It’s the 33nd annual Festival International de Jazz de Montreal. MAGNET’s Mitch Myers translates the action.
Happy Canada Day! Sorry the holiday is on a Sunday this year, but you can take off work tomorrow. Last night’s gigs at the Montreal Jazz Festival were just all right, but I did notice there were a lot of lovely ladies playing around. Pianist Elaine Elias is distractingly cute, and her Brasileira Quartet features her husband/master bassist Marc Johnson, so be advised! Speaking of Brazil, sensational singer CéU returned to perform to her dedicated fans at Club Soda, Mexican singer/dancer Lila Downs played the much larger Metropolis, and Montreal singer/cellist Jorane performed her classical pop in collaboration with the L’Orchestra I Musici De Montreal at the glorious Montreal Symphony House. You go, girls.
I personally got sucked into a weird ’70s nostalgia trip, and continued to attend shows featuring old grey-haired guitarists. Actually, Larry Coryell’s impressive mane is snowy white, and he looks like George Lucas up there onstage. Performing as part of that darn Guitarissimo series, Coryell is a fantastic improviser and unafraid to take risks. Playing mostly solo acoustic, Coryell thrilled the crowd with his fleet, furious picking and masterful chording ability. Opening with a poignant rendition of the Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home,” Coryell favored emotion over precision, revealing both his daring and his sense of humor. Serving up original compositions (from the ’70s) as well Ellington tunes, jazz standards and even a rave-out of Ravel’s “Bolero,” Coryell stayed in the moment and was inspiring to watch. Basically, he’s a master musician and well-traveled journeyman who can play guitar as well as anyone when called upon, and he did.
After a nice nap at the mammoth Tangerine Dream concert, I returned to the scene of the crime at the Gesù (Centre de Creativite) to catch Norwegian guitar hero Terje Rypdal. Rypdal was in town reprising his 2009 live performance and ECM recording of Crime Scene, a strange mélange of Hendrix-styled guitar wailing, offbeat big-band embellishments and sampled dialogue from classic gangster films like The Godfather and GoodFellas. Supported by his old friend, Danish trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg and the Bergen Big Band, this gig was weird, disjointed jazz fusion with just enough noir to peak the interest of cinéphiles and jazzbos alike. Opening with “The Menace,” Rypdal played stratospheric lead guitar while Mikkelborg blew a clarion call of echoing, spacey trumpet work before the rest of their sizable band joined them onstage. I missed some of the sampled movie spiels because of the crowd applause, but am convinced I heard Michael Corleone mutter at least one deadly vendetta near the end. Still, they should have made room for “I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart.”
Next time.
