That Canadian Magazine

09/04/2024

Valeria Matzner: Tamborilero [Album Review]
https://thatcanadianmagazine.com/1tw6

What a marvellously unusual recording. The repertoire on Tamborilero by Valeria Matzner, a Montevideo-born Uruguayan now living in Canada echoes with the syncopated rippling thunder of candombe rhythms. Toques de candombe, unique to Uruguay, are deeply African rhythms brought to the new world by Bantu slaves. The patterns on the traditional chico, repique and piano drums, and rhythm samples on drum set and bass for styles like candombe song and candombe Funk. And Miss Matzner channels with vivacity and uncommon elegance throughout her album. It bears mention – at the very outset – that while candombe rhythms are spread across several South American countries, the style played in Uruguay is completely unique.

To achieve this spectacular effect, she has enlisted a trio from the Magno family who are key to achieving this diabolically difficult rhythm, fused into the melody and harmony of music written by Miss Matzner and her keyboardist Scott Metcalfe. The proverbial gauntlet was thrown down to the percussionists that comprise power trio of tamborileros – Andrés Magno, Daniel Magno and Gerardo Magno. And the trio leads the rhythmic charge with absolute mastery. This may be heard everywhere on the album, but particularly on the accelerating break appended to the song that celebrates their speciality – that is: Tamborilero.

Read Full Review at: https://thatcanadianmagazine.com/1tw6

09/04/2024

Malevo was created by director, choreographer, and dancer Matías Jaime. This thrilling all-male group specializes in Malambo – a traditional Argentine folk dance of great virility and dexterity.

09/04/2024

Jazz Divas was a one-of-a-kind collaboration between three incredible Canadian jazz songstresses: Laila Biali, Sammy Jackson and Dominique Fils-Aimé.

09/04/2024

You may not have heard much about pianist Darren Pickering and his ensemble Small Worlds outside Australasia, and that is a pity. The cinematic quality of his music is evocative of endless vistas, stretching from the interior landscape of his mind from into the nooks and crannies of mysterious world...

09/04/2024

Ladaniva is a multicultural French band based in Lille, located in North of France. Influences from all across the world are what Ladaniva combine into rhythmic paintings

09/04/2024

The apogee of this magnificent disc, Subduing the Silence, by Ruiqi Wang is, unquestionably, the song cycle dedicated to Li QingZhao [1084-1155], the great Chinese poet of the Song Dynasty. Reuniting variations on the heart-soft longing of her Ci-poem, Xiang Leng Jin Ni – a rarity by any contempor...

09/04/2024

If the last three albums did not convince you that her inward-looking evocations combined with her gorgeous simplicity of melodic line, makes Lynne Arriale not a singular voice amid the often-overcrowded world of pianists

06/03/2024

Don Thompson | Rob Piltch: Bells…Now and Then
https://thatcanadianmagazine.com/reviews/albums/don-thompson-rob-piltch-bellsnow-and-then/

Two qualities of Don Thompson that one finds irresistible is that he is musicianly to the core, quietly and unmistakably commanding your attention at every level, every time he plays, no matter what instrument he is playing. And then there is the fact that his music – no matter who he is playing with – is always life-affirming. You could say this about any of the numerous recordings that he has made over the years. He connects at a very deep level with performers who are in the same studio as he is, or on stage with him. A case in point is this recording Bells…Now and Then that he has made with guitarist Rob Piltch.

The Now…and Then of the title refers to the fact that this is a recording that both musicians have revisited 42 years after they recorded nine of the charts in Mr Thompson’s basement studio in Toronto. ‘Now’ because two charts have been added to the original recording: Circles, a song written and first recorded by Mr Thompson with the guitarist Jim Hall on Circles [Concord, 1981] and Days Gone By – also written by Mr Thompson – was recorded by pianist George Shearing on How Beautiful is Night [Telarc, 1992].

Read Full Review at: https://thatcanadianmagazine.com/reviews/albums/don-thompson-rob-piltch-bellsnow-and-then/

15/02/2024

04/02/2024

with Yaron Gershovsky - Paul J. Youngman

Yaron Gershovsky has been the man behind the hits, and the many Grammy awards and nominations for the legendary group The Manhattan Transfer.

04/02/2024

Andrew Balfour and music from future past
https://thatcanadianmagazine.com/featured/andrew-balfour-and-music-from-future-past/

Mr Balfour’s music is both powerful and ethereal. Choral, instrumental, and orchestral works are evocative of the natural spirit world of earth and sky. This is reflected in gossamer-like tapestries informed by melodies and harmonies swirling together amid earthy rhythms – creating a wondrous alchemy bubbling under both musical miniatures and heady epic narratives. His works are unlike anyone else’s – certainly not like Canadian Indigenous writers – Thomson Highway, Jeremy Dutcher, Tanya Tagaq, or the late ingénue, Kelly Fraser. But Mr Balfour is special. His sunlit imagination has adorned both secular and spiritual music. His oeuvre includes Take the Indian, Empire Étrange: The Death of Louis Riel, Migiis: A Whiteshell Soundscape, Bawajigaywin, Gregorio’s Nightmare, Wa Wa Tey Wak [Northern Lights], Fantasia on a Poem by Rumi, Missa Brevis and Medieval Inuit.

It is no secret that Mr Balfour has also harboured a deep passion for medieval polyphony and baroque music. Living in a world of syncretized spirituality and given his prodigious gift for the chorale it seemed only a matter of time he focussed his attention – like a split-diopter – to the liturgical works of composers such as Thomas Tallis, Henry Purcell, Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder, William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons. The result is an album of measured, unruffled a capella chorales rendered from Latin and English texts into Cree, Ojibway. There is so much power hidden away and stored up in the words all these most fitting melodies spring forth and have presented themselves to the eager, alert, and agile mind of Mr Balfour. It seemed only natural that he would employ his glorious interpretive skills to these arrangements that have been brought to life by the brilliant ensemble musica intima.

Read Full Featured Article at: https://thatcanadianmagazine.com/featured/andrew-balfour-and-music-from-future-past/

04/02/2024

Wes Montgomery: The Complete Full House Recordings
https://thatcanadianmagazine.com/featured/wes-montgomery-the-complete-full-house-recordings/

When Orrin Keepnews signed Wes Montgomery to his then Riverside Records imprint the guitarist was already wearing the crown handed to him – proverbially speaking – from the sainted head of the legendary Charlie Christian. And that crown was Mr Montgomery to retain or lose. Of course, he retained it throughout his life until other guitarist-musicians wrestled for it in a manner of speaking. Even so, it was – and is – hard to imagine music [and not simply ‘guitar music’] without Mr Montgomery. This performance known as The Complete Full House Recordings is ample proof of the enduring legacy of Wes Montgomery.

The original recording is well documented in Mr Keepnews’ [original] notes at the back of this vinyl package. They describe the extraordinary interest – that went beyond mere curiosity – in the music of this genius of the electric guitar. Word of his soft, “thumb-and-fingers” sound was already the stuff of myth and in the words of Mr Keepnews: “…many of those most familiar with his music have felt that his recording-studio work, effective and [to quote an album title ‘incredible’, as it may be, not been able to convey the full measure of free-flowing excitement that can be created by an in-person Wes Montgomery performance.” This, indeed, was the raison d-être for this packed [and recorded] live performance.

Read Full Review at: https://thatcanadianmagazine.com/featured/wes-montgomery-the-complete-full-house-recordings/

04/02/2024

with Filip Jers - Paul J. Youngman

My first exposure to Filip Jers was through my association with Jason Ricci, a phenomenal harmonica player. I take online lessons with Ricci, and at some point...

04/02/2024

The Viper Club: Tain’t No Use
https://thatcanadianmagazine.com/reviews/albums/the-viper-club-taint-no-use/

More than a decade ago, pulling no punches and taking no prisoners in an interview in The Guardian, the violin virtuoso Nigel Kennedy lamented about: “the ‘protocol’ training by music colleges, which ‘doesn’t actually help people use their brains or their ears – two important factors in music’”. He said: “A lot of classical musicians are steered away from that in order to learn ‘the method’. How many talented young kids are going into these colleges nowadays all over the world? How many come out speaking as an individual?”

The recording is scintillating and immediate. The technique is, quite simply, flawless – even polished. Every solo played by Mr Etcheberry sounds as if he pours out his lines rather than play them. The result is that melodically, his playing gleams and flows like molten metal. Mr Limberger – heard here on the violin is a virtuoso non pareil – certainly not only evocative, but in the same realm of Mr Smith, Stephane Grapelli and other great virtuoso violinists to have graced that swing era. For the record he has one of the most singularly exciting voices in recent memory – both as a violinist and a vocalist, his phrasing [like that of Mr Armstrong] is the very definition of liquid beauty. Mr Giradot and Mr Kelbie are the power behind the rhythm. Both are experts in time.

Read Full Review at: https://thatcanadianmagazine.com/reviews/albums/the-viper-club-taint-no-use/

04/02/2024

It was an old friend – the great Heiner Stadler – who first opened my ears to the vocal ingenuity of Jay Clayton. I opened an enormous box Mr Stadler sent me...

04/02/2024

Michelle Berting Brett: Jazz, Torch & Ancient Pop
https://thatcanadianmagazine.com/reviews/albums/michelle-berting-brett-jazz-torch-ancient-pop/

You know instinctively that an album with the title Jazz, Torch & Ancient Pop [a title that needs no explanation really] is likely to hit the proverbial sweet spot for aficionados of classic charts; the kind musicianship that keeps you riveted for close to an hour.

But nothing can really prepare you for just how sweet that spot is going to be, especially for those of us – me included – who is listening with rapt attention to these marvellous renditions of these songs by a singer with a voice as luminous as that of Michelle Berting Brett.

You may be hard-pressed to find a soloist who responds alertly and open-heartedly to this magical repertoire, which is where the greatest rewards are reaped. And any vocalist who sallies forth, singing If I Were a Bell with the kind of silvery radiance and just the kind of sauciness its composer Frank Loesser would have loved to hear it sung can really do no wrong from then on.

Read Full Review at: https://thatcanadianmagazine.com/reviews/albums/michelle-berting-brett-jazz-torch-ancient-pop/

04/02/2024

Concert Review by Paul J. Youngman with Koerner Hall - The Royal Conservatory

Terence Blanchard combines all the elements of great music. From his award-winning and groundbreaking opera, Fire Shut Up In My Bones, which premiered at the Met.

04/02/2024

with Curtis Stewart

This recording – of Love – by the prodigious violinist Curtis Stewart, which blurs the artificial boundaries that separate styles of contemporary music is no exception...

04/02/2024

It takes dwelling in such a quietude to come up with what Toronto-born pianist David Ian has made of age-old classic songs – hymns, actually – on the album Vintage Christmas Trio melody.

04/02/2024

with Benjamin Koppel - Cowbell

As a composer Benjamin Koppel is a proverbial chip of the old block – gravitating to a profundity that is evocative of his father, the great Dane, Anders Koppel. Biographies of the younger Koppel suggest that his sound comes from the sharp and elemental...

04/02/2024

Gerry Hemingway: the composer, lately an inspired lyricist whose poetry is evocative of Rimbaud and Dylan, vocalist with a raspy elegance, master of a considerably extended drum set.

04/02/2024

with The Manhattan Transfer - Flato Markham Theatre - Atael Weissman - Paul J. Youngman

I feel fortunate and privileged to have witnessed the final performance of The Manhattan Transfer, an afternoon show, a historical event.

04/02/2024

Night and Day: Adi Braun
https://thatcanadianmagazine.com/reviews/albums/night-and-day-adi-braun/

Adi Braun is no longer a singer of great promise, she is already a great artist – like her father Victor Braun, her younger brother Russell Braun – as fine a baritone, some would say, as his father. Her 2023 disc Night and Day – The Cole Porter Songbook proves this, and how versatile she is, not just with Berlin noir in the great tradition of Marlene Dietrich and latterly Ute Lemper, but also American standards, which have been done to death, but [as with this repertoire – familiar and interestingly rare – from the pen of Cole Porter] have been resurrected in the grand manner by Ms Braun.

As with her other discs – notably her stunning 2017disc Moderne Frau, a celebration of Kurt Weill [among others] – Ms Braun reveals herself to be an artist of the first order, broadening out from the Berlin Noir repertory for which she is best known. Her instrument is gorgeous; lustrous, precise, and feather-light. Her musicianship is fierce as she digs into the expression of each word, brings ceaseless variety to soft dynamics, and gives every phrase grace.

04/02/2024

The Vince Guaraldi Trio: Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus
https://thatcanadianmagazine.com/reviews/albums/the-vince-guaraldi-trio-jazz-impressions-of-black-orpheus/

Vince Guaraldi will forever be celebrated as the musician who composed unforgettable music for animated television adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip penned [and drawn by Charles Schultz]. His immortal compositions for this series included the signature melody Linus and Lucy and the holiday standard Christmas Time Is Here. However, Mr Guaraldi also enjoyed a distinguished career as pianist for Cal Tjader and his Mambo Trio, with whom he recorded such memorable songs as Chopsticks Mambo, Vibra-Tharpe, Three Little Words and Lullaby of the Leaves on The Cal Tjader Trio album [1951]. By 1954 the pianist had struck out his own, having fine-tuned his Afro-Caribbean chops to a great degree.

Within a decade of his first making a name for himself with the Mambo Trio Mr Guaraldi had not only formed his own trio, signed on with Fantasy Records and made two fine albums – Modern Music from San Francisco [1957] and A Flower is a Lovesome Thing [1958]. Perhaps his greatest success came with the release Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus [1962], which comprised highly individualistic interpretations of music from the soundtrack of the Franco-Brasilian film Orfeu Negro, directed by Marcel Camus, with iconic music by Luis Bonfá – Samba de Orfeu and Manhã de Carnaval – and by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes – Felicidade and O Nosso Amor. Mr Guaraldi’s magnificent contribution, the song Cast Your Fate to the Wind, won him a Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition in 1963.

04/02/2024

Theoretically virtually every musician can bring his or her own singular sound to the instrument. In the case of Tevet Sela this is somewhat more pronounced.

04/02/2024

By this time, aficionados of music by great artists must have already acquired the album I Can Only Be Me by the late Eva Cassidy with The London Symphony Orchestra.

04/02/2024

The artist [the poet, dramatist, and musician], indulging in the act of creation is a lonely being, albeit every artistic creation is meant to be shared by a willing audience. This is especially true if that artist – in this case Sakina Abdou – is engaged in the act of creating solo works that s...

03/11/2023

With much of the music that Tyshawn Sorey has been composing and performing one hardly expected to be confronted by – not one – but two albums that appear as if to reiterate where [in the music continuum] his musical heart began to palpitate in the way that it has.

03/11/2023

BLOK is proudly an all-ages festival that is the perfect activity for the whole family that promises a music-forward extravaganza, featuring an eclectic lineup of international talents.