Maybe Multiverse | Across Canada, Spring 2025

Welcome to Rhythm Changes Across Canada, a new seasonal feature that rounds up albums from the rest of the country, beyond BC. In this first edition, we check out six albums that came out this spring.

Jacob Do: Maybe

Tenor player Jacob Do shares four live tracks from a March 2024 show at Edmonton's Yardbird Suite. His band is a multigenerational octet, setting himself nicely among peers instead of pushing him out front. The title track, a Do original, sports a multi-sax intro that speeds up to tempo. The leader comes in after baritone saxophonist Dan Davis owns the moment. Pianist Josh Krushel, who now lives and gigs here, comps intensely all the while. "I'll Be Around" is both a big-band vibe and a ballad feature for the leader. Bassist Aretha Tillotson, who had Do on her own record last year, solos unaccompanied to start the second original "Back Scratchin'", then trombonist and also-noted Alberta bandleader Audrey Ochoa takes it from there. Lastly, a quick jaunt on Joe Henderson's "The Kicker" continues this tune's run as a modern Canadian standard (from Jocelyn Gould and Virginia MacDonald's burner). Altoist Holly Sangster takes the first solo, and trumpeter Jared Greeve follows Do. The great Dave Laing on drums gets a feature, too. (Buy CD (Bandcamp) | Available on streaming)

l'Oumigmag: Ce qui tourne dans l'air

Tying Canadian fiddling traditions and Québecois folk into creative music, l'Oumigmag consists of guitarist-composer-bandleader Sébastien Sauvageau, reedist Alex Dodier, fiddler Dâvi Simard, bassist Stéphane Diamantakiou, and drummer Sam Joly. Last year, the five musicians released Olomotone, a three-part EP with dance and choreography that led directly to this new album. Ce qui tourne is out on Nik Bärtsch's label, Ronin Rhythm Records; Bärtsch, as heard on his latest tour stops here, has a riff-based, repetition-friendly, simmering clarity that this group also practices. Their previous, Habitant, emphasizes acoustic sounds and group interplay but also unaccompanied features, unfolding patiently. (Their debut, 2017's Territoires, is much more of a jazz record.) On the title track, Erika Angell adds spoken words and rising, pitched vocals through the churn of indie rock and odd-timing fiddle tunes. "Ce qui surgit" bursts out of its gentle riffs with a heavy beat and long-toned soprano saxophone; "Ce qui s'écoule" swirls over the empty frame of a jig with wordless, ambient vocals. (Buy CD (Bandcamp) | Available on streaming)

Kelly Jefferson & Jon Cowherd: Reunion

Canadian Kelly Jefferson and American Jon Cowherd each grew up in the heartland, did undergrad in a hip city where some folks speak French, then went to the Big Apple. They've been grad-school classmates at the Manhattan School of Music and bandmates in the Chris Tarry Group (Sorry to be Strange). Jefferson said on Instagram that that this record happened in a studio session of only "about four or five hours". The two pros exude class, alternating between their original tunes. Cowherd's tunes have gospel flavours and to some extent evoke his most famous work in the Brian Blade Fellowship. While Cowherd's opener "Baltica" is like that, making you wonder how much they'll swing, they sure do on the next one, Jefferson's "Never Say Never". Then again, other Jefferson tunes like "Let's Begin" and "Songsmith" hit a unity of their styles. What's a few tasteful, hyperliterate power ballads among children of the 80s? (Available only on Bandcamp)

Laura Anglade: Get Out of Town

On NYC-based vocalist Laura Anglade's latest album of standards for Nettwerk Records, she has Peter Bernstein in the band. He hasn't done many records with singers: Jane Monheit and Kathy Kosins are the only two I can think of. He plays stunning duo with Anglade on "I’m Gonna Laugh You Out of My Life" and adds tasty licks behind Rodgers and Hart's "This Can't Be Love". Bernstein lays out on the Rodgers and Hart ballad "Manhattan", where it's just Anglade, pianist Ben Paterson, and Neil Swainson in on bass. The same alt-trio plays again on my favourite track, "Stairway to the Stars", where Anglade delivers wonderfully-phrased lines and slides across the vocal register with ease. For the rest of the record, it's the team of Paterson, bassist Neal Miner, and drummer Adam Arruda holding it down. Anglade's signature pronunciations abound. She's French and American, not Canadian, but she made a memorable trip here in 2022 and was active on the Montreal scene for several years. (Streaming)

Sam Dickinson: Gemini Duets

Don't be fooled by "Fraser Delta Blues": Toronto guitarist Sam Dickinson cut this solo record back east in the historic Sharon Temple building. That track is one of three as-is solo performances, with no overdubs (the others are "S'Monderful" and "Uncle Gismonti"). Others have shimmering contemporary tones, nylon acoustics, or both; any fancier effects remain subtle. Dickinson brings an assured voice on each type of guitar, aims for accessibility and good fun, and lets bop language carry the day as opposed to tacking toward Bill Frisell's Ghost Town. His melodies deftly set the mood: take the sensitive "Dmitri" with those nylon guitar sounds. Several tunes groove and come across like live numbers: the waltz "Shadwell" and odd-time "My Shepherd Collie Baby" could've come off the floor of Dickinson's release show, if he cloned himself. That said, blindfolded-me might still know that it's one human on both axes. All the tracks are originals except a chill take of a João Gilberto composition, "É Preciso Perdoar". (Buy vinyl | Available on streaming)

Nicolas Ferron Trio: Multiverse

There's no organ trio in my neck of the woods quite like Montreal guitarist Nicolas Ferron, B3 organist Jonathan Cayer, and the ever-creative drummer Louis-Vincent Hamel. (I note Ferron and Hamel have both been Benjamin Deschamps' bandmates, Ferron in the saxophonist's Augmented Reality and Hamel touring here last year with No Codes). Instead of swinging with grease, the trio ventures out to rock ("Muffin au Son" and "Un peu confus"), prog (a lot of the record), New Orleans blues-noir ("Mithridate"), and a thrash of metal on the apex "Complot". They elucidate the shifting sands of modern jazz harmony without any fuss: it's all in the hands (and a couple knobs). "Valencia" defies explanation, a world unto itself; I didn't know the organ and the guitar could follow each other's timbres so closely. Sharp-elevenths cut to the bone. Fans of Goldings/Bernstein/Stewart as well as Marc Ribot's groups will dig this remarkable outing. (Buy CD/vinyl (Bandcamp) | Available on streaming)