Purgin' territory

>> Jazz heavy Charles Papasoff lets off steam with Catharsis II

by JOHN JORDAN

"That's my computer telling me it's had enough of my shit," Charles Papasoff says, as the music in the room suddenly stops. I wonder if he knows that catharsis can mean a cleansing or purging of the bowels. I don't ask.

Papasoff sits and cleans the barrel of his bass clarinet with the care and precision one associates with a sniper, on the kind of February day that would drive some borderline personalities to crack open a window and blast away. Belying his tough exterior, the slightly menacing Mr. Papasoff turns his attention instead to some oolong tea and the care of his arsenal--many, many woodwinds, and every composer's workhorse, the piano.

Long recognized internationally as a dangerously deft sax player, Papasoff is seen less and less on stage these days, preferring instead the challenges of composition and trying to corral diverse talents into something greater than the sum of its parts. In 1999, after completing the soundtrack to the Italian film Fate un bel sorriso (with the Roma Sinfionetta at his disposal), Papasoff returned to Montreal to work on the second installment of his ambitious Catharsis project.

Originally part of the 1998 Silence... on jazz series at Maison de la culture Frontenac, Catharsis is an arranged marriage between authors and jazz composers, with Papasoff holding the shotgun. From the group's 16 players, five composers (Papasoff, drummer Martin Auguste, guitarist Alexandre Cattaneo, trombonist Kelsley Grant, and trumpeter Bill Mahar) transform the poetry of eight scribes into orchestral works. While it may sound like an extension of film scoring, the approach involves more than providing ambiance for the readings.

"I think where we innovate is the fact we use the poetry as a script," Papasoff says. "That's a little more novel, the poetry written in the score. The narrator has to follow the pattern, and sometimes it's quite intricate. She's got to say a phrase, there's a brass thing, another phrase, a brass punch, then she says one word and there's a sample that answers--this is all written in."

Tonight's concert launches a new CD, recorded live at last summer's edition of the Montreal International Jazz Festival. An excellent archive of the eclectic and precise performance, Charles Papasoff: Catharsis II covers a lot of ground in one sitting, evoking shades of Gainsbourg, Mancini, Zorn and Rota without becoming entrenched in any one style for too long. The performances fly first-class all the way, with many musicians pulling double or triple duty to expand the Catharsis palate.

"The strings are there, and among the three woodwind players we have all the saxophone voices, clarinets, and flutes-- mostly flutes. Trombone and trumpet with all the mutes." Added to that are the rhythm section, narrators, a vocalist, and their créateur d'ambiance sonore, as their man on the sampler is referred to.

"That's the whole fun about writing for large ensembles. You have the colours. That's why this band is a trip," he says, beaming excitedly now, saving me the trouble of asking about the band's name.

With Eric Longsworth at the Spectrum tonight, Thursday, March 1, 8pm, $12.50