New releases by well-known combinations and artists. Wow! is a fine release, because it brings a new perspective for people like me who say by impulse, exposed to traditional jazz, ‘oh yes, I know that, but please pass it to someone else’. Their interpretations are very vivid and here and now. They don’t bring old pieces to the present, but also the other way around if that makes any sense. Wow! is their fifth effort featuring three compositions by Derome and four standards: The Best Things in Life Are Free (Ray Henderson), Wow and Dreams, both written by Lennie Tristano and The Baron, a composition by Eric Dolphy. A mix we know already from their earlier releases. The players are true believers in the classic jazz material, and succeed in putting them in unpretentious and convincing jackets.

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.

Il nuovo progetto della Hétu, costruito secondo il modello del teatro sonoro, è sviluppato da un quintetto di musicisti-interpreti che vede in organico, oltre alla stessa compositrice, Alice Tougas St-Jak, Jean Derome, Isaiah Ceccarelli, and Susanna Hood. La struttura a scene-frammenti esplora temi la cui diversità epistemologica (sesso, corpo, politica, ecologia, morte) viene unificata attraverso l’idea della complessità femminile. La scrittura musicale è caratterizzata dal modo di lavorare sulla melodia proprio del rock in opposition e dell’avant-song, che può concedersi anche sembianze popolari come in S’la couler douce, limpida melodia per l’accordion e la voce della Tougas St-Jak. Più spesso però la forma canzone viene destrutturata tra tecniche vocali estreme, invenzioni patafisiche, field recordings, rumorismi da oggetti trovati, questo forse per meglio rappresentare la frammentarietà dell’esistenza. Ci vogliono un paio di ascolti per cogliere il valore complessivo di forma e sostanza del lavoro, che peraltro subito può essere apprezzato nell’impasto maschile-femminile di Ô madame la morte, nell’aplomb contemporaneo di Fragment Discipline de vie e nell’ugola quasi bianca di Susanna Hood (Nue). Ed è principalmente attraverso il canto che si rinviene traccia di quel senso difficile d’unità al quale si accennava e pure l’immagine d’una donna-umanità ferita ma ancora viva.

Of all the instruments that needed the advances of free music in the 20th century to show off its true character, it has been the double bass which benefitted most from this situation. Relegated to decorative, scene setting or mere rhythmic functions in conventional classical and jazz performances, it was only when bassists were able to express themselves without restraint that their role grew. By the 21st century in fact, solo bass recitals became as commonplace as those by other instrumentalists. The reason, as these CDs demonstrate, is the arrival of performers who can extract a multiplicity of novel tones, timbres and textures from four tautly wound strings. […]

If Jones’ electronic interface is limited, Montréal-based Alexandre St-Onge and Norwegian-in-Austin Ingebrigt Håker Flaten draw more textures to their finger tips by utilizing amplified electric basses on their solos sessions. A member of bands such as Klaxon Gueule, as well as studying for his PhD in art, St-Onge describes himself as a sound performer and the six selections on Ailleurs (&records ET 18) are studded as much with signal-processed drones and splutters as reflective string modulations. Layering the sequences with loops that replicate sounds ranging from ring-modulator whooshes to bell ringing and distorted flanges, the basic double bass-like rhythmic qualities of the instrument are muted. Only on the fifth track does the tremolo, dial-twisting exposition pull back enough for a semi-acoustic interlude. Here juddering bass-string plucks can be heard contrapuntally advancing the narrative, which is still decorated with additional droning lines and wiggling voltage-affiliated cries. The achievement of Ailleurs is that by mutating its intonation and freeing the bass from its limitations as a purely rhythmic instrument a new interface appears. The reverberating result is of an expansive formula that evocatively builds on expected bull fiddle timbres the way a realistic photograph could be the basis for a surrealistic art. […]

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.

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.