Winterruption 2010

Posted on | February 16, 2010 | No Comments

by Nou Dadoun

Hard to believe but the mid-winter arts interjection Winterruption is celebrating its 5th year on Granville Island this year. And with the whole city in the midst of celebrations, the festival has expanded to 8 days of activities with lots of free and inexpensively ticketed events.

The Club 2010 series at Performance Works takes the celebration well into the evening. Note that tickets for the Club 2010 concerts are only available at the door.

Here’s a mildly annotated guide to the musical festivities:

Friday, February 19th, 2010

The Lost Fingers
Friday, February 19, 2010 9:00pm
Performance Works – Ticketed [$20.00]

In this Django Reinhardt Centenary Year, his ongoing gypsy jazz guitar influence is everywhere particularly with this Quebec-based trio who mix the real thing with pop tunes recast as Djangology. They put on a great party at the jazz fest last year, my faves – Pump Up the Jam and Lady Marmalade!
[Late breaking news: Sold Out!]

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

Eric Vloeimans Fugimundi Trio
Saturday, February 20, 2010 12:30pm
Performance Works – Free

This unusual Dutch trio with piano and guitar is led by trumpeter Vloeimans in an exquisite chamber jazz that’s simply breathtaking. Their 2009 CD recorded Live at Yoshi’s is full of “exuberant melodies”. Have a sample of their Hidden History.

Drumheller

Saturday, February 20, 2010 2:30pm
Performance Works – Free

Drumheller is a quintet made up of Toronto’s finest improvisers; Drumheller plays with a loping humour essential to the emerging Toronto sound, influenced by Michael Snow’s CCMC as well as the Dutch Dadaists who visit Vancouver and Toronto often – they’ve collaborated with Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg. Writer Carl Wilson calls it “sophisticated new music with a sense of wobbly fun, big-band-through-the-looking-glass (yet in a different, far less nostalgic way than Carla Bley or, say, Willem Breuker)…a Toronto improv supergroup.”

Veda Hille Trio

Saturday, February 20, 2010 4:30pm
Performance Works – Free

Veda Hille is the voice of East Vancouver – her musical stylings are an amalgam of pop, jazz, classical, and art rock, and feature sharp, intelligent lyrics conceived by a natural storyteller. Active since the early ’90s, Hille has recently been performing with CBC Radio Orchestra, writing for the Leaky Heaven Circus, and working on a new choral piece for the Winnipeg New Music Festival. Singing and performing on piano ,Veda will be joined by Peggy Lee cello and Skye Brooks drums

Håvard Wiik Trio

Saturday, February 20, 2010 9:00pm
Performance Works – Ticketed [$20.00]

One of Norway’s most extraordinary artists, pianist/composer Håvard Wiik first made his mark in Vancouver at the Jazz Festival with the Scandinavian powerhouse quintet Atomic several years ago and has returned with them several times most recently in a stunning show at the Western Front. Wiik’s sensitive, lyrical playing and ability to traverse mainstream traditions while plying more open approaches was a hit with audiences. The group’s CD The Arcades Project (Jazzland) is named for a controversial set of essays which has been cited as a forerunner to post-modernism and shows Wiik to be philosophically and musically adept.

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

Mimosa

Sunday, February 21, 2010 12:30pm
Performance Works – Free

If Serge Gainsbourg, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Billie Holiday all hung out together one night and wrote tunes, they might sound something like Mimosa’s concoctions—an original bag of samba grooves, sky-high improvisations, and captivating melodies and lyrics. Stir, shake, or sip, this musical cocktail will get you in the party spirit. With this kind of libation, who needs a pink martini?

Altered Laws

Sunday, February 21, 2010 2:30pm
Performance Works – Free

Vancouver’s Altered Laws creates distinctly original music that combines Latin, pop, Brazilian, mainstream, and avant-garde jazz, sometimes subtly and sometimes with intense forward-drive. The compositions (originals by pianist Miles Black and saxophonist/flutist Tom Keenlyside) are all melodic, but this melody can be hypnotic, light-hearted, surreal, and eager. The quartet also features the gifted drummer Bernie Arai and the marvelous bassist Miles Hill.

Deborah Ledon

Sunday, February 21, 2010 4:30pm
Performance Works – Free

Vancouver-based singer/songwriter Deborah Ledon is as extraordinary as her life story. Born in Cuba, her family pulled off a daring escape to Canada when she was just two years old, toddling around her impoverished neighbourhood looking for food. Now a rising star, the vocally versatile dynamo has a spellbinding stage presence and boasts a varied and eclectic background as an entertainer and performer. Her independent debut Spilling Inside Out (2004) hit the Euro Americana Charts as one of 2005’s best albums. Ledon’s passion for her Latin roots is contagious, and her band members are some of Vancouver’s most talented musicians.

Club 2010: Brad Turner Quartet

Sunday, February 21, 2010 10:00pm
Performance Works – Ticketed [$10.00]

Vancouver-based Brad Turner is one of Canada’s most prominent and prolific jazz artists. Although named as a “trumpeter to watch” by Downbeat magazine, you’re as likely to find him on piano or drums or behind the mixing console doing production work. Hailed by the noted Canadian jazz writer Mark Miller as “a kind of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett all rolled into one,” and by famed jazz saxophonist Joe Lovano as “a beautiful musician,” Turner’s quartet is simply one of the best modern jazz units around. With Brad on trumpet, the group also features three of the country’s greatest rhythm-section players—André Lachance bass, Bruno Hubert piano, Dylan van der Schyff drums. They perform original compositions with an interactive, cutting-edge sensibility. Their newest CD, Small Wonder (Maximum Jazz), was nominated for a Juno last year as Traditional Jazz Album of the Year.

Club 2010: Laura Crema with the Sharon Minemoto Trio

Sunday, February 21, 2010 11:45pm
Performance Works – Ticketed [$10.00]

Great jazz singers share three qualities—a unique vocal timbre that sets them apart, the songs they choose, and the fresh ideas they bring to those songs. Vancouver singer Laura Crema has all three in spades. Her latest CD is called Spring is Here.

Pianist/composer Sharon Minemoto is one of the leading players on our scene. A swinging and sensitive pianist with a considered and highly melodic style (influenced by Horace Silver), she’s also the composer of some very hip original music. Her band mates, are two of our city’s finest. The trio which features Paul Rushka bass and Paul Townsend drums, has a new CD called You can See the Ocean from Here.

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Club 2010: Chris Gestrin Quartet

Monday, February 22, 2010 10:00pm
Performance Works – Ticketed [$10.00]

Vancouver-based pianist Chris Gestrin is unquestionably one of the major jazz talents in the country and is in high demand as a musician, composer, and producer. With a delicate touch and an ear for texture and subtlety, Gestrin also swings hard and is equally comfortable playing straight-ahead jazz and free improv. This fantastic new configuration, which features bassist Adam Thomas, drummer Joe Poole, and saxophonist Evan Arntzen, will perform new compositions by Gestrin.

Club 2010: Tony Wilson Sextet

Monday, February 22, 2010 11:45pm
Performance Works – Ticketed [$10.00]

Despite his residency on Hornby Island, Tony is a major force in our city’s creative music community, and one of the most original guitar stylists on the Canadian scene. His compositions tap into the whole history of jazz and blues, shifting from Leadbelly’s moaning sound to Metheny-like combustion. The sextet features some of Vancouver’s most impressive improvisers. With Peggy Lee cello, David Say saxophone, Kevin Elaschuk trumpet, Paul Blaney bass, Dylan van der Schyff drums.

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Club 2010: Jodi Proznick Quartet

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 10:00pm
Performance Works – Ticketed [$10.00]

Vancouver bassist/composer Jodi Proznick is a Canadian jazz star on the rise and coming into her own as a leader. In 2008, the National Jazz Awards named Proznick Bassist of the Year, the quartet as Acoustic Group of the Year. Their Juno-nominated CD Foundations (Cellar Live) was also named Album of the Year. Proznick’s quartet features some of the finest musicians in the country—Tilden Webb piano, Steve Kaldestad tenor sax, and Jesse Cahill drums. Their repertoire includes originals by all band members and new interpretations of compositions by the likes of Dave Holland, Charles Mingus, and Joni Mitchell.

Club 2010: Ugetsu

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 11:45pm
Performance Works – Ticketed [$10.00]

Named after both the Japanese word for fantasy and a classic Art Blakey album, this Vancouver group has become one of the city’s finest original ensembles in delivering the jazz message. Co-led by drummer Bernie Arai and saxophonist Jon Bentley, the group’s repertoire features compositions by all of its members as well as jazz classics. With a hard-bop front line of trumpet, tenor sax, and trombone, this band smokes! With Brad Turner trumpet, Rod Murray trombone, Ross Taggart piano, André Lachance bass.

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Club 2010: André Lachance Quartet

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 10:00pm
Performance Works – Ticketed [$10.00]

Well known as one of Canada’s best jazz bassists, André Lachance is also gaining a reputation as a fine jazz guitarist in the tradition of Wes Montgomery and Grant Green. His new quartet unites him with longtime musical compatriots Brad Turner Rhodes, Chris Gestrin Moog bass, and Joe Poole drums. This exciting electric project features new compositions by Lachance along with some tasty improvs.

Club 2010: Gordon Grdina Trio

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 11:45pm
Performance Works – Ticketed [$10.00]

Guitarist, composer, and oud player, Vancouver’s Gord Grdina has a concept that blends mainstream jazz, freeform improvisation, and Arabic classical music. A protégé of jazz great Gary Peacock, Grdina is a sought-after contributor to jazz and world music projects that are seeking a fresh sound. Performing compositions written for this concert, Grdina’s trio, which features Vancouver greats Tommy Babin bass and Kenton Loewen drums, boasts a broad range of influences, from punk and rock to Albert Ayler and Jimmy Giuffre.

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Club 2010: René Lussier 2 Trios

Thursday, February 25, 2010 10:00pm
Performance Works – Ticketed [$10.00]

From avant-folk to Les Granules to celebrating le tresor de la langue to collaborations with Fred Frith and the NOW Orchestra, guitarist Lussier has done it all. His work is often referred to as musiques actuelles as it blurs the distinction between rock, jazz and improvisation, modern composition, and circus music. Lussier will perform with two pairs of Vancouver-based musicians: Peggy Lee cello and Viviane Houle vocals, and François Houle clarinet and Dylan van der Schyff drums.

Club 2010: Marianne Trudel with André Lachance & Dylan van der Schyff

Thursday, February 25, 2010 11:45pm
Performance Works – Ticketed [$10.00]

One of the great new voices on our national music scene, Quebec-based pianist/composer Marianne Trudel draws equally on classical, jazz, and free-improv idioms. Her musical interests are far reaching—she has composed and arranged for jazz ensembles and orchestra and has accompanied the famed French singer Charles Aznavour and the Argentine singer and composer Juan Carlos Cacere. With her keen sense of compositional design and a vocabulary of deft improvisational gestures, Trudel’s music is adventurous, lush, and full of beauty. For this exciting east-west collaboration, Trudel is joined by Vancouver’s André Lachance bass and Dylan van der Schyff drums.

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys

Friday, February 26, 2010 9:00pm
Performance Works – Ticketed [$20.00]

The swampy heart of Louisiana’s bayou comes to a Cajun party just when you thought it was all gone for Lent.
La Niappe!

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Andy Milne/Benoit Delbecq

Saturday, February 27, 2010 12:30pm
Performance Works – Free

Andy Milne is considered one of the most distinctive voices in New York’s jazz scene, performing with Steve Coleman, Ravi Coltrane, Ralph Alessi, and Cassandra Wilson. His genre-breaking band Dapp Theory re-draws the boundaries of jazz. Milne’s long association with Steve Coleman inspired his unique integration of rhythmic concepts from Cuba, Ghana, American jazz, funk, and hip hop.

Described by the New York Times as “brilliant and unconventional,” Benoit Delbecq is acclaimed as one of France’s indispensable pianists. He leads several projects, while his collaborators include Evan Parker, François Houle, and Mark Helias. As an innovator in improvised prepared piano performance, Delbecq has synthesized sounds and concepts from Ligeti, Steve Lacy, to Aka Pygmy music.

While interpreting each other’s compositions and collaboratively developing pieces, Milne and Delbecq discovered a synchronicity and used it with great care to develop complex rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic relationships involving timbre and texture, space, and time. In doing so they have created new sonic properties for piano duo performance. Their collaboration has been documented on the recent Songlines CD Where is Pannonica?

Quatuor Bozzini

Saturday, February 27, 2010 2:30pm
Performance Works – Free

Quebec string quartet whose repertoire ranges from standard repertoire to the avant-garde. Their latest release features Montreal-based composers including Claude Vivier.

François Houle – La valse d’angele/Because She Hoped: French Canadian Folk Tales

Saturday, February 27, 2010 4:30pm
Performance Works – Free

Drawing on the rich stories told at family gatherings by his French Catholic relatives, clarinetist François Houle constructs a musical narrative remembering long-ago nights of feasting, dancing, and singing “chansons á répondre,” where a youngster’s imagination, fuelled by intoxicating legends and an overabundance of sugar pie, could run wild.
As the old tales are retold, the music shifts from Hitchcock-like suspense to traditional French Canadian fiddle playing. With Lyne Barnabé narration, and other featured Winterruption artists Marianne Trudel piano, René Lussier guitar/vocals, and Quatour Bozzini string quartet.