This sixth in-person sliver of a festival day of our 2021 Something Else! Festival Series at the Bay, merged with a Watch it Burn! event includes two Montreal bands we had originally booked for our 2020 festival. A heart-warming tribute to S. African ex-patriot jazz of 60s, 70s, and 80s, TOGETHERNESS! returns from Montreal after its 2017 festival debut. Sharing the same rhythm section, EYEVIN TRIO pays loving homage to the work of Thomas Chapin, gifted NYC saxophonist, about whom a wonderful documentary has been made, NIGHT BIRD SONG, which will also be screened. Three of Hamilton’s most adventurous acts round out the bill, MAN MADE HILL, aka Randy Gagner, TIDAL POOL, aka Connor Bennett’s solo saxophone and electronics excursions, and SOURPUSSY, 4 strong voices always with something new and original to say.
PAY WHAT YOU CAN… Suggested donation $15-25 at the door …or $15 in advance via Eventbrite + dinner by donation …NO ONE WILL BE REFUSED ENTRY FOR LACK OF FUNDS.
Sep 18
4:00 pm —> CONNOR BENNETT
4:45 pm —> SOURPUSSY
5:30 pm —> MAN MADE HILL
6:00 pm —> Dinner Served
6:30 pm —> TOGETHERNESS!
7:30 pm —> Film: NIGHT BIRD SONG (abridged)
8:30 pm —> EYEVIN TRIO
TOGETHERNESS!
Trumpeter ELLWOOD EPPS’ TOGETHERNESS! is nothing short of a Montréal supergroup, offering bold uplifting renditions of repertoire by Abdullah Ibrahim, Dudu Pukwana, Don Cherry, and, among others, Epps himself. Formed in 2016, the band currently includes lauded saxophonist and musique actuelle innovator JEAN DEROME, the great LORI FREEDMAN on reeds, bassist STÉPHANE DIAMANTAKIOU (Eguiluz/ Eyevin Trio) and drummer IVAN BAMFORD (Land of Kush/ Eyevin).
They've made appearances at the Montreal Jazz Festival and at a previous iteration of Something Else!, this joyous, swinging group has won audiences over with driving South African-inspired grooves that veer in surprising directions.
The band was booked for the postponed June 2020 Something Else! Festival. We’re most grateful to the Guelph Jazz Festival for their kind support in inviting the band and making it more manageable for us to present them.
EYEVIN TRIO
Québecois outfit EYEVIN TRIO is drummer IVAN BAMFORD’s loving homage to composer and saxophonist Thomas Chapin, a vital contributor to the American avant-jazz ecosystem whose vision was cut short by his untimely death in 1998 from leukemia. The group — featuring bassist STÉPHANE DIAMANTAKIOU and reedsman AURELIEN TOMASI explores Chapin's rich repertoire alongside original compositions, animating them in spirit and through Chapin's own saxophone. In October 2019, they were awarded the Prix François Marcaurelle for best concert at 20th edition of the OFF Festival de Jazz de Montréal. Originally planned for June 2020 Something Else! Festival, we’re glad to have them join us, with the appropriate pairing of Night Bird Song screening.
SOURPUSSY
Victoria Alstein, Becky Katz, Jessica Somers, Heather South • all various instruments, vocals
Hamilton’s own SOURPUSSY generate fantastic, poetic, and utterly surreal streams of consciousness. Their dadaesque (mamaesque?) performances are as befuddling as they are awe-inspiring. Variously mining invented narratives, lists of ingredients, doctor’s warnings, repetitions, hallucinatory humour, and feverish confabulation, they take you on a journey that you never knew you needed.
MAN MADE HILL
Hamilton’s "...RANDY GAGNE’s solo mission to the outer limits of interplanetary funk. This leather-clad cosmonaut has been hot-wired to projects as diverse as Disguises, Cave Dudes, and Claudio, but it’s his one-man disco prison that sends the largest charge through Toronto’s energy grid.” — Vice
“What also made it feel like a party was having the one and only Randy Gagne to close the night out. As MAN MADE HILL, his absurdist anthems and give-it-110-per-cent on-stage attitude make every show a sweaty delight. The set included a string of stone MMH classics, but there was a bunch of newer stuff as well, with a tune about Fantasy Pants melding into an atmospheric fantasy sequence, as well as "I'll Swallow You Whole", a slo-jam that's been heard at recent shows that just might be Gagne's "Time After Time". Or maybe his "Bizarre Love Triangle"? In any case, it's definitely the tenderest song I've ever heard to include the lyrical sentiment "I'll eat your fucking life-force!" — Mechanical Forest Sound
TIDAL POOL
CONNOR BENNETT saxophones, electronics
TIDAL POOL is Hamilton resident Connor Bennett’s solo foray into the saxophone’s nether regions and beyond. Starting from a strictly instrumental base, he augments his palette of unfamiliar acoustic colours with electronic treatments or simple amplification. As a musician, craftsperson, and arts organizer, Bennett as ubiquitous as he is indispensable within the local arts ecosystem. He plays saxophone in Haolin Munk, Eschaton, Lee/Palmer/Bennett and was a founding member of HAVN.
NIGHT BIRD SONG
An intimate and engaging documentary, NIGHT BIRD SONG: THE INCANDESCENT LIFE OF THOMAS CHAPIN tells the fascinating story behind the life and music of jazz great Thomas Chapin. A virtuoso from NYC’s downtown scene in the 80’s and 90’s, his brilliant compositions and work in a broad breath of music explorations, left critics and fellow musicians alike, amazed at his ability to bend the genre of jazz with innovative originality.
A versatile multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and composer, Thomas Chapin led a trio performing his own music playing in New York City’s downtown scene, and at festivals and clubs around the world. An outstanding composer of larger works as well, he sometimes augmented the trio with strings and horn ensembles.
Though leukemia tragically ended his life in 1998 at age 40, Thomas Chapin left behind a legacy of superb recordings and performances, and a reputation as one of jazz’s more extraordinary musicians – one of the few musicians to exist in both the worlds of the downtown, experimentalist scene and mainstream jazz.
He continues to be a highly influential and inspirational force to those who knew him and to those who continue to know him through his music and example.
This event was made possible with kind support from Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, & the City of Hamilton.
