Cool stuff. I don't know Sam Gendel super well, but I know that Phil Melanson from my local scene (member of Bernice, etc.) has toured/played with him.
So, I feel mildly weird to include myself in the "jazz" realm, but this is an unusual maybe-qualifier for two reasons: first I was a last-minute fill-in for a player with genuine top-notch jazz chops, and playing with two other folks who are the same. And secondly, in the smaller room across the hallway, the weekly Sunday night jazz jam was in progress, and you can occasionally hear some more straight-ahead hard bop-ish sounds bleeding through in our quiet parts.
I think I've posted stuff from this grouping before — Nilan is a very nimble + versatile guitarist, master of prepared playing as well as shredding. And likely to slip in some Zeppelin or Bach in the middle of improvisations.
Alex, on double bass, is doing some cool stuff with Mood and other pedals, mostly keeping it subtle but letting it push things along in neat ways.
A special treat for y'all, got to capture a rare outing from Queen Mab, a pairing of excellent improvisers Marilyn Lerner (piano) & Lori Freedman (clarinet, bass clarinet). They've been playing together on and off for a quarter century so there's a lot of psychic closeness at play.
(Followers of the Amsterdam improvised music scene might also recognize the name from the Trio version of the group that sees Ig Henneman joining in — I know that formulation did a fair amount of touring together.)
Another special treat! Some footage of the Ryan Driver Quintet in (restrained) action. One of the great Toronto groups, in my estimation, and rather sui generis in their approach. They play standards — and generally all ballads at that — approaching the material with stretched-out languidity. But there's a lot going on within those parameters, including the sort of psychic connections you get from musicians who have been playing together for years.
Also of note is Martin Arnold's guitar work — he often serves as the burr that provides a contrast to the smoothness around him. One of the coterie of T.O. guitarists whose style was indelibly bent by the arrival of the Whammy pedal (Eric Chenaux is probably the most famous example of this crew) his notes melt and bend around everything else.
(The band is usually a sextet with the addition of vibes, but they were absent on this evening.)
Re: Just Jazz!
Posted: Thu Jan 11, 2024 8:17 pm
by Heraclitus Akimbo
Guest-hosted an instalment of Audiopollination, a "self-curated" improvised music series (basically: the host puts up a blank spreadsheet and folks sign up and then come out and play with whoever else signed up for the same set.)
This trio was particularly on-point, nice mix of the cello and saxophone.
Not weird at all. 
