Curtis Nowosad – I Am Doing My Best

We noticed it at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2023: the Canadian drummer Curtis Nowosad navigates in excellence. This album is his most recent (the fourth, in fact), and this “Best” he claims to be trying to achieve is probably unattainable for many others. Nowosad infuses a continuous propulsive energy into his compositions (eight), in a complex rhythmic language that is neither obtuse nor unnecessarily dense. His music breathes, and the exchanges between the melodic impulses, which are also quite elaborate, and the drums occur in a rich counterpoint that exudes spontaneity, even though a rigorous thought process is discernible behind it.

References to afro-beat, and even a bit of mbalax, are skillfully woven in (We Do We). The presence of the Canadian-Zimbabwean Joanna Majoko elsewhere on the album surely has something to do with it. She sings on several tracks with a commanding voice that stands out in a pop timbral range but is clearly well-versed in the complex harmonic inflections of true jazz. A very beautiful contribution. Two guitarists join in, the double JUNO Award winner Joey Landreth (who also occasionally lends his voice), and Andrew Renfroe (exceptional in We Do We, among others). No sax, no piano. If the architecture and the thought are resolutely jazz, the textures and the overall panorama lean more towards sophisticated pop.

We also love, a lot, the light that emanates from the changing harmonies. I said it, the music breathes, and never invites you to overthink and forcefully appreciate an esoteric wisdom.

A summer album for music lovers who want a bit more than the average.