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The Fest, assessedA number of notable shows among the
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New sounds and familiar faces alike fill out the program of the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s 30th edition. Here’s a handful of their indoor, ticketted concerts worth jotting down on your calendar for early July. Angèle Dubeau: Earlier this year, Montreal violinist and La Pietà ensemble leader Dubeau released Philip Glass: Portrait, a wisely selected exploration of the noted American composer’s catalogue of minimalist and serial-music works. Dubeau, who has worked directly with Glass over the years, avoided obvious calls like the Koyaanisqatsi material, and she and her ensemble bring her choice Glass cuts to life when they take the Place des Arts stage for their third and final Jazz Fest ’09 concert, tonight. At Place des Arts’ Cinquième Salle tonight, Thurs., July 2, 7:30 p.m., $39.50 Erik Truffaz: Building on his impressive, globetrotting three-disc album of 2008, Rendez-Vous, Swiss-born French acid jazz trumpeter Truffaz gives each disc its due at the Jazz Fest this year. While the first concert, showcasing a musical expedition in Benares, India, has already passed, tonight sees the Mexican leg of the jaunt unpacked, with help from Mexico’s Murcof and Desi-tronic pioneer La India: Born in Puerto Rico and raised in the Bronx, Linda Caballero was nicknamed India by her grandmother (a nod to her First Nations roots) and christened the Princess of Salsa by no less than the late, great Tito Puente. Over the course of a storied, hit-laden career that had her crossing paths with the likes of “Little Louie” Vega of Masters at Work, early Madonna producer Jellybean Benitez, pianist Eddie Palmieri and of course Puente, Caballero has built a rep for forward and outward motion in Latin music—and much admirable charity work as well. At Metropolis, Fri., July 3, 8:30 p.m., $39.50 Sophie Milman: In 2008, four years after her debut album, Toronto-based singer Milman released Make Someone Happy, and she certainly did that—the record snagged last year’s Juno for Vocal Jazz Album. She followed that with this year’s Take Love Easy, which closes on a piece with Michael Kaeshammer called “The Best Is Yet to Come”—hopefully that can be said of Milman’s already impressive career. At Théâtre Maisonneuve, Mon., July 6, 6 p.m., $28.50–$38.50 Tribute to Éval Manigat: August of last year saw the passing of Éval Manigat in his native Haiti, but his memory lingers—as well it should, as the composer, multi-instrumentalist and leader of the band Tchaka had earned himself the title of “father of world music in Quebec,” for his efforts at promoting Caribbean sounds and crossing stylistic borders with an open heart. Jean Vanasse, Karen Young and others gather to salute the life and music of this sincerely missed Montrealer. At l’Astral, Mon., July 6, 6 p.m., $26.50 The Orb: Regarded by many as the originators of rave culture’s chill-out aspect, picking up the ball from Brian Eno and such, Alex Paterson’s eminently ambient outfit have been at it since 1988, and outlived most of the techno and house acts who’ve come since. The last couple of years have seen not only a return to visibility but in fact a flurry of activity from these maestros of mellow, whose next effort, Baghdad Batteries, is due out on Sept. 11 this year. Aging ravers, relive your come-downs of yore—backrubs, anyone? At Club Soda, Wed., July 8, midnight, $25.50 Brian Setzer Orchestra: Still strutting his stuff long after the Stray Cats were put down, Setzer—a key figure in both the ’80s rockabilly revival and the subsequent swing craze of the late ’90s—is no stranger to the Jazz Fest. No guarantee he and his ace orchestra will be trotting out the freaky-tiki aloha suits they were sporting when they rolled through a few years back (wouldn’t want to overplay such a remarkable sartorial card), but bumpin’, jumpin’, jivin’ and wailin’ are certainly on the menu this time, as always. At Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Fri., July 10, 7:30 p.m., $75.50–$115.50 DeVotchKa: Initiated as a backing band for a burlesque show, Denver quartet DeVotchKa (meaning “little girl” in the Nadsat slang of A Clockwork Orange) went on to earn a Grammy nomination for their soundtrack to Little Miss Sunshine in 2006, and haven’t since slacked on their vibrant, punk-inflected explorations of Balkan Gypsy jams, hot-blooded boleros and any old thing in between. At Club Soda, Sat., July 11, 7 p.m., $30.50 FOR MORE INFO GO TO
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Talvin Singh, while Friday night, Truffaz joins Syl Johnson and Philippe Garcia for an evocation of the City of Lights, Paris. At Gesù tonight, Thurs., July 2 and Fri., July 3, 6 p.m., $38.50
there, what’s called a “blue” or “worried” note, familiar to listeners of blues, jazz and British folk. The folks flying the flag at the venerable Blue Note record label, however, needn’t be glum. 2009 marks a full seven decades since Blue Note was founded in New York City by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, and in that time, it’s established itself as arguably the world’s most recognized jazz label, playing host to such titans as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Art Blakey, Horace Silver and countless others.
cooking in the quarter-century since Bruce Lundvall, previously of Columbia Records, took the president’s office. It’s worth noting that the Jazz Fest also inaugurates a new award this year, in Lundvall’s name.