French improv bassist Joëlle Léandre has a mighty impressive biography — she’s worked with Pierre Boulez, John Cage, Steve Lacy, Fred Frith, John Zorn — and judging by her appearance at La Sala Rossa last night, she’s a fierce enough lady to live up to it.

She arrived late, hair wild and dress scruffy black, peered callously into the audience and picked up her instrument. Waiting for her on stage were local musique-actuelle fixtures Jean Derome and Danielle Palardy Roger, both impressive and fearless improvisers. Together the three produced an hour of music that, though not for the faint-hearted, passed through moments of surprising beauty.

The process would be familiar to most improvisers: One musician introduces an idea — a short melody or rhythm or sound or gesture, or even, in Léandre’s case, fragments of spoken words — then the others play with and around it. The idea develops and eventually morphs into other ideas. Hopefully, somewhere in the process, the group will have arrived at some interesting sounds.

What distinguished last night’s group was how varied and refined the sounds were. Derome played alto and baritone sax, flute and alto flute, and came equipped with an arsenal of toys: ocarinas, slide whistles, things that scrape and scratch and pop and hoot. His saxophone sound is aggressive, but works fabulously in this context, and I love the way he hints at standard jazz gestures amidst the abstract swells and screeches.

Léandre, meanwhile, commands her bass forcibly, producing uncanny wails and sniffles and, at one point, a smacking walking bass line. She uses her bow a lot, more than most jazz bass players dare, and to great effect. When things got really heated, she’d wave the bow around in the air to make swooshing noises. It’s a visual spectacle (one reason I have trouble listening to this kind of music on record) and Léandre’s fierce personality became integral to the performance.

People have strong feelings about this kind of improvised music (my brother, for example, calls it ‘public wanking’). Some say it’s intimidating because it’s so experimental, but I reckon that it’s because it is just so experimental that anybody can listen to it. You don’t need any background knowledge; the whole point is to experience the sounds as they come. In that sense, it’s very accessible.

The next Production Supermusique event, Léandre, Derome, Roger, will be presented very soon! For this concert, the grande dame of improvised music, French doublebassist Joëlle Léandre, will meet in duo and trio two Montréalers, masters of improvisation: multi-instrumentist Jean Derome and percussionnist Danielle Palardy Roger. The concert will be on Tuesday March 25, 2008 at La Sala Rossa in Montréal.

The next Mercredimusics will host Gordon M Allen, Joane Hétu, and Danielle Palardy Roger on March 12, 2008 at Casa Obscura in Montréal.

Le GGRIL is that most cumbersome of all musical monsters, the avant-garde big band. The nature of the big jazz band is to allow improvisation over tightly structured arrangements. The big band is practically the opposite of avant-garde jazz which often respect freedom of sound over tonality, structure, or even rhythm.

Le GGRIL is centered in Québec, Canada and walks a tightrope between the improvised and the structured. The band’s arsenal of imaginative players borrow as much from post-classical as from free jazz. Their personnel is changeable but the unusual assortment of saxes, clarinet, accordions, violins, guitar and percussion seems to be the norm. The free self titled album has four tracks. Tracks 1, 2, 4 are directed by alto saxophonist Jean Derome with Fire + Bebelle most closely related to jazz. Tracks 2 and 4 are quieter and makes good use of long tones and well placed silence. Derome’s direction and playing is center toward exploring sounds and environment more so than totally free improvisation.

The same can be said for track 3 which is an extended 11 minute work featuring the improvisatory trio of Les Poules. Alto saxist Joane Hétu, percussionist Danielle Palardy Roger, and samplist Diane Labrosse tends to prefer long drones with free improvisation as accent. They mix well with the larger ensemble creating a well thought out atmospheric work.

The album is available from the excellent Insubordinations netlabel in 320kbps MP3.

Bruiducœur, prières des infidèles by Danielle Palardy Roger is finalist for Opus Prize. The gala will take place on Sunday January 27, 2008, date on which winners will be designated. According to Nilan Perera in Exclaim! (Canada) of April 10, 2006 issue, Bruiducœur, prières des infidèles is a strong and challenging work. Note that this CD has a red label… Take advantage of it!

The 5th Rencontres de musiques spontanées presented by Tour de bras will take place from December 6 - 8, 2007 at Paradis in Rimouski. Amongst other guests: Mario Gauthier (Rencontres électroacoustiques concert + L’archive comme labyrinthe) lecture, Danielle Palardy Roger (Invitation du GGRIL concert + De Rilke à Guatanamera poetry-performance).