Twenty years after its modest beginning, the Guelph Jazz Festival (GJF), which this year takes place September 3 to 8, has grown to be one of this country’s major improvised music celebrations. Unlike many other so-called jazz fests which lard their programs with crooners masquerading as jazz singers, tired rock or pop acts, or so-called World or C&W performers who make no pretense of playing jazz, the GJF continues to showcase committed improvisers in sympathetic settings including during the fourth installment of the dusk-to-dawn Nuit Blanche. […]

Outstanding double bass work from closer to home is on tap during a free Market Square afternoon concert that same day when Montréal bassist Jean Félix Mailloux performs his compositions from Bomata Arômes d’allieurs Malasartes mam 016 with his associates, percussionist Patrick Graham and Guillaume Bourque playing clarinet and bass clarinet. A trio which has internalized “scents from elsewhere” — the translation of the CD title, Bomata’s unhurried performances reference various ethnic styles without becoming the subservient to any. A fine instance of this mixing is Cardamome when cross pulses from Graham and second drummer Phillippe Melanson move contrapuntally alongside a walking bass line, providing a trembling rhythm to Bourque’s mid-range, Klezmer-like overlay. The reedman’s mercurial high-note skill is on display on Shaman, with the bass taking on a slinky oud-like resonance and guest frame drummer Ziya Tabassian adding hard thwacks to toughen the beat. Yet as intense as the bassist’s and clarinetist’s improvisations become neither disrupts the basic thematic flow. Pianist Jérôme Beaulieu, who joins Bomata on a couple of tracks, is a little too decorous, creating a crystallite Nordic feel which clashes with Bourque’s ney-like sound on Nuit Blanche. Although with 13 tracks, sameness sets in at points, most performances argue well for the band’s continued evolution from this 2012 CD. Chinoiseries could offer one path, with the arrangement open enough to allow the reedist some altissimo smears even as the theme stays linear, with the end product suggesting both Eastern European concertina-like riffs plus a swinging jazz-like interface. […]

Bomata Arômes d’ailleurs (Mam 2013): A French Canadian trio of Jean Felix Mailloux on bass,Guillaume Bourque on clarinet and bass clarinet, and Patrick Graham on drums, with support from pianist Jerome Beaulieu on piano on two pieces and additional percussion on others. This is a soothing outing featuring the clear and mellow lower registers of the clarinets over some nice rhythmic play from the bass and percussion, always taken at a moderate pace and dynamic. Many of the pieces are named for spices and flavorings — cumin, sesame, saffron, jasmine, cardamon — and others have names like At the Park and White Night which are expressive of the delicate flavors that the band produces. Really pretty modern impressionism.

Bomata is Montréal-based doublebassist Jean-Félix Mailloux’s second trio (the first one being the string trio Cordâme). And Arômes d’ailleurs (“Scents from Abroad”) is the second album, just out, by this trio also featuring clarinettist Guillaume Bourque (of Sagapool) and percussionist Patrick Graham. Mailloux’s music keeps gaining in sophistication, borrowing elements from India, Asia, and Northern Africa to feed his taste for non-obvious melodies. Graham, a master of the frame drum, anchors these borrowed elements in credibility (he is also helped in that regard by Ziya Tabassian on four tracks). This album shows how thin the line has grown between Cordâme and Bomata — it’s just a matter of instrumentation, since the creative drive and quality of the arrangements are one and the same.

Translated from French.

C’est comme la trame d’un film intérieur, une suite sonore bellement évocatrice de paysages imaginaires qui rappellent pourtant des géographies, des états d’esprit, des modes et des épices. Sous la direction du compositeur contrebassiste Jean Félix Mailloux, le trio montréalais transporte plus qu’il ne brasse, évoque plus qu’il ne dicte, transmet la sérénité même sur les rythmes qui s’animent entre le jazz, la Méditerranée et l’Orient. La contrebasse est ronde, intense, jouée à l’archet, en pizzicato, multiple. Les clarinettes de Guillaume Bourque sont enjouées, insouciantes ou plus basses pour les profondeurs. Quelques invités ramènent au jazz plus dense ou aéré. Et Patrick Graham remplace maintenant Ziya Tabassian aux percussions. Il joue parfois avec lui. Multipercussions atmosphériques ou rythmiques aux nombreux petits effets chez le premier, très grande finesse chez le second.

Arômes d’ailleurs, the intoxicating new album by the Bomata trio, has an irresitable brooding disposition, even when the sound gets a bit chipper. This is not unexpected, because clarinet can be made to sound just like moonlight as it can a bright ray of sunlight. Now add to that mix a bass that knows how to sing and percussion with a dynamic nuance, and the resulting concoction transforms a pensive demeanor into a state of elegance, replete with a sunny warmth to contrast with music of cloudy skies. Guest appearances on piano and additional percussion add some welcome texture to the affair, and offer a little extra punch to the music’s emotional impact.

Your album personnel: Guillaume Bourque (clarinet, bass clarinet), Jean Félix Mailloux (bass), Patrick Graham (percussion), and guests: Jérôme Beaulieu (piano), Philippe Melanson (drums), and Ziya Tabassian (percussion).

Overall, a consistent album in terms of sound cohesion, but it does shift within that framework. There’s some influence from music of the Middle-East and the Mediterranean, but, ultimately, it eludes definitive categorization.

Tracks like Nuit blanche and Somnambule epitomize the brooding element of this recording. Bourque’s soulful statements on bass clarinet pair well with Beaulieu’s pensive expressions on piano. Mailloux cries out on bass, an arco message of quavering resonance. Graham’s percussion possesses the fluidity of a river, the crash and shake of rapids over rocks.

But it’s not all cloudy skies. Sesame has an upbeat nature. Clarinet rises up like thick smoke, incited to greater heights by percussion. Bass, which perhaps began as a motivating force, rises up to join clarinet’s elevation by song’s end. Opening track Au parc also maintains a cheerful disposition, each instrument getting the opportunity to let their voice rise above the others, but always accompanied by complementary chatter.

Chinoiseries has a deliberate pace, though this is belied by some very active percussion… not unlike an early-morning sleepy face crowned with a head of crazy bed-hair. As wakefulness grows, so does the song’s intensity, rising to a fevered pitch. Jamine also moves at a steadied gait, and in this instance, maintains it evenly throughout. On Sabzi, the deep sway of bass clarinet is crosshatched with the spinning wheels of percussion. And on album closer Genmaicha, bass arco sweeps back and forth across the tilled soil of percussion.

A very happy surprise to have happened upon this album, and I wanted to get some print down for it. The album is Self-Produced.

Bomata, Arômes d’ailleurs: A trio of clarinet, percussion and bass, with some guest spots on piano and additional percussion. Music that’s a little bit moody, a little bit buoyant. Clarinet is an instrument that can turn on a dime… one second a bright and sunny disposition, the next one of melancholic doom. A terribly enjoyable album. Find of the Week.

Que voilà un beau cadeau estival qui fleure bon le jazz, les voyages et certaines saveurs épicées. Si vous aimez tâter de la casserole ou vous sentez l’âme d’un Bocuse, glisser tout de go cette nouveauté dans votre lecteur. Judicieux contrebassiste, fin connaisseur des harmonies, le contrebassiste Jean Félix Mailloux à concocter avec Bomata, un joli voyage qui vos fera oublier les vicissitudes du quotidien.

Avec des compositions aussi alléchantes que: Cardamone, Sésame, Chinoiseries, Cumin ou Safran, nous nous évadons lentement vers un monde meilleur. Autour de ce «maître es fourneaux», le percussionniste Patrick Graham et le très bon clarinettiste basse Guillaume Bourque.