PSM mettait sur pied en 1998 l’Ensemble SuperMusique, un ensemble à géométrie variable capable de s’attaquer à des projets réclamant jusqu’à une dizaine de musiciens. Ce disque, le premier qui rend compte des efforts de l’ensemble, regroupe des extraits de cinq performances et offre une diversité d’approches qui offrira un bon tour d’horizon au néophyte en matière de musique actuelle, tandis que l’amateur confirmé y trouvera précisément ce qu’il apprécie, soit de la continuité dans l’hétérogénéité. L’improvisation libre en duo, en trio ou en ensemble y côtoie la musique populaire revisitée (des chansons de Mary Travers, dite La Bolduc!) ou la musique contemporaine écrite (on a ici les premiers enregistrements disponibles sur disque de la musique de Marie Pelletier). Les œuvres s’enchaînent au fil d’un montage astucieux variant les textures en mêlant les époques et les configurations de l’ensemble, qui compte quelques-un(e)s des meilleur(e)s artistes du genre (en autres: Jean Derome, Lori Freedman, Jacques Drouin, Lee Pui Ming, et le trio fondateur de PSM). Le résultat est une suite impressionnante et une belle tentative de description de ce qu’est la «musique actuelle» aujourd’hui.

The trio of saxophonist Jean Derome, bassist Norman Guilbeault, and drummer Pierre Tanguay performs ten of Derome’s originals on this intriguing set. Many of his pieces feature a structure built off of a rhythmic pattern played on bass while sticking to one chord throughout. As with the early Ornette Coleman Quartet, the music has a forward momentum and often utilizes a walking bass. Derome is in the lead almost all of the time, improvising in a lyrical and melodic style that occasionally erupts into more intense sounds, particularly during his two features on baritone. Guilbeault holds the music together while Tanguay plays very quietly much of the time.

The final piece, Michika, features Derome’s flute on a strong melody and is fairly conventional, but the remainder of the set is surprising in the trio’s ability to hold one’s interest despite jamming over one chord. Strong credit should be given to Derome who is heard on four different instruments.

His improvisations are thoughtful, inventive, subtle, and ultimately logical.

Recommended.

Agitateur de la scène québécoise des musiques actuelles depuis plus de trente ans, le saxophoniste Jean Derome reprend la route avec l’une de ses formules de prédilection. Le trio qu’il forme avec le contrebassiste Normand Guilbeault et le batteur Pierre Tanguay, lui offre, dans un confinement déjà classique, une dimension ludique propice aux échappées belles. Sur des pièces composées entre 1974 et aujourd’hui, la rencontre n’a heureusement pas le parfum d’une rétrospective. Que ce soit au saxophone (timbre saisissant) ou à la flûte (une ivresse bucolique), il fait preuve d’une aisance de jeu parfois aérienne, parfois portée par une tension latente. L’assise sereine de la contrebasse, et les éclats attentifs de la batterie, font de ce trio un pari collectif réussi.

A musical eclectic, trombonist Tom Walsh has become a fixture of Montréal’s actuelle scene since his move from Toronto in 1990. Around that same time, he put together a middle-size group, NOMA, with musicians from both cities. As a kind of free-form funk band that had definite Prime Time connections, it could groove with the best of them, but the difficulties of holding such a group together led to its eventual disbanding. A decade later, a slimmed down version was re-introduced, this time with an all-Montréal lineup of seven, divided into a funk rhythm section (with electric bass, guitar and drums) and a jazz one (with acoustic bass, guitar and drums), with the leader directing traffic, knob-turning his sampler and turning in a few trombone spots (in that order). Thirteen years after its debut release, Climbing the Waltz, this long delayed follow-up appears, but time seems not to have altered much of its basic portent. Indeed, the groove element is very much at the heart of the music, but the pieces (11 in total) are much more fragmented, or modular, implying they’re never assembled the same way from one performance to the next. Like the first disc reviewed above, this one is also a composerdriven project, albeit looser, with spot solos, mainly by electric bassist Al Baculis, but not that many from the leader himself. The jazz connection is more covert than overt, apart from Bud’s Dub, the rollicking theme of which is actually Monk’s “ln Walked Bud” (uncredited). An unusual feature is that all but two pieces have been further subdivided, resulting in 32 tracks (a deliberate choice of the leader to allow listeners to surf through the music according to their own whims).

Martin Tétreault will take part in London’s Atlantic Waves Festival (UK) November 18, 2004. He will accompany Portuguese Carlos Zíngaro (violin) alongside British John Butcher (saxophone) and Swiss Günter Müller (percussions).

Nous perçons les oreilles, the intimate duo of Jean Derome and Joane Hétu, will play at Ann Harbour’s upcoming Edgefest (MI) October 14, 2004. Just a few days before, on October 9, the duo will stop at the Parral’œil art center in Rimouski (Québec).