Le prochain concdert de Production Supermusique, Léandre, Derome, Roger, sera bientôt prêt à cueillir! Pour ce concert, une grande dame de la musique improvisée, la contrebassiste française Joëlle Léandre, rencontrera en duo et en trio deux maîtres improvisateurs de la scène montréalaise: le multi-instrumentiste Jean Derome et la percussionniste Danielle Palardy Roger. Le concert aura lieu le mardi 25 mars 2008 à La Sala Rossa, à Montréal.

Le mercredi 26 mars 2008 le groupe européen Ars circa musicæ et Quartetski (Philippe Lauzier, Gordon M Allen, Pierre-Yves Martel, Isaiah Ceccarelli) seront en concert à la Casa del Popolo, à Montréal.

Le prochain Mercredimusics accueillera, le 26 mars 2008, Jean Derome, Rainer Wiens et John Heward à la Casa Obscura, à Montréal.

Two new releases from the small Malasartes label that is run by Damian Nisenson.

Linsey Wellman (alto and soprano sax) and Mike Essoudry (drums, percussion) are together here for their first effort. In thirteen pieces that are composed and arranged by themselves, they play charming duets. In most pieces Wellman leads with his beautiful saxplaying. He has a nice tone, and there is some eastern touch in his playing. But Essoudry places many effective accents with his reduced playing. Together they built nice atmospheres. Most pieces are of a meditative nature. Inspired music it is.

Yul is a trio of Pierre Tanguay (drums), Erwin Vann (saxes) and Michel Mergaerts (bass). Tanguay needs no introduction. He left his mark on dozens of albums, many of them on the Ambiances Magnétiques label. Vann and Mergaerts are both from Belgium. Vann is a professional since 1985. Worked with Toots Thielemans, Wayne Shorter, Paolo Fresu, Marc Ducret, Bobby Previte, a.o. Michel Mergaerts from Brussels, started his career as a blues guitarist. Later he played with belgian jazz giants as Steve Houben, Pirly Zurstrassen and Jean-Louis Rassinfosse. Since about seven years he lives in Canada, playing with vocalist Julie Lebon and Trioxyde, a prog-rock/jazz outfit. The three met in 2005 and started their Yul-project. The title of their CD refers to a common experience for all three of them: passing airports. Compared to the cd by Wellman and Essoudry this one is much more close to jazz. The playing of Vann is delicate and poetic. A lyrical player. Mergaerts produces a warm sound from his bass. Tanguay is the most eccentric of the three with his polyrhytmic playing. But if you don’t share their love for jazz, this one will not talk to you.

Magali Babin présentera Onion Router (action audio interactive avec vidéo) le 20 mars 2008 dans le cadre du Salon Femmes br@nchées du Studio XX, à la Galerie B-312, à Montréal, alors que Tara Rodgers y présentera Butterfy Effects (musique générative).

Nearly 90 years after its Petrograd premiere, Visions Fugitives the “savage and sensational” 22-minute piano piece by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), has been admirably recast into nearly an hour’s worth of quartet jazz, by expanding the improvisational qualities of its 18 themes. Credit for this re-imaging goes to bassist Pierre-Yves Martel, a Vanier, Ont.-native, who produced, arranged and music directed the CD. But the transmutation of the piece depends on the contributions of all members of the Montréal-based quartet: trumpeter Gordon Allen, Phillippe Lauzier, on alto and soprano saxophones and bass clarinet and drummer Isaiah Ceccerelli. Martel, who also plays early music on viola da gamba and with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, instinctively knows how to recast classical pieces so the improvisations aren’t segregated from the themes. Instead the composer’s atypical pitch and tempo direction are given added fillip with improv-jazz techniques. Maintaining a reverence for the original composition, Martel still allows his team to, for instance, transform Con vivacità with inferences from Classic Jazz, including slap bass lines, pressured growls from Lauzier’s horn and Allan’s wah-wah trumpet. Similarly, Inquieto see-saws between droll buffo interludes featuring rubato trumpet braying and sweeping sul tasto string work and a brisk parade ground pulse, strengthened by pedal-point, bass-clarinet snorts.

A notable landmark, the CD not only suggested unexpected material available for jazz exploration, but proves that rethinking and remaking a score can create a musical invention that’s as profound as — or even an improvement on — the original.