Interviews

There could easily be a film about the life of electro hip hop/afrobeat artist, Obi Bora. At age 23, the man chose to escape his home country of Nigeria, a place at the time plagued by violence, and lived a life in exile, wandering the desert, enduring hunger and thirst and fleeing the bandits who chase migrants.

Obi travelled through Morocco and found himself in Spain, bouncing between refugee camps until he reached Switzerland. He was then thrown in a Swiss prison twice for not having immigration papers. In prison Obi met a man who invited him to France. Out of options and doubt, Obi showed up in Lyon, France—his home to this very day.

Through all of this, Obi was slowly writing songs about his experience. This September he released his debut LP, Black Prayers, hip hop/afro-beat tracks sung in English, French, and Igbo, that were originally composed on his laptop while he lived in squat houses. After finding multi-instrumentalist, Cédric de La Chapelle, Obi recorded Black Prayers, and started gaining traction in France and Europe.

A few years ago, Obi had never played live on a stage and now he is touring through France, playing shows with hundreds and thousands of people. He never dreamed of playing music professionally, but now he knows nothing else. As he says, he chose music to be his “last territory.” Obi had some time to chat with PAN M 360 about his musical journey while on tour in France.

PAN M 360: How are you Obi? Did you ever dream of touring in France?

Obi Bora: (laughs) All I can say is thank god. We are doing our best and it’s my first tour ever. Everything moves so quick and nobody knows what happens tomorrow. We all have to work on our belief and be ready for anything that comes our way. Life is about being ready. I never believed I would ever tour, but it came and I’m happy for it.

PAN M 360: Just learning about your story, it seems you’ve done enough travelling for a lifetime?

Obi Bora: Yeah I can say that I’m tired. I’m tired of moving from place to place. I just want to move with my music. I can’t be running up and down anymore. I’m not getting any younger. Now I’m just smiling about the opportunities I have now.

PAN M 360: So back then you basically had to escape Nigeria?

Obi Bora: Yeah (long pause) I hope you understand what you mean by escaping because if you see what is going on in Nigeria now you know it was really escaping. If you watch the news you know that Nigeria is like the oil in the frying pan. Everything is burning, but Nigeria is ok. It’s all finished.

PAN M 360:  Right now, but back then?

Obi Bora: Back then everything was underground. If anything would happened to you nobody would talk or say anything because if they did, something would happen to them too. Now that is over. Nobody is arguing anymore. Everybody disagrees with the government and they are still killing. The government recruits the army to be killing. Killing is not a job. It’s easy with a gun. You can go and pop pop pop and people are dying everyday. I really survived in Nigeria and thank god. I like your statement about escaping, that is what I want to say from now on.

PAN M 360: You can keep it! And when you were in Switzerland they threw you in jail because you didn’t have papers. How long were you there?

Obi Bora: So Switzerland put me in jail two times. The first time it was three months and the second time it was six months. So the first time I got my computer, they put me in jail because I was illegal. After I came out for the first time and I continued to make my music and I didn’t have too much time or places to go to sleep so I made my music.

After I got out the first time I thought ‘OK you can’t take your time for granted.’ I struggled to make the money to go to France because my friend invited me. I wanted to make money so I wasn’t stressing anybody out when I go to France. So after I tried to make some money they arrest me again. So I’m in jail again and I meet a guy who tells me how to raise funds in prison. So I start working in the prison to save some money and he says you should come to Paris if you’re making music. It all went very fast and I said OK and I added him on Facebook. He got released and two months after I messaged him and met him in Lyon. And that’s how I’m living in Lyon now.

PAN M 360: And when you first started making music on your laptop did you think about releasing it to the world or was it just a project for you?

Obi Bora: Well the first time I started to live in France, I didn’t have a place to stay. My situation was very tough and I had some challenges that other people that make music, people like DJs or songwriters, didn’t really have. It was kind of like a fight for myself. So I kind of had to make the music personal because lots of people would say ‘Oh you can’t do this’ or ‘He can’t do this.’ I proved to them that I could do it and it had to be personal.

PAN M 360: And many of the songs on Black Prayers are about the migrant experience and also Black Lives Matter. So now that you’ve released the album has it kind of taken on a new meaning?

Obi Bora: Yes. To my people where I started this … it’s for my Black friends because we were like 500 immigrants in the squat a day. With no documents, no houses. I just looked at our situation and felt bad. So I had my laptop and my microphone and I write something like “Slave We” for them. And them something like “Light ‘N’ Darkness,” because it was all about that experience and that passage in time of what I was going through. I felt like I needed to motivate my brothers and my colleagues. Music is all about what you have and you don’t have to think that someone else is better than you. You have to dig yourself out. I did the songs to prove to my people to prove to myself because it was not easy for me. I want people to feel that in all the songs. I want them to feel like they are part of my soul, you are in my shoes.

PAN M 360: Did you know what you wanted the production of the songs to sound like from the beginning? There is like afrobeat, reggae, dub, hip-hop and trap with your rapping.

Obi Bora: So these days it’s a different type of afrobeat. It’s not the same as the 1990s and there are different types of trap music too. Like there is just a different sound of Afro music in the market and it’s very good. Like I don’t know if you’ve listened to somebody like Burna Boy. I knew I wanted the some of the afrobeat sounds, but I couldn’t do it myself. I just started with what I had on my computer. I had my sample beats on Logic and I couldn’t wait for someone to give me the instruments that I wanted, but now I want to go with this new king od afrobeat sound on the market.

PAN M 360: So maybe later on you wont be using only Logic but actual instrumentalists in a studio?

Obi Bora: Yeah this is what I prefer. The first time I went to a studio and saw it being done. I had the idea OK even if I can’t go to the studio because I don’t have the money to be paying the producer, maybe one day I will be able to work on something in the studio.

PAN M 360: Did you play music in Nigeria at all when you were growing up?Obi Bora: Yeah but it wasn’t my own music. So i heard 2Pac’s “Do For Love” so I said ‘OK I will sing it. I will sing it like I’m the one who wrote it.’ I was like 14 and then I eventually switched to my own music and I showed it to some of my brothers and they started laughing (laughs). But life is life and you are what you want in life so I kept going. There’s never the wrong time to start doing what you love. Look at me I’m from Africa and I’m doing it. It is what it is.

After too long a wait—the inaugural edition was in 2019, and the of course the pandemic happened—the Norté Tropical is back at last, and then back again. The 2021 edition makes up for the missing year with two nights, each distinct in its sounds yet both following an exciting formula. The soirées are overseen by Boogát, a Latin-music leader in Quebec—a rapper, singer, DJ, producer and radio host, though he’ll be doing little of any of that, as artistic director, truly a task for an octopus what with the incredible array of local Latin talent on hand, in all aspects of the productions. PAN M 360 connected with self-described “Mexicanuck” Boogát, aka Daniel Russo Garrido, for a painstaking review of everyone involved in the wild weekend ahead.

PAN M 360: What’s the overall theme or intention of the Norté Tropical shows?

Boogát: The intention is to celebrate the incredible Latin music scene that we have in Montreal right now, and that has been blooming in an unprecedented way recently. This year, Norté Tropical is two nights, but we could have easily—with the right budget—done four or five nights with the talent that is around, and I don’t think that this—the amount of quality Latin music projects in Montreal right now—ever happened before. The point of Norté Tropical is to create unique shows with two Latin bands that merge into a monster ensemble for the last set of the night—that’s the trademark, the descarga/palomazo and live collaboration aspect of it, with an open-minded, inclusive and diverse spirit.

PAN M 360: The first night’s focus appears to be South American sounds – cumbia, champeta, reggaeton – crossed with hip-hop. What can you tell me about the two main acts, Sonido Pesao and Ramon Chicharron, and their special guests for the evening, Baby K, Noé Lira and Elo Sono, and of course DJ Pituca Putica?

Boogát: Sonido Pesao are good friends of mine, I had the chance to co-produce their last record Todo Revuelto. They’re Montreal’s Latin-scene OGs, veterans, respected, active and involved in the community. Their main composer, Ian Lettre, is also part of the Japanese psychedelic surf rock band Teke Teke. Loopy Monster, their bassist, is a great finger-drummer on the Maschine pad, and also involved with Loop Sessions. Luny and Chellz, the vocalists, are involved in the label Norté Rec and used to be in Heavy Soundz and other great projects. They have a killer show that has a feel of Rage Against the Machine mixed with Cypress Hill. I love their music.

Ramon Chicharron is a Colombian from Medellin who immigrated 10 years ago and played every week at l’Escalier, that alternative bar at Berri-UQAM, for almost six years straight. He’s now blowing up provincially, with an ADISQ nomination, and nationally and internationally with his last record Pescador de Sueños which I also produced. His music and show are elegant, modern, dancey, romantic and sensual but without the kitsch aspect of those last two. A crowdpleaser.

Baby K is Chellz’s sister, one of the greatest Spanish rappers to ever touch a mic in Montreal, some kind of Salvadorian Lady of Rage (The Chronic). Noé Lira is a multitalented artist, a really good actress and an incredible dancer who’s also starting a music career. There’s a chill Lhasa feel to what she does with a happier, younger, refreshing twist of the new generation to it. Elo Sono is one half of El Son Sono, a group she has with her brother, the great guitarist and singer Tito Sono. She has a smooth, beautiful, raspy and smoky voice that can remind one of Alejandra Ribera. Of Québécois and Peruvian decent, she brings that Andes feel to our scene that is mostly Caribe. Finally, there’s Pituca Putica, also of Peruvian origin, from the new generation, a really cool DJ who is part of the new international Latin-urban scene, dembow, digital, neo-perreo, reggaeton, etc.

PAN M 360: The second night leans to the Central American, or rather the Caribbean. You’ve got Andy Rubal’s Cuban sounds, and the Nuyorican salsa of Lengaïa Salsa Brava, joined by guests Esmeralda, Noderlis and Stéphanie Osorio, and DJ Zarah Kali in between.

Boogát: The second night leans towards the most popular sound of the Gran Caribe: salsa. Andy Rubal is originally from La Habana. He’s the greatest salsa pianist I ever had the chance to work with. He’s been a great showman since his early childhood, when he was performing with the band Baby Salsa. He recorded several of his records at the EGREM studios (Buena Vista Social Club), then fell in love with a Montrealer and is now right here, working a lot, always inspired, prendido. His music is really Cuban, timba-oriented… ¡Un vacilón!

Lengaïa Salsa Brava is a milestone in Montreal. To my taste, the best salsa band to perform their own material, not covers, in Canada. They’ve also been the backing band for some of the greatest salsa artists in the game, including Ismael Miranda and Yoko Mimata. They’ve been nominated for the last Junos, and are signed to Toronto’s Lula World Records. They’re 12 in the band, it’s big and loud and powerful.

Esmeralda is a really talented singer and guitarist with a crystal voice who toured a lot with Samian and was around Montreal’s hip-hop scene in her beginnings. She leans more toward nueva trova now, performing her own compositions. Noderlis is a great Cuban singer, involved in the show Fiesta Cubana at NAC last summer in Ottawa. Great powerful voice, the real deal. Stéphanie Osorio is the main singer of the Colombian music band Bumaranga, which explores Afro-Colombian sounds. DJ Zarah Kali is the woman behind Provoxmtl, a really cool multidisciplinary space that also streams shows, and she also happens to be an amazing old-school salsa and cumbia DJ.

PAN M 360: The visual aspect of these two soirées is very developed. There’s a VJ, Eli Levinson, lighting design by Chele, the photographer Carlos Guerra, and overall mise en scène care of Carmen Ruiz. How is that side of things shaping up?

Boogát: It’s shaping up great. I don’t think we can do big musical events in 2021 without thinking about the visual aspect of it. The idea is to do something tropical but northern at the same time. We’re lucky that we have a lot of talent right here. Carmen Ruiz is the artistic director for Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra. They have crazy shows. Having Carmen to do the mise en scène was just natural, she said yes right away. Same for Eli Levinson, he’s one of the hottest music producers in Montreal with his project Oonga, but also happens to be a kickass VJ too. He did amazing visuals for Afrotronix’s last tour and he was part of the first Norté Tropical night back in 2019, so it’s just a natural fit to have him doing that. Chele is my favourite MC but also a great tech who studied lighting. We do a lot of projects together so having him designing the lights feels like home.

Carlos Guerra and myself became friends after a trip to CDMX and Oaxaca back in 2017 to film two videos for mySan Cristobal Baile Inn record. Since then he became one of the most prolific video directors in Québécois hip-hop, also shooting for French artist Kaaris and winning a Gémeaux prize—the Oscars for québécois TV shows—for theCannabis Illégal documentary in collaboration with Simon Coutu for Vice, he even acted in a movie recently. He just never stops and has the best eye around. We’re blessed to have the privilege to all work together for two nights, makes us all proud. Everybody is really talented and respects each other as artists. Feels increíble y inspirador.

PAN M 360: I was going to ask, why aren’t you yourself performing, or even just hosting – it’s Elkin Polo from CISM who’ll be the MC for the nights – but I imagine as artistic director of the events, you’ll have your hands full!

Boogát: I think Elkin Polo will have way more fun than myself MCing both nights, and the more fun someone is having on stage, the more fun to watch and listen. He’s been doing his radio show nonstop since 2013 and has hosted several events, so he’s the man for the job. I’ll be dropping verses here and there both nights, though. This Norté Tropical thing is like doing features without going to the studio, creating the excuse to work with people I appreciate on an artistic and human level. But to answer your question, yes, it’s a lot of work to do this, but it’s beautiful to come together to do something we all love, live Latin music, and celebrate our heritage with pride.

Andy Rubal photo: Marion Brunelle; Ramon Chicharron photo: VictorineYok

At Le National (1220 Sainte-Catherine E.) on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 15-16. Each night $25 (+taxes and service) or both for $40 (+taxes and service). More info here.

Born to Rwandan parents, Shadrach Kabango became Shad, one of Canada’s most resonant artists of diversity. Since the mid-2000s, Shad has established himself as one of the country’s most eloquent rappers, as evidenced by his seventh album, the excellent TAO, released in October on Secret City Records. In the media, Shad is also known for his hosting skills, noting his key positions at CBC and his most important achievement, the series Hip Hop Evolution, produced and broadcasted by Netflix. PAN M 360 caught up with him to get an update on his career and his new album.

PAN M 360: Tao is the central theme. What does it mean?

Shad: For me, the spiritual side of Tao is just one side. In fact, the title also refers to the book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff. That really inspired the album, and that book made me remember The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. So both of those books have the acronym TAO in their title. And also, The Abolition of Man discusses the Taoist religion in it. I felt it was a good title, because it makes reference to social and philosophical issues, but also the spiritual. And I think ultimately it is a spiritual album, because it’s about connection.

PAN M 360: Can you comment on those connections you’ve explored?

Shad: I was reading The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, an excellent, essential, vital book. This book tells the story of the last 20 years, with Google and Facebook, and makes us see how much these companies have changed our lives, our worlds, our humanity, the way we think. It’s a treasure trove of data! Ultimately, it’s up to us, the people, to decide what we want, whether these technologies should serve us and humanity and what our vision of humanity is. And that made me think of The Abolition of Man, that book was written in 1943. But it deals with technology and science and what happens when we are reduced to data points, when we see ourselves as objects of science and not as something sacred. That’s where the connection between the two books happened, and really made me want to write an album about different aspects of our humanity today. 

PAN M 360:  Very few rappers are referring to such books as a major inspiration. How did it become an art form?

Shad: For me, it was a fun creative challenge, and that’s what I needed at this stage of my career. It got me out of bed every morning! So yes, I had to turn these big ideas into lyrics and music, into something that was first a feeling, an emotion. I also like to inject humour into what I do, as much as possible. Musically, I like to keep it dynamic, so that it’s amazing, in a world where you don’t know what’s going to happen. As a producer, I tried to keep things interesting. So yeah, it was fun for me to try to bring all these things to life. And also to break it down into smaller pieces, each aspect can be a song, following this concept of looking at the different aspects of our humanity. An aspect can be a song, so it’s digestible that way. So these are different ways that I tried to approach it, making sure that it’s fun to listen to, that it’s music.

PAN M 360: About the beatmaking and composition , where do you see yourself?

Shad: I worked with many of the same people for the most part. I followed the same process of trial and error until I got the sound I wanted. What changed this time was that I approached the technology in a different way. When I presented the Hip Hop Evolution series on Netflix, I learned an amazing thing: hip-hop is electronic music first, and also represents the evolution of technology. In this series, we often look at hip-hop as a geographical land, how the music has moved and how the culture has changed, because the music has moved to different cities and mixed with different cultures. And it’s also the history of technology, as krautrock and German electronic music embodied the ’70s. From drum machines and turntables, hip hop evolved to more sophisticated sampling machines, and so on. All that to say, it really inspired me in terms of beatmaking, even in terms of the general approach, right down to my vocal treatment. In a song like “Slot Machines”, I transformed my voice and I used a lot of digital distortions, things that might sound wrong to hip-hop purists. But then hip-hop is also about technology, so I embrace it a lot easier than I would have five years ago.

PAN M 360: Where do you see yourself in hip-hop culture right now?

Shad: I would say that what I do is pretty traditional. When I started, I was labeled very alternative, now I would say I’m pretty much rooted in tradition, even though I experiment a lot. There are songs on this album that have an industrial sound to them, others are a bit ’70s retro. It goes all over the place, and there are some very new sounds. But what I’m doing, compared to what a lot of people are doing in 2021, is relatively traditional, even though it’s experimental in many ways. For example, I don’t really sing, I rap, which is different from a lot of hip-hop today, where the line is very blurred between what is singing and what is rapping. Personally, ’90s hip-hop is in my DNA, I also like jazz, funk… What characterizes hip-hop is this real connection with the history of music. Personally, I like when music is modern but also rooted in a culture and a tradition. The Roots, Outkast, A Tribe Called Quest and others have always done that, they have integrated the music they grew up with. They’ve dug all the grooves in Black American music while adding a new piece to the tapestry.

PAN M 360: Between tradition and seeking new sounds.

Shad: That’s it. I don’t think there is an opposition between those options. The more you’re rooted in the history, the more you can expand its parameters. You actually have a better perspective on that. And that has always excited me, as a composer and as a fan of this music. I always wanted to explore and experiment and incorporate different sounds of the music that I love outside of hip-hop.

PAN M 360: Who are the crucial colleagues on TAO?

Shad: DJ T.Lo has produced a few songs and is still my tour DJ; Ric Notes has been working with me for several years; pHoenix Pagliacci is a rapper, singer and songwriter who comes up with ideas very quickly in the studio. These artists are among my privileged interlocutors. I also like to perform with musicians, each of my albums includes a dozen of them. Concerning the upcoming line-up on stage, I’m still thinking about it for the next tour. We will have to adjust to the Covid rules. We don’t know if our dates will be cancelled, and that’s a big risk. I would love to have a trumpet, a saxophone, a DJ, a bass, keyboards, a drummer with me but… I have to consider what is possible.

PAN M 360: What’s more important for you? Your artistic life, or your media life as a host and a true reprentative of Canadian diversity?

Shad: I still think of music as the core of what I do. And I think about it as the way that I get to tell people what I’m thinking in my own terms, in a kind of regular-updating sort of fashion. When I get asked to host this show or that show, I represent something. There is a line between this and my art form. I can become a symbol for certain things, still to have a little bit of space to say what I’m thinking about. It is still an important part of the puzzle for me. But my artistic career is still where I’m most comfortable. Music is how I would say it. In the age of social media, I’m not comfortable putting out my thoughts through this, it doesn’t capture what I’m really trying to say. I need music, I need stories, I need metaphors, I need space. When I’m hosting Hip Hop Evolution, for example, I really don’t see it as my platform, it is other people’s platform in hip-hop. I’m there as a guide, as somebody to help them do that. It’s not about me and telling my story, even if my face is on this. Of course I feel grateful to be part of it. We ended the series in the middle of 2000s decade. There is no plan for another season, I guess we need more distance. But yeah, I’d love to do it again.

Photo credit : Justin Broadbent

Experimental jazz pianist and composer Emilio Reyna originally cut his teeth in Mexico City, but has been slowly carving out a career for himself in Montreal. He’s studied piano at McGill University and his latest single in May, “Llegarán suaves lluvias” (“soft rains will arrive”), features a saxophonist from Montreal and two revered Mexican instrumentalists. 

Reyna is the type who takes displeasure in genre labels. He realizes why his music is classified as jazz, but feels the label does not fit the live experience properly. His point is to create an experience that is musically technical, but also accessible for his audience.

Before his performance at the OFF Jazz Festival on Friday with his quintet, Emilio took the time to chat with PAN M 360 about his origins, love of improvisation, and what other music he has on the way. 

PAN M 360: How did you get into playing experimental jazz music?

Emilio Reyna: I’m from Mexico City, but I took some lessons with a guy here and I’ve studied studied piano at Berklee, which was kind of a big deal in Mexico. And it showed me a lot of the theory, the piano playing, and I was able to learn a bunch of music, from the classics like Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock, and then somehow I ended up starting and studying music in Montreal. I guess when I came to Montreal I was already really into the jazz music path.

PAN M 360: And did you play music in Mexico City at all?

Emilio Reyna: Yeah, I grew up with some friends who were also interested in music and I started playing, kind of like prog-rock type stuff. I was very influenced by classical music, but I feel genres are a way to organize music in our music libraries. But it’s not a very accurate way to describe music, and I find they’re just symbols to help us organize stuff, but it’s really hard to actually describe the music with those symbols.

PAN M 360: Yeah, for sure. You’re playing the OFF Jazz Festival, but there is so much that falls under the umbrella of jazz music and it really changes every year.

Emilio Reyna: Totally. I agree, and one of the important things about jazz music is that its biggest element is improvisation. Musicians that play jazz have to approach it as composers and have a very deep knowledge of harmony, rhythm, composition and melody. Improvisation is like composing in the moment, and I find jazz music is this amazing gift, you can just take elements from any genre and make it.

PAN M 360: Right, and you have to play with musicians you trust, and have them trust you.

Emilio Reyna: The guys I’m gonna play with Friday are people that I grew up with, studying at McGill. I have a lot of confidence and trust. I’ll be able to stretch out, and everything’s gonna be fine. They will follow, or I will follow whatever they come up with.

PAN M 360: Are some of those players on the recording “Llegarán suaves lluvias”?

Emilio Reyna: No. One of the guys, Ted Crosby, the saxophonist, he was in Montreal. I met him in Montreal when we were studying at McGill, but he just moved to Toronto. And the other two guys are Hernán Hecht, who has a huge trajectory in Mexico City as a drummer and Benjamin Garcia is a great bassist.

PAN M 360: So now that you’re playing it with different players live, it must be different every time?

Emilio Reyna: Oh, yeah! I would argue that every time that you perform any type of music, even if it’s classical music where every note is written, there are so many things you cannot translate in the scores. It only comes alive when you play it live. And again, in jazz music, because of that element of improvisation, there’s a regent structure and form in the kind of theme with melodic or rhythmic or harmonic parts. But once it’s actually played, I would say it’s a unique thing of the present moment.

PAN M 360: And what about naming a piece of music. I find that also influences the theme?

Emilio Reyna: Yeah, I mean, it depends. Sometimes I do have a concept in mind that for the certain type of composition, there’s like a motive driven by that concept. But sometimes I find naming a tune is really hard, and at the same time, very relevant. There’s no right and wrong.

PAN M 360: And some of your music has vocals in it. Are we going to hear that during Friday’s performance?

Emilio Reyna: Yeah, we’re gonna be playing with an amazing singer, Eugénie Jobin-Tremblay. She’s one of my favourite singers in the world and has her own project called Ambroise. She has a bunch of records that are so gorgeous. Her voice is very airy and kind of angelic, I find. She’s been a friend of mine for a few years and she’s gonna be singing in Spanish. 

PAN M 360: Great. And you have a new album on the way?

Emilio Reyna: I have a few things im working on. So there’s a piano solo album that’s probably coming up in the next couple of months. I have a sextet album that has a couple of recordings, and I have a few recordings that I’ve been listening to and I need to decide what works and what doesn’t. It’s a very painful process to be honest because I don’t have a producer or label helping me to shape those things. 

PAN M 360: And to be relevant now you need to always be releasing something or have immediate plans with things like Spotify. 

Emilio Reyna: Yeah, and that part of the music industry … It’s great that we have so much music available from a few clicks on our computer or cell phones, but it’s quite different from what I grew up with. I find our attention spans have shrunk because we’re receiving so much information all the time. It’s here to stay and it’s gonna be part of life now, but I guess I’m still a little bit of a romantic, trying to adapt to the circumstances.

At Dièse Onze ( 4115 St-Denis) on Friday, October 8, 10pm, $15

With autumn here and the temperature dropping by the day, any opportunity to store up some heat and light is worthwhile. Jazz bassist, composer and educator Summer Kodama splits her time between Montreal and Las Vegas, and will be bringing her Sun Warriors ensemble to the OFF Jazz Festival. PAN M 360 connected with Kodama to find out more about the Sun Warriors’ tactics and strategies, as well as her own active dedication to diversity in her musical realm and beyond.

PAN M 360: What is the guiding principle or intention of Sun Warriors?

Summer Kodama: This ensemble encourages vulnerable expression, risk-taking improvisations, the visibility of a diverse representation of artists, and the showcasing of original compositions. The guiding musical principle of this project is to encourage a sense of honesty and liberation through improvisation. The group explores creating compositions from narratives and guidelines together in real time–always with a sense of continuity, intention, and structure. 

PAN M 360: You released a single this past spring, “Birds of a Feather, Free from a Tether”. The two sax players in the sextet, Montrealers Allison Burik and Claire Devlin, will also be with you on Oct. 8 at Resonance Café. Is this single a good indication of what listeners can expect that night?

Summer Kodama: Yes.  The representation of the band that performed “Birds of a Feather, Free from a Tether” is something I wanted to replicate for OFF. From a compositional standpoint, some of my most recent works are inspired by poems and literature. 

PAN M 360: You are involved in this performance as a bass player, but also as composer. What are your personal priorities as a composer? What makes you call a piece you’ve written a keeper?

Summer Kodama: I believe honesty is the most important component of self-expression. I try to convey this idea through my moments of playing and improvising as a bassist, and through being a composer–like Charles Mingus. I love that he was never apologizing for what he had to say, because I’ve been through stages of apologizing all the time for no reason in real life. I think if a composition accurately reflects a feeling, recollection, or moment in time, that’s the first step for me to realize that I have something to work with and expand upon. 

PAN M 360: Inclusivity and diversity, making sure everyone has a voice in jazz (and elsewhere), is clearly of vital importance to you. What are your strategies for achieving that? You’ve been working with Nevada School of the Arts and Jazz Outreach Initiative to this purpose, and also founded the Healing Hearts Cooperative.

Summer Kodama: I recently wrote a grant proposal for an initiative. I also wrote an article recently about considering equity in alternative models of mentorship. My pursuits recently regarding the matter have been toward engaging the community. Actively creating the space and opportunity for underrepresented young musicians to succeed is crucial to initializing a culture of equity. 

At Resonance Café (5175A du Parc) on Friday, October 8, 5 pm, suggested contribution $8

This has been said since the 1950s: the more demanding music tends to come together over time. Thus, the Western classical school is gradually opening up to other currents, and contemporary jazz is certainly on the shortlist of alliances. Except for the most narrow-minded, it is now common to appreciate a classical musician integrating themselves into a project involving improvisation, or to hear a jazz musician exploring the repertoire of written music of the Western tradition.

This is certainly the case with Philippe Côté, who takes the stage at the Off Festival de jazz de Montréal in concert with American pianist Marc Copland and the Saguenay Quartet. Chamber music and jazz go hand in hand in the imagination of the Montreal artist, as will be demonstrated on stage this Saturday, October 2, and on disc on November 5: the works Bell Tolls Variations and Fleurs Revisited will be performed during the festival.

Saxophonist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, conductor, Philippe Côté is currently completing a doctorate at McGill University under the direction of John Hollenbeck and is also the coordinator of the McGill Conservatory Jazz Program, which is part of the university’s community school. In addition, the Montreal musician has received numerous awards, including grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. He has composed for orchestras and chamber ensembles such as the Orchestre national de Jazz de Montréal, the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra and the Ensemble Paramirabo. 

All reasons to justify this exchange with PAN M 360.

Philippe Côté + Marc Copland + Quatuor Saguenay Recording from Philippe Côté on Vimeo.

PAN M 360: How were these works conceived? 

Philippe Côté: The Bell Tolls, the piece by Marc Copland who I think is a great jazz pianist, was complete in itself before I worked on it—recorded in 2009 with drummer Bill Stewart and bassist Drew Gress. Originally played as a trio, then, this piece is very well constructed, super rich, very subtle. This is a respectful recomposition of this piece; I don’t transform it too much, I bring it a more classical dimension, very tonal even if contemporary. For Fleurs Revisited, my own piece, I allowed myself to explore jazz and contemporary music more, while remaining influenced by today’s popular trends. So the sound design is more contemporary.

PAN M 360: What about the choice of instrumentation?

Philippe Côté: The idea of this project was to compose and arrange for a string quartet, a piano and myself on bass clarinet and soprano saxophone. I didn’t choose a double bass or drums, this was intentional, these elements are nevertheless in the music. So I decided to make chamber music without denying my musical nature; I like jazz, rhythm, percussion, groove. The idea of this instrumentation is based on the idea that it can work acoustically in the context of chamber music built on jazz pieces. In contemporary jazz, piano trio and string quartet projects are often dominated by drums and bass, to the detriment of acoustic balance. In the case of these revisited works, the jazz side of the affair is represented more in the improvisational sequences and in some of the grooves than in the orchestral construction per se. The written material stimulates the improvisation, in fact. 

PAN M 360: However, the strings don’t really improvise. What is their role?

Philippe Côté: The strings do not improvise but they are not relegated to the role of wallpaper at the service of the soloists, as is too often the case in jazz. Since there are no drums or bass, the strings are at the heart of the music, they are an integral part of it even if I don’t ask them to improvise or do other things they don’t master.

PAN M 360: You chose the Saguenay Quartet, why?

Philippe Côté: The Quatuor Saguenay is a very nice ensemble that has a very nice sound.  Initially, the demo of the project was recorded with musicians from McGill, but then I wanted a permanent quartet that has a real sound. And I really liked the sound of the Saguenay Quartet, whose first violin has been replaced since the recording—Laura Andriani has been replaced by Marie Bégin. Luc Beauchemin, viola, Nathalie Camus, second violin and David Ellis, cello. Super nice people! This music was first recorded in a studio in 2016, I wasn’t happy with the result so I re-recorded it in a concert hall, at Domaine Forget in 2017, after which I led several other projects, the pandemic delayed the public release.

PAN M 360: What are your other projects?

Philippe Côté: I have another project in progress with François Bourassa (piano) and Jacques Kuba Séguin (trumpet), another in duo with François Bourassa and also a commissioned work for April with the Canadian National Jazz Orchestra in Calgary, which will be conducted by Christine Jensen. I am also a conductor for different ensembles. So… during some phases I play more, compose and conduct more during other phases. If I have to put a number one?  I’m more of a composer than a player, but it’s all connected.

Marc Copland, Philippe Côté and the Saguenay String Quartet perform at Gesù, 20h, Saturday October 2, at the Off Festival de jazz de Montréal

When a little-known or even unknown jazz musician takes the lead of an ensemble made up of seasoned musicians, it is worthwhile to take a first look. That’s why, for the 22nd Off Festival de jazz de Montréal (from September 30 to October 9) , PAN M 360 connected with the excellent pianist Kate Wyatt, who has no album, no Bandcamp page, a few videos online… and yet could be one of the top artists of Montreal, Quebec or even Canadian jazz.

PAN M 360: First, the basics. Where are you from? When did you settle in Montreal? Where were you trained  as a piano player? With whom have you studied?

Kate Wyatt: I come from Victoria, BC originally. By chance I ended up going to a high school that had a Jazz Performance program. At that point, I had already taken piano lessons for seven years, but by the age of 14 was losing interest. However, the teacher of my band program was looking for someone to fill the piano chair in the school’s big band and I agreed to do it.  As it turns out, that’s what sparked my career! Playing in the big band rekindled my love of piano and music, and I became heavily involved in the jazz program. It was a natural extension that after high school, I carried on with my jazz studies at McGill University. There I studied with Andre White and Tilden Webb, a great pianist now living in Vancouver, as well as composition with Joe Sullivan.

PAN M 360: You work in the Montreal scene for a while.

Kate Wyatt: Yes, in fact it’s over 20 years now! I graduated from McGill in 1998 and have been working professionally since then.

PAN M 360: Your approach is close to the acoustic modern or contemporary piano. Can we know a little more about it? What is your pianistic vision?

Kate Wyatt: I’m very much a piano player, as in I’m not really interested in keyboards, or gear, or anything like that.  I love exploring the instrument, and the depths of sounds that can be created.  I try to use the entire instrument, and not limit myself to conventional left-hand voicings with right-hand melodic lines.

PAN M 360: How do you see yourself in your pianistic personality? What is specifically Kate Wyatt music in your piano playing?

Kate Wyatt: Hmm… that’s a difficult question.  I’ve come to believe over the years that all jazz musicians play their personality—you can hear who they are in how they play.  So, perhaps what you would hear in my playing is my fun-loving nature and sense of humour, the importance I put in listening to others, my love of puzzles and problem solving. It is very hard to quantify.

PAN M 360:  It may be a cliché but…. Do you sometimes think about being a female jazz musician in a musical genre where we don’t exactly see parity? Maybe it is not relevant for you, and maybe you do not think about a “female touch” in improvisation music. Or composition. Or performance. Please feel free in answering.

Kate Wyatt: Yeah, I think being a woman in jazz has greatly influenced my career, and quite possibly how I play as well. In my case, I had children when I was in my twenties, before I really had a chance to launch my career as a solo performer. I worked all those years mostly as a side person, accompanying others. Maybe it’s from that experience as an accompanist that I’ve come to place such an importance on listening to and supporting the other musicians I play with. It could also be that as women, we are socialized to take a back seat, and work in supporting roles. I guess it would be impossible to say, really. But overall I have to think that my career would look quite different if I weren’t a woman and a mother.

PAN M 360: Do you relate to specific piano players of the previous generations, or your own generation?

Kate Wyatt: There are so many piano players that I love to listen to, but I’m not sure that you’d necessarily hear them in my playing. There are some jazz musicians who, when you listen to them, you can really pin down their influences. I don’t think it’s as obvious in my playing. I place the most importance on developing my own voice on the instrument.

PAN M 360: Your ensemble is the same musicians as CODE Quartet except for Christine Jensen. Pure coincidence? Of course, the result is quite different because you play a harmonic instrument…

Kate Wyatt: I’ll tell you the story of how my quartet came about.  It actually has a lot to do with the pandemic. Back in March 2020, it was right around the time when everything first shut down. Lex had a gig booked at Upstairs with Jim, Adrian and another piano player.  People were all starting to get very nervous about this new virus, and the piano player decided that he wasn’t comfortable performing in a packed club, so Lex ended up calling me to sub in. It was the first time that we had played in this formation, with these band members, and the chemistry was fantastic. We had an amazing night!  

So, following that, during the next period of lockdowns and various restrictions, the four of us got together to play as much as possible. We played in backyards, and later in our houses, when it was allowed. Because there were no gigs and limited teaching, we suddenly had as much time as we wanted to play and explore music. It was very freeing! I feel like we really developed a group sound.

So, I guess to summarize, it’s not like I set about hiring the musicians from CODE Quartet, minus Christine. We came together in a much more organic way, simply from the love of playing together. They are the obvious choice of who I want to have playing my music.

PAN M 360:  You founded a jazz family with bassist Adrian Vedady. Jazz parents with kids, ideal mutual comprehension…  It seems to be the perfect deal! Isn’t it?

Kate Wyatt: I have to say, that it’s pretty great!  We love playing together, and have so much in common. All of our shared life experiences probably strengthen our musical connection as well.

PAN M 360: Are you also involved in other musical genres?

Kate Wyatt: I’ve played some other stuff in the past, but at this point I really just focus on jazz.

PAN M 360: Are you also teaching? What are you actually studying?

Kate Wyatt: Yes, I do a lot of teaching! I work at Marianopolis College, and I have many private students. In the summer I teach at a couple of different jazz camps.

PAN M 360: What are your next projects? Hope we hear to a lot more of your  own music!

Kate Wyatt: Thanks! I actually received a Canada Council grant to write and record a new album of my music with the quartet. We recorded in July at Boutique de Son with George Doxas, and are in the process of mixing and mastering, and finishing the artwork and all of that. I plan on releasing it in the spring. It will be called Artifact.

As part of the Off Festival de jazz de Montréal, the Kate Wyatt Quartet is playing at Upstairs on Sunday, October 3

Roland Pemberton, known in the hip hop world as Cadence Weapon, has been creating subversive bangers since 2005. He had humble beginnings in Edmonton, AB, and started rapping at the age of 13. He pursued journalism studies (he still writes for publications like Hazlit to this day) but then dropped out to focus on his music career.

Since then, he has become a force of nature in the rap world, using his wicked hot flow and experimental beats to change the minds of his generation. His latest album, Parallel World, nominated for the Polaris Music Prize, is his most politically conscious album yet, touching on themes of gentrification, systemic racism, inequality, and technological surveillance.

Roland took a moment to speak with PAN M 360 before his performance at POP Montreal, about the inspirations behind his new album and some of the tracks, his impact on social media. He also teased his upcoming book, Bedroom Rapper, which will be on shelves May of next year.

PAN M 360: One of the reasons I really enjoy your albums is because you can just throw them on and they’re banging hip hop songs, but if you really read into the lyrics, you’re like, ‘Holy shit, there’s so much thematic substance here.’ I mean, you’re obviously a well-read guy, a poet, and a journalist, and I guess you make what you could call, I don’t know, “thinking man’s rap”?

Roland Pemberton: (laughs) I’m glad you observed that because I love to have music that works on different levels. I wanted to have something that you can appreciate just on the surface level, if it’s like playing at a vintage clothing store or something, and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is cool.’ Then if you actually listen to the lyrics, I want there to be multiple levels that even go deeper. That’s a big thing for me—I want to have music that has a lot of depth. I feel like depth gives music longevity. I construct my albums similar to a book or something. I really want something that people could come back and listen to 10 years later and really enjoy it.

PAN M 360: Gentrification, surveillance, and systemic racism have been themes in your music before, but with Parallel World, you just went hard with those themes. It’s definitely your most politically-charged album to date. Was that kind of your plan from the beginning with this one?

Roland Pemberton: Well, before I made this record, I wasn’t planning to put out an album or anything. I didn’t really have like a big concept in my mind, but it was really just during the pandemic—I was just reading a lot of books and doing more research—but also thinking about what was happening with the George Floyd protests last summer, and just the kind of systemic upheaval that we were all going through as a society. That really just spurred me on to really feel like, ‘okay, I’ve always made these different kind of connections between institutions, and I’ve always wanted to like dig deeper and learn more about these things.’ I find that the pandemic really just lit a spark. And that really made me feel like an urgency to release something that was really of the moment. I’ve always been kind of subversive about these things in the past. You know, briefly touched on them in a line here and there, but I really wanted to have a whole concept record talking about these subjects.

PAN M 360: And the George Floyd protests, while it was the whole world kind of recognizing, there are so many stories that just get no coverage or mention. 

Roland Pemberton: Oh yeah, for sure. I think the really big thing about George Floyd was this was the first time in my life where something happened like that and people reached out to me. Like my friends, my white friends were all kind of like, ‘Oh, I am so sorry.’ I realized it wasn’t just me and my family having these discussions, it wasn’t just something that it’s like, ‘oh, here we go again.’ We kind of broke through the colour barrier. I’ve always thought about microaggressions and the kind of systemic racism that I experience every day, but I was just really amazed that it was being acknowledged on television—and being acknowledged on this large scale that is never had been before. It really emboldened to be like, ‘okay, now’s the time to really just go all in.’

PAN M 360: So it was kind of catalyst for you?

Roland Pemberton: Yeah. We’ve been going through different uprisings in recent years. There’s just so much inequality in our society and #metoo was a big thing like that. It’s happening. Racism, sexism, and these things are really starting to get broken down and deconstructed in a much more nuanced way than they used to be.

PAN M 360: There were protests here weekly in Montreal so I assume there were in Toronto? Were you a part of any of them or did you just kind of  witness them?

Roland Pemberton: I couldn’t really watch the video—that repetitious cycle of Black death. It was kind of hard for me and obviously with the pandemic, there’s a lot of fear around that. So I wasn’t really physically at a lot of the protests. But I think the thing that happened with me is I realized what my role could be as an artist. So I got more into crowdfunding and signal boosting other people’s initiatives. I made some posts about Little Jamaica here in Toronto I made this one post, “The Tale of Two Torontos”—comparing the Adamson BBQ guy, his GoFundMe, with the GoFundMe for Black business grants and that went totally viral. And I posted the GoFundMe and got thousands of dollars for the Black business grants. That weirdly was a real turning point for me with what I was doing with my album because I was just like, ‘wow I really am so much more powerful than I thought.’ (laughs)

PAN M 360: You realized you had a voice and people listened. 

Roland Pemberton: Yeah. I used to use Twitter kind of just for jokes. I didn’t really think of it as an organizing tool the way that I do now. 

PAN M 360: I saw Questlove’s movie, Summer of Soul, recently and one of the things it talks about is all of these artists like Sly and the Family Stone, and The 5th Dimension, they had a message to promote through their music, and it kind of got me thinking, ‘What if these guys had Twitter back then?’ 

Roland Pemberton: (laughs) Yeah, totally. It’s funny ‘cause obviously they’re playing this crazy festival in Harlem and their message lives on through time in a different way, but I do feel like there’s something that’s really instantaneous about it. It’s the good side of groupthink. It’s the good side of crowdsourcing. It was about empowering people.

PAN M 360: And I mean Sly has the album There’s a Riot Goin’ On. All of the music is pretty feelgood, but back then, he had an agenda for sure. 

Roland Pemberton: I love that record. It actually inspired this album. That was one of the records that I kind of studied as oneg of the great records that come from times of upheaval and come from a sociopolitical lens. The music is like really cool and it can very chill, but if you delve into it, there are some very dark themes. I love how its kind of subversive that way.

PAN M 360: “On Me” is one of my favourite tracks on Parallel World, but it’s truly terrifying with its truth about how normalized surveillance has become. After listening to it the second time, I was afraid to pick up my phone.

Roland Pemberton: (laughs) That’s funny. Sorry about that. I just started noticing how insidious surveillance has become in our society. We’re at a point where you can give your friend your login for the Find my iPhone thing, and they can know where you are, and be like ‘hey  I see you’re over there. Are you hanging out with what’s-his-name?’ And that to me is like, ‘oh god, we’re beyond the pale.’ It really shows you that the true purpose of the phone is a tracking device.

PAN M 360: You mentioned that you kind of wrote this album and all your other albums as kind of a book, but you’re actually writing a book called Bedroom Rapper? Is it all finished?

Roland Pemberton: It’s in the final stages, but I am still writing it. It’s mostly chronological, like a memoir style, but there are also some detours and essays about other subjects. Now I have a whole chapter that’s just all about DJing. I have a chapter about trap music and how it took over the world and just like my perspective on it. I have a chapter about Canada, what I call the Myth of Canada, just kind of deconstructing the cliches and stereotypes around the country, and why they exist and how they’ve affected me and my career. So there’s a lot of stuff that people would expect, but also some stuff that maybe they wouldn’t expect.

PAN M 360: “Ghost” is another of my favourite tracks and I think it might be because I like I just saw Backxwash live for the first time recently. The song is just so dark. What was it like collaborating on that one? 

Roland Pemberton: It just hit her up. I was such a big fan of their last record that won the Polaris. I get so excited when I hear weird rap coming from Canada—just something that’s a little bit different. I love to see it succeed. So one of the first things that I thought of for this record was, ‘I gotta get Backxwash on a track.’ “Ghost” is a trapped-out banger in some ways, but it’s also about African cultural memory. The idea that my ancestors live through me and it connects all the way back to the motherland. So I’m trying to tap into that, just be kind of proud of that history, and just thinking about the ghosts of my ancestors. 

PAN M 360: Has the live show changed over the years? When I’ve seen you it was mostly a DJ and you rapping. 

Roland Pemberton: Yeah, so for this show at POP, I have a band. So the first half of the set is electronic and triggering the tracks. And then the second half is with the band. So there’s gonna be different vibes for sure.


Cadence Weapon plays POP Montréal on Friday, September 24th at 8 p.m., at L’Entrepôt 77 with Nora Toutain (3:30 p.m.), MAGELLA (4:30 p.m.), Waahli (5:40 p.m.) and Leila Lanova (6:50 p.m.).

Buy tickets

It’s not always difficult to know what to say. The problem is figuring out how to say it. For Fernie, an emerging Brazilian-Canadian artist who grew up on the West Island of Montreal, it’s certainly easier to express himself through his music. Through shimmering, enveloping R&B-soul sounds, Aurora opens the door to the intimate vulnerabilities of an artist for whom transparency is paramount. 

While many point to the project’s similarity to artists such as Frank Ocean and Daniel Caesar, Fernie points out that Aurora‘s goal is not to be musically inspired, but to perpetuate the habit of not being afraid to pour out one’s heart, to bare one’s soul in the service of art. Aurora is therefore much more than sweet guitar melodies and perfectly executed falsetto vocals, it also embodies total self-acceptance. 

Fernie quickly realized that people are used to wearing masks well beyond sanitary measures, that it is not always easy to feel accepted, especially when you are BIPOC or a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. While it is not easy for anyone to open their hearts, Fernie chooses to do so. For us, for him, for the music. And it’s a success all the way around. 

Aurora is his first album. It will be presented by Fernie on September 24 and 26 (the two shows are sold out, our apologies to latecomers) as part of the POP Montreal festival.  

That’s why PAN M 360 hastened to meet this sweet, sensitive and above all, talented human being.

PAN M 360: Your very first album will be available on September 24th! On this project, you talk about your own journey towards self-acceptance, the need to accept the past as it is, and most importantly, the discovery of a whole new version of yourself. What have you realized about yourself or your environment in the last few years? 

FERNIE : Definitely, what was on my mind the most was to be more careful with myself and my mental health. In the midst of the pandemic, I kind of pushed music away for a little bit to really work on myself because it’s what I needed the most. And also, I realized the importance of friends and family, and that it’s the people around you who really matter. It’s this network who kind of allows you to really accept who you are. The people who aren’t afraid to challenge or criticize you despite the friendship are the ones who encourage you to grow. And I think that’s something that I really held on through the pandemic and even now. 

PAN M 360 : Journalists often specify that you come from the West Island part of Montreal. How did living in that specific neighborhood impact your music?

FERNIE : I originally grew up in Lachine and I’m from adoptive parents. My mother is Brazilian, and my father is German. So we all lived in Lachine but since I went to a private German school, which was on the West Island, we all moved there. And as for the impact, I think it definitely did in the sense of what it meant. We often associate this part of the city with people who only care about appearances, so you feel pressured to be someone you’re not. So, I wanted to kind of break away from that to show more of the transparent and honest side of myself because I firmly believe that the world really needs those two values. And I think my album describes that through my self-reflections and I think that can open a dialogue.   

PAN M 360 : Aurora is your debut album, but it isn’t your first project. Actually, the first thing you put out was an EP back in 2015 that is called The Acoustic EP. Why did you go from an acoustic sound to a R&B kind of vibe ?

FERNIE: I was always encouraged to be versatile in my music genres. My first EP was much more about a kind of emo vibe, Aurora is more about a sensible soul sound. So, I think the changes in my sound come from my personal growth. I’m also part of a collective that really impacted my music, it’s basically where I understood I wanted to do more R&B music. So, I’m glad I got to experience those two vibes, because I think it offers two completely different perspectives and lyrics and overall experience so… I’m glad I did both of those. 

PAN M 360: And I think you said that you really were impacted by Frank Ocean and Daniel Caesar’s music. Why those two artists specifically? 

FERNIE: I wouldn’t say that I look up to them in a sense but I certainly appreciate what they do as artists. Both of them write transparent and personal stuff, especially Frank Ocean. If you listen to the lyrics, you realize he’s really open about his life and how he truly feels… and not only that but he’s not scared to voice his worries about the future and what needs to change. And I think that’s what captivated so many people around the world. And I think that’s amazing. So, I wouldn’t say I want to do what they do, I think I just share those ideas. 

PAN M 360 : You talked a little bit about it before but I quickly wanted to ask you this: you are part of a collective named Kids from the Underground. Can you talk a little more about what it is ? 

FERNIE : Basically, we are a collective of like-minded artists who share the same vision.  It’s more than just the music for us, we are a family. Everyone in the collective has a different story to tell and different music to share. Over the last three years, we really worked on our project and to reach new people as well. So, I’m kinda like a branch in a tree, you know ? We also come from the same area so it’s really easy to collaborate with one another. I guess destiny brought us together because it’s really working out for us. 

PAN M 360: “September” is a beautiful song on Aurora that presents the perspective of a love story shared between two people of the same sex, escaping the sometime isolating heteronormative narrative of love songs. Why is it important to your to bring a queer perspective to your music ? 

FERNIE : I think “September” isn’t just about the queer perspective, but also about the universal message it brings. In the song, I sing from a non-bineary stand-point to a cis man. But I beg people: when you listen to it, take it in as you please. It’s so limitless, it’s not just for a boy and a girl, or a boy and a boy… Inclusivity is a really big deal for me, so it’s not just about the queer perspective, but also for the BIPOC, everyone! 

PAN M 360 : I think it’s safe to say that Aurora is very open and personal. Was it hard to kind of expose all of your vulnerabilities on a music project ? 
FERNIE : At first it was, but at the end of the end I was like ‘what do I have to lose?’ Because I think that this album to me is not a cry for validation but more of a ‘let me make these songs and let the people around the world share the same kind of vibes I have’. I think that if you really want to touch the heart of someone, you have to give all of yourself. I find it hard to express myself through words sometimes, but music is always there to allow my truth to get out.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor (GY!BE) and Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, cult bands in which multi-instrumentalist Efrim Menuck plays a central role, have little to do with All Hands_Make Light, a new project being showcased this weekend at POP Montreal and coinciding with the official release of a first independent recording. 

The same goes for Montreal singer/songwriter Ariel Engle, better known under the alias Laforce for her solo projects, not to mention her regular participation in the Toronto collective Broken Social Scene.

This brand new duo comes from the Anglo-Montreal musical movement of the last two decades, but the aesthetics of each did not suggest a common creation. But the meeting did take place during the months of quarantine and so here is a new creature, a superb creature, perfectly distinct from its progenitors. 

All Hands_Make Light offers a game of contrasts where celestial airs and subterranean lava dialogue, where dark ambient is in harmony with ethereal wave, where electronic techniques and the human voice generate life.

Given the high quality of the sound results, PAN M 360 went to meet this excellent duo, reinforced on stage by Erika Angel (Thus Owls) and Jace Lacek (The Besnard Lakes).

PAN M 360: Don’t you think the adding up of the two of you makes a third character?

EFRIM MENUCK:  Yeah! I feel something like that. We balanced each other well. We are very different, our senses and aesthetics are different. At the same time, we know each other, we respect each other. I feel we both bring different things out of the other person. 

ARIEL ENGLE: I think we’ve managed to represent ourselves in the duo but yes, it’s very different from who we are artistically, each on our own. It’s like making a baby, different from its parents! 

PAN M 360:  How did it happen?

EFRIM MENUCK: I finished a rough tour, I remember I came home and I just felt deeply unsatisfied with what I was doing and then I started to think I should do a simple duo thing with someone singing. A collaboration. And  I was too shy to phone Ariel because I didn’t have a clear idea… the extent of my idea was only what I just said: collaboration with someone else singing. 

ARIEL ENGLE: I had run into Efrim on the street near Martha Wainwright’s Ursa club to hear Jennifer Castle. I’ve known Efrim for a long time and he put the idea of a project in my ear and we went to the concert. Then the lockdown started and I had this idea running around in my head. I wrote to Efrim to find out more about the idea. The ball started rolling, he sent me the music for “Lie Down in Roses Dear”, which is the first song, and then he sent me the lyrics and I sent him back the vocal melody. Really, it wasn’t complicated. 

EFRIM MENUCK: Yeah, very easy. When things didn’t work, we both agreed to change it. Yeah, that was quick and easy, you know. So we bumped into each other and we vaguely planned a phone call. Then COVID happened, we both had tours cancelled and we were  stuck at home… So why don’t we start now! And so all I know at that time about Ariel is that she has a beautiful voice, that she is a good improviser and can surf on top of anything. She has a deep musicality. Lot of people got hung up by perfect tone, perfect harmonies… not in her case. I know she wouldn’t be freaked out if the chord was distorted, turned upside down or a little detuned, she could find a way. So I just sent her some recordings that she could sing on top of it. And it sounded great. Yeah, it all happened very quickly. And after, it took a while to finish.

PAN M 360: Did you discuss your differences during the creative process?

ARIEL ENGLE: We didn’t talk about the aesthetic mixes. I thought the work was strong enough, quite marked, I just had to let myself go in there. I’ve always liked contexts in which I could be quite free. My music is a bit more pop, but I really like music that involves improvisation. Efrim and I share a lot of the same musical tastes, even though our respective projects don’t sound the same. 

PAN M 360: The extremes are very beautiful in this music, heavenly and dark at the same time. Do you feel that way?

EFRIM MENUCK: Yeah, yeah! I agree. There’s something about Ariel’s voice that is very… I don’t know what adjective to use, it’s a beautiful voice but also there’s an earthiness in it that’s not just the song of an angel, you know what I mean? There’s an earthiness to it that is beautiful.

ARIEL ENGLE: Sometimes I felt overwhelmed by the sounds and sometimes there was this great delicacy. I love that contrast! In fact, I don’t know exactly how to describe this work, the roughness of which is not linked to any tradition. There’s something old and new about it. I like the opportunities where I can make music that can surprise me. And when I listen to music, I have to feel the truth of it, without knowing exactly what defines that truth. That’s what this project allows me to do. 

PAN M 360: Efrim, what did you ask Ariel to do?

EFRIM MENUCK: Sometimes it takes a crazy amount of bars for a melody to resolve itself. And from the start we were talking about stuff like that, and because I was playing synthesizers too, I was interested in tones that sounded electronic but that did sound like reeds, strings, bringing that out of the instrument itself, raspy breath sound. So we have this rough conceptual idea, a sort of electronic breathing machine, and then using old melodies, and old ideas about what popular music is, which is a kind of folk music. 

ARIEL ENGLE: All along the creation I was singing, I was finding the vocal melodies and Efrim was doing most of the music. Somewhat by accident, we recorded the songs in the order that we present them in the final recording.

PAN M 360: What was the gear?

EFRIM MENUCK: There was a modular synthesizer, which is very fussy, very hard to play live. Using a Moog keyboard with a few filters, the timbres are changing, it’s still the same idea, it’s still breathy but it’s different obviously because the equipment is different. But it’s cool. 

PAN M 360:  Surprisingly, or maybe not, there is no guitar in this music. 

EFRIM MENUCK: Yeah, it’s cool to be in a nice space, different from a guitar-oriented space. The guitar is a stupid instrument. I love it but its a stupid instrument. It’s hard to keep in tune, it hurts to play it, it’s a tense physical engagement, even though I love playing it. But it’s also nice to play with other instruments that are not fighting with you all the time. So it’s nice to play long, fast melodies and not feel like your body is gonna break doing that. 

PAN M 360: As for the lyrics, who wrote them?

ARIEL ENGLE: The lyrics are mine except for the first song, “Lie Down in Roses Dear”, and “To Raise a Child”, where we sing our respective lyrics. 

PAN M 360: Did you work hard after the first takes?

EFRIM MENUCK: There hasn’t been much editing. Everything I gave her was already full of stuff. So instead of editing, we were removing things, you know? There are some things that took some time to figure out but most of it hung together well, even the first few attempts, which was great and surprising. After that it was a process of  refinement, I’m still more used to like you record stuff and then you realise it doesn’t work, and then you have to figure out you gotta make this part work you know. You strip everything down, then you rebuild it back up again. In this case, there was none of that, that was very nice!

ARIEL ENGLE: We had only completed the work at Hotel 2 Tango. We did everything together without adding new musicians. 

PAN M 360: Why then add some musicians live?

EFRIM MENUCK: Because  there are too many tracks for voices and instruments to play in a live context. So Erika Angel and Jace Lasek will join us playing keyboards and singing.

PAN M 360: Do you plan to continue?

EFRIM MENUCK: Yeah, we’ll keep doing this as long as it makes sense. We really enjoyed playing together, even though it wasn’t the best circumstances. It’s a very different process, not being in the same room. So I’m excited to see what happens in the future, sitting down and working on stuff together.

ARIEL ENGLE: It could go on for a long time… Efrim is very busy and I have my project Laforce, which I’m finishing the second album. I’m also a member of Broken Social Scene–I’m married to one of the musicians in the band, Andrew Whiteman, who is also known in the band Apostle of Hustle. So that’s to be seen. But it went very well, we did this project with no expectations, no pressure, just fun. It would be great to continue, we still have things to explore together, other than by exchanging files. It would be very cool to see what we could do together. 

All Hands_ Make Light is performing at Pop Montreal on Saturday 25, 3PM, L’Entrepôt 77 on Bernard-Est

Fanny is the unique story of sisters June and Jean Millington, born in Manila to a Filipina mother and an American military father, who ended up in California where they embraced their passion for music, forming small bands with girlfriends and eventually founding Fanny in 1969. The first all-female rock band to release a full-length album on a major label, Fanny was also the first such band to compete musically with their male peers, proving that girls could rock as well as, if not better than, boys—a major influence on bands such as the Runaways, the Bangles and many others. 

Between 1970 and 1974, Fanny released five albums before dropping off the radar, just after scoring their biggest hit, “Butter Boy”, a song about David Bowie that peaked at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 rock chart in 1975. As the Thin White Duke, with whom Jean Millington had a brief affair before marrying his guitarist Earl Slick, put it, “They were extraordinary: they wrote everything, they played like motherfuckers, they were just colossal and wonderful, and nobody’s ever mentioned them. They’re as important as anybody else who’s ever been, ever. It just wasn’t their time.”

But in recent years, it seems that their time has finally come, a rehabilitation and recognition due in large part to all those old concert clips circulating on YouTube, and the digital accessibility of their material, not so easy to find on wax.

The documentary The Right to Rock, which tells the story of the band’s unfinished dream, will be presented at the 20th edition of Pop Montreal. Montreal director Bobbi Jo Hart’s film should help to further build the band’s reputation, and shed light on their little-known journey. “Revivify Fanny. And my work is done,” added Bowie…

As a complement to the screening, the guitarist and co-founder of Fanny, June Millington, will be on hand to present the film, and then join incandescent rockers  NOBRO on stage to play some of the key songs of the mythical Californian band, recently reunited under the name Fanny Walked The Earth but unfortunately hindered by the health problems of the Millington sisters.  

Recovering well from a battle with cancer, guitarist June Millington recently gave PAN M 360 an interview in which she talks about Fanny’s journey and her involvement with young women musicians through the Institute for the Musical Arts, which she co-founded with her partner in 1986.

PAN M 360: Fanny recently returned to the fold, releasing the album Fanny Walked The Earth in 2018. Following this reunion, to which all former members were invited, there was a notable absence of keyboardist and vocalist Nickey Barclay, who was an important musician in the band at the time. 

June Millington: She doesn’t want to be in public. I never really knew her real well, I must say. She doesn’t want to be involved in anything we do so, that’s it. You know, when we played at the Outfest in L.A. a few weeks ago, I didn’t miss her at all. The core part of the music really stands, whether or not Nickey plays. We proved that to my satisfaction. We proved it in LA, just feeling the music as it is. And I really like that. It’s just as powerful, because the songs are really good. The way we play them, there is a certain attack, a certain power. 

PAN M 360: Actually, the core of the band was originally Brie Howard [also known as Brie Brandt, Brie Darling and Brie Berry, and also a Filipina-American), Jean and you. Then Brie left and was replaced on the drums by Alice De Buhr. Then Nickey Barclay was added on keyboards and vocals for the release of your first album, Fanny, in 1970. So Nickey wasn’t around when you started.

June Millington: Jean and I started our first band when we were in high school in late ’64, called The Svelts, and both Alice and Brie were in it at different times. Essentially, we learned how to play and we learned how to manage our own equipment before we got to L.A. I always tell people that if you want to understand Fanny, you have to understand The Svelts. The Svelts had it all essentially, no matter who was in it. The Svelts had the core of how we attacked the music. We were really fierce, but we developped that before we got to L.A. and played the Troubadour where we were spotted by producer Richard Perry’s secretary. That’s why we got signed with Richard Perry; you could feel that fierceness, you could feel it getting ready to explode in another way. Then Richard taught us how to record and write songs, and he taught us well. You could hear everything on our records, all our parts. Before that we didn’t know how to record and that’s why there aren’t any real good recordings of The Svelts. Before we got to L.A., our sound was very contained, we were learning the music, we were playing at dances. We weren’t trying to blow people’s minds because it wasn’t the right time for that. But after a while, here I was, jamming with Lowell George and Skunk Baxter and all these masters of sound. We would all play together and develop what is now known as classic rock. Of course others were developing that sound as well, but we were all part of a big piece. By the time 1970 came and we released our own music, a little bit of people opened up to what we were doing, little bit by little bit.

PAN M 360: You mentioned the word fierceness… Would you say that part of that strength comes from the fact that you and your sister, being Filipina-American, had to fight to fit in and be respected when you came to live in the U.S. and had to deal with racism? Perhaps your sexual orientation also gave you that willingness to fight for acceptance at that time?

June Millington: I became aware of my sexual orientation a little bit later, at around 20 years old, I would say. Before that I was way too young and shy to do anything with another woman. That strength, I developed it later, after The Svelts. But I think you can say that this strength that Jean and I have is perhaps unique to all Filipinos; they have an incredible sense of music and they are very talented. But most of all, I think that this strength we had in us, Jean and me, we felt it, it was very strong. We decided to form a band because her boyfriend was playing in a surf band. I let you imagine how far back we go. So we met two other girls who played guitar and we started a band. We must have been 15 or 16 years old. We got gigs but the boys wouldn’t let us play on their instruments, so we managed to get our own gear. Then we had to get shows. The Vietnam war wasn’t so bad for us because it allowed us to play at several Army bases. We played for the soldiers, it was pretty amazing. And then the teen clubs came along. We played a lot of shows there, around 1967. And then shows in junior high schools, high schools, clubs. That’s what made us strong, that was our training, the hard way. And you know what else gives me some of that energy? The smell of Fender tube amps. When I smell that, I get excited, I know it’s gonna happen and it’s going to be loud. I think Jean and I were born to do this. 

PAN M 360: You’ve said that after your concerts, girls often came to you to ask you how to form a band. What did you tell them?

June Millington: First, to be very disciplined. If it doesn’t work out one night, if you mess up in a show, you have to have the strength to get back up and keep going. It takes guts and the strength to persevere. You can have a lot of talent but no courage. You have to know how to pick yourself up and keep going and keep learning. You have to rehearse a lot and do a lot of shows. You have to do that. It takes a lot of time and effort. It takes dedication. 

PAN M 360: You are very involved with the women’s music movement, you have produced many albums for female musicians, with your partner you operate the Institute for the Musical Arts, a rock camp for young girls and teenagers… In short, you have long been at the forefront of women’s struggles in the music world. Would you say that the situation has evolved a lot for women in the rock and pop genres?

June Millington: Women are much more visible than they used to be, that’s for sure. They are free to create whatever they want, in many different styles. It’s not unusual for a group of women to get visibility. It’s not unusual for a women’s band to be visible. But a women’s band having a string of successes as big as those of men’s bands like the Stones, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and so many others, that still hasn’t happened as far as I know, and that’s what I’m waiting for. I’m not talking about solo singers like all those R&B divas or pop stars, I’m talking about groups. There have been bands, but they’ve had limited success, there’s been no real consistency, nothing like the giants of rock. Who will make it? I don’t know… 

Film POP and Rock Camp present Fanny: The Right To Rock With a performance by NOBRO and Fanny L’Entrepôt 77  $12 in advance only

(photo principale: Michael Putland)

Code Quartet brings together four key figures of Montreal jazz, as evidenced by the beautiful album Genealogy, released on the Justin Time label last spring. Four performers, improvisers and composers ready to pool their long experience, their great expertise and their insatiable passion for contemporary jazz in its most subtle forms.

Adrian Vedady, double bass, Jim Doxas, drums, Lex French, trumpet and Christine Jensen, saxophones. As a courtesy, Christine Jensen was interviewed by PAN M 360 on the day of their concert at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

PAN M 360 :Among all your projects, what is the purpose of this quartet ?

Christine Jensen : This quartet allows me, as well as the other three members to play in the most intimate, liberated setting of 4 musicians with no piano or guitar. We are all about linear expression. 

PAN M 360 :Can you tell our readers the circumstances of its foundation ? 

Christine Jensen : This group came together through simpatico meeting of minds between the four of us. I met trumpeter Lex French in 2018, while he was working on his doctorate at McGill. I was teaching composition and performance at the same time.  I was really impressed with his playing, full of expression and very versatile with his jazz language. I am very picky about trumpet players for some reason (haha) . We started playing sessions with Jim Doxas and Adrian Vedady, and knew we had a strong, personal sound with this group. The front line of Lex and myself could hold some power with the heavy hitting rhythm section of this team.  Next thing, Lex brought us to New Zealand for the Wellington Jazz Festival, where he is from. We had such a great time with everything music that we knew we had to continue and headed into the recording studio. We recorded a few days before the lockdown, thinking we would really get things moving forward. During the pandemic, it was easy to get together as we were all in close proximity being in Montreal. It really was a positive event for me whenever we could get together and workshop ideas during that time. In fact it was quite healing, and made me think that music will move forward so strong because of this. 

PAN M 360 : Is it for you guys a side-project or something on which you want to build for the next future?

Christine Jensen : We are very invested artistically in building on what we have started as a chord-less quartet, performing locally in 2019. Since then, every time we perform together we can’t wait to do more.  It’s like a music drug, which is a good thing! It really makes performing easy, because of such equal energy being fed to each other in the most organic setting of acoustic quartet.  We have all really committed to continuing on with exploring many corners, including building new repertoire and uncovering standard repertoire that works well with this formation. 

PAN M 360 : Is there any leader in this band ? 

Christine Jensen : No. We all tend to take on various roles in all of the many corners, including artistic direction, business, and recording. Each component is huge in terms of tasks, so it is really great when each of us take a bit on. I think that because we are so committed to this, we have been able to build a team behind us, including Heidi Fleming FAM group jumping on board with management and booking,  and Justin-Time Records with this recording and one that we have coming up. We also all work on booking the band at various levels. 

PAN M 360 :  Who is composing what ?

Christine Jensen : The four of us equally bring in music, and we are all into the challenge of presenting music that is very vertical linear, and not heavily harmonized or full of harmony. We all try to bring in new music whenever we get the chance. We all work together on orchestrating the sounds we are going for, so there is a lot of workshop, which is SO fun! 

PAN M 360 :  What do you explore musically with those gentlemen ?  Can you describe briefly the jazz styles involved ?

Christine Jensen : We work with anything really. We have even performed commissions by other composers for our group. We had a premiere of New Zealand composer Jasmine Lowell-Smith when we went to that festival. 

PAN M 360 :  How do you see the role and qualities of each member of this ensemble ?

Christine Jensen : That is the coolest part. We are all responsible for bringing in ideas equally, yet our instruments definitely define our roles in the performance. Strong time and great sound really are the key in this band really hitting hard. Lex and I weave the melodies, Adrian is in charge of laying down the bass, and Jimmy definitely gets to drive the ensemble with his expression as a drummer. We are all able to interchange with soloing and accompanying, as well as outlining any harmonic ideas vertically. 

PAN M 360 : Should we receive  this music as a “classic” form because it swings and the chord progressions are rooted in modern jazz idiom, from post-bop to ornettish style of the early 60’s (Genealogy theme) ?

Christine Jensen : I always think it is up to the listener. We are not completely free jazz and we are not completely original post-bop, but we can do all of that and everything in between. I think that is what gives the listener that feeling of something new, yet there is a classic jazz sound to it. 

PAN M 360 : Above its apparent classicism, what are for you the original aspects of this quartet’s personality ?

Christine Jensen : I think the personality finds us at a certain point. We all equally bring our own game to the table and it somehow all merges together. I think the music can take so many dramatic turns because of our personalities. I know I always get surprised by the spontaneity that can occur on so many levels with our dialogue. 

PAN M 360 : Are we going to hear new material (not recorded yet) at the FIJM concert on Saturday ?

Christine Jensen :  Yes. I am adding a piece from my pandemic entitled TwentyTwenty Blues. 

PAN M 360 :What will be the next steps for Code Quartet ?

Christine Jensen :We are performing at some Maison de la Culture’s in the fall, with more booked for next year. We have had really fun times working out our music at our favourite Montreal jazz clubs as well, including Upstairs and Diese Onze. More to come there in the future. We also have a showcase  that has been postponed two years at JazzAhead in Bremen Germany in April. Hopefully we will get more of our sounds in Europe with this opportunity. Also, heading out on Canadian Jazz festival circuit once it gets up and running next summer. 

PAN M 360 : Why CODE quartet ?

Christine Jensen : We worked on many names. When it came down to it, it really does feel like the four of us have a secret language, only because we are all equally enamoured with the same sounds of the masters who have influenced us as a whole in the linear language of jazz. They include Sonny Rollins, Bird and Diz, Lee Konitz, Ornette Coleman, Dave Douglas and Joe Lovano,  Carla Bley and Steve Swallow, Billy Higgins, Charlie Haden….the list goes on, but I think those are some of our mutual ‘racines’ in this small group setting. We also have similar stances on the world in terms of politics and environment. For this reason I am certain that our music will continue to express those thoughts more deeply as we go forward in expanding our dialogue as a group. 

Code Quartet performs at the Parterre symphonique 5h15 PM, Saturday September 18

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