‘LOOKING FOR SOMETHING NEW AND DIFFERENT’
An east-west collaboration and Miles’ funky Conduit kick off new jazz season
It’s rare to find a married couple working together in jazz, let alone co-leading a band of nine across Canada. Toronto’s Tara Davidson and William Carn used some ingenuity to take their main focus since 2010 on the road, fostering an east-west collaboration in the process.
The Carn Davidson 9 becomes Carn Davidson 5+4 in three western cities, which includes the launch of a new season at the Yardbird Suite’s Fri. Sept. 21.
Saxophonist Davidson and trombonist Carn bring three colleagues from Toronto on trumpet, bass and drums, picking up four extra Edmonton horns including Craig and Jim Brenan to fill out their nonet. Advance charts and rehearsals should ensure everyone’s comfortable with the couple’s tunes.
Davidson explains that the nonet began out of their desire to challenge themselves, writing for a chamber jazz band, drawing on influences like Birth of the Cool, Maria Schneider and others.
“It’s been really great for William and I because we were both looking for something new and different. It started off as a bit of a gamble, with nine members, but the players have really settled in and the band has evolved. We’re influenced by the jazz tradition but we’re making music for today.”
You might hear historical echoes in the sonorities of the CD9 but it’s a rich, contemporary sound in the end. Both of their albums, 2012’s Nine, and last year’s Murphy got nominated for Juno Awards.
Carn Davidson 5+4 play at 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 21 at the Yardbird Suite (86 Ave. at Gateway Blvd.) with tickets $24 for EJS members, $28 for guests, at Tix On The Square (780-4201757 or tixonthesquare.ca).
It’s the start of an intriguing new season for the Edmonton Jazz Society’s historic venue, and the 60-plus year-old Yardbird Suite is celebrating with a newly re-designed website at yardbirdsuite.com.
Los Angeles pianist Tamir Hendelman and his trio follow on Saturday, Sept. 22. This child prodigy even managed to impress Oscar Peterson in a live performance of the late master’s
Canadiana Suite. Now in his prime, he packs a virtuoso touch.
Sept. 28 brings a CD release party for Montuno West, a new quintet set to survey the range of Latin jazz styles with members of past projects like Bomba and Cumako, including Chris Andrew, Rubim de Toledo, Audrey Ochoa and their Cuban friends Raul Tabera and Luis Tovar.
Vancouver saxophonist Cory Weeds, a couple New Yorkers, drummer Barry Altschul and trumpeter Marquis Hill, and Toronto reedman Bob Brough are among the bandleaders featured into October. Tuesday Night Jams and Thursday YEG Showcases will continue to feature Edmonton’s best.
MILES’ FUNKY RETURN
Because he stays busy as a sideman and session player you might not know you’re listening to Brett Miles as often as you have. This is a guy who has guested for James Brown and Mick Jagger after all. But when this unassuming, passionate artist and saxophonist-for-hire surfaces with his own projects he likes to make a splash.
Edmonton native Miles resurrects his 20-year-old occasional combo Magilla Funk Conduit to open up the Arts Barns season Saturday, Sept. 22, celebrating the release of his biggest project yet.
Welcome Inside is an impressive digital-only double album, clocking in around 93 minutes. Over 15 tracks he plays sax and flute, assorted percussion and set drums, bass, keyboards, even a vibes solo, and sings or speaks most vocals. Add three top guitarists (Jamie Philp, Mo Lefever, Greg Smith), Thom Golub’s bass, Dwayne Hrynkiw’s drums, trombonist Audrey Ochoa and trumpeter Bob Tildesley for a killer groove band with serious improvisers (find it at cdbaby and iTunes).
The album’s origins date back to a case of writer’s block. Never one to give in, Miles started playing around with an electronic looping program and challenged himself to do a new set of loops every day for a year.
“Some of them were just weird, but others were songs. Then I started to transcribe them.”
Eventually those multi-tracked loops became the basis for Welcome Inside, where everything is tracked live, either by Miles or his guests. It helped that Doug Organ’s Edmontone Studio has a range of keyboards and other instruments, which left the artist feeling like a kid in a candy store.
Miles notes the tunes will sound a bit different live Sept. 22 since others are taking over some of his album parts: percussionists Hrynkiw and Kevin Berreton, trumpeter Eric Weiden and most guests from the studio sessions will form the live Magilla Funk Conduit.
For the most part Welcome Inside is infectious party music with a few soulful ballads, genuine tight funk grooves that make you want to move, and lyrics inspired from Miles’ love of life. You’ll hear touches of humour too, and his inner “rapper persona” who stepped out to leave some witty remarks.
Finally, it’s a family affair when Miles’ nephew, rapper Cadence Weapon, contributes to the tune Good Year. The rapper is the son of Miles’ brother-in-law, late DJ Teddy Pemberton who pioneered The Black Experience In Sound on CJSR Radio decades ago. It’s a thrill to hear a sample of his memorable sign-off on the track T.E.D.D.Y.
Miles’ influences run the gamut from Parliament-Funkadelic and Maceo Parker to Miles Davis and John Coltrane. He grew up with a wide playlist as the youngest of seven siblings, children of Edmonton Eskimos football hero Rollie Miles. After playing his first date for the Shrine Circus at 16 he headed off to study at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, but really learned the ropes of session work over a move to New York from 1984 to 1996 when he performed and/or recorded with Buddy Miles, Mick Jagger, Sam & Dave, Ivan Neville and others (that’s also where he met his wife, dancer Dani Attiere).
Since his return Miles has been a fixture of the scene in many jazz projects and bands with Lester Quizau, Bill Bourne, Dale Ladouceur, Marco Claveria, and most recently singer Krystle Dos Santos.