Posted at 8:00 a.m.
No padded ballad, only deliberate escapades, with some electronic armatures. This is, roughly speaking, the musical menu that Francesca Remigi, 26, and her group intend to elucubrate at the Plaza Theater on Saturday. “The improvisations that come out of the established patterns and structures arouse my curiosity”, says Remigi without surprise.
The Scrapbook The Human Web, released in March 2021, hosts eight tracks over 45 minutes requiring 25 musicians. It is hard to imagine a note-for-note reproduction of the impressionist digressions of the avant-garde artists.
We will inevitably have proof of this on Saturday when The Human Web will be played by five musicians, with two Canadians, Naomi McCarroll-Butler, alto sax, and Aretha Tillotson, double bass; training completed by Montreal pianist Evan Shay. The dancer Claudia Cappelletti will have a beautiful setting to gesticulate through the musicians!
His group Archipelagos was formed three years ago. More composer than instrumentalist? “It’s true, I compose more,” she replies.
The most important role with percussion is to support and assist the other musicians in the group. I am not a show-off on the battery, I’m not trying to impress. I much prefer to deepen my understanding of musical textures and sound dynamics.
Francesca Remigi
Opposing her extreme fragility in the face of the tumultuous currents that shake her world boiling with vital energy, Francesca Remigi evacuates her fears with great blows of improvisation. “The effect of social media on self-esteem and my near-suicidal eating disorder that lasted three years spawned music inspired by socio-political concepts like those of Noam Chomsky,” she explains.
The Northern Italian reveals and unpacks her demons. “Like a secret open cupboard where you can find my moods jumbled together, I use my own mental health as an abstract canvas to pave the way for improvisation. The Human Webthat’s it: a patchwork, she summarizes, all the ramifications of the jazz tree stick to it, they show us the way to the trunk. »
Threesome everywhere
She joined the Berklee Global Jazz Institute in 2020 where she worked on all the tracks of the album without her companions spread all over the world. “I compose on [le logiciel de composition] Sibelius, I then import the tracks to [le logiciel studio] Logic. The pandemic has forced musicians to find creative solutions! »
Nothing is too good for the transalpine when she declaims, knee to the ground, her inner tremors which break against the rock of her torments. The human execution of the battery seems haunted and even guided by its flaws.
After a detour of three years in Brussels, where she was introduced to the Carnatic music of India, the musician settled in Boston, before landing in New York. The Italian Institute of Culture sponsors her regularly: arriving from a tour in Australia, she had just landed from Italy yesterday, when her group was invited to JAZZMI.
Bergamo, Brussels, Boston. Her path well traced, Francesca Remigi is now well established in the world of improvised and avant-garde music where she outlines, explores and clears the way.
His most recent album, Confined Labili (fuzzy borders) released in August, offers a bass clarinet-drums-guitar trio, punctuated with synthetic sounds. We particularly like the name of the triumvirate on the cover: Calcagno (bass clarinet) Subatin (guitar) Remigi (drums), which, in its Italian spirit, recalls the famous prog trio of the 1970s Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM).
“We met in my studio during the pandemic. Javier is part of a community of avant-garde improvisers, which Federico and I joined, but Confined Labili is not a concept album. This prompted the three of us to found our own record label, Habitable Records, in 2021, where eight employees work. »
Remigi does not want to follow in the footsteps of her compatriots, the trumpeters Paolo Fresu and Enrico Rava or the youngest Enrico Pieranunzi, the latter yet as shrewd as her when it comes time to venture into the fog with a crazy compass .
“They have no influence on me, the older ones. I do not carry their heritage in jazz, with their beautiful melodies. Italy has produced great jazz musicians with reassuring tunes. I prefer to innovate and not go back on these paths, she admits frankly. But I don’t see myself as a pioneer. »
In November, two weeks of residency await him at the Hambidge Center in Georgia, then in December, there will be eight European shows with maestro Paolo Damiani. Between the den of creation and the stage, Francesca Remigi has found a nice balance.
On October 8, at the Plaza Theater
Four suggested concerts and activities
National Jazz Orchestra of France (ONJ)
With an armada of 16 musicians, the ambitious project Ex Machina, conceived by the American saxophonist and composer of experimental music Steve Lehman, produced jointly with the composer and electric guitarist Frédéric Maurin, is an intriguing galley in uncertain waters, led safely by the Institute for Musical Research at Ircam. The initiative is part of the movement of recurring experiments combining technology and music. The artistic approach is original and enhanced with scenic devices that put in front of a computer that can generate electronic orchestrations within a large jazz ensemble. And, why not, become an improvisation partner! Jérôme Nika, for his part, designs the DYC12 environment which will be integrated into the improvisations of the soloists. The illustrious jazz collective ends its North American tour with us. High acrobatics in perspective.
On October 7, at the Plaza Theater
Marianne Trudel and Karen Young
The erudite pianist is happily reunited with his singer companion and offers us Ode to nature, Ode to life, a brand new show where poetry, music and songs intertwine with the complicity of the Yves Charuest trio. Marianne Trudel’s talent for composition foreshadowed the best in an unlikely duet with drummer John Hollenbeck just recently. Together they give birth to Dede Java Spirit, a call to beauty, trance and dream, always with this mysterious approach to the piano. Imagine a meeting between her and Karen Young who, at 71, still masters her jazz vocals as well and walks irremediably on high peaks. In 2009, Young launched Electro-beatniks with bassist Éric Auclair, and after a few albums with her daughter Coral Egan, the singer published Portraits, Songs of Joni Mitchell in 2018 with, precisely, Marianne Trudel. Songs from Blue ? Short and Spark ? We already dream better.
On October 11, at the Lion d’Or
Soaring by Ariane Racicot
Radio-Canada jazz revelation 2022-2023, the progressive jazz pianist and composer has a hobby: composing jazz that fuses metal, Latin and classical music! His concert opening for the illustrious American trumpeter Wynton Marsalis during the 42e Montreal International Jazz Festival made many eyes widen. Here is the convincing example of a pianist who rushes with confidence and who takes risks, outside the agreed frameworks, like her elder Emi Roussel who makes high quality creative jazz. It’s quite a new generation, that, and moreover, an innovator who avoids BCBG re-readings of Radiohead songs… You have to see the musician who has accumulated 18 million views on YouTube with her version of Bohemian Rapsody ! His first album, Soaring, will be played as a trio. If her music was a drink, it would be a gin and tonic, according to her! FREE ENTRANCE.
October 12 at the MTL Improv/St-Henri Jazz Club
Jean-Michel Pilc
The French pianist of international reputation is very well in Quebec, where he has lived since 2015. His 20 years of residence in New York, his numerous tours around the globe and appearances at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, in particular, make him an excellent teacher. in jazz and improvisation at McGill University. With a few releases on the Montreal label Justin Time, Pilc is about to launch Symphonyhis brand new collection of compositions following alive, released earlier this year. Several titles of Symphony will surely be offered to the Montreal public, along with pieces of parallel, his double solo album, during his performance at OFF. Intense and unpredictable, his musical arsenal is formidable, as much in his free interpretations of jazz standards as his own. The quintessence of the solo piano, all musical allegiances combined.
October 12 at Le Ministère