Recording: McConnell/Ng/Russouw

Artist: Aidan McConnell/Karen Ng/Adrian Russouw

Song: [2nd set, 1st section]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Karen Ng presents), October 14, 2025.

Aidan McConnell/Karen Ng/Adrian Russouw - [2nd set, 1st section]

Called together to share some music as well as some post-Thanksgiving pie, this trio saw Karen Ng (alto sax) joined by Aidan McConnell (percussion) and Adrian Russouw (double bass). Launching into a warbling groove, the trio went on some tasty-as-pie excursions over a couple sets.

You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:

Recording: an action committee

Artist: an action committee

Songs: Organ [in two versions] [composer: Max Stover]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), May 18, 2025.

an action committee - Organ [version 1]

an action committee - Organ [version 2]

I feel like it's a very Toronto thing to gather large groups together and have everyone play at once. ("Everyone playing loudly and at once," is, in fact, how I've heard the "Toronto style" of improvisation described by some of its detractors.) Whether it's a consequence of the social situations performers in Toronto's creative music scenes find themselves in or some sort of atavistic impulse towards maximalism, it warms the ol' heart to see the younger cadres rediscovering these sonic scenarios.

How large groups find ways to work together and navigate structure and freedom is, of course, a key question — and Maxwell Stover's new-ish Tranzac residency is an attempt to negotiate some of these queries. For this instalment, with a dozen musicians on stage, that was achieved through Stover's conduction and distribution of some fragments of material for the musicians to share space in. That this was a relatively unprecise approach could be seen from how the same three pieces were essayed twice with rather different results — quietly and spaciously in the first set, and with shades, feedback and fuzz pedals in the second.

The musicians for this performance were:

• guitars: Bjorn Kriel, Ben Rositsan, Josh Sparks, Jesse White
• keys: Max Donaldson, Will Hunt, Ben Mike, Steven Noronha
• bass: Adrian Russouw
• drums: Keith Barstow, Colin Cudmore, Mateos Labbe-Phelan
• conduction + compositions: Maxwell Stover

Apologies for the fact that this whole ensemble was too large to fit in its entirety in the frame, but you can check out the evening's full performance over on youtube:

[an action committee take on a different form of musical organization — three trios — at its next performance on Sunday (June 15th), with performances from Steven Noronha/Keon Narinesingh/Harry Vetro, Ben Rositsan/Adrian Russouw/Cal James Adam, and Jesse White/Maxwell Stover/Keith Barstow.]

Recording: C'est la fête with Mark Hundevad & Colin Fisher

Artist: C'est la fête with Mark Hundevad & Colin Fisher

Song: [set 2 excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Musica Universalis), August 11, 2023.

C'est la fête with Mark Hundevad & Colin Fisher - [set 2 excerpt]

Some excellent programming here from guitarist/saxophonist Colin Fisher, bringing himself and frequent sparring partner Mark Hundevad (vibes) together for two sets with C'est la fête, a trio of younger players Adrian Russouw (double bass), William Hunt (piano), and Mateos Labbe-Phelan (drumkit). The trio-plus-guests format meant there were opportunities for some big crescendos, but also chances to find space in dropping down to solos and duos. The younger players here also very much held their own, and this was, to use a technical term, some "high-level shit", suitable for the stage of any jazz festival you could name.

You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:

[C'est La Fête are playing (alongside cnrkrtz/%%30%30 and Owen Kurtz) at Parkdale Provincial Park on Friday (September 1st). Keep an eye out for more music presented by Colin Fisher at the next Musical Universalis on Friday, September 8th.]

Recording: Yogarajah/Miraj/Russouw

Artist: Marilyn Yogarajah/Kiran Miraj/Adrian Russouw

Song: [1st piece, excerpt]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (Emergents Series), June 14, 2023.

Marilyn Yogarajah/Kiran Miraj/Adrian Russouw - [1st piece, excerpt]

It brought me no small measure of joy to see this trio being assembled to open up this night closing out the season of the MG's Emergents shows. Marilyn Yogarajah (trumpet), Kiran Miraj (laptop), and Adrian Russouw (double bass) are all making their presence felt in a variety of settings, but here assembled as improvisers, creating a pleasing electroacoustic mix with Miraj adding tones'n'textures under the acoustic sounds.

Recording: Adrian Russouw & Max Donaldson

Artist: Adrian Russouw & Max Donaldson

Song: Someday My Prince Will Come [composed by Larry Morey & Frank Churchill]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Ayal Senior & Friends), June 11, 2023.

Adrian Russouw & Max Donaldson - Someday My Prince Will Come

Asked to pinch-hit at Ayal Senior's monthly, by luck I programmed a pair of sets that dovetailed nicely, each with musicians mixing standards and originals in idiosyncratic ways. In this set, bassist Adrian Russouw brought along pianist Max Donaldson, and the pair were sprightly and inquisitive both on Russouw's pieces and the older tunes they investigated. Looking forward to seing more of both these players in various local scenarios.

You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:

[Ayal Senior's monthly is back at the Tranzac tomorrow (Sunday, June 9th) and will see him playing with Kurt Newman, plus sounds from Marilyn Yogarajah and Del Stephen's Wurld of Xo '42, plus comedy from Nick Flanagan.]

Recording: Sunstone

Artist: Sunstone

Song: You've Got to Have Freedom [composer: Pharoah Sanders]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), June 2, 2023.

Sunstone - You've Got to Have Freedom

Some joyfully-blasting explorations through standards and spiritual jazz jams from this crew of younger musicians. Adrian Russouw (double bass) was the most familiar face to me, and from my digging it looks like there are some different folks shifting in and out, but so far as I can make out the lineup here was completed by Luke Nickel (trombone), Ali Rashid (sax), Eugene Kwong (sax), Ezra Schell (drums) and Matthew O'Halloran (piano). (Do correct me if I'm wrong there!)

This gig was a solid reminder that there is a whole cadre of musicians who have been honing their chops while there were fewer gigs in the past few years — hopefully they keep getting more chances to play and we get more chances to hear them.

Recording: Cosmic Homeostasis XVIII

Artist: Cosmic Homeostasis XVIII

Songs: The Ways We Unravel [excerpt] + Space [edited excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), January 29, 2023.

Cosmic Homeostasis XVIII - The Ways We Unravel [excerpt]

Cosmic Homeostasis XVIII - Space [edited excerpt]

The year's first Cosmic Homeostasis gathering (which happens when there's a fifth Sunday in a month) brought out a robust crowd, with twenty (or so) musicians taking over the perimeter of the Southern Cross and generating some sonic drift zones. A real nice mix of acoutic and electronic sounds, and ranging from some louder zones into quieter interplay.

The participants this time out were:

• Marilyn - various percussion, singing bowls, namer-of-things
• Philip Hamilton - guitar, box w/ a string and llama toenails
• Ron Blake - ipad apps
• Scott M2 - Animoog
• Mira Martin-Gray - mini synth, mini theremin
• Yasmine E - pocket piano, various percussion, rainmaker
• Adrian Russouw - violin
• Del Stephen - keyboard synth + cassettes
• Sophie Jaworski - wooden frog
• Paul Newman - tenor saxophone
• Patrick O'Reilly - Volca FM/effects
• Rod Campbell - trumpet
• Todd Macdonald - mandolin/Mood
• Hilary Martin - singing bowl
• Myfawny Ashmore - singing bowl
• Michael Lynn - bass + stuff
• Sterling + Ian - Atari junk console
• Rob Cruickshank - electronics + resonator
• Heraclitus Akimbo - synths, etc.

It's tough to get that many folks in the frame, but most of them make an appearance in this footage you can see over on youtube:

And, of course, you can also listen to the whole performance over on bandcamp (and, if you'd like, support the collective's future works with a purchase!):

Recording: Naomi McCarroll-Butler

Artist: Naomi McCarroll-Butler

Songs: Chrysalis [two sections]^*

Recorded at Toronto Jazz Festival, [corporate brand name] Main Stage – [corporate brand name] Grove, July 2, 2022.

Naomi McCarroll-Butler - Chrysalis [section 4]

Naomi McCarroll-Butler - Chrysalis [section 10]

The local jazz festival doesn't tend to get a tonne of favourable glances from this direction, but they should be praised when they do something cool and ambitious. Named as the inaugural "Jazz Festival Immersive Artist-in-Residence", Naomi McCarroll-Butler was given some resources to put together a programme of new work to present at the festival, which emerged as Chrysalis, "a project born out of my first years of transitioning: songs of hope for holding on, cries of joy and grief for the love of a suffering community, trance tapestries of woven sound accompanying the alignment of the physical body with the luminant body."

This live presentation (played in the pleasant Festival zone in the Victoria College quad) saw McCarroll-Butler backed by a dozen musicians, segueing from spiritual jazz blastoffs to modern compositional latticeworks — and including some sounds on DIY microtonal pipes along the way, as well as plenty individual spotlights for the members of the group. The band sounded lush and lively (despite playing with a fairly minimal soundcheck) and one can hope that this music gets a chance to live on beyond this performance.

The ensemble at this show was:

• Anh Phung: flutes
• Kae Murphy: trumpet, sousaphone
• Nebyu Yohannes: trombone
• Colin Fisher: tenor saxophone, drums
• Naomi McCarroll-Butler: alto saxophone, bass clarinet
• Aysel Taghi-Zada: violin
• Aline Homzy: violin
• Amahl Arulanandam: cello
• Adrian Russouw: double bass
• Roa Lee: gayageum
• Yang Chen: percussion, tubulum
• Racha Moukalled: piano
• Stefan Hegerat: drums, percussion

^* I'm not sure if the individual pieces within the suite have separate titles or noy; please leave a comment if you have info!