7:00 pm: STEVE BATES’ BLACK SEAS + ESCHATON (Hamilton)
Steve Bates guitar, electronics Connor Bennett reeds, bass, electronics Aaron Hutchinson percussion, trumpet, electronics
A first-time Montreal-Hamilton collaboration… imaginative, innately curious Montreal composer, sound artist, guitarist, improviser Steve Bates‘s project Black Seas, investigates auditory hallucinations with the aid of a soulful, textural noise duo, Hamilton’s finest in sound exploration, Eschaton — a fearless duo made up of improvising multi-instrumentalists, Aaron Hutchinson & Connor Bennett.
8:00 pm: QUARTET KAZE (Tokyo/Lille)
Natsuki Tamura trumpet Christian Pruvost trumpet Satoko Fujii piano Peter Orins drums
Melodic, abstract, mysterious, beautiful, and confrontational, Kaze plays free jazz at its most creative and powerful. The members of this international quartet share an insatiable appetite for sonic experimentation, boundless energy and enthusiasm, and the disciplined intelligence of accomplished spontaneous composers.
The group has released three acclaimed recordings – 2011’s Rafale, 2013’s Tornado, and 2015’s Uminari which the London Jazz News calls “…bold, uncompromising music.” Uminari is a Japanese word that refers to a sound rising from the sea, a low-frequency roar that portends a coming storm or tsunami. The two-horn quartet is equally adept at the calm and the storm, with expressive subtleties giving way to overwhelming torrents of sound
“…the rarely heard sound of two trumpets collaborating, interweaving and cross-talking is at the center of the group Kaze, whose penultimate set of the festival was also one of the high points of the overall program.”
“… one of the most musically dynamic and intense “jazz” sets of the year… If you think you can imagine what piano, drums, and two trumpets will sound like, think again.”
“One of the best gigs I’ve seen this year…one of my favorite working groups.”
“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
“[Fujii] is a demon on the keys, capable of delicately pretty melodies as easily as full-keyboard chord-blocks, and amazingly controlled inside-the-piano stringwork.”
with kind support from:
9:30 pm: DKV TRIO (Chicago)
Ken Vandermark reeds Kent Kessler bass Hamid Drake drums
The DKV Trio is one of the most exciting ensembles working in contemporary improvised music. Featuring Hamid Drake (drums), Kent Kessler (bass), and Ken Vandermark, the band has been active since the mid 1990s and has released eleven recordings, including their most recent album, which came out in the autumn of 2016: Collider (that features the trio paired with the Scandinavian group, The Thing).
Their 2014 five CD box set, Sound in Motion in Sound, was reviewed by the Free Jazz Collective as follows, “They are tighter, more explosive, and ingenious than ever. Imagine every DKV Trio’s signature element coming together in a remarkably dazzling, fiery display of musical prowess. There’s an almost palpable quality to the way that the musicians meld their ideas and approaches together. There’s groove propelled by Drake’s funky, loose drumming, there’s melody in the bass lines, there’s dissonance and conflict in Vandermark’s fluid, mercurial playing.
This is a great recording by an unmistakable, intense group of musicians with a sound and feeling of their own. That much is clear now. I would even dare to call this album their best to date. Inspired, full of energy, harmonically, rhythmically, and even melodically rich, capable of wonderfully recreating the joy of listening to DKV Trio live.” 5 stars
2017 promises to be an exceptional year for the band: they will be releasing a new album on the label Not Two, have concerts scheduled in Canada during June, and will tour in Europe with Joe McPhee as a guest for the first time in their career.
($35 door/$28 students, seniors and advance purchase)
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