By
Connor Kurtz
For me, the 25th annual Guelph Jazz Festival opened with a solo set from
Spanish pianist Agustí Fernández – a free set on the University of Guelph
campus. His music was as elusive as the on-campus parking. Fernández's
improvisation seemed much more interested in the physical properties of the
piano than in the sounds that the keys can make (seen above is the
performer rubbing plastic toys along the piano's strings while
non-rhythmically tapping the piano's frame with his other hand). The small
unamplified room seemed a perfect fit for Fernández's music – it was
amazing how comfortably the creaking sounds of his stool merged into the
sounds from the piano! Although I didn't think to ask Fernández this, it
felt like the creaking sounds began as accidental but were soon accepted by
the performer and audience alike and turned intentional. In a lot of ways,
I think this single action is a perfect synecdoche for Fernández's music.
The biggest difference I've noticed between this year's festival and last's
was the amount of free programming – despite having a media pass, it wasn't
until my fifth show that I had to use it. Another difference I noticed was
in creative director Scott Thomson, and the audience's reaction towards
him. In last year's festival, his first as creative director, there always
seemed to be some uncertainty in the air. Despite the amazing curation,
including highlights of Peter Brötzmann, Matthew Shipp, John Butcher, and
Tom and Gerry, the crowd often felt hesitant to accept his decisions, and
Scott often came off as nervous or shy himself. In last week's festival it
felt as if Scott had finally settled into his place – although his curation
has become slightly more eccentric and obscure, he presented each show with
wonderful confidence, and the crowd returned the favor with great
excitement and chants of "We love Scott! We love Scott!" (That last bit may
be a slight exaggeration)
Returning to the music now – the second set I was able to attend was a solo
performance by Montréal-based guitarist Bernard Falaise, who built off
Agustí Fernández's notion of "talented performers playing their instruments
incorrectly" in entirely new ways. Unlike Fernández, Falaise approached his
abstractions from an electroacoustic standpoint – utilizing a huge and
eccentric set of guitar pedals. Despite his guitar-playing typically
looking relatively normal (the attached picture is actually an exception),
the clean sound of a string being struck was seldom ever heard. Instead, we
heard an array of clunky drones, chopped and mangled loops and pitched jabs
of static noise all being beautifully mixed together in a live environment.
Listening to, and watching, Falaise play is a real treat – it's incredibly
exciting, and inspiring, to see a musician with such knowledge, mastery and
comfortability in their own instrument and set-up.
Following up Bernard Falaise in this free afternoon double bill is the
acclaimed international European trio Konk Pack – which consists of Tim
Hodgkinson on guitar and clarinet, Thomas Lehn on analog synthesize and
Roger Turner on drums. This trio has been playing and improvising together
for over 20 years, and that's exactly what they sounded like – their
comfortability with each other was astounding. Roger Turner created an
outstanding world of sound which came off as everything except rhythmic.
The rhythm role was occasionally filled by Thomas Lehn, who's performance
was full of baffling synthesized loops and sequences primarily consisting
of short tonal blips and jabs of white noise. Tim Hodgkinson's set,
especially in the first half, couldn't resist a comparison to the music of
Bernard Falaise. While Falaise created his abstractions through
electroacoustic processes, Hodgkinson created the same level of abstraction
by just playing his lapsteel guitar as is, relying much more on himself
than his minimal electronic setup. It was when he brought out his clarinet
that I began to realize that this was a musician who transcended simple
comparison.
Along with vocalist Thanya Iyer, performers Darius Jones and Amirtha
Kidambi spoke at a panel where they discussed the importance and the
possibilities of the voice within music. Alongside reflections on the
passing of Aretha Franklin and the importance of the voice in black music,
the three speakers came to some general conclusions about the voice being
capable to express emotions and language in ways which are simply not
possible for other instruments. The duo set of saxophonists Darius Jones
and vocalist Amirtha Kidambi was a clear extension of this thinking. The
duo performed a (partially improvised?) composition by Jones, which
primarily consisted of the performers sharing and exchanging tones while
giving Kidambi moments to speak brief sentences. The performance was so
different and enthralling that I forgot to take a picture.
Finally, we're at the first paid performance – a double bill which starts
with the duo of pianist Agustí Fernández and Montréal-based alto
saxophonist Yves Charuest. The show was, sadly, also not photographed.
Fernández's performance was considerably different than his solo set – he
primarily stuck to the piano's keys, and even played within certain free
jazz idioms. That being said, his performance rarely rose above extreme
dissonance. Charuest showed off an ambitious and original style, full of
personality – his solo improvisation was a strong highlight of the set.
The second half of the concert consisted of a very exciting performance by
Steve Swell's Soul Travelers – consisting of Steve Swell on trombone, Dave
Burrell on piano, Jemeel Moondoc on alto saxophone, William Parker on
double bass and Chad Taylor on drums. Their music, to nobody's surprise,
was masterful. Steve Swell's compositions combined upbeat boppish melodies
with contemporary abstractions, giving each of the five performers plenty
of occasions to demonstrate their individual virtuosities. A highlight of
the set was the piano-playing of Dave Burrell, who fans will recognize from
jazz classics like Archie Shepp's
Blasé, Sonny Sharrock's
Black Woman, Alan Silva's
Luna Surface, Patty Waters'
College Tour or even his own
Echo, which was nothing
short of childish (in the best way possible) despite his old age. Burrell
jabbed at the keys with index fingers like a toddler who's accidentally
stumbled into perfect timing. On the other side of the coin we have the
comparatively youthful playing of Chad Taylor, who, alongside the rather
simplistic and soulful playing of William Parker, did fantastic work at
holding the band together. All that combined with the powerful and
imaginative soloing of Steve Swell and Jemeel Moondog made for one of the
best performances of the festival.
At 10:30am on the next day, we were treated to a solo set by New York City
native William Parker in the beautiful Royal City Church. Before his set he
told the story of the dream which inspired the music we were about to here,
which, not so surprisingly, featured the ghost of Dr. Martin Luther King
speaking of freedom – "the next step was to teach the people that everyone
has freedom within themselves." William Parker's music feels just as
spiritual as jazz legends like John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, or more
broadly, J.S. Bach – but more specifically, Parker's music pays tribute to
African-American heroes and warriors for civil rights rather than any
religious personalities. Towards the end of his set Parker begins to
clumsily chant, "I'd rather be a human being than to be avant-garde,
although the most avant-garde thing you can do is to be a human being". The
crowd politely chuckles amongst themselves, surely the reaction that Parker
was expecting, but the truth that both the audience and performer knows is
that this music is very genuine and very moving in its modesty.
Onto our next double bill, we have the trio of Canadians Marielle Groven
and Aaron Lumley alongside Dutch guitarist Jasper Stadhouders, who's music
is predictably abstract. While Groven spends most of her time leaning over
her piano and plucking at strings and Stadhouders rubs odd electronic
devices over the back of his guitar, Lumley is left with the task of giving
the crowd a relaxing center point through his soft and textural
improvisation. When Marielle Groven decides to sit and play the keys her
music is surprisingly gorgeous – largely consisting of brief melodies.
Groven and Lumley play with great familiarity to each other, leaving
Stadhouders as an awkward third wheel. While sounding uncomfortable at
times, he does often provide an interesting counterpoint to the other two
performers.
The other side of this double bill, coming from Tokyo, is Satoko Fujii's
new trio of This Is It! This Is It! has come to plug their new CD titled
1538, one of the twelve CD's Fujii intends to release for her 60th
birthday in 2018. At the end of the set, Fujii explained to the audience
that she decided to title their CD after the boiling point of iron because
she wanted to prove that the music was "hot", which I assume to be ironic
because the music was anything but – This Is It! played some of the
quietest and the coolest, and also some of the best, music of the festival.
The trio played along to Fujii's open compositions, leaving plenty of open
space to let the audience focus on the soft sounds. I think that what most
will remember most about the set is the whimsical drumming of Takashi
Itani, who Fujii commented was young enough to be her son. Itani performed
his quiet experimentations with great humour, even getting occasional
laughs from the audience. An example of this is when he was swinging his
drumsticks through the air, pretending to drum but stopping right before
hitting the drums. He acted nonchalantly and confidently, as if he was
actually drumming, but the audience could only hear the sounds of
drumsticks through the air. Another example is when he clumsily knocked
metal plates off his drums and onto the floor, acting as if he accidentally
bumped into them, although the truth was that he was only trying to create
the sound of plates falling to the floor. The textural trumpet explorations
of Natsuki Tamura were incredible in their own right – he'd cautiously
drift back and forth between breath-based experimentations and gently
playing along with Satoko Fujii's gorgeous minimal piano licks. Although I
wouldn't call the music of This Is It! hot, I'd definitely call it some of
the most interesting and unique music of the festival.
Up next we have a vocal jazz double bill, which I must admit is not at all
my preference. Up first is Montréal-based saxophonist (have I mentioned
that festival curator Scott Thomson is a Montréal native?) Jean Derome's
ensemble along with vocalist Karen Young performing the songs of Steve
Lacy. The songs are relatively traditional but made exciting through
invigorating performances by the band and Karen Young's beautifully joyous
vocals. Pianist Alexandre Grogg is a major stand-out from this set – he
slaps the keys with open palms during his improvisations, playing with one
of the widest smiles I've ever seen on a performer. It's rare to see so
much joy emanating from a performance.
On the second half of the bill we have the American Darius Jones Quartet
with French vocalist Emilie Lesbros, performing Jones' new suite
Le bébé de Brigitte (Lost in Translation). The music here is,
unsurprisingly, considerably more experimental than the first half of the
concert. Jones' compositions are long and free-flowing, and Lesbros' lyrics
combine French and English, calling back to the previous day's panel when
Jones confessed his joy for having a singer who will write in a language
which he can't understand. The band is excellent, consisting of Darius
Jones on alto saxophone, Sean Conly on bass, John Excreet on piano and
Rhodes and Ches Smith on drums. Emilie Lesbros sings with a charm that
reeks of post-war Parisian coolness. Darius Jones plays in a much more
"jazz" style than he did in his performance with Amirtha Kidambi, belting
out some fantastically moving solos while also spending hefty amounts of
time sitting down and watching his band play. To me, the highlight of the
set was Ches Smith's drumming – with his minimal setup he created a
seemingly massive world of sound, he sounded as if he was always
experimenting and breaking new ground while managing to perfectly follow
and capture the songs' rhythms.
The first half of the festival's final double bill opens with a set that
Scott Thomson half-heartedly refers to as "a soft opening into your Sunday
sound-world", surprisingly accurately referring to this beautifully droning
set from the international trio of Hübsch Martel Zoubek, consisting of the
German Carl Ludwig Hübsch on tuba, the Canadian Pierre-Yves Martel on viola
da gamba and harmonica and the Austrian Philip Zoubek on prepared piano.
Except for a moment of Martel scratching metal along metal, the music of
this trio is soft, beautiful and calm. They primarily play in long and soft
tones, making harmonies which flow between awkward and gorgeous. Hübsch and
Zoubek have both brought simple electronic setups with them which they use
to generate soft tones which combine wonderfully with their instruments.
The trio play off each other well, rarely hogging the spotlight and
remembering their place as a third of the trio's soft timbral explorational
sounds.
Finally, we have the Ontario-based duo of Marilyn Lerner and Nicole
Rampersaud, which they've humorously titled Brass Knuckle Sandwich. There
have been many talented pianists through the festival, but Marilyn Lerner
quickly establishes herself as one of the best. Her music is soft but full,
she plays out beautiful and calming melodies that sound as if they could be
quotes from some of the most talented minimalist or impressionist
composers. While listening to her play, it was such a relief to see a
pianist who wouldn't stand up and start playing with the strings. That is
to say, it was a relief until she started to do just that. Nicole
Rampersaud's trumpet improvisations were wildly different. Her sounds were
harsh and timbral, almost sounding like noise music played at a low volume.
When listening to her, the reasoning for the band's name becomes obvious.
Despite the vast differences in the performer's styles, they merge together
well. Well, actually they don't merge together at all, but that's exactly
why it works – it gives the audience an opportunity to focus on these two
wonderful performers separately – it's like two great solo shows at once!
And that brings me to the end of my coverage of the 25th annual Guelph Jazz
Festival. I'm stricken with the thought of how lucky I am to have such a
wonderful festival nearby, in this small suburban university city. The
music is wild and daring, but the audience is all incredibly kind. William
Parker, who's played at the festival several times, put it best, which I'll
misquote – "Everyone in Guelph is so nice. It feels like everyone here has
a PhD." Even without a PhD, I always feel right at home in the Guelph Jazz
Festival, and with such amazing music every year I can hardly wait for the
26th.
