Sometimes having great talent can have its downsides, like carving out meandering paths in your songs just because you’re capable of it. Joe Grass is far too humble to quantify his talent — scoop: it’s immense — but he has placed a quest for simplicity at the center of the new songs on his record Falcon’s Heartwhich he will present on Tuesday at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.
Joe Grass, a native of Moncton, has an enviable reputation within the Quebec music scene, where he has been evolving for twenty years, solo, but also a lot with others. And not the least: Lhasa de Sela, Elisapie, Marie-Pierre Arthur, Patrick Watson, the Barr Brothers and so on, and the best.
Ideas are therefore abounding in his head, and it is enough to see his hands waltzing on the neck of his guitar while he is having his picture taken by The duty to understand that the number of notes and the complexity of their sequence are not a problem. The challenge he instead tried to take up on Falcon’s Heart was to bring his songs back to basics.
Concrete foundations
“Simple means I could sing that a cappella. If we removed all the arrangements, it should be able to be played around a fire, for example”, explains the musician in French. It often happens that the original intention of his compositions comes from a riff or a “unique, interesting” idea, but which can more difficultly become the basis of a stable, seated piece.
The result is not a pure folk record, but a subdued and rich dive, gently rhythmic, all close, but not minimalist. This is the very idea of creating concrete foundations. “When the house is solid, then you can put that wall in glass, for example, you can try things and go further with all that. »
It is therefore in the arrangements, in the coating, that Joe Grass somehow put himself in danger, outside his “comfort zone”, as he says. “I threw in things that weren’t supposed to go together, and in the end, it becomes something complex. »
For example, we find on the part Hart Island banjo coupled with an almost robotic guitar solo. Elsewhere on Guadalupe (where Katie Moore sings) or on High and Lonesomewe find the astonishing but harmonious presence of a trio of alto violin, flute and bass clarinet, played by Jean René, David Gossage and Philippe Lauzier.
“Together, we did two days of improvisation, just free, says Joe Grass with sparkling eyes. We said to ourselves: “you, you are going to play in this register, then you, in staccato, you are going to play the long notes”. We explored the textures, and then we found some really interesting things. With these experiments, we were able to find something new and bring these ideas back into the arrangements. »
pictures and water
On this beautiful music, Joe Grass has laid down words that he wanted to be “more colorful” than before, further from the story and closer to evocations. One of the universes he explores on several occasions is that of water, which comes back in several forms: oceans, rivers, seas, tides and sailors are part of it.
“If I could be by the sea…” he drops. I’m from New Brunswick and I spent a lot of time on the rivers, I spent a lot of time fishing. But I like these images, water is powerful, it’s beautiful. Just the physical properties of water: it can fill something easily, it can go around, it can guide. »
Joe Grass will take the stage a few times this summer — he was at the BleuBleu festival in Gaspésie recently — usually in trio format with bassist Morgan Moore and percussionist Robbie Kuster (Patrick Watson). At the FIJM, the singer will also be accompanied by keyboardist François Lafontaine (Karkwa) and singer Erika Angell (Thus Owls).
The songs of Falcon’s Heart were born on record, but they grow up on stage, explains Joe Grass. He has already screwed a few bolts, cut a verse here, added an instrumental moment elsewhere.
“I can’t wait, because the shows, playing with other people is always a discovery. These musicians are good improvisers, so when we play, we find new business. »