Speaking of experimental vocalists, here is Joane Hétu and her inseparable partner (in music and life) Jean Derome, with a new CD by their duo Nous perçons les oreilles – the last one goes back to… wait a minute… [seeps through his music library]… 2002!?! Well, it was about time! On the surfce, Shaman is closer to their first (eponymous) album than to La vie, c’est simple – in other words, no songs this time around, only short improvisations (twelve of them, between one and six minutes in duration). Listening deeper though, Shaman is JUST AS different from the first two records as La vie, c’est simple was different from the first record, which goes to show how the duo keeps on evolving with time. The music is serious, intense (which doesn’t mean “noisy”), noisy (I know, I know, but “noisy” as in noise-based, not as in “a loud racket”), emotional, and atavistic since it arches back to a ritualistic yet a-rhythmic and a-melodic form of expression. Very impressive on first listen, and I’m looking forward to listen to it more attentively soon.

Vous avez jusqu’au 28 février 2010 pour contempler l’exposition étonnante d’Érick d’Orion: Solo de musique concrète pour six pianos sans pianiste. Une fascinante exposition vous attend. Vous entrerez dans un univers décharné où six pianos gisent dans la salle. Un concert qui allie sons et ambiance à partir des pianos en tant que caisse de résonance: étonnant… Essayer de deviner les pièces qui seront jouer dans l’enregistrement qui passe en boucle. Je vous conseille également le petit vidéo (sur place) qui explique bien la démarche de l’artiste. Très intéressant!!!

On Saturday March 13, 2010, Robert Marcel Lepage will be panelist at Festival Regard sur le court métrage in Saguenay, which will be held from March 10 to 14.

It’s common, although not common enough, for the great bassist and bandleader Charles Mingus to be granted revered composer status in the jazz canon. The efforts of his widow Sue Mingus have kept the man’s name alive and music vital in the 30 years since his death but it’s rare to hear projects that seem to pinpoint with such precision particular moments in Mingus’ career as do recent tribute CDs by the Berlin quartet Dok Wallach and Montréal’s Normand Guilbeault Ensemble.

Bassist (and worthy crooner) Normand Guilbeault led his small-in-number-large-in-scope big band through a set of the big man’s songs on 2005’s Mingus Erectus and ratchets them up to a sextet for Hommage à Mingus with the addition of pianist Normand Deveault, further fleshing it with guest vocalist Karen Young on two tracks. Guilbeault might be the strongest jazz classicist in the eclectic Ambiances Magnetiques collective and is a smart arranger who gets a remarkably big sound out of his group. Which means that, while the lineup might be closer to such classic Mingus albums as Ah Um or Blues & Roots, it’s less a soloist’s session than an arranger’s album, more like the fisherman’s wife’s shoes than her orange dress, if you get my drift. Their take on the little noticed Passions of a Woman Loved, from the 1957 album The Clown, even bears some resemblance to Mingus’ final big band works. Undercutting that point, however, is the mighty baritone sax of Jean Derome; his defining of Prayer for Passive Resistance alone makes good on the sticker price.

Bomata, featuring double bassist Jean Félix Mailloux, clarinettist Guillaume Bourque and percussionist Ziya Tabassian, will be in concert on February 10, 2010 at Auditorium Le Prévost in Montréal. Listen to excerpts from their latest recording on Malasartes musique!

A true cult band of the Montréal jazz scene, this trio featuring Jean Derome (saxophones and flutes), Normand Guilbeault (double bass) and Pierre Tanguay (drums), will be in concert at the Maison de la culture Côte-des-Neiges (Montréal) on February 11, 2010.