Stevens P - Jazz Canada 1986

Jazz Canada 1986 Stevens, Peter Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'#tudes Canadiennes; Spring 1987; 22, 1; Periodicals Archive Online pg. 129

Following the Arts Jau Canada 1986

"True jazz - what the musicians recognize as their music - rarely achieves more than a modest popularity." So says James Collier in what is arguably the best history of the music, The Mak-ing of Jazz. (Delta, 1975). This ignorance of the general public and the consequent lack of audience have plagued jazz from its beginnings; indeed, the very name carries connotations that have little to do with the music. so that few people, beyond the real students and cognoscenti of jazz, seldom know what "true jazz" sounds like. The label of jazz is often at-tached to all kinds of popular music. The true audience and musicians are dissatis-fied with the label of "jazz" and now it is often referred to as "black classical music" or" Afro-American music .... even though it remains firmly fixed in the minds of the vast majority of people and in the media at large as a superficial music to be relegated to late nights and suspiciously sleazy places, somehow connected with unsavoury elements.

That view still has some truth to it. of course. because it is essentially a spon-taneous performance which seems always to be done at an informal, even ad hoc level. It relies for its life-blood on continual refreshment and on con-tinual stretch and search in live settings. usually far removed from the disciplined formality of classical concerts. So jazz is still dependent to some extent on the jazz club, even though the music is now played in concert halls and college auditoria, and is studied in schools, col-leges, and universities both in academic and performance classes.

This dependence on clubs holds true in Canada, but the sad fact is that the jazz club life has been seriously diminishing over the past two or three years in this country. To take an example. the jazz club scene in a city the size of Toronto is disastrously sketchy. Only a few years back, it was possible to hear jazz played

Journal of Canadian Studies Vol. 22. No. J (Primemps 1987 Spring)

Copyright ( c) 2008 ProQuest LLC Copyright (c) Trent University

either by well-known visiting musicians or by Canadians in a variety of clubs cor-responding to the wide variety of styles in which jazz can be played. Nowadays it is difficult to find a club functioning on a serious and continuing basis. Jazz musicians in the city complain bitterly about the scarcity of opportunities to play their music. There are a few makeshift sessions. which may offer some ex-perience of genuine creativity. but jazz by its very nature of mixing the in-dividual with the collective endeavour demands some stability of personnel and perhaps place.

George's Spaghetti House, as it has done for years now. still functions as a club featuring Canadian musicians. What seems to be the only persisting venue for visiting musicians in the city is the small bistro in the St. Lawrence market district, the Cafe des Copains, which for more than two years has managed to offer solo jazz piano performances by a remarkable range of players week by week. It may be that many of these jazz pianists are unknown to the general public, but I suspect that quite a few of the diners at the cafo find the music satis-fying even though they may not have made any particular effort to search it out. But the bistro obviously does attract many jazz fans and musicians - that mix of addicts and casual visitors has prob-ably kept this series going.

Interestingly, a larger public (though "larger" in this context is something of a misnomer) can sample the music and atmosphere of the Cafe des Copains' music, as in I 986 a new record company based in Toronto, Unisson Records, issued two albums of performances taped at the cafe, albums suggesting the range of pianists booked in. One is by Dick Wellstood, a musician rooted in a tradi-tional style of playing, stride, and Harlem piano. But Wellstood is no ar-chaic archivist of that music; he will inject modem stylings inside the tradi-tional mode and will play occasional con-temporary songs in that older way. para-doxically revealing in the process the

129

melodic strengths of those songs. Wellstood approaches the music with great good humour but the listener is never in doubt about his commitment.

The other album issued by Unisson is by a responsive modernist. Stanley Cowell, whose glittering improvisations on standard songs. modem jazz classics, and an original composition are superbly rewarding. For me. this is one of the best recordings issued in 1986. Cowell is a formidable technician but his flash and dazzle over the whole keyboard are always subservient to the demands of his improvisations which he shapes around the structure, both melodic and har-monic, of each piece, whether it is a fragmented treatment of a Thelonious Monk tune or a loving pastiche of the lightning rapidity and breakneck rhythmic changes of the jazz master, Art Tatum.

Listeners can hear Canadian jazz on several recording labels though it is dif-ficult to keep track of just what is re-leased in Canada. Many of the com-panies recording jazz are small; some-times the recordings are virtually private ventures financed by the musicians them-selves. Little money is available for advertising or distribution on a country-wide level, and there is the further bar-rier of the organization of record stores across Canada, most of which belong to some franchise or other. In such stores local managers have no significant power in the ordering of albums with only a limited sale. Recordings of Canadian jazz tend to surface only in specialty music stores and in larger centres in Canada. Otherwise, purchasers have to resort to mail order, if they know the address of the company and if they are prepared to put up with the hazards of having albums handled by Canada Post. Added to that is the general lack of information about recordings. though I believe there is now a listing of Canadian recordings, Audio Key, published in Winnipeg. I have never seen a copy - ironically. I have not been able to discover the address!

Still, some Canadian companies re-cording jazz have managed to persist.

130

Copyright (c) 2008 ProQuest LLC Copyright (c) Trent University

The oldest jazz label in Canada is Sackville, run by John Norris and Bill Smith in Toronto, now in its nineteenth year of operation. These two are also responsible for the publication of Coda, a jazz journal that over the years has established itself as one of the most dedicated publications in the field of "true jazz," showing no concern for the more popular music that hangs limply on the fringes.

The policy behind the Sackville recordings is similar to the one behind Coda: the albums often feature older, forgotten or neglected figures from the traditional or mainstream areas, some Canadian musicians, some experimental music. Such commitment ought to be not only acknowledged but cherished and supported, for it involves a continuing struggle to survive. In 1986 the company managed to issue only a handful of albums, one of which. The Sackville All Star Christmas Record, was almost blatantly aimed at a more commercial au-dience. It seems to have had some suc-cess and that is encouraging because the music itself does not slide into sentimen-tality or obviousness, nor does it ram-page too loosely through the Christmas themes. It is a melodic collection of songs associated with that season, retain-ing an intrinsically jazzy flavour, respectful without being starchy.

A younger company is the Montreal-based Justin Time Records, which manages to include in its releases some Quebec musicians virtually unknown in the rest of Canada. One of them is pianist Oliver Jones, though he is now on his way to being acknowledged on a wider basis. At the time of his first recording he was merely a name to most jazz fans outside Montreal.

This company has also issued an album by a Montreal singer, Karen Young. and a gospel choir from that city. as well as the first recording by a big band led by Denny Christiansen. It has taken a chance with some of the new and younger musicians, principally two based in Toronto, guitarist Reg Schwager and saxophonist Alex Dean.

Revue detudes canadiennes

As well, it has released two albums by a group based in a city not looming large on the Canadian jazz scene, London, Ontario, though for the last two years London has been host of a Big Band Festival. The London group recorded by Justin Time is the Oliver Whitehead Quintet.

Another record company is Bebop and Beyond based in Toronto. The first two releases by this company showed an eclectic range: one by the Archie Alleyne-Frank Wright Quartet, a crisp-ly neat selection of music by vibraphone and a rhythm section. the other a helter-skeltering rush of hard sounds by the American reed player Dave Liebman, around whom swirls a Canadian rhythm section. The company's latest venture focussed on a group of mainly young musicians in Vancouver, Veji (the Van-couver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation), led by pianist/trombonist Hugh Fraser. Veji is a refreshing big band that acknowledges the tradition while vigorously pursuing interestingly dif-ferent ideas, often presented with wit and humour.

Other odd pockets of recorded jazz must exist - surely some comes out of centres like Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Halifax - but I have no information about them. In Windsor, producer/promoter Hugh Leal has been releasing his Parkwood Records for four years, working hard to distribute them widely, making use on occasion of the vicinity of Detroit for both distribution and musicians. Leal began his work out of a desire to record musicians he ad-mired, particularly certain older players he felt had been unjustly neglected. He has ventured in other directions, cross-ing the border in his mix of American and Canadian musicians as he did with pianist Johnny O'Neal, whom he re-corded live at the world's oldest jazz club, Detroit's Baker's Keyboard Lounge, with two Canadians, Dave Young (bass) and Terry Clarke (drums). He also used Young and guitarist Schwager in a session with a saxophonist from Detroit, George Benson. Such a

Journal of Canadian Studies

Copyright ( c) 2008 ProQuest LLC Copyright (c) Trent University

mixture may help Leal to sell his albums locally on both sides of the river even as it helps the spread of Canadian jazz outside the country.

There is no doubt that jazz talent exists in Canada despite its lack of ex-posure. In Windsor (again!) one musi-cian in a local band which played at the biggest jazz affair in the area. the Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival, won an award there in 1986. He is eighteen-year-old Phil Haddad and he was the first non-American resident ever named the out-standing high school musician at the festival by the United States National Association of Jazz Educators. And another Windsorite, Les Sabina, now teaching jazz at the University of Wind-sor, was the first winner of the Procan Award for Jazz Composition.

From the town of Acton near Guelph comes saxophonist Ralph Bowen who was active in Toronto for some years playing with the Latin-jazz group, Manteca. Last year he was recognized at the national level in the United States. The newly-revived record company, Blue Note, instituted a search to organize a jazz group of up-and-coming musi-cians. The company auditioned hundreds of tapes by aspiring players and finally whittled down the number to thirty-five who were invited for final auditions. From these thirty-five a sextet was formed. Called OTB (Out of the Blue), the group has made two albums for Blue Note. One of OTB's saxophonists is Ralph Bowen.

Some older Canadian jazz musi-cians, well known in this country for years, have joined the ranks of Oscar Peterson, Paul Bley, and Maynard Ferguson by being recorded by major American companies. Both guitarist Ed Bickert and saxophonist Fraser Mac-Pherson have albums under their own names for the Concord Jazz label, and Don Thompson has made some record-ings for that company as bassist with pianist George Shearing.

It is more than likely that this talent will continue to be fostered within Canada, for in just a few years what is

13 l

called the Canadian Stage Band Festival has grown remarkably. It is now called the biggest musical event in Canada. While it still retains Stage Band in its title, this festival, held in a different centre each year, is devoted to jazz played by small groups and big bands drawn from high schools, colleges, and universities. These groups compete at various age levels in sixty-eight regional centres across the country and then the finalists in these centres go forward to the national level, the Stage Band Festival held in May.

The festival last year was held in Vancouver as part of Expo. There were over 7, 850 students performing in 315 groups during the five days of the festival: these finalists had been win-nowed over the previous months from more than 200,000 Canadian music students. Such a large participation in jazz at the performing level obviously brings exposure to the music. not only for those musicians but also presumably for fellow students when these bands compete and perform at the local level. The organizers maintain that interest in the festival continues to grow - festival participation has doubled each year since 1984.

Such a festival gives the students an opportunity to perform in front of en-thusiastic audiences and knowledgeable judges. What is perhaps even more im-portant is that they can hear themselves in relation to their peers across Canada. Communal rivalry. mutual admiration, and interchange of influences and ideas have always been an essential part of the mystique of jazz. Some critics wearily complain that these student groups operate only on the periphery of jazz, for much of what the students learn is done from scores, almost by rote. with little of the cut and thrust, the constant pressure to create and invent night after night that working jazz musicians ex-perience. While there is some truth in this, to complain about this growth of student jazz seems self-defeating. To have a large number of young people listening to and playing jazz at whatever

132


level can only help the music's survival and growth.

But what is being done to keep these participants and listeners involved in jazz'! Obviously. in some way these students can retain whatever feelings have been nurtured in the music pro-grams in schools only if jazz is available to them on a relatively regular basis. The best way of providing that regularity would be by having visiting jazz groups travel to schools and colleges. but, as with the rest of the Canada Council's arts funding, the possibilities of such visits are scarce. Tours by groups on their own are economically uncertain everywhere and perhaps even more so in such a vast country as ours with weather and distance creating difficulties.

The other way to reach that audience is to provide it with a steady diet of jazz on the radio. Regrettably, in this respect the CBC almost completely ignores those potential listeners. CBC-FM Radio con-centrates its energies on classical music; many hours a day are devoted to it, though it is generally conceded that the audience for classical music is really only minimally larger than the audience for jazz and may indeed be smaller. One of the reasons why schools have turned to organizing jazz big bands is that music educators have discovered that students are no longer interested. to any signifi-cant degree. in strings and certain wood-wind instruments; hence, the traditional school orchestra could no longer func-tion. The appeal and repertoire of school marching bands and stage bands were ex-tended when jazz scores became more readily available. Once interested, high school students can continue their jazz studies at the post-secondary level as many colleges and universities have jazz programs both at the performance and academic level. There are also those in-tense workshop sessions each summer at the Banff School of Fine Arts where students can study with some of the best jazz musicians now playing - Hugh Fraser, leader of Veji, was a student at Ban ff.

Surprisingly, the CBC consistently


ignores this growing, educated audience for jazz. Clearly some of that school au-dience will fall away by normal attrition but at the moment there is no consistent attempt on national radio to provide for the interests of young jazz musicians and regular jazz fans. Supposedly one of the bastions against the proliferation of faddish pop music and an institution responsible for reaching out to all Cana-dians and their tastes, the CBC offers lit-tle to attract this potential audience. Cer-tainly the CBC should play both rock and classical music in order to cater to the range of its audience. But must that be done at the expense of jazz? Doesn't that jazz audience deserve better service? In looking at the CBC's Radio Guide for several weeks I discovered that in the weekly time on both AM and FM net-works (approximately 260 hours alto-gether) only about seven to eight hours each week are devoted to jazz, a very scanty diet. Such a limitation means that almost no Canadian jazz is broadcast on CBC, a pity for all those aspiring musi-cians who continue their studies at the post-secondary level. What they discover is that there is virtually no outlet for them on radio and precious little in clubs in the major centres, for their numbers are dwindling and, generally, it is the established musicians who get most of the club engagements.

CBC Radio broadcasts four or five sessions of approximately one hour each associated with the awards given to outstanding Canadian groups at the Mon-treal Jazz Festival and it records some groups for its Jazzimage label. Last year I was introduced to two fine Montreal pianists through these recordings -Lorraine Desmarais and Fran\'.ois Boisvert. The CBC also used to give some sponsorship to the Stage Band Festival but I am not certain whether it still does. Each year it runs a talent com-petition for young classical musicians and broadcasts many of the finalists' per-formances. Why is it not feasible for the CBC to do something similar for the young jazz musicians around the coun-try, perhaps in conjunction with the Stage Band Festival?

Journal of Canadian Studies


While radio in some localities offers some jazz programming, these programs generally occur in large centres where the few jazz clubs still operate and where in summer the big jazz festivals take place. In these cities, most notably Ed-monton. Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal, jazz fans can go to con-certs given by well-known musicians on the festival circuit as well as by groups of local musicians. The concerts tend to be in large arenas or halls and conse-quently prices are high, a further discouragement to younger fans. Still, it is a common practice for these festivals to offer free concerts, usually in the open air. Generally such events feature local groups so at least some Canadian musi-cians get exposure. It is usually conceded that the open-air festivities in Montreal are among the highlights of the ten days into which a wide multiplicity of jazz groups is packed, though it is common for the avant garde or free-playing musi-cians to complain that they are not given as much time as the established musi-cians. This situation recently gave rise to a kind of anti-establishment mini-festival in Montreal during the pro-ceedings of the big jazz festival.

There was an agreeable mix of big names and local groups, mainstream and free playing, during the 1986 Toronto Jazz Festival, though in many ways the festival does not yet seem to have made its mark on the summer activities in the city - it may be a little early to judge its success here because last year was only its second year. The festival had only one day of free concerts during which I came to hear Veji for the first time; though the group wa'> short-staffed, it gave a spirited concert. Through late morning and the afternoon, the atten-dance was not particularly large or en-thusiastic though it improved in the even-ing when the main performer was Chick Corea with his group.

Even the free sets offered in the late afternoon at some clubs were not well attended. I heard Phillipine pianist Bob-by Enriquez at his first free set at Basin Street and the room was only about half-

133

full. Some concerts did not draw crowds and the organizers ran into problems with musicians. Phil Woods, that fine altoist, advertised to appear with the Boss Brass in Roy Thomson Hall to kick off the festival, did not show because of an old disagreement with one of the Toronto promoters. What promised to be a good package of mainstream music was cancelled at a late date. The musicians for that concert had already arrived in the city. some coming from California. and they were justifiably annoyed that they had not been forewarned about a possible cancellation. What was more galling was that a sextet which bases its music in the Benny Goodman tradition was also to be a part of that cancelled concert. Goodman had died just two weeks before and the group's participa-tion would have been a splendid way for the festival to pay tribute to one of the greatest of jazz stars.

Still, for those who wanted to sam-ple a range of jazz, the Toronto Jazz Festival offered some good music. I was particularly taken with the David Murray Quartet. Murray is one of the newer saxophonists and it was possible at the festival to set him in the context of the whole modem tradition of the tenor saxo-phone for the closing concert was given by one of the masters of that tradition, Stan Getz, though for a while his con-cert too was rumoured to be subject to cancellation.

There were outbursts of jazz in small clubs and bistros. At one of them I heard a vivaciously intriguing Canadian singer, Moreen Morden. Jazz singing has been a very neglected area in the jazz life in Canada so it was good to hear that it is getting some exposure here - and there is Karen Young in Montreal whose album for the Justin Time company was mentioned previously.

The economics of jazz festivals is a serious problem. and not only in Canada. They have to be heavily sponsored: in Toronto two sponsors were the Du Maurier company and Heineken. I sup-pose the Toronto Festival tried to cut some of its losses by the aforementioned

134


cancellation and by including more pop-oriented music. The group from Washington, a black rap band known as Trouble Funk, was very popular. The Bamboo Club was crammed for its open-ing appearance. Money is but one further problem jazz has to contend with in Canada. It is rumoured that the 1986 Montreal Festival ran a deficit of about $145 ,(X}{). I have no other information about the economic viability of the other festivals in Canada. The Edmonton Festival which has run for seven years now. offering the widest spectrum of jazz of any of the Canadian festivals. must surely have taken some gambles to in-clude such an array of groups.

Given that financial worry, it seems strange that three major festivals of jazz within Canada should overlap in time. While obviously the organizers in Toronto, Edmonton and Montreal rely on local support, all their advertising is slanted towards enticing tourists to the festivals. As it is improbable that tourists or listeners will shift from east to west, why is it that the festivals ran so closely together in time? Toronto ran June 24 through 28, Edmonton and Montreal June 27 through July 6. Even at the level of simply passing information and reports to the jazz audience at large in the country, the proximity of those dates must surely rule out the possibility of at-tendance at all three festivals by the country's jazz journalists. I wonder if the organizers in each city have ever co-operated in exchanging information about their audiences to see if it would be better for the jazz festival fare in Canada to be spread throughout the summer.

Overall, the year has been spotty and unsatisfying for most jazz fans and musicians in Canada. Costs are too high, clubs are closing, musicians are com-plaining that there are fewer and fewer occasions for them to play seriously and to attract a committed audience. And yet the music somehow survives. Even as I began to assemble material for this report, I was sent information about two mini-festivals. each running a week in


Toronto, featuring a very eclectic range of jazz - I later learned that these were a great success particularly in the field of the newer and freer styles. And now a big weekend has been planned as a kind of jazz party featuring the more mainstream modem music. 1 That is also in Toronto as is another evem in May -Ellington 87: Duke in Canada - the Duke Ellington Society Fifth Annual Conference, with papers. seminars. in-formal discussions, and music. The dates are May 16 through 18.

So there are still people out there willing to try to organize performances, reaching out to that audience which has the potential to grow and develop so that here in Canada the music itself will grow and develop. Let's hope so.

NOTE 1. The Jazz Weekend, a concept that asked

patrons to pay $125 for a weekend of headliner jazz. was cancelled purported-ly due to lack of response to early advertising.

PETER STEVENS University of Windsor

Atlantic Theatre: A Review Article

Although the past decade has seen a steady growth in and development of theatre in Atlantic Canada. throughout most of that period theatrical activity has tended to be limited to isolated pockets in Halifax. Fredericton, Charlottetown, St. John's, and elsewhere, with little communication within the region or with the rest of the country, and little aware-ness of a shared or coherent enterprise. The fragmentation and isolation that characterize theatrical activity across the country are exacerbated in the Maritimes and Newfoundland by the almost total lack of media coverage beyond the local

Journal of Canadian Studies Vol. 22. No. I (Pril!lemps 1987 St>ring)


publication of press releases, and by the dearth of published scripts: even Play-wrights Canada until recently published few Atlantic scripts, which for economic and geographical reasons tend to be pro-duced by non-equity companies. In the past few years increasing economic pres-sure and expanding indigenous activity have encouraged a growing awareness of the need for improved communication among theatre workers who increasing-ly see themselves as forming part of a regional theatrical community.

The 1985-86 theatre season in Atlan-tic Canada was framed by two first-ever conferences on the subject, and was characterized by new enthusiasm and communication, as well as by efforts by theatre companies in all four provinces to take new directions and explore new material. There were companies that folded, others that were formed, and others that suspended operations, but the overall atmosphere, in spite of deep-seated and frequently expressed concerns about the increasingly difficult economic situation for theatre artists in the region, was optimistic.

In April 1985, at the invitation of the Canada Council, representatives of twenty-three theatre companies from the Maritimes and Newfoundland met for a weekend at Neptune Theatre in Halifax to discuss professional concerns. Apart from concerns about funding, and apart from the sheer astonishment at the numbers of companies and colleagues that most of the participants had never even heard of. the most frequently ex-pressed plea was for greater mutual com-munication and co-operation among theatre communities in the follr prov-inces. Little, inevitably, has come of this so far, as individual companies returned to their own overfull schedules and understaffed seasons. But Theatre New Brunswick has compiled a quarterly newsletter that circulates digests of everyone's press releases throughout the region, and they have included Neptune's production of Don Messer's Jubilee in their subscription season: Mulgrave Road Theatre brought in Mary Walsh,

135

Documents

Stevens P - Jazz Canada 1986