At Largo — the festival’s unofficial headquarters in the city’s Saint-Roch downtown district — multi-reedist Jean Derome paid homage to Strayhorn with an energetic performance that alluded to Lovano’s formative years in Cleveland. Derome focused on the alto saxophone but showed equal wherewithal on the baritone saxophone and bass flute. He fronted an extremely agile band — pianist François Bourassa, bassist Normand Guilbeault and drummer Pierre Tanguay — who brought their restive urgency to the forefront. Much of the performance’s delight came from Derome’s devil-may-care flair and finesse with Strayhorn’s material. While the sets didn’t rely upon unnecessary whimsy, the musicians brought inventive vigor to warhorses like Take The ‘A’ Train and Passion Flower. Occasionally, Derome shared the front line with vocalist Karen Young, who evoked Billie Holiday with the improvisational guile of Betty Carter. She meshed and contrasted deftly with Derome’s vinegary timbres on the saxophones and flutes, hitting high points on poignant readings of Strange Feeling, Imagine My Frustrations, Something To Live For and an encore performance of Lush Life. […]

Like many Québécois jazz musicians, Derome and L’Orchestre d’Hommes are shamefully under-recorded, but such unforgettable performances will have festival attendees returning to Quebec to encounter other rare treasures.

À Victoriaville, le 22 mai de l’année dernière, Barre Phillips, Catherine Jauniaux et Malcolm Goldstein avaient jugé utile de n’être qu’eux-mêmes et rien qu’eux-mêmes.

Sur scène, les voici donc investis, sourds aux distractions extérieures et sensibles aux sollicitations de chacun. Oui, unis et liés par cet art du délestement qu’ils n’ont plus à prouver mais à maintenir et à renouveler (ne change rien pour que tout soit différent disait tonton JLG dans ses Histoire (s) du cinéma). Alors, ils partagent, se rebellent, se suivent, s’opposent sans se disperser.

Les histoires amorcées par Catherine Jauniaux avortent ou sont rendues incompréhensibles par le phrasé fissuré de la chanteuse. Qu’importe: le tableau a déjà changé de teinte. Maintenant, ils tressent et détressent, rompent ou entretiennent l’unisson. Parfois, d’une mélopée incertaine surgissent les traces d’un chant ancestral. Parfois, le violon est maître alors que la contrebasse n’est que d’accompagnement ou de soulagement. Mais toujours d’écoute. Parfois duo, presque toujours trio. En résumé: poignant.

Enhanced freedom in music over the past 60 years has involved more than the addition of new instrumental techniques and compositional strategies. Recasting of gender roles has also taken place. No longer are women instrumentalists expected to play traditionally delicate female instruments such as violins or flutes; or those where they sit demurely such as the piano, harp or cello. This change is most obvious in improvised music, where the number of women who stand up to play has multiplied exponentially. Many have chosen to become brass players, adapting their skills to apparatuses which demands power and stamina.

Take Toronto trumpeter Nicole Rampersaud for instance. The high-quality improvising she exhibits on Halcyon Science in the company of saxophonist Evan Shaw, drummer Jean Martin, bassist Wes Neal and percussionist Tomasz Krakowiak doesn’t distinguish in any way between her talents and those of her colleagues. During seven group compositions, the quintet vaults back-and-forth from high-energy anthems to more cerebral explorations with equal skill. Take me To Your Leader is an example of the latter, as clattering friction from Krakowiak’s noise-makers evolves in stacked counterpoint alongside Shaw’s irregularly squeezed vibrations plus the mouthpiece suckles and tremolo emphasis of Rampersaud. Her rubato slurs and valve squeaks intersect perfectly with the baritone saxophonist’s tongued percussiveness as Martin’s ratamacues, pops and drags presage harmonizing vamps and a final quivering dissolve. Meantime the title tune and Dirigible move with a chromatic gait. The former resembles an Eric Dolphy line, with repeated climaxes interrupted by mid-range honks from Shaw and stuttering pitches from the trumpeter. Dirigible stacks timbres so that space between Rampersaud’s staccato and heraldic tone and Shaw’s juddering tempos are obvious. Still a near-bugle call on the trumpeter’s part in the final sequence signals a slowdown to barely there flutter tonguing on her part, accompanied by the reedist’s smooth obbligato, until together they dovetail into muted tones framed by drumstick-rubbing friction from the two percussionists.

Although Ms. Tagaq is a Inuit throat singer from the northern region of Canada, this doesn’t begin to explain her exhilarating and incredibly intense performance at the Victoriaville Festival in May of 2010. I had caught her once at the Guelph Fest in a more intimate improv situation but her Victo debut was something else altogether. She wisely chose two of Canada’s best improvising musicians to collaborate with: violinist Jesse Zubot (Vancouver-based & head of the Drip Audio label) and drummer Jean Martin (Toronto-based & cofounder of Barnyard records). Both visually and vocally, Ms. Tagaq was a bit over-whelming as she delivered her own strange, animalistic vocal sounds and danced like a demon in flames. It was a spectacle no one who attended will soon forget. Tanya’s uses her voice in odd ways, twisting and bending it into shapes not so easy to describe. Snarl opens with just Tanya moving between two different vocal characters or inflections: a young woman with higher more fragile voice and an older woman with a breathing problem or hoarse witch-like quality. Slowly Jesse adds fractured strings and Jean adds subtle percussion, as the trio blends and builds the into a tight frenzy, casting their own spell over the attentive audience. Ms. Tagaq’s throat-singing is much different from the Mongolian throat-singing that most of us have heard in the past, giving it an exorcist sort-of quality. Mr. Martin adds eerie electronic samples on Plush and perhaps he is the one who adds echoes or manipulates Tanya’s voice adding another layer or two. Being present at this concert, I was somewhat overwhelmed by the visual content and loud volume, but listening to the disc I hear more of the connection between the players and the overall music display or picture. Tanya often sounds as if she is playing different characters, from a crying little girl to a scary old lady. Jesse and Jean do a fine job of adding their own sympathetic interaction selectively and at times just laying out while Tanya creates another voice or presence. Like all CD’s on the Victo label, the sound is superb and well-balanced. At times it hard to tell that Ms. Tagaq is making those sounds herself, they are completely captivating and sound like the language of a friendly alien.

Exiting the venue back in May 2010, we all knew we had just witness something incredible, magical. Then, time took its toll, and we started doubting; we caught other shows by the artist, and we doubted again, Finally, this CD arrived and, well, it was real, we DID witness a moment of pure magic, a moment this record faithfully preserves. Anuraaqtuq is the first recording by Tanya Tagaq’s trio in its incarnation since 2009. With drummer Jean Martin and violinist Jesse Zubot, the Inuit singer completely eschews her previous pop records to dive headfirst into ultra-emotional free improvisation. She screams, cries, yelps and orgasms, transmuting the most atavistic human emotions into a spellbinding song. And that particular night, she reached new heights before an audience that, unlike what she was used to, was taking it all in and asking for more. A communion the likes of which I have rarely witnessed — and whenever I did, it was always at FIMAV and nowhere else.

Doublebassist Jean-Félix Mailloux’s string trio Cordâme is getting better and better with each album — it is actually making giant leaps. Migration was already very strong, but Lieux imaginés highlights composition skills that are so rich and sophisticated, yet so accessible! Thirteen pieces bearing names of cities Mailloux never visited. Santiago and Dans la tête de M. Sakamoto stand out. Influences from Bar Kohkba and tango music, but a highly personal style.