André Moisan – Projet 8

 If you ask me my opinion on the bass clarinet, I will tell you that there is never enough of it. You can immediately guess my bias in favour of an album where this beautiful big purring cat takes center stage! Add to the mix the phenomenal musicianship of André Moisan, first chair of the OSM for, oh, a very long time (at this point, we’re not talking about years, but almost generations! Lol. I take the liberty because I know André can handle it…), and I’m already certain it will be good even before starting the music.

A thing anticipated, a thing due: it is indeed very good. On the program, eight compositions by eight Quebec composers, each lasting approximately eight minutes. Coming from jazz (Rémi Bolduc, Yves Léveillé, Beth McKenna, Philippe Côté, Sébastien Champagne, and John Roney) as well as contemporary classical (Simon Bertrand, Tim Brady), the composers and the composer are primarily known for their musical personalities that are open to blending the two scholarly genres present. The octophilia of the project is ideally complemented by the chosen instrumental format: an octet composed of a jazz trio (piano-double bass-drums), a classical string quartet, and a solo bass clarinet.

The sound portrait is consequently set in a middle ground between the libertarian urbanity of jazz and the panoramic suggestiveness, sometimes even dreamlike or cinematic, of classical music.

Did you know that André Moisan saved the lives of a mother and her daughter from the rising tide by paddling 1.5 km in a kayak a few years ago? The general character of this Coeur de sauveteur (Lifeguard’s Heart) by Rémi Bolduc reveals very little of the scenario that inspired it, except for a more troubled episode in the middle of the piece. It seems more like relaxed walking music, which in no way detracts from its interest, particularly in the very beautiful solo lines entrusted to the bass clarinet.

Forum, by Yves Léveillée, evokes a space for discussion, even debates between different opinions, illustrated here by quite marked contrasts between episodes adorned with striking textures. An initial rhythmic motif on strings comes to life with the entry of the drums and clarinet, followed by a mysterious piano/bass passage, before the return of the initial theme and its pedestrian pace. The composer continues to play with these materials, making them interact in turn, but in an increasingly intertwined manner, each borrowing snippets of ideas from the other, until reaching a peak of confusion that is fortunately quite polite. The final stretch is made up of a smiling and serene synthesis. It’s quite brilliant, without ever letting the apparent dryness of the intellectual construction tarnish the aesthetic pleasure of the music that unfolds under its impulse. This is great Yves Léveillée stuff.

Bill’s Heaven by Simon Bertrand is a rather clever and relevant play on words on the name of one of the great jazz musicians of all time : Bill Evans. The genius pianist and composer, who fused jazz with impressionism and classical romanticism, had a career that was both meteoric and tortured. Personal tragedies and addictions coexisted with an exceptional talent for clever and inspiring arrangements, deeply memorable. Simon Bertrand pays him a very beautiful tribute, in a sustained framework that is not lacking in complexity (a beautiful fusion between jazz and “accessible” contemporary), but which concludes in calm and unity, Bill’s paradise, perhaps finally reached by the musician.

Watching From the Sidelines symbolically recounts an episode in the life of composer Beth McKenna where, following an accident, she had to go through a period of convalescence that left her sidelined. Watching From the Sidelines deals with a certain frustration of being left out of the action, but also with a determination to come back stronger. The piece is not particularly troubled, harmonically and rhythmically. One rather perceives resilience, an optimistic confidence, and a final calm that suggests a complete recovery and heralds a continued pursuit of activities.

Jazz great Eric Dolphy meets West Africa icon Oumou Sangaré. Dolphy in Mali is an imaginary meeting that never took place, in the form of a musical avatar conceived and composed by Philippe Côté, who offers us one of the most interesting creations of the album. Here, Dolphy’s chamber jazz, tinged with contemporary music and primarily attributed to strings, subtly colours itself with the rhythmic wanderings associated with the characteristics of West African music from Malian artist Sangaré. Hat and Beard by Dolphy serves as the initial material, to which elements from Sangaré’s songs Kun Fe Ko and Worotan are largely distilled and added. Constructed as an increasingly fusional dialogue, the piece allows Moisan’s bass clarinet to express itself with velvety lows and a few bursts of improvisation, rare but striking, especially towards the two-thirds mark of the piece.

The excellent Tim Brady continues the journey with If Not Now, a piece of music that, as he says in the notes, unfolds in a subtle balance between precision, risk, and presence. We are here at the closest point to contemporary written music. Brady paints a picture of great technical and rhythmic rigour, in which the ensemble writing, very chamber-like and sophisticated, serves as a framework for individual interventions that must be precisely controlled, despite the granted space for freedom. Moisan and his clarinet take center stage with a sustained presence, both in the complex lines reminiscent of contemporary music, the more jazz-like improvisations, and the repetitive regularity of the central minimalist episode. Superb!

Détente sous le soleil (Relaxation under the sun) by Sébastien Champagne is very aptly named. This small three-part suite pays tribute to the warmth of the Brazilian climate and the musical style of choro (which a certain Heitor Villa-Lobos celebrated several times). Like a holiday guide, the bass clarinet initiates a suave and gently groovy journey, beautifully highlighted by the jazz trio and dressed in form-fitting satin by the strings. A pleasant pause of total lightness, but which is absolutely not devoid of narrative depth (I think of the very touching central movement, titled something like ‘’Dreaming During the Nap’’).

John Roney is a pianist and composer who frequently crosses the boundary between jazz and classical, written and improvised music. It was natural to ask him to write a piece for this project. Second Thoughts, according to its creator, is a composition where “all the musical material (harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, and structural) is generated from the number ‘2’.” Everything else is just inspiration,” concludes Roney. Indeed, one can clearly sense the more free-spirited character, closer to stylised jazz, offered here by the composer. Roney had already given us very beautiful jazz flights for strings in his 2008 Silverbirch. We find this inspiration in Second Thoughts, the same refinement of writing, the same solar energy, but with a calculated space of freedom for the bass clarinet, as well as the piano, with discreet double bass and drums. Magnificent.

This Project 8 has elegance and style, it appeals to our intelligence without overwhelming us, and it knows how to have fun with finesse. We are eager to wish for a sequel. Many composers capable of navigating stylistic intersections come to mind for a future cohort. Jacques Kuba-Séguin, Marianne Trudel, Guillaume Martineau, François Dompierre, and many others.

Here is an essential album for all those who love the bass clarinet, and also for those who don’t know it well enough yet.