Music by Rainer Wiens, Visuals by Jan Komarek
Josh Zubot – violin
Jean Derome – flute
from the CD “Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors“

Rainer Wiens (Montréal) and Coat Cooke (Vancouver)

will be touring to promote their latest CD collaboration entitled,

“High Wire“

Roughidea presents…

Martin/Lozano/Lewis/Wiens/Duncan – At Canterbury (Barnyard, 2013) ****½

By Philip Coombs

Thanks to a suggestion from a devout reader on the comments section of my Canadian Round Up review, I was led to this recording from another Canadian group by snooping around for the groups on the Barnyard web site. I must admit, I would have entirely missed this if it wasn’t for his ear to the ground back home. Could have been one of my biggest mistakes of the year.

First of all I will address my elephant in the room. I have never been a fan of vocal jazz. Why don’t I like it? Is it the one sound that humans make that is the most human? Is it because the lyrical is the most literal? Is it because all attention is shifted to the voice once it starts?

Christine Duncan provides the vocal on At Canterbury and it is a cross between a soprano saxophone, film ambiance, an angry cat, and an aboriginal field recording. And it works. As much of a force as she is, she doesn’t dominate or draw attention away from the great moments the rest of the group provides. On “Throwing Light”, she cleverly uses the theremin to further blur the lines between voice and technology and my preconceived notions by adding a eerie sci-fi counterpoint to her growl.

Rainer Wiens (guitar and mbira) has a long history of composition and admiration for world music and intrinsically contributes to Duncan’s drama. This is best exemplified on the track “Corollary” where his mbira is the main focus. One of its keys has a nasty buzz. The buzz returns often, and over time, I was happily expecting it more than being annoyed by it. It became an instrument within an instrument.
Jean Martin (drums and percussion) is all about the power of choice. Half of the time, he let’s things sit in their place adding just enough clever to propel the track and leaving the need to engage to others. The half of the time he turns it up with a military beat that shows his skill on the snare as he plays with power and nuance at the same time. He has also been tasked with the job of keeping the other half of this group together with the first half.

The second half, comprised of Jim Lewis (trumpet and flugelhorn) and Frank Lozano, (tenor and soprano saxophone) make their own mark in various different ways throughout by keeping their improv and free jazz sensibilities in the forefront despite the rest of the group’s complexity. On “Patience Game”, they trade long singular lines that leads into a wonderful conversation as Martin drums up a storm behind them. They will not be overshadowed even as they get to the outer reaches of there respective registers or when Duncan adds another layer of bandwidth pushing them to break away and explore on their own.

Can be purchased from the label or downloaded from emusic.

This is a recording to be savored as the gifts here keep giving as my ears keep smiling.

I first started playing kalimbas and other lamellaphones while working for choreographer Lucie Gregoire in 2001. At the time there was an African store called Giraffe on St.Denis. When I would walk in the staff would bring out 30 or 40 kalimbas for me to try and I would leave with 3 or 4 of them.

At the time I was at the beginning of an ongoing examination of rhythm that continues to this day. Because of the layout of the kalimbas (left thumb, right thumb) they lent themselves to exploring melodic polyrhythms, positive and negative rhythms, palindromes and rhythmic canons. To date I have written over a thousand pages of rhythmic ideas, explorations, exercises and compositions.

I was living close to Thom Gossage and thought it would be fun to try out these ideas in a duo format. Each of the kalimbas had a name, written in black magic marker, and we started putting pairs together. I would bring rhythmic sketches, we would learn to play them and then improvise. Most of our rehearsals were done outside, much to the delight of marauding gangs of three year olds.

Over the years we would record a dozen pieces annually and before my hard drive imploded (“Wow I’ve never seen a computer do that before”) we had about 150 compositions. Time passed and the commercially non existent duo became even more non existent.

Several years ago I started writing new pieces for kalimba duo. These were longer, multi part pieces which were quite difficult and it took a long time to be even able to hear the rhythms correctly. We recorded these new pieces and originally they were the ones I had wanted to release. To my dismay and surprise, I preferred the recordings we had done ten years earlier. This disturbed me at first because I believed and wanted to believe that as musicians get older, the music becomes richer, deeper and more assured, yet I preferred the older recordings. There was a lightness and joy that the newer duos lacked.

I rewrote some of the new duo pieces for solo kalimba, then spent over 6 months working on them 6 to 8 hours a day until they felt natural and then went into the studio to record them. Dino Giancola, engineer and calm positive presence, did his usual fantastic job giving the music nuance, detail and clarity.

J’ai commencé à jouer des kalimbas et autres lamellophones en 2001, au cours d’un contrat avec la chorégraphe Lucie Grégoire. Il y avait alors sur la rue Saint-Denis une boutique africaine appelée Girafe. Chaque fois que j’y entrais, les employés me présentaient trente à quarante kalimbas pour que je les essaie et je sortais invariablement avec trois ou quatre d’entre eux.

À l’époque, j’ai entamé d’une analyse rythmique approfondie qui se poursuit encore aujourd’hui. Par la disposition de leurs lamelles et grâce au doigté utilisé pour en jouer (pouce gauche, pouce droit), les kalimbas se prêtaient à l’exploration de polyrythmes mélodiques, de rythmes positifs et négatifs, de palindromes et de canons rythmiques. À ce jour, j’ai écrit au-delà d’un millier de pages d’idées rythmiques, d’explorations, d’exercices et de compositions.

J’habitais près de chez Thom Gossage et j’ai pensé qu’il serait amusant de tester ces idées en duo. Chacun des kalimbas avait un nom inscrit au marqueur noir, et nous avons commencé à les grouper par paire. J’apportais des esquisses rythmiques, nous apprenions à les jouer et improvisions ensuite sur celles-ci. La plupart des répétitions avaient lieu à l’extérieur, pour le plus grand plaisir des bandes errantes de gamins de trois ans.

Nous enregistrions annuellement une douzaine de pièces, et avant que mon disque dur implose (« Wow! Je n’ai jamais vu un ordinateur faire ça… »), nous avions environ 150 compositions. Les jours passèrent et le duo sans existence commerciale devint définitivement… non existant.

Il y a plusieurs années, je me suis mis à écrire de nouveaux duos pour kalimbas. Ces pièces à plusieurs parties étaient plus longues, techniquement plus difficiles, et exigeaient davantage de temps pour entendre les rythmes convenablement. Nous avons enregistré ces « nouvelles pièces » qui, à l’origine, étaient celles que je souhaitais distribuer. Mais, désarroi et surprise : je préférais les enregistrements que nous avions réalisés dix ans auparavant. Cela me perturba, car je croyais et voulais croire qu’avec la maturité du musicien la musique devenait plus riche, plus profonde et plus assurée; pourtant, j’aimais mieux les anciens enregistrements. Ils dégageaient une légèreté, une joie, qui manquait aux nouveaux duos.

J’ai converti certains des duos récents en solos, puis passé plus de six mois à travailler sur ceux-ci, six à huit heures par jour, jusqu’à ce qu’ils me semblent naturels, pour ensuite les enregistrer en studio. Comme d’habitude, l’ingénieur du son Dino Giancola avec sa présence calme et positive a réalisé un superbe travail, donnant à la musique nuance, détail et clarté.

MELLA MELLA – MYSTERY AND JOY

I first started playing kalimbas and other lamellaphones while working for choreographer Lucie Gregoire in 2001.At the time there was an African store called Giraffe on St.Denis Street.When I would walk in the staff would bring out 30 or 40 kalimbas for me to try and I would leave with 3 or 4 of them.

At the time I was at the beginning of an ongoing examination of rhythm that continues to this day.Because of the layout of the kalimbas (left thumb, right thumb)they lent themselves to exploring melodic polyrhythms,positive and negative rhythms,palindromes,and rhythmic canons.To date I have written over a thousand pages of rhythmic ideas,explorations,exercises,and compositions.

I was living close to Thom Gossage and thought it would be fun to try out these ideas in a duo format. Each of the kalimbas had a name, written in black magic marker, and we started putting pairs together. I would bring rhythmic sketches,we would learn to play them, and then improvise. Most of our rehearsals were done outside, much to the delight of marauding gangs of three year olds.

Over the years we would record a dozen pieces annually , and before my hard drive imploded(“Wow I’ve never seen a computer do that before”)we had about 150 compositions.Time passed and the commercially non existent duo became even more nonexistent.

Several years ago I started writing new pieces for kalimba duo.These were longer,multi part pieces which were quite difficult,and it took a long time to be even able to hear the rhythms correctly.We recorded these new pieces and originally they were the ones I had wanted to release.To my dismay and surprise,I preferred the recordings we had done ten years earlier.This disturbed me at first because I believed and wanted to believe that as musicians get older,the music becomes richer,deeper and more assured,yet I preferred the older recordings.There was a lightness, and joy that the newer duos lacked.

I rewrote some of the new duo pieces for solo kalimba,then spent over 6 months working on them 6 to 8 hours a day until they felt natural and then went into the studio to record them.Dino Giancola,engineer and calm positive presence,did his usual fantastic job of giving the music nuance,detail and clarity.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

Shadows Of Forgotten Incestors

Dream Algebra – Free Burma

Dream Algebra - Free Burma

Speaking in Tongues – with Malcolm Goldstein and Ganesh Anandan

Speaking in Tongues

Bonunca Dream Music

Bonunca Dream Music

Chants cachés

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