Thu 28 Jun – Festival International de Jazz de Montréal
Despite the title, I attended the festivities only on July 6. This was my first time to Montréal. Even having been fore-warned, I was a little surprised, but French is the language of choice up there. I managed to pick up a few words here and there, but no matter who is talking with you, they try French first, realize you're American, roll their eyes, and default to English. Overall though, I loved the setup of this festival. They take over roughly 3-4 city blocks and turn it into festival central. The shows - close to 500 total, are all free (besides ticketed indoor events). There's always about 4 things going on at once, so if you get bored with one artist, you can easily find something else to check out. I saw these groups:
No Name Jazz Sextet - These guys were pretty good, and on the mainstage when I arrived. Arrangements were good, solos were well crafted. Very straight ahead. They wore matching shirts.
Christine Jensen Quartet - The program notes I picked up described, saxophonist and namesake of the group, Christine as being heavily influenced by Lee Konitz and Wayne Shorter. They nailed it. Now, would I have picked up on this if the program notes hadn't told me so? Perhaps, but I also would have come up with Jackie McLean, at least based on her timbre. I enjoyed part of her set but due to the nature of the festival, she kind of lost my attention when she went to play a ballad, so I wandered over to see something else.
Sambasunda - Sambasunda was really cool.. I'm totally into any eastern music I can find these days, though my finds are few and far between. They kind of morph latin flavors, rhythms, and instrumentation with the traditional Balinese gamelan harmonies, rhythms, and instrumentation. Part of it seemed a little cheeseball to me when a couple of young ladies in their troupe made their way to the stage to shake their things and croon. I could've done without that.
Spam Allstars - I previously knew of these guys from my Phish listening days, from keyboardist Page McConnell's solo album Vida Blue: The Illustrated Band. Honestly, I liked Spam Allstars better as a solo group! I think the lack of drum kit/bass causes them to be a bit more creative with the turntables and afro-percussion. All of them were very strong individually on their instruments, and the total package set the tone for the evening.. the place was bouncing at this point with 50,000 to 70,000 people in the streets at festival central, and the bass from Spam Allstars could be heard all over the festival grounds except at the mainstage where Ryan Shaw was performing.
Ryan Shaw - I caught one song of his. It wasn't really jazz, but he had a huge crowd at the festival. I didn't find him to be too interesting. The crowd of people at the mainstage was HUGE.
Esperanza Spalding - What more can I say about Esperanza! She's just so great and still fresh to me. Too bad she got stuck with a shitty sound guy. Come on! It's a freakin' jazz trio! It's not that hard to mix!
Despite the title, I attended the festivities only on July 6. This was my first time to Montréal. Even having been fore-warned, I was a little surprised, but French is the language of choice up there. I managed to pick up a few words here and there, but no matter who is talking with you, they try French first, realize you're American, roll their eyes, and default to English. Overall though, I loved the setup of this festival. They take over roughly 3-4 city blocks and turn it into festival central. The shows - close to 500 total, are all free (besides ticketed indoor events). There's always about 4 things going on at once, so if you get bored with one artist, you can easily find something else to check out. I saw these groups:
No Name Jazz Sextet - These guys were pretty good, and on the mainstage when I arrived. Arrangements were good, solos were well crafted. Very straight ahead. They wore matching shirts.
Christine Jensen Quartet - The program notes I picked up described, saxophonist and namesake of the group, Christine as being heavily influenced by Lee Konitz and Wayne Shorter. They nailed it. Now, would I have picked up on this if the program notes hadn't told me so? Perhaps, but I also would have come up with Jackie McLean, at least based on her timbre. I enjoyed part of her set but due to the nature of the festival, she kind of lost my attention when she went to play a ballad, so I wandered over to see something else.
Sambasunda - Sambasunda was really cool.. I'm totally into any eastern music I can find these days, though my finds are few and far between. They kind of morph latin flavors, rhythms, and instrumentation with the traditional Balinese gamelan harmonies, rhythms, and instrumentation. Part of it seemed a little cheeseball to me when a couple of young ladies in their troupe made their way to the stage to shake their things and croon. I could've done without that.
Spam Allstars - I previously knew of these guys from my Phish listening days, from keyboardist Page McConnell's solo album Vida Blue: The Illustrated Band. Honestly, I liked Spam Allstars better as a solo group! I think the lack of drum kit/bass causes them to be a bit more creative with the turntables and afro-percussion. All of them were very strong individually on their instruments, and the total package set the tone for the evening.. the place was bouncing at this point with 50,000 to 70,000 people in the streets at festival central, and the bass from Spam Allstars could be heard all over the festival grounds except at the mainstage where Ryan Shaw was performing.
Ryan Shaw - I caught one song of his. It wasn't really jazz, but he had a huge crowd at the festival. I didn't find him to be too interesting. The crowd of people at the mainstage was HUGE.
Esperanza Spalding - What more can I say about Esperanza! She's just so great and still fresh to me. Too bad she got stuck with a shitty sound guy. Come on! It's a freakin' jazz trio! It's not that hard to mix!
