Looking fine at 29

The Mirror’s jazz scribe rattles
off his highlights at the 2008
Montreal Jazz Festival

THE REAL MCCOY: Tyner and his piano

By LEN DOBBIN

It hardly seems like 29 years since I took my then-12-year-old daughter and her cousin from Toronto to hear Ray Charles at Place des Nations, but the 29th edition of the FIJM is indeed upon us, beginning today, June 26, and it looks like a banner year.

There’s a wide choice of material for the vocal fancier. Dorothée Berryman, who was in great voice the last time I heard her, is once again appearing with her group, this time including guitarist Carlos Jimenez. On June 29 and 30, and on July 1, they play the dinner-and-show cruises along the St-Laurent on the Bateau Cavalier Maxim (departing nightly at 7 p.m. from the Old Port’s Quai King-Edward), with an added bonus of seeing Montreal at night from the water on the ship’s return.

TO THE OTHER SIDE:
Dee Dee Bridgewater

As well, my favourite singer in the world, Sheila Jordan, and our own Ranee Lee are scheduled for appearances at Upstairs, a venue offering multiple choices, with concerts featuring Stacey Kent, Cuba’s Omara Portuondo, Dianne Reeves, Abbey Lincoln, Cassandra Wilson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Faye Carol (with Marcus Shelby, whose new CD, Harriet Tubman, is a winner), the very popular (with Montrealers) Annie Sellick, Chantal Chamberland and newcomer Melody Gardot.

The Invitation series, which began in 1989 with eight concerts featuring Charlie Haden, this year spotlights a number of veteran pianists—Hank Jones (89), Dave Brubeck (87) and McCoy Tyner (69) will appear with guests including Haden, Oliver Jones, Brad Mehldau, Joe Lovano, Ravi Coltrane and Christian Scott. Brubeck will appear with a trio, a quartet and an octet (which began in 1946, one of his earliest formations). Mehldau will also appear in solo and trio settings, and Hilario Duran and Felix Stussi, last year’s Grand Prix de Jazz winner, should also appeal to piano lovers.

Sax action and a sad note

For the sax follower, there’s the Saxophone Summit with Dave Liebman, Lovano and Ravi Coltrane, as well as James Carter, Miguel Zenon (who starred with Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra), Anat Cohen (opening for Haden’s Quartet West) and the superb Seamus Blake in an excellent group led by drummer Joel Haynes with Jean-Christophe Beney and the husband-and-wife team of Tilden Webb on piano and Jodi Proznick on bass.

SONOROUS SORORITY: Christine and Ingrid Jensen

Others worth keeping an ear out for include pianist Vic Vogel, guitarists Reno De Stefano, Harrison Kennedy and Michael Jerome Browne, drummer Daniel Barnes, clarinetist Matthieu Belanger, multi-instrumentalist David Amram (the composer of the score for the original Manchurian Candidate movie) with bassist Normand Guilbeault and drummer Pierre Tanguay, guitarist Richard Ring featuring Dave McMurdo, Mike Malone and Rick Wilkins (all in from Toronto), bassist Sage Reynolds and another bassist and Grand Prix winner, Alex Bellegarde. Also on hand are many more fine Canadian musicians in the Jazz d’Ici series, including the Nordic Connect show with the Jensen sisters, Ingrid and Christine, as well as Rémi Bolduc, François Richard, Michel Donato and, in a Gershwin program, Matt Herskowitz.

There are also, of course, the regular jam sessions, headed by pianist John Roney at the Hyatt Regency and by reedman Chet Doxas at Upstairs.

Sadly, E.S.T., a trio that was scheduled for June 30, lost its pianist/leader Esbjörn Svensson, who died in a scuba-diving accident on June 14 in Stockholm.

Justin Time Records celebrates it’s 25th year with a closing concert featuring people like violinist Billy Bang, Bryan Lee, the Montreal Jubilation Choir, Chet Doxas, Yannick Rieu and the man whose playing inspired the formation of the label in the first place, pianist Oliver Jones.

For times and locations, check the Festival’s free program. There are in excess of 500 concerts this year, so enjoy!