme of maps. I wrote this in the week before my journey began. As I was about to depart, a well-known New Zealand Jazz musician shared some travel tips with me, offering insights, drawing me an abstract map as guide. I was so pleased with it that I wrote this poem. I took his wonderful map with me and although I was unable to strictly follow it’s path, the spirit of it was an inner compass to guide me. It made me happy to have it near – now a prized possession, a travel memory, a manifest.
Good improvising bass players get a lot of work, but they seldom get the acknowledgement they deserve. This is one of life’s inequities and it’s partly because a bass player by custom is hidden behind the other band members. When a pianist or guitarist plays solo they will often mimic or imply bass lines. A good bass line is both an anchor and an invitation – invoking deeper exploration; the consequent rub between notes and time is where most of the tension and release is hidden. Every so often a bass player claims wide-spread attention. Blanton, Mingus, Haden, McBride, Le Faro, Pastorius etc. David Friesen while not garnering the attention of the aforementioned bassists in the popular press, is without doubt a giant of the instrument. His is a name that frequently comes up when aficionados and musicians talk. He is the bass players bass player, an acknowledged innovator.
As is often the case with great musicians, he was a compelling talker; spinning out yarns of people and places visited. Often with subtle humour woven into the narrative. Above all he imparted his views on the place of music in these complex and troubled times. To paraphrase slightly, “Music is a way of healing a broken world, it is not just about the people making the music or about the audience receiving it, but something far deeper. The interaction creates a virtuous circle, each continuously enriching the other. Out of this comes the magic”. This reference to the primal healing power of music resonated and he received loud applause. Improvisers seldom earn what they should and yet they persevere. Understanding their mission of deepening human awareness. It was good that he reminded us of how vital a deep listening audience is. Sharing the joy brings its own responsibilities. That’s why I do what I do in print. 
Friesen travels with a special bass; made for him by a famous Austrian instrument maker. Sick of having instruments damaged or interfered with by airline baggage handlers, he ordered an instrument small enough to go in the overhead locker. This custom bass is mainly crafted out of American Cherry wood and Canadian Maple. It also has a very sophisticated pick up. Because of the foreshortened neck I suspect that it would take some mastering by most upright bass players. In Friesen’s hands it sung. 
Nacey did what we expected of him; delivered stinging imaginative lines and soared on that lovely Godin semi hollow-body. As success spreads him thinner, we tend to see less of him in the Jazz club. When we do hear him we get the very best. He is a guitarist who can hold his own anywhere on the scene. The other Kiwi on the gig was Wellington drummer Reuben Bradley and what a performance he put on. Again it was hardly surprising, as Bradley is among our very best drummers. Like Nacey he is often the drummer of choice for visiting artists.
There was a buzz of excitement surrounding Simon Thacker’s ‘Ritmata’ tour. Not the touring rock-band sort of buzz, but a word of mouth Twitter-post kind. A buzz generated by night people and festival goers. Those who pay close attention to good music. I followed the threads and everything I read about Thacker sat well with me. I looked forward to his Auckland gig and the hype was not over-stated. Ritmata was a delight.
Simon Thacker is the ideal front man; funny, confident, virtuosic. His authority emanating from a force field of energy. A musical vision that engages; thriving on intimacy. A club setting is therefore perfect, with warmth and exuberance captured, contained; audience and musicians sharing an experience. Thacker’s banter is quirky, self-deprecating and it connects. There were howls of delight at the sheep jokes and they told me something important. Scotts, Kiwis and Australians have a shared humour, a post colonial cultural connection. An inbuilt irreverence that is part of our evolving story.
The first set opened with traditional Sephardic melodies ‘reimagined’. This is familiar territory as Caroline Manins has trodden this path with her Mother Tongue project. Some of these tunes are more than a thousand years old (‘Des Oge Mais’), and in spite of dealing with loss or longing, they are often fast paced and rhythmically complex. In Ritmata’s hands they are ancient to modern. Evoking the melting pot of Judaic Moorish Spain but never time-locked. Elements of Flamenco, and even the modal chromaticism of Jazz pianists like McCoy Tyner came to mind. 
There were a number of interesting Thacker originals and to my delight three pieces based on Egberto Gismonti compositions (a stunning Brazilian improvising guitarist who used the street music of Choro to create similar, beyond-genre visions – an artist beloved of Jazz audiences). One of Thacker’s tunes ‘Honour the Treaties’ referenced the chants of American Indians and as indicated by the wild applause, it resonated powerfully. Then there was ‘Asuramaya’, influenced by the Indian Ragas. That piece had a delicious dream-sequence feel to it. He rounded off his sets with a traditional Azerbaijani tune, ‘Bana Bana Gel’ and a Jewish tune ‘Ovshori’ from the mountains Dagestan. When the audience clamoured for an encore, vocalist and Sephardic specialist Carolina Manins joined the band singing ‘Madre de Deus’; again reimagined by Thacker.
While Thacker dominated proceedings with his larger than life presence, the band members were stars in their own right. I have seldom heard a unit so in lock-step. The pianist, bass and drums were as central to the enjoyment as Thacker himself. The spotlight must lastly fall on that lovely guitar; I couldn’t keep my eyes off it. An extraordinary Rouse classical guitar; it sang like the Lyre of Orpheus. Orchestrating time and place; stretching time until we could see the future.
Mark Lockett is a New York based drummer who visits Australasia once a year. Each time he returns he brings with him a piece of his adopted city. He is an original drummer comfortable in diverse situations; a benign but strong presence in any lineup. His artistic approach under-pinned by an easy confidence and this enables him to interact well and to read every nuance. His wide open ears, communicating the pulse and possibilities of the life he lives as a working musician in a big metropolis. There is also a humour he radiates, which peppers his comments and drumming like aromatic seasoning. A Mark Lockett gig is always original and always enjoyable.
The music of Ornette Coleman while not without constraints frees the artists from many of the hard-wired rules. It doesn’t sound at all out-of-place now but I can remember the storm that surrounded its arrival. A treat for me was the groups rendition of ‘Congeniality’ from the seminal ‘The Shape of Jazz to Come’ album. The controversy surrounding this material is long behind us and every improvising musician has a little of Ornette in them whether they acknowledge it or not.
Lockett often forms trios or ensembles that have no chordal instruments. While the musicians played ‘inside’ and ‘out’ they also attempted something we seldom hear in New Zealand. The opening number of the first set was Shiny Stockings (Frank Foster) and they played this in the style of the Mulligan piano-less quartets. Bass, Alto and Tenor in counterpoint and working within the changes. This was nice hear. I have an appetite for more of this.
“Playing like that (fast and furious) is meat and potatoes in New York”, he said. He was once told that he could get better control if he held his sticks further down than usual. Because of that and because of his melodic approach, he is very interesting to watch. Somehow the sound is cleaner and with musical drumming like this who needs a chordal instrument. I can’t wait until his next visit.
Before hearing the first note, I knew that I would like ‘Midwest’. Mathias Eick is a unique communicator and his compositions gift us with particular ways of experiencing places we have not yet visited. Sound is transmuted and we see what he is seeing. As I listened to the album I was drawn deep into a world of vast open spaces, history and complex human emotion. The connection was visceral as the music brought the plains of the Midwest into the range of intimacy. I sensed the wild grass running between my fingers as I listened. The last album to evoke such a strong sense of place for me was Tomasz Stanko’s ‘The Soul of Things’. ECM is the home of such evocative albums.
Where I live in the South Pacific, Jazz musicians sometimes pose the question; Do we have our own sound, a unique quality that we tap into? As our scene grows the answer is increasingly yes. This uniqueness of ‘sound’ is evident among Scandinavian improvising musicians and especially so among Norwegian trumpeters. In this case the identity is multi faceted. It is Norwegian and Americana.
The Midwest is both mythical and real, we feel that we know it intimately. Endless tales arise from the indigenous peoples (who respected it best) and the hopeful European settlers who spread across it looking for a new home. It struck a particular chord with Eick as the peoples of Norway were prominent among those settlers. The writer Lawrence Durrell explains this best when he says that certain places transcend reality and become ‘less a geographical entity than an idea’. ‘Midwest’ is an embodiment of this principle. Midwest by Mathias Eick is out on the ECM label.
H P Lovecraft died under appreciated, but it didn’t curb his output. His imaginings took him to darkly strange and exciting places. Places that few of us dared contemplate. While he reached deeper than writers like Edger Alan Poe and further into the human psyche, his wildest dreams could not have prepared him for Wednesday night. Reuben Bradley, time traveller and keeper of lost grooves has wrestled with the spirits and brought Lovecraft to life again.
This is a truly exceptional album and it is no wonder when you consider the source material and the musicians associated with it. Bradley, Penman and Eigsti are a deadly combination and their interplay is crisply on the mark. Matt Penman is dear to our hearts in New Zealand. One of our finest Jazz exports. An expat from Auckland who conquered the American improvised bass scene in ways that few others manage. His work with James Farm, the San Francisco Jazz Collective, Aaron Parks, Kurt Rosenwinkel and a long list of luminaries is instructive. That he still appears with the best of our local artists and on local recordings is our immense good luck. An imaginative and wonderfully musical bass player who holds the groove and manages to tell interesting stories without distracting us from the overall focus of the piece. Few bass players could do this better than Penman.
The judicious use of sampled ‘Lovecraft’ readings in several places adds to the atmospheric feel and doesn’t detract from the overall musical experience. Every note played and every voice-over is well placed. Yet again Rattle Records have excelled themselves here. The secret of ‘Rattle Records’ tasteful Jazz catalogue must surely be seeping into the wider world by now. ‘Rattle’ is the ‘ECM’ of the South Pacific. This album was recorded at the ‘Bunker Studios’ in New York, Engineered by Aaron Nevezie and mixed and mastered by Steve Garden at ‘The Garden Shed’ Auckland.
There was a change of personnel for the CJC ‘Cthulhu Rising’ release gig and for the Australasian tour to follow. Respected bass player Brett Hirst took Penman’s place and this was a sound choice. Hirst, another expat Kiwi, is well established on the Australian scene and frequently employed by visiting artists. He is a gifted musician and perfect for high end gigs like this.
Doug Lawrence is every bit the archetypal southern tenor man, from the top of his tall frame to the bell of his brightly shining tenor. His sound is fat and down-home-cooking rich, whether playing softly or at volume. He has more cut through than a diamond headed drill-bit. Lawrence has such considerable credentials that it is beyond my reach to enumerate them all here (google him).
Lawrence is tall and as he performs he stoops slightly, forming a classic old school playing pose. Slowing bending his knees inwards before stretching and lifting his horn to the ceiling. His speaking voice is rich like his playing, a southern Louisiana drawl adding to his considerable charm. The first number was ‘End of a love Affair (Redding) and the audience whooped in delight as the band took the changes at a good pace. The rhythm section propelled by the tidal waves of sound emanating from the tenor. It was that sound and the power of delivery that grabbed you from the get go. The intonation and phrasing revealing influences which although readily identifiable, transformed them into a new sound. This was pure alchemy. It was like having Gene Ammons and Dexter Gordon on the same band stand.
It is during ballads that the skill of a musician is often tested. In this case we saw something close to perfection. It wasn’t just Lawrence, but his Kiwi pickup band as well. Spurred on by each other, they dug deeper and deeper. A night and a vibe that we will remember for years to come. There was an obvious rapport between pianist Kevin Field and Lawrence. I gather that he found Field’s harmonic approach interesting and perhaps this is an indication of our own development as we grow our standing. Lawrence’s intonation was the thing that grabbed you most and this made his solos particularly enjoyable. Long held notes ending in breathy flurries or else bending the note ever so slightly before delivering a short heart stopping burst of controlled vibrato. With Holland and Samsom also finding their sweet spot this was a dream band.
Here is the back story: 17 years ago a younger Roger Manins hit the New York streets, where he learned to scuffle in the time-honoured way of Jazz musicians. Because he possessed the hunger to learn he approached many established horn players. One of these was Doug Lawrence and traces of that time are still evident in Manins sound. All of those years ago Manins subbed for him and here is a Face Book extract that Lawrence posted once he returned to the USA. 
“Roger has matured into a GREAT player and MAGNIFICENT teacher! All of his students have a SOUND and they are all inspired to play, because of Roger. The curriculum at the University of Auckland Jazz Department is second to none, and I am going to use it as my model when conducting masterclasses at other universities around the world. Roger and Ron Samsom and the rest of the faculty have got it right at the U of A and I’m going to suggest that each and every University I teach at check it out. Cheers ROG! You are doing it ALL right brother! I hope to see and play with you soon mate!” That says it all really.
Any mention of Quebec catches my attention as I really like that part of Canada, so when I learned that a highly rated Montreal piano-trio was coming to town I knew that it would be a good experience. I had not encountered the Emie Roussel Trio before, but a quick glance at the accolades they have garnered and the numerous You Tube clips that have sprung up over the past year, gave me all the information that I needed. The group had attracted particular attention at the Montreal Jazz Festival and from what I saw online, deservedly so.
As you move about that city, the familiar and the exotic coexist at every street corner. I came to realise that this almost subliminal familiarity was the manifestation of a spiritual kinship. The sort that exists between certain special cities, a connection that is not about trade, mayoral visits or geography; a connection of musical and artistic synergies. 
The Emie Roussel Trio are part European and part American in aesthetic. They are wholly Montreal. Their music has a pulse and a vibe which draws on european classical music traditions and the deep earthy Jazz grooves that arose from the American continent. In the hands of improvisers like Roussel these influences communicate a universal language. As the pieces unfold there is a sense that this band works as an organic whole. What we heard was tight and full of vibrancy or as a musician I spoke to during the break put it. “We are hearing the result of rehearsal, dedication to a project, discipline and road time”. While I love the free-flowing loose feel of New Zealand improvising bands, I must acknowledge that we seldom hear trio’s which sound like this.
The bass player Nicolas Bedard and drummer Dominic Cloutier never faltered. They wove in and around the tunes with consummate skill and were the perfect interpreters of Roussel’s music. These men are versatile and skilled and whether on brushes, sticks, upright or electric bass, they knew exactly what would serve the music best. 
The second set brought us an added treat as the Kiwi trumpeter Lex French came to the bandstand. I have long rated French as one of our finest trumpeters. He completed his studies in Montreal and was already well acquainted with several of the band members. His addition changed the pace once again, opening the way for harder blowing. As the sets progressed the constantly evolving moods worked well for them, giving the gig real breadth. 
The trio’s recent album ‘Transit’, includes many of the numbers heard on the tour but with one significant difference; The inclusion of a string section, the ‘Quatuor St-Germain’ and a percussionist Julie Quimper. Roussel’s charts in the hands of this larger ensemble are very different to the trio. I particularly like her compositions like ‘L’ attente du chat’ and ‘La timbale et la fourmi’. The mood of the ballad is cat-like in its grace and time feel. The latter, a delightful shape-shifter of a piece full of contrasts and propulsion. I look forward to the new album which is just the trio but with some Rhodes tracks as well as piano.
This exchange between onlookers and musicians is at the heart of the design concept. The main performance auditorium is build in the shape of an amphitheatre which allows eye contact between audience and performers (and obviously making for unimpeded sight lines from every seat). The acoustics are state of the art and the sound can also be dampened.
Upstairs a large tiled mural gave the history of the Bay area Jazz scene. Names like Hampton Hawes and clubs like the Black Hawk will resonate strongly with Jazz lovers. This town has a commendable history of producing fine musicians and with SF Jazz’s focus on education we can expect this to continue.
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