With the holiday break barely behind us, jazz and mixed music are coming back to life in our halls and our loudspeakers — as of Saturday evening, hold on: the Toronto experimental ensemble Minor Empire and its singer Özgü Özman will be joined on the stage of the Sala Rossa by eminent Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset for a contemporary jazz exploration of Turkish musical heritage. This sets the table admirably well for a season rich in sound encounters.
And, for some, revenge on a virus that continues to play spoilsports: January 19 at the Gesù will finally take place the concert of the young singer Laura Anglade, accompanied by the Orchester national de jazz de Montréal conducted by Jean-Nicolas Trottier, event postponed due to hoarse voice. On the menu: the repertoire of Jerome Kern, who laid many stones in the building of the Great American Songbook.
On the side of O Patro Vys, avenue du Mont-Royal, let’s watch on January 21 the birth of a not trivial project, Crossroad Copelandwho will release his first album (Copeland). We find in particular, gathered around the composer and guitarist Ben Copland Gilbert, the bassist Carl Mayotte and the singer Jeanne Laforest, who launched last October a first album entitled Since we miss the hours. Proposal ? A fusion of funk, jazz, metal and rap. It piques curiosity, a bit like this jazz tribute to the grunge icon Nirvana that the composer and pianist’s quartet is cooking Guillaume Martineau at the Upstairs, January 27.
As usual, we’ll be watching the schedule of jazz venues in the city, which are just beginning to fill up, from the Upstairs to the activities of the young Saint-Henri Jazz Society, via the Dièse Onze , rue Saint-Denis, which last fall opened its record store just above, at 4117, rue Saint-Denis.
For mixed music, destination as always at the Club Balattou, which Productions Nuits d’Afrique liven up with their concerts all year round. The month of January is almost already complete: JabJab Saturday evening (music from the West Indies), Kenzow (originally from Burkina Faso) on the 20th, reggae-dancehall evening on the 22nd with Okapi, Face-T and Aldo GuizmoAfro-Latin on the 28th with Bumarangaetc.
Other dates to circle on the calendar: Japan Project of the composer and pianist Yves Leveille, artist in residence at the Outremont theatre, which brings together colleagues Eri Yamamoto, Ikuo Takeuchi and Frank Lozano on February 11. On the 26th, a large-scale concert at the Théâtre Maisonneuve, during which the orchestra of Benedict Charest will accompany the screening of the classic The Triplets of Belleville.
Originally from Kingston, Jamaica, but long established in Toronto, the reggae singer Mikey Dangerous is arguably the figurehead of the Canadian reggae scene; we will see him at the Sala Rossa on March 31, accompanied by sound systems [collectifs de DJ et MC qui, traditionnellement, se produisaient sur d’imposants équipements audio] premises. On April 5, the Montreal International Jazz Festival will invite young British people from EzraCollective. Once the Snow Melted, Trumpeting Legend and Founder of A&M Records and Orchestra Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert, will perform at the Théâtre Maisonneuve, a few weeks after reaching the venerable age of 88.
As for album releases, all bets are off.In interview with the To have to last summercomposer and multi-instrumentalist Chief Adjuah promised us three new albums of original material, with the first due out later this month. Artisan of fruitful encounters between jazz and music from the Asian subcontinent, the Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu will offer a new album, One Thought AwayMarch 4, while the Senegalese legend baaba maal will introduce us Being on March 31, after seven years of silence. On the same day, the composer and pianist Alexandra Stréliski will finally unveil the successor to the popular Inscapepublished almost five years ago.
It has become a habit of back-to-school overviews to evoke the publication of the superstar’s chimerical reggae album Rihanna, so let’s reiterate, for the third time in four years, with the hope that this project, announced for ages, materializes, perhaps even around the concert that the musician will give at halftime of the LVIIe Super Bowl, February 12. Meanwhile, the dancehall singer Popcan will launch a new album on January 27 named Great Is He.