It is safe to say that twenty-nine year old Dominique Poirier has been having an impressive year. The jazz accordionist from Oka won the 2024 Oscar Peterson Scholarship Award which, in addition to a cash prize, also granted him a spot in this year’s festival programming. This opportunity would, understandably, make any emerging artist nervous. Now consider that Poirier taught himself to play the accordion only four years ago. Personally, I would have felt the urge to puke and give my time to someone else.
Thankfully for us, Poirier didn’t take either of those options and instead impressed by leading a quartet in an hour long show of well arranged standards from Billy Strayhorn and Charles Mingus, as well as interesting compositions from Poirier himself. Joining him on the Rio Tinto stage was guitarist Ben Gilbert, bassist Oscar Robertson, and drummer Shayne Assouline.
The first thing that struck me was the unique sonority the quartet achieved by doubling the accordion and the guitar. Poirier and Gilbert played more than a few burning melodies note for note, and other times at the octave. This gave a thick texture with a bit of brightness. Poirier did need about half a song to sort out his fingers but once his dexterity returned the rest of the melodies were played quite smoothly. In addition, his solos contained impressive vocabulary and his comping gelled nicely with the guitar. He clearly practiced a lot in four years.
The rest of the band was equally impressive. Robertson’s quarter notes when walking couldn’t have been played much better even by a metronome. His intonation was rock solid too. The few times he was given a solo the melodies were certainly serviceable but much more impressive was the strength of his fundamentals. An aspect which too many bass players sadly neglect. The other half of the rhythmic duties was of course Shayne Assouline. It should be said that Assouline has a good swing feel and performed ably throughout; however, he truly excels when playing decidedly more modern. (Not surprising considering he’s a veteran of hundreds of Turbo Haus jams). Unfortunately, only a singular song at the end of the show gave Assouline the chance to show off his hip-hop style chops. This is admittedly a very small complaint in the large scheme of things, however.
A larger complaint I do have is the use of sheet music on stage. Though helpful to remind a player of a song’s form or a particularly tricky passage, overreliance can cause a disconnect between audience and performer. The strongest soloist of the bunch, Ben Gilbert, had some killer lines that were somewhat diminished by the fact that his gaze was firmly on his charts. Poirier even looked in Gilbert’s direction a few times clearly feeling the strength of his solos but Gilbert’s nose was practically glued to his iPad.
The evening proved to be a successful one for Poirier regardless and I’m sure this formation will work out the finer details should they continue playing together. Poirier has shown himself to be a talented arranger and composer in addition to a competent player on a very niche instrument. I have to wonder what he’ll be capable of in another four years. I’ll be following closely.
