Eric Chenaux & Ryan Driver split the impressive TONE triple bill with Rafael Toral & Masahiro Takahashi with Brodie West!
ERIC CHENAUX & RYAN DRIVER
Constellation Records' guitarist & singer Eric Chenaux returns home to Toronto for a foray with long-time collaborator Ryan Driver. Gentle acoustic guitar notes stretch out & ripple underneath electric psych inspired meanderings. Eric's voice weaves seamlessly among this textural landscape, like a silk sheet in the wind. Every movement is subtle, yet beautiful. A storyteller from a slower time, a player from the jazz tradition borrowing gracefully from the folk form. Two sonic ramblers existing out of time, but in step with their own hearts.
RAFAEL TORAL
Portuguese experimental guitarist & synthesist Rafael Toral comes to town in support of his newest record on Drag City, “Traveling Light”. A collection of jazz standards put through Toral’s elongated ambient treatments. Notes stretch and crackle as they become humming landscapes. Ethereal drones emerge out of woozy jazz phrases. Throughout his close to 40 year career he’s built a plethora of home brew electronic instruments that now work in conversation with his guitar work. Together this intricate textural & rhythmic dance moves his work into a totally other sonic universe where it feels like a rare bird sending its bent coos & tweets back to earth from a distant space station. Rafael catches these errant notes and arranges them perfectly. Don’t miss this!
MASAHIRO TAKAHASHI with BRODIE WEST
Toronto-based Japanese composer-musician Masahiro Takahashi has been crafting gently spellbinding pieces that simultaneously embrace electronic abstraction and a palpable, even brittle, humanity. His delicate and evocative landscapes always seem to be illuminated in vibrant magic hour tones as golden synth lines emanate from between soft flickers of acoustic instrumentation. He has released music on an array of labels, such as Not Not Fun, JJ Funhouse, Slow Editions and his 2026 record In Another on Telephone Explosion Records. He also composes for films and art installations.
Get tickets for the TONE presentation right here. Check out a couple of performances below.
Ryan Driver and crew – featuring saxophonist/clarinetist Brodie West – hit the Tranzac tonight at 9:30 pm. Should be delightful.
Ryan Driver Quintet
at The Trazac Club (292 Brunswick)
9:30 pm. PWYC
Ryan Driver - piano / human voice / kazoo
Brodie West - alto saxophone / clarinet
Thom Gill - synthesizer
Rob Clutton - bass
Blake Howard - drums
The Ryan Driver Quintet specializes in the psychedelification of popular American songs from the 1920's through 1960's. They have been engaging in this task monthly since 1999, when they started playing as a quartet at Graffiti's in Kensington Market. The sextet plays only ballads, and almost always very slowly. That said, the interpretations are wildly adventurous, brimming with wonkiness, tangents, sweetness, heartbreak, ecstasy, and a kind of interplay that could only arise in the company of several odd / brilliant musicians with a long history of developing a unique sound together.
The Ryan Driver Sextet provides a ""lounge"" ambiance unlike anything else you can find anywhere, and an oasis of relaxedness, weirdness, and beauty that seems almost unimaginable, especially on a Friday night in Toronto."
Reg Schwager's mostly improvised new album Intuit features saxophonist Brodie West and drummer Michel Lambert.
Here's the scoop from Reg Schwager...
"I’m releasing a new album on BandCamp called “Intuit”, recorded with two great musicians - Brodie West and Michel Lambert. Most of it is improvised, but we’ve included a version of the old chestnut “Ain’t She Sweet”. We recorded two sessions, in 2016 and 2019, both times during the week between Christmas and the New Year. One thing the three of us share is having studied composition in Amsterdam with the great Dutch master Misha Mengelberg. I think about Misha a lot when we play together.
Listen to some audio clips from Intuit and get a copy via Bandcamp right here.
Reg Schwager - guitar
Michel Lambert - drums
Brodie West - alto saxophone
recorded in Toronto on December 29, 2016 (tracks 1-5)
Guitarist Reg Schwager joins saxophonist Brodie West and pals Nick Fraser & Josh Cole in reworking some bebop moves.
Here's the scoop from Brodie West...
"Next Wednesday (July 10) the Donna Lee Quartet returns to the Tranzac (292 Brunswick) from 7pm to 10 pm. You will hear Reg Schwager guitar, Josh Cole bass, Nick Fraser drums and Brodie West alto saxophone. Okay, supposedly Charlie Parker didn't write the tune, Miles Davis did. But he didn't name it. Such complicated history. We'll try to simplify things with our lengthy, in depth exploration of the composition. See you there!"
Craig Dunsmuir (top left) brought together T.O.'s finest improv players for the Dun-Dun Band's Pita Parka, Pt.1: Xam Egdub.
Here's the scoop...
Craig Dunsmuir's Dun-Dun Band
For anyone at all acquainted with underground music in Toronto, Craig Dunsmuir is as ubiquitous as he is revered. Many locals know him for his profound knowledge and curiosity as a listener, traits he's deployed as a DJ and while working at some of the city's most beloved record stores. His famously encyclopedic vantage point, though, has also served as fuel for the vast musical output he has created over the past 20+ years.
Even as far back as 2001, VICE cited Dunsmuir as "Toronto’s unsung guitar god," touting the fact that "his low-key guitar looping pedal performances [as Guitarkestra] have made people actually cry." Since that time, Dunsmuir has adopted an increasingly varied compositional approach, one that has yielded everything from asymmetrical beat-work to churning cacophony, strobing polyrhythms to ambient euphoria.
Glissandro 70, his duo with Sandro Perri, served up quirk-infested disco on their lone self-titled 2006 album for Constellation Records, prompting All Music Guide to hail it as "one of the more auspicious debuts to come down the pike in a long while." Following a slew of homespun, xerox-sleeved CD-R releases, the Montréal imprint released another LP for Dunsmuir, Kanada 70's Vamp Ire, which compiled highlights from his various handcrafted outings.
When his Dun-Dun Band emerged in early 2016, it marked a significant progression in Dunsmuir's explorations. Despite his ardent and visible support for the local scene, Dunsmuir had (apart from his collaborations with Perri, the last of which were released on that year's Off World 2) largely led a more or less hermetic creative existence; Dun-Dun Band signalled an opening-up of his musical world, seeing him surround himself with an eclectic and carefully curated cast of performers—some of Toronto's finest.
Stylistically, the group also expands Dunsmuir's already generous sonic range, embracing elements of jazz, American minimalism, and the mellower end of instrumental prog- and post-rock, as well as traits that recall various African traditions. Dunsmuir's writing for the band orbits odd-meter grooves, featuring spur-of-the-moment arrangements that he cues and conducts. Inasmuch as these spontaneous events highlight the individual improvisational personalities of his collaborators, they also stimulate conversation between band members, permitting a wide range of musical influences and vocabularies to nourish the music.
Pita Parka, Pt.1: Xam Egdub
Many listeners will find familiar faces among Dunsmuir's tangled web of fellow travellers. For starters, the band shares four members with Brodie West's Eucalyptus, including West himself (on alto saxophone and clarinet), Mike Smith (performing here on keyboards), guitarist Kurt Newman, and percussionist Blake Howard. Jay Anderson of Badge Époque Ensemble, Lammping and Marker Starling infamy also contributes to the band's percussive dimension, trading his customary acoustic arsenal for a Roland Handsonic, an electronic implement which Dunsmuir has employed frequently throughout his solo catalogue. Bassist Josh Cole, a member of Sandro Perri's core ensemble and of Brodie West's Quintet, as well as leader of Kind Mind (featuring one Karen Ng), fills out the rhythm section, bringing both taut precision and nimble movement to the ensemble's low register.
As Jesse Locke noted for Bandcamp Daily, "no list of forward-thinking Toronto jazz artists would be complete without Karen Ng," and given Dun-Dun Band's all-star lineup, that statement is equally applicable in this context. Alto saxophonist and clarinetist Ng (who has been heard alongside everyone from The Weather Station and Andy Shauf to Badge Époque) is one of the band's four reed players.
In addition to the aforementioned West, Ng is joined by bass clarinetist and tenor saxophonist Ted Crosby (leader of Nomad and Revival Ensemble, member of Isla Craig's band, formerly of Sick Boss). Dun-Dun's horn section also includes multi-instrumentalist Colin Fisher (heard here on tenor), "a distinctly gifted musician" according to PopMatters. On top of having released acclaimed records for Astral Spirits, Halocline Trance and Tombed Visions, Fisher collaborates with Caribou and plays as one half of Not The Wind, Not The Flag.
Dun-Dun Band's unique interplay has been cultivated through numerous live appearances in Toronto. In addition to informal sets at such cherished local spots as the TRANZAC, the Monarch Tavern, and Wenona Craft Beer Lodge, they've been programmed by the Music Gallery for its X-Avant Festival, by Toronto's TONE and Intersection festivals, and by Hamilton, Ontario's Something Else! Festival (where they were briefly but enthusiastically joined by William Parker on double reeds). A pared-down trio incarnation of the group also recently opened for NYC trombonist improviser/composer (and Arthur Russell co-conspirator) Peter Zummo, for a night curated by Pita Parka mixer and co-producer Sandro Perri.
Pita Parka Pt. 1: Xam Egdub (out today) is Dun-Dun Band's first vinyl release, comprising three extended pieces, each tracing a rambling path connecting multiple ostinato-driven sections. Tracked at Toronto's Canterbury Music, the record refines the approach found on their debut cassette Riff Ref (2023, Dark Matter Tapes). This LP is the seventh entry in Ansible Editions' discography, following albums by Rob Mazurek; High Alpine Hut Network; Playdate; the Brodie West Quintet; Adams, Dunn & Haas; and Nicole Rampersaud's East Coast Music Awards-nominated Saudade.
Get a copy of Dun-Dun Band's Pita Parka, Pt. 1:Xam Egdub via Bandcamp right here. Check out a recent Dun-Dun Band performance at the Tranzac Club in five parts shot by Ayal Senior below.
Credits:
Jay Anderson: Roland Handsonic.
Josh Cole: electric bass.
Ted Crosby: bass clarinet, tenor saxophone.
Craig Dunsmuir: single-line electric guitar, P___r P____r.
Colin Fisher: tenor saxophone, “Hahahacksaw” Jim Duggan.
Blake Howard: conga, other repercussion which continues to be quite serious.
Kurt Newman: chordal and lead electric guitar.
Karen Ng: alto saxophone, clarinet.
Mike Smith: Rhodes 88, Hammond A105, continued keyboard transcombobulations.
Brodie West: alto saxophone, clarinet.
Produced by Sandro Perri and Josh Cole with Craig Dunsmuir; Engineered by Julian Decorte at Canterbury Music in Toronto from October 30th to November 1st, 2022. Additional engineering of Colin Fisher’s parts by Josh Cole in the TRANZAC Southern Cross Lounge on December 27th, 2022; Mixed by Sandro Perri; Mastered by Jeff “Fedge” Elliott; Photography by Nick Storring.
Kick It Till You Flip It is out now on HAVN Records. Toronto's Eucalyptus opens for The Ex at The Jam Factory May 17th.
Eucalyptis is...
Nicole Rampersaud trumpet
Brodie West alto saxophone
Ryan Driver clavinet
Alex Lukashevsky guitar
Michael Smith bass
Nick Fraser drums
Evan Cartwright drums
Blake Howard percussion
This just in from Toronto saxophonist/bandleader Brodie West:
"I've recently discussed with Ryan Driver the fact that Jazz is not dead, that must mean it is still alive, so come out and find yourself enjoying the latest thing in Jazz!
I am very pleased to announce that my group Legends of Jazz Piano will be returning to the stage for a special first time appearance at Hirut Ethiopian Restaurant (2050 Danforth – just west of Woodbine station) on Friday (August 24) at 7 pm.
Perhaps you're interested in having some tasty Ethiopian food this Friday night while checking out 'the newest thing in Toronto jazz!' It's going to be swinging.
Legends Of Jazz Piano features Ryan Driver on piano, Nicole Rampersaud trumpet, Rob Clutton bass, Jake Olerichs drums and myself Brodie West alto saxophone and compositions."
Check out this Legends Of Jazz Piano recording with special guest Han Bennink performing the Brodie West tune Thelonius Monk which you can momentarily download right here
Wondering what a calypso band is doing at an Ethiopian restaurant on the Danforth Sunday evenings? Well if that combo is Brodie West's all-star ensemble Eucalyptus, then probably having a good time getting down with friends. And since his pals happen to be some of the Toronto improv scene's top hands, namely trumpeter Nicole Rampersaud, guitarist Alex Lukashevsky, bassist Michael Smith, pianist Ryan Driver, drummer Nick Fraser and percussionist Blake Howard, you can count on a lively blast of Afro-Caribbean flava to go with your tasty zilzil tibs at Hirut (2050 Danforth at Woodbine) between 7 and 9 pm.
