For three nights in a row, John Oswald invited us to a musical game. A soundtrack composed of a dozen excerpts from well-known songs (as much in French as in English) ranging from Carl Perkins’ Blue Suede Shoes sung by Elvis to Céline Dion performing with her characteristic vigor All By Myself (yes, that song which borrows a melodic motif from Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2) via Tino Rossi and his unsinkable J’attendrai, Goldfinger powerfully sung by Shirley Bassey or Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World.
Modifications were made to this framework each evening, although several pieces returned to the program. For the purposes of the exercise, three ad hoc quartets were formed. The first included double bassist Pablo Jiménez, violinist Joshua Zubot, cellist Peggy Lee and Ben Grossman and his hurdy-gurdy; the second, tenor saxophonist Sakina Abdou, percussionist Toma Gouband, violinist Adrianne-Munden Dixon and pianist Marilyn Lerner; the third, tuba player Julie Houle, harpist Sarah Pagé, double bassist John Edwards and guitarist Eric Chenaux.
Each band learned the setlist at the same time as the audience and did their best to “accompany” the successive excerpts—that was the rule of the game—but perhaps it would have been better if they had been able to do so a little in advance, to prepare themselves a bit. The musicians often seemed disarmed and struggled to play along. Nevertheless, amidst the rather unrestrained musical melee, some passages that held together did occasionally emerge.
The performance unfolded each evening with the same uneven rhythm, veering from rough drafts to brief, coherent moments of clarity, all bathed in a joyful, carnival-like atmosphere. The problem is that the significant element of surprise quickly wears off, especially since the plot varies very little from one night to the next. Perhaps some additional preparation for the game would be advisable if John Oswald intends to run it long-term.
Photo Credit (Friday night) : Martin Morissette
