“Few can match my ancient nerd-dom”

Lots for you today!

1

Gordy Li led a set at the Painted Ship for Infidels Jazz's Social Music series on Tuesday. Billed as Gordy Li Smurf 4, he brought Feven Kidane on bass; Cole Schmidt on guitar and electronics, an odd musical partner for him in my opinion; and Mili Hong on drums, who shone with intense beats that an unaware passerby might think were electronic in their propulsive force. The music was continuous, unplanned, and unfiltered, much like the leader's Instagram Stories. It was fusion, I suppose, but genre-words don't mean much for anyone who played on Tuesday nor for most of us in the house. What was more important was the exuberance of self-expression, the fun jam.

As for Gordy himself, he played some soprano saxophone solos but also triggered samples and played synth riffs. And if that wasn't enough, he frequently grabbed the mic (it was amusing how quickly he could jump into action and do it) to make announcements, pronouncements, and declarations. I legitimately wondered if he'd drop a rap verse.

And it worked – it was basically what I came hoping to witness. The young staff at the Painted Ship were into it; the house was pretty full, a bit of a who's-who coming out to see Gordy, 25, one of our adventurers on this scene ever since he began making a name for himself in I'd say early 2022. He played a sample of John Coltrane's spoken voice and explained that it was Trane was to anyone in the audience who didn't get it: everyone had to be in. He wasn't afraid to drop the room's attention onto specific people in his emcee bits, whether it was his bandmate or my friend eating a burger across from me. The music churned onward.

By the way, Feven is a fun bass player: all riffs, no nonsense.

2

The quote in the title today is not from Gordy but from saxophonist and bass clarinetist Allison Burik, who played Infidels' New Thing at Zameen Art House last Friday. Burik performed solo music from the 2024 release Realm as well as new material.

This show was one of many that filled the band Bellbird's itinerary over the past week before they moved onward to Victoria and then back home to Montreal; the band found time to join Chris Fraser on the podcast and also all came down to hear Mili play with Gordy.

A lot of electronics came together to form the wash of sound; we even got a Colin Stetson cover as the first number. I'd spot Burik somewhere between Stetson and Wendy Eisenberg conceptually. The banter between songs, explaining Norwegian folk connections and Beowulf references, was fun and kept the set from being too ambient. Some of the samples had unexpected volumes, at least compared to their rehearsal and soundcheck, so Bellbird member Claire Devlin jumped in often to adjust the mixer.

3

Before Burik's set, I heard two more Bellbirds: Devlin played with Mili in an improvising duo. Wow! Mili remains one of my very favourite drummers whom I've had the opportunity to hear repeatedly live. The two weaved through loud and soft playing, deferential to each other and happy to let things play out instead of forcing them forward. They picked up again after concluding their first long improv instead of calling set break, and everyone was indeed happy to hear more. They don't have a record or anything as just the duo.

4

The duo of Noah Franche-Nolan and Nicholas Bracewell, who played at Roedde House last night alongside other recent gigs, have given their duo project a hip new name: DRMHS instead of Dream House. "The Liquefaction", their first single, is a frantic single featuring Bracewell's driving breakbeat and Franche-Nolan's electric keyboard. Streaming / Bandcamp. Much more about the project here on Noah's Substack in his (and Bracewell's) words.

5

The Globe and Mail's Josh O'Kane reported this week that TD have cut their title sponsorships of two other festivals: JazzYYC Summer and the Toronto jazzfest. The directors of both festivals – Kodi Hutchinson and Josh Grossman, respectively – give quotes, as does a TD spokesperson who says the following:

“We continue to elevate and celebrate emerging artists and diverse voices through our direct support of 385 arts and culture organizations across Canada in 2024, including sponsorship of more than 55 music and cultural festivals.”

In other words, sorry boo, we're funding several other people, just not you! Ouch. The Globe piece also quotes from this Coastal Jazz post as further evidence of the perilous journey without title sponsorship.

Nou Dadoun has a thread with plenty of comments. The crowdsourced suggestions for other potential sponsors range from mildly plausible to absurd. Nou's own comment here was news to me, or at least I hadn't heard a direct statement of the part in bold below:

“The discussion with John [Orysik and me] was around TD's intentions when they pulled the funding for the Vancouver Festival, the percentage of their contribution was in line with the others listed in the full G&M article. We knew that the TD folks who'd originally set up the sponsorship deals had left TD and the people now in charge wanted to pursue their own projects which didn't seem to include Jazz Fests in the long term. We were told that TD would be pulling out of jazz festival sponsorships in a phased way and that Vancouver was (unfortunately) one of the first to go. (Then the board got turned upside down and there was no continuity on that side either but that's neither here nor there.)”

Sometimes I hear people assert that the board drama caused the TD pullout and that the bad situation was uniquely Vancouver's to bear, but both those things seem well-disproven now. The reality is more banal. (I didn't mention TD in my "Coastalgate" piece; I had already dealt with that.)

6

Local percussionist Chris Couto got one of his songs, "Bailadora" on a Putumayo CD called Groove World, which is kind of a cool reference point for Millennials who ever got exposed to a middle-class person in the 2000s. Los Duendes man Sangito Bigelow and session bassist JeanSe LeDoujet play with him on the track alongside vocalist Israel Toto Barriel.

7

On Saturday Night Jazz with Laila Biali, we heard Geoff Claridge's tune "Apollo" from the University of Toronto Jazz Orchestra's 2019 album Embargo. Depending on which streaming service you use, you might be able to find it. Hunting down the CD could be interesting. I recognize a surprising number of people in that vintage of the UofT band: Claridge, Jacob Chung, Ben Frost, Nick Adema, the pianist Anthony D'Alessandro who plays with Caity Gyorgy and as a leader, and the North Vancouver-raised bassist Evan Gratham.

Also played on that SNJ show: Will Clements with "Seaglider" from Compass on my label, and Harry Bartlett with "Queen of Surrey" from Wildwood.

8

A band called Chopping Spree played at Tyrant Studios opposite KneeJerk (who now with Cole Schmidt are a quartet) on Saturday, February 22. I didn't go, but I heard a rave review of this young band from a UBC student friend. They have guitar, keys, electric bass, alto saxophone, and drums. Last week they also played the Gander Jam, the eclectic and informal jam at LanaLou's on some Wednesday nights.

Thanks to the aforementioned Gordy and to Neal Wang, among others, for the footage they posted of Chopping Spree's set which allowed me to check them out a bit. I saw an arrangement of "Caravan" with rock guitar and bouncing mosh-pitters in the house, then some tunes with metalcore riffs an energized alto saxophone. Then, vaguely video-game and Balkan-metal sounds. The band approached Tyrant like a rock show, which is something indeed possible there. I wonder what's next for them.

9

Laura Crema introduced me to a musician as she shared photographs and wrote after her gig at Apollo's on that same Saturday:

"What a WONDERFUL surprise to see the GREAT jazz pianist Steve Christofferson at our Apollo's gig on Saturday night! I studied with Steve and the LEGEND!! jazz vocalist Nancy King at the Centrum/Jazz Port Townsend workshop years ago. Nancy and Steve's CBC's recordings "Dream Lands, the CBC Sessions" and "Dream Lands, Volume 2 : the CBC Sessions", produced and recorded at CBC Vancouver by the wonderful Neil Richie are MAGICAL, BRILLIANT recordings that crush me every time I listen to them.. they are beautiful, check them out if you can! Thank you for coming down AND sitting in Steve!! 🙏❤️"

I'd never listened to Christofferson; it's shocking how much catch-up exploration I'll need to do for years to come, but also a joy to get to do it.

The Dream Lands records don't seem to be on streaming. Here's the Discogs for the first one and for Vol. 2. But here's a video of Nancy King performing (and talking up-front) live in Portland, Oregon in 2019 with Christofferson on piano. And who's that on bass: Tom Wakeling, whose own CBC sessions I wrote about:

10

Toronto's Jazz Bistro venue served up red meat for their Facebook audience with this banger of a post about noise policies. The 3/5-star diner review that they share reads:

"We really didn't appreciate the quiet policy! It ruined the whole experience for our group. For that reason we would not return, which is too bad because we loved the jazz band!"

But of course, as anyone who has heard me emcee at Frankie's knows, I'm right there with the venue's mocking reaction.