Recording: Luan Phung Quintet

Artist: Luan Phung Quintet

Song: L.A. [composer: Luan Phung]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Somewhere There Creative Music Festival – Show 5), February 25, 2018.

Luan Phung Quintet - L.A.

Guitarist Luan Phung lead his quintet (Matthew Chalmers, drums; James Hill, piano; Chris Rennie, sax; and able fill-in Mark Godfrey on bass) through a series of knotty pieces — his shout-outs to Schoenberg and titular nod to Louis Andriessen in this piece give some hints of where he's coming from. But the nimble trickery within the pieces (to say nothing of the bell chimes and dinosaur jokes) showed that there's ample playfulness at hand as well.

Recording: Mirapolis

Artist: Mirapolis

Songs: Raga + Louange à l'éternité de Jésus [composer: Olivier Messiaen]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge ("416 Toronto Creative Improvisers Festival" – Night 3), November 4, 2016.

Mirapolis - Raga

Mirapolis - Louange à l'éternité de Jésus

The last time I saw this exploratory trio (Noah Sherman, drums; Luan Phung, guit; Chris Rennie, tenor sax) wasn't in a super-great listening context, so maybe it's not surprising that I heard increased musical depths in the more refined Southern Cross environs. And it's hard to say if it was my increased familiarity or the musicians' several months down the road, but they came across as more organic, and not so much just "playing the dots". They moved from polite and in sync to sudden outbursts — the originals were more rangy, but I'm glad they're still also including their meditative slice o' Messiaen in their set.

Recording: Mirapolis

Artist: Mirapolis

Song: The Striga^*

Recorded at The Cavern Bar, August 23, 2015.

Mirapolis - The Striga

I'd heard from friends who had been that The Cavern Bar had an unusual vibe for a gig, and this first visit confirmed that. Off the usual music venue grid on Church Street, the basement room is as much a watering hole for patrons of the hostel above as a destination for music seekers, leading to some random interactions and moments of bands playing to as many blissfully indifferent patrons as folks there for the show. As with openers Bears & Children, I was familiar with one-third of this young unit, having seen drummer Noah Sherman in action previously. Joined by Luan Phung (guit) and Chris Rennie (tenor sax) the group was pushing in a few different directions, sounding, at a couple points, like Tortoise attempting to tackle "A Love Supreme". That questing quality (which also lead to an intriguing cover of Olivier Messiaen's "Louange à l'éternité de Jésus") was the band's best asset, compensating for a few moments of lingering jazz-school precision fustiness.

^* Thanks to Noah for passing along the title to this one!