OFF Jazz | Ruiqi Wang: Wanderings From East to West, and Back Again

As part of the Apéroffs series at OFF Jazz 2023, Ruiqi Wang, a fresh young singer and McGill graduate, gave a concert yesterday. Now pursuing her studies in Bern, Switzerland, she is keeping in touch with Montreal (both professionally and emotionally), notably by returning to present material from her forthcoming album, Subduing the Silence, due out on 27 October.

In a chamber format with seven musicians (eight including her), a piano-bass-drums trio (very good Stéphanie Urquhart, Summer KoDama and Mili Hong) enhanced by a string quartet, Ruiqi Wang dazzles or lulls the audience, depending, with vocal elaborations that are either traditional Chinese litany (but revisited), contemporary onomatopoeia (influences from Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros and pages of Ligeti are detectable), spoken word or even more classical jazz singing. The voice lacks breath in the upper register, but it’s not devoid of pretty timbres in the lower. In any case, it’s beautiful and tonally accurate, and pleasant to listen to. The chromatic modernism, sometimes atonal, in the harmonies is generally the order of the day, although at times we find ourselves tenderly reminded of Evans or even Strayhorn. It’s a mix that marks out the learned and artistically elite well-sourced inspirations of the young composer.

The structure of the pieces, and more broadly that of the programme as a whole, is rigorously structured and guided. Improvisation is liberated under precise conditions, at chosen moments. In my opinion, Ruiqi Wang’s music is mainly conceived as a written structure onto which improvisation can later be docked under well-defined parameters. These are well rendered and brought to life by the three musicians in the basic trio accompanying Ruiqi. Urquhart, KoDama and Hong are truly solid. Montreal’s up-and-coming female jazz musicians are impressive and point to an exciting future.

For these structural reasons, the concert resembled, with some inevitable accommodations because, after all, this is jazz, the forthcoming album. In other words, listening to the album (already available to listen to on Bandcamp) and the concert are very much the same experience. Which in no way diminishes its quality, don’t get me wrong.

The concert took place at Montreal Improv, a great little space on Notre-Dame Street West in Griffintown. Even if it is focused primarily on theatrical improv, we’d like to see the place get a proper, regular jazz programme in the not-too-distant future. There’s so much musical talent in this city that new venues and opportunities to play in front of an audience are urgently needed.