Dossiers

A giant of Jamaican music has left us

FME, MUTEK, Pop Montreal and other Quebec festivals are moving forward with their respective programs despite the pandemic. PAN M 360 connected with them to explore the concerns, constraints, and many obstacles they have had to face.

FME, MUTEK, Pop Montreal and other Quebec festivals are moving forward with their respective programs despite the pandemic. PAN M 360 connected with them to explore the concerns, constraints, and many obstacles they have had to face.

Since moving to South Korea a few years ago, saxophonist Sunjae Lee has discovered an exciting and unexpected music scene, where musicians from different generations mix traditional jazz, free improvisation, and traditional Korean instrumentation.

In painting, pentimento can be described as the ghostly reappearance of previous forms or features that have been altered or erased, and then repainted on the canvas. This is what Jon Hassell applies to music, at least in his recent two-volume Pentimento series on the Ndeya label, Listening to Pictures (2018) and Seeing Through Sound (July 2020). A master of superimposition, the trumpeter, composer and electronic creator invites us more than ever to practice “vertical listening”, to use his own expression. Contacted at his home in Los Angeles, the octogenarian provides clues to explain the astonishing freshness of his art, constantly regenerated since his early youth.

Trumpet player Jon Hassell has had a marked influence on the music of the last half-century. It’s true that Hassell has a sound and has created a musical universe that is instantly recognizable, which is the mark of the greats. But who exactly is he and, above all, what has he done to stand out in this way? To answer this question, PAN M 360 has retraced his journey.

Trumpet player Jon Hassell has had a marked influence on the music of the last half-century. It’s true that Hassell has a sound and has created a musical universe that is instantly recognizable, which is the mark of the greats. But who exactly is he and, above all, what has he done to stand out in this way? To answer this question, PAN M 360 has retraced his journey.

Trumpet player Jon Hassell has had a marked influence on the music of the last half-century. And not only on other trumpeters, like Arve Henriksen, Nils Petter Molvaer, Mathias Eick, Erik Truffaz, and Paolo Fresu. In the world of electronic music, for example, from Aphex Twin to Oneohtrix Point Never, many musicians are indebted to him for the paths he opened up. So much so that he can be considered one of the innovators and tireless explorers, along with Miles, Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Anthony Braxton and John Zorn. Nothing less!

Cancellation, postponement, de-quarantining, a possible second wave… What will autumn look like? How to reconcile concerts and social distancing? In our new dossier series, we’ve asked the artistic directors of Quebec classical ensembles and orchestras a few questions, to get a sense of what’s in the works. Eighth subject in our series: the world premiere of the complete melodies of Jules Massenet, an ambitious project by the Festival Classica team.

The Polaris Music Prize today unveiled its Short List for 2020… and we’re unveiling ours too!

Cancellation, postponement, de-quarantining, a possible second wave… What will autumn look like? How to reconcile concerts and social distancing? In our new dossier series, we’ve asked the artistic directors of Quebec classical ensembles and orchestras a few questions, to get a sense of what’s in the works. Seventh subject in our series: the Concert Bleu initiative.

Cancellation, postponement, de-quarantining, a possible second wave… What will autumn look like? How to reconcile concerts and social distancing? In our new dossier series, we’ve asked the artistic directors of Quebec classical ensembles and orchestras a few questions, to get a sense of what’s in the works. Sixth subject in our series: Alain Trudel, conductor and artistic director of l’Orchestre Symphonique de Laval.

REFRAIN, ou le Regroupement des festivals régionaux artistiques indépendants, was born in the midst of quarantine, in April 2020, when many festivals were shaken by doubt, distraught, not knowing if their events would take place. It was at that time that Patrick Kearny, general director of the Santa Teresa festival, had the idea of founding an associative structure to promote small and medium festivals in Quebec.

Cancellation, postponement, de-quarantining, a possible second wave… What will autumn look like? How to reconcile concerts and social distancing? In our new dossier series, we’ve asked the artistic directors of Quebec classical ensembles and orchestras a few questions, to get a sense of what’s in the works. Fifth subject in our series: Véronique Lacroix, artistic director of l’Ensemble contemporain de Montréal.

Profoundly innovative and enormously influential, Italian composer Ennio Morricone is simply the most important name in music for motion pictures – a name now uttered most disconsolately, following the Maestro’s passing on July 6, 2020, at the age of 91. He left us with hundreds of film scores to his credit, spanning all genres (and production budgets!) and marked by many musical moments that have haunted the memories of generations of film and music lovers.

Cancellation, postponement, de-quarantining, a possible second wave… What will autumn look like? How to reconcile concerts and social distancing? In our new dossier series, we’ve asked the artistic directors of Quebec classical ensembles and orchestras a few questions, to get a sense of what’s in the works. Fourth topic in our series: Julien Proulx, artistic director and conductor of the Orchestre symphonique de Drummondville.

Cancellation, postponement, de-quarantining, a possible second wave… What will autumn look like? How to reconcile concerts and social distancing? In our new dossier series, we’ve asked the artistic directors of Quebec classical ensembles and orchestras a few questions, to get a sense of what’s in the works. Third topic in our series: Walter Boudreau, conductor and artistic director of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec.

Cancellation, postponement, de-quarantining, a possible second wave… What will autumn look like? How to reconcile concerts and social distancing? In our new dossier series, we’ve asked the artistic directors of Quebec classical ensembles and orchestras a few questions, to get a sense of what’s in the works. Second topic in our series: Jean-Philippe Tremblay, founder of L’Orchestre de la francophonie.

Cancellation, postponement, de-quarantining, a possible second wave… What will autumn look like? How to reconcile concerts and social distancing? In our new dossier series, we’ve asked the artistic directors of Quebec classical ensembles and orchestras a few questions, to get a sense of what’s in the works. First topic in our series: Normand Forget, artistic director of Nouvel Ensemble Moderne.

There are some sweet sounds for a swell cause to be found on the current release from the Latin-leaning but globally minded label Shika Shika. A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America & the Caribbean assembles diverse talent from across the region, united in their knack for reconciling local tradition and transnational tech trends – and a determination to preserve winged wildlife at desperate risk in their own backyards.

The Polaris Music Prize, which annually honours and rewards albums by Canadian artists, unveiled its Long List of 40 albums on Monday.

Exactly 20 years ago, an unprecedented orchestral display of contemporary music, since unequalled, took place at the foot of St. Joseph’s Oratory: La Symphonie du millénaire. Walter Boudreau, Artistic Director of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) had imagined this collective work being performed in front of 50,000 spectators, a sort of mini-Woodstock of contemporary music.

Who would have thought that music streaming would drop globally by ten to 20 percent since the beginning of the pandemic? Didn’t it seem that a confined population would listen to more music? And… who could have predicted that classical, jazz, and ambient music would rise against the tide?

Composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki, certainly one of the most prominent musicians of the last six decades, died recently of “a long illness” that apparently had nothing to do with COVID-19.