LETTERS FROM FRIENDS
Coast To Coast - Canadian Music In Review

Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals… (Oliver Goldsmith: 1730 - 1774)

On a number of occasions writers have been reticent to participate in projects because they were, in one way or another, personally involved with the subject; cautious of nepotism. As caution has never appealed or represented a quality in my own way of thinking, the opposite stance is chosen. For example: the art collected in our house constantly reminds us of the friends who produce them; more than just decoration and never a framed famous print.

The following CDs come from a variety of friends. Given that friendship represents a wide spectrum of emotions and their consequences — shading our senses with fond memories, a community reality, for a common cause — my intention is to introduce to you the quality, and on occasion uniqueness, of a wide range of Canadian musicians who have contributed to my musical life.

One of the finest qualities of jazz and improvised music is the seemingly infinite variety of new ideas bubbling to the surface at the most unexpected moments, in this case through the medium of recordings. Not a week goes by without an interesting disc arriving in the mailbox, and almost without exception it is of the musician's own cognition or by an aware independent company.

And so to the music…

The first three CDs are all about horn history really, which moments in time pull you in, and in a rather peculiar manner in that the more traditional music is performed by the youngest; tenor saxophonist Mike Murley with the assistance of a veteran player, and the more contemporary by the seventy year old tenorist Kenny Baldwin with the support of a younger generation. They do however come to these histories from different directions. This is not about imitation, rather more to do with either a respectful love of an era or the music of their own time.

The drummerless trio of Mike Murley, legendary guitarist Ed Bickert, and staple bassist Steve Wallace, is caught on a very good night, performing a program of six standards and two originals, in November 1999 at the Top of the Senator, a club situated in downtown Toronto. The feeling is time past, half a century ago when jazz clubs were resplendent in all major cities, a music that suggests black and white film imagery, a time of Al, Zoot and Stan, those melodic, light, airy tenor sounds.

Most of the "famous" Canadian players found their fame outside of our country; Oscar Peterson, Gil Evans, Paul Bley being obvious examples, but Ed Bickert has remained a home-town boy. He is the perfect embodiment of Jazz Cool, the cigarette is gone, but not his marvelous sense of chordal beauty and those long, sleek, elegant solo lines.

An obviously wonderful evening of live jazz, not often captured on disc.

Pianoless quartets, seemed at the time to be a radical departure from the accepted. From Gerry Mulligan & Chet Baker through Kenny Dorham & Ernie Henry to Don Cherry with Ornette, Coltrane, Rollins and Gato Barbieri, Steve Lacy & Roswell Rudd, a new open language was created, a format that could almost be considered commonplace today.

Kenny Baldwin — with a quartet completed by James Duncan (trumpet) who also wrote the three long songs (11:39 - 16:16), bassist Bill Norman and percussionist Mark Hundevad — has a long and interesting history.

English born, from the generation that also produced the likes of John Surman, he has not been much heard of in recent times, choosing to remove himself from the city to the rural countryside of Southern Ontario. Our paths first crossed in the early seventies when I was beginning to participate in improvisation. Artists' loft scenes existed and fortune smiled on me when invited to play with the Artists Jazz Band one evening at Gordon Rayner's loft in the produce market area of Toronto. The evenings were very party-like and many of the players were at best amateurs; myself included. Kenny, bassist Terry Foster (from whom the invitation had originated) and Michael Snow however were seasoned professionals, ironically — or in retrospect perhaps not — often playing in the myriad of dixieland bands, and other conventional jazz configurations, that Toronto was famous for. The music of Albert Ayler, Coltrane, Ornette and Cecil Taylor was in the air, but unlike today's imitative retrojazzers we were part of the energy and spirit of the time. From old memory it seemed that Kenny Baldwin was already caught in Coltrane's web, but then we all were.

So this recorded music has his own personal history as its base, an accumulated knowledge, the younger players gathered around him benefiting from his historical reality. Must be a surprise to hear this live in a small town Ontario café.

One evening this past March we traveled to Denman Island (the next island over from Hornby, we can see it from our living room window, a mile at most) to visit some old musician friends who were playing at the local hall. Leader David Parker and fellow saxophonist Richard Underhill were, with the aforementioned Mike Murley, the front line of the Shuffle Demons, a Toronto based funk/jazz/fun band that achieved quite some fame in the latter half of the eighties. Their music was always boisterous and attracted a crowd outside of the usual jazz aficionados, plus they were often found playing in other music forms. Once we joined them with my quintet of the time for a big band concert at the old Music Gallery. That venue regretfully no longer with us.

This music is not that, but it is indeed from that history, the compositions and solos, melodic, loose and swinging, Richard Underhill's alto sounding at times straight out of Lee Konitz; David's muscular tenor paying respect to Sonny Rollins. One major difference is the beautiful Quebecois rhythm section of Pierre Côté, playing a standup bass of his own invention, and Raymond Drouin who cannot be described simply as a drummer for much of the unique sound comes from the variety created by his use of steel pans and djembé. Perhaps my critical taste was shaded by our reunion, and that could be enough, but then there was the parting gift of their CD, which has been played often since. The music is all original compositions by band members, mostly David, except for two takes, one at each end of the program, of Sonny's "Don't Stop the Carnival". Got It!

Jazz guitar has never ranked high on my list, with the possible exception of post Charlie Christian plectrists Jim Hall and Joe Pass. Instead the choice has been the slide guitar of Elmore James, and the original genius of Jimi Hendrix and Derek Bailey. Eclectic perhaps, but when I consider the music of Arthur Bull and Jim Pett, not at all. And you should be warned these are both intimate friends, far beyond just playing buddies.

Arthur Bull was for a number of years the important "new" voice on the Toronto scene, a player whose concept came from blues, popular music and the current language of Mr. Bailey, but he like many of us abandoned the city for more rural climes. In his case Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia. In 1976 a number of the younger crowd needed to play so they invented, at the first Music Gallery, the Monday Night Orchestra. All of them with the exception of a Ukrainian choir master were visual artists. Is this a Toronto phenomenon? Not many have survived as known entities but among them you can count painter David Bolduc and photographer Peter McCallum. As for Arthur he has played with the Four Horsemen, Paul Dutton, David Prentice, Michael Snow, John Oswald, Paul Cram, Derek Bailey, Roscoe Mitchell, Joe McPhee and myself, a list that clearly indicates the company he keeps. If that were not enough he is also the author of three published poetry books, a translator of Chinese language, and is currently the representative for the Bay of Fundy inshore fishermen. An artist I would say.

I know nothing of Arthur's compatriot — Daniel Heïkalo, an expatriated Montrealer who also resides in Nova Scotia — on this recording except how he is described in the liner notes: Mainly a guitarist, he also performs on cittern, slide guitar, percussion, recorder and voice. The result of this union is terrific.

Both Arthur and I were fascinated by the language and politics of the Automatistes, of Paul-Emile Borduas and Jean Paul Riopelle, to the extent that we created a show based on their writings and art, a show taken on the road from coast to coast. A realization that music, language and politics were a composite form, our complete art. A quote from Paul-Emile Borduas describes the intention clearly: "Spontaneity is the sign of generosity."

The music of "Dérapages à cordes" expresses multiple possibilities, certainly generous, vaguely exotic, a Mediterranean balalaika, tumbling tapestries, slack stringed rhythm rattle-box percussion, all extensions of real experience, another poem perhaps.

And then there is Arthur's solo CD, simply entitled "solo guitar", with eleven pieces recorded in 1998, 1999 and 2001. A brilliant example of his jagged effervescent style of playing. Here is a musician who does not imitate current popular fashion, not a twinkling of Frisell, Scofield or Ribot present, only his own unique concept. Even the titles encourage a listen; "self portrait as the gesture between them", or "back at the paramount" - a reflection of a funky old blues venue in Toronto, this one flooding my memory, making me wish we could be together again. A genuine original - Canadian Eh!

Both recordings of essential music for everyone not looking over their shoulder.

The eventual journey that led me to Canada's west coast is linked to these two old friends. It was on the final leg of a tour in 1989, with Arthur Bull, that I would first come here to Hornby. May 13th. And Jim… so there's me and Jim strolling together through downtown TO, both damaged, each with a walking stick and sporting cool dark glasses, two old friends helping each other along, preparing for a life change that would take both of us out of the city. Myself to the island and Jim to the hills on the outskirts of Sooke.

His musical history is widespread, not only playing and writing music but as an important organizer of a series of events at the Art Gallery of Ontario. On one of these occasions, the two of us in duet, were described with an exaggerated compliment, as sounding like Albert Ayler and Jimi Hendrix. Someone else recognizing the influences that are part of his style. For many years he made his living accompanying singers, among them Holly Cole and Daisy DeBolt, but he is much more than this, as this his first CD of trio and solo music illustrates. Described in the CD title as surreptitious pandemonium, the content ranges through jazz compositions by Monk, Sun Ra, Freddie Hubbard and Miles Davis to four compositions created by himself. Indeed the sound is outside of the usual idea of jazz guitar, more inclined toward a relaxed bluesy base, Lester Younging the beat and melody, soulfully relaxed. There are moments of exotica in the sound, perhaps from the time he spent in Europe and Africa, or because of the intimate connection he has with drummer Michael Libby. Whatever the reason, the music hangs on you like a familiar favourite coat. Pull the tails.

Although my life in music started with jazz, over the ensuing years much has been added on, especially the idea of language and music as parallel experience. The writings of James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, the post war British writers, and in my Canadian life the opportunity to participate in performance with a number of my peers in multi-media performance. Because of a shared interest in the work of the Dada Movement a performance group was formed which we called the Last Of The Red Hot Dadas. Kurt Schwitters and the romantic notion of Cabaret Voltaire was in our heads and we were fortunate to have access to a number of venues in the downtown area of Toronto, such as the Spadina Hotel, the Cameron and the Rivoli, where we were allowed to express the energy of the time. For a number of years we held forth utilizing theatrical devises such as silent film, slide projectors, actors and poets. One of the most important groups in this period, in existence between 1970 - 1988, already aware of the avant garde music of the sixties, the language of the Dada and Fluxus movements, were the Four Horsemen, a group that introduced me to the idea of sound poetry. With three of them; bpNichol, Steve McCaffery and Paul Dutton, we would end up collaborating.

Now at the end, and very far away from black and white film, not jazz at all, is the solo singing of Paul Dutton.

There is of course a large history attached to his art, more varied possibly than jazz, an art which would be considered by most "jazz fans" as gibberish. However, like all art forms constantly in flux, it is necessary to study the references that have made it come about. In his case the language of Joyce would be one fine reference; remembering once that we recorded a duet of saxophone and voice based on a James Joyce shopping list. Bloom's Day was an occasion that we often celebrated. To think of him as a singer would not be enough, for although he uses language as a base, the idea that is extended into improvisation is far reaching. He himself prefers the term Soundsinging. If you can imagine a culmination of a history that includes Gertrude Stein, the Cabaret Voltaire crowd, Brion Gysin, Bob Cobbing, Phil Minton and even the cartoon voices of Mel Blanc, you might be closer to the truth.

This CD is organic music, there is no overdubbing (there are a number of examples of multi-phonic sound with nose, throat and voice sounds simultaneously mingling), no electronic effects, no editing, just 21 acoustic oral solos. The results are startling, pushing the imagination into unheard zones, making one query what is being heard.

The pieces have occasional unlikely titles in the form of tributes: "Beyond Doo-Wop, or How I Came To Realise That Hank Williams Is Avant Garde"; or "For The Johnsons" an improvised homage to blues artists Robert and Blind Willie.

He sez: "To label is to limit, I learned, and for years now I've felt reluctant to apply a name to my vocal performance. The very phrase "vocal performance" is, in fact, inaccurate, since I use a lot of effects that don't involve voice at all — such as tongue-pops and other mouth percussion, and forced-air effects at the lips and in the nose." And so there you have it: Improvised Soundsinging.

This column of course has only been words, now is the time for you to seek out the sounds.

SOURCE MATERIALS:

• Murley, Bickert & Wallace - Live at the Senator - Cornerstone Records CRST CD113
• Trio David Parker & Richard Underhill - Mela - Woolly Records WRCD 5437-2"
  David Parker, 4171 Côte de Cap Rouge, Cap-Rouge, PQ, Canada G1Y 1V2
• Kenny Baldwin Quartet - 4th of October - Self Produced
  Available from: Kenny Baldwin, RR#4, Markdale, Ontario, Canada N0C 1H0
• Arthur Bull + Daniel Heïkalo - Dérapages à cordes - Ambiances Magnétiques AM 083 CD
  Arthur Bull - solo guitar - arb 001 (Self Produced)
  Arthur Bull, RR4 Digby, Nova Scotia, Canada B0V 1A0
• James Pett - surreptitious pandemonium - Self Produced
  James Pett, Box 181, Sooke, British Columbia, Canada V0S 1N0
• Paul Dutton - Mouth Pieces - OHM éditions OHM/AVTR 021

REFERENCE MATERIALS:

• The Jazz Discography by Tom Lord
• Key To The Highway, Poems by Arthur Bull (Roseway Publishing)

Thanks to Sheila Macpherson for editing.

This article has appeared in Coda Magazine in edited form as Letters From Friends #1-3