Recording: Kyle Brenders Big Band

Artist: Kyle Brenders Big Band

Songs: Prudent + Rivers of Gold [Bry Webb cover]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (416 Toronto Creative Improvisers Festival – Night 4), November 5, 2016.

Kyle Brenders Big Band - Prudent

Kyle Brenders Big Band - Rivers of Gold

This set closing out this year's edition of the 416 Festival also turned out to be a bit a chapter-closer for ensemble leader Kyle Brenders as well. On the eve of move out west to take up the position of Program Manager for Performing Arts at the Banff Centre, Brenders pulled together material from a few of his diverse projects to explore with this all-star big band.¹ From ambulatory drift to sections of Brenders-esque lockgroove repetition there were a lot of tasty moments here. The meditative flow of Bry Webb's "Rivers of Gold" was previously essayed by the Massey Hall Band under Brenders' leadership and features his sax playing the main melodic line, with some lovely work on the vibes from Davison as well. I'm sure Brenders won't be a stranger to the city, but the questing curiosity of his projects will be missed.

---

¹ So far as I could make out, the ensemble on this night consisted of the following:

• Kyle Brenders, tenor sax
• Jeff LaRochelle, tenor sax
• Karen Ng, alto sax
• Peter Lutek, baritone sax + bass clarinet
• Heather Saumer, trombone
• Tom Richards, trombone
• Emily Denison, trumpet
• Rebecca Hennessy, trumpet
• Tara Kannangara, trumpet
• Scott Peterson, double bass
• Brandon Valdivia, percussion
• Michael Davidson, vibraphone

Recording: Roscoe Mitchell and the Montreal-Toronto Art Orchestra

Artist: Roscoe Mitchell and the Montreal-Toronto Art Orchestra

Songs: They Rode For Them + Nonaah + [piece for solo sopranino saxophone]

Recorded at The Music Gallery (X Avant XI – Night 4), October 15, 2016.

Roscoe Mitchell and the Montreal-Toronto Art Orchestra - They Rode For Them

Roscoe Mitchell and the Montreal-Toronto Art Orchestra - Nonaah

Roscoe Mitchell - [solo sopranino saxophone]

The X Avant Festival concluded with this extra-special event, bringing the legendary Roscoe Mitchell to town at the head of a nineteen-piece orchestra made up of top names from the Montréal and Toronto scenes.¹ The pieces that they played were derived from Mitchell's improvisations, primarily from his Conversations I + Conversations II albums — boiling down dense and compact abstractions to their essence and then blowing them up to widescreen size for the large ensemble. After a while, getting attuned to the method you could sometimes "hear" the original gestures behind the sweeping orchestrations. This was complex stuff that pushed the musicians, but it was quite often rather beautiful as well. There were a few places that lead into full-on big band free-honking, but just as striking were the moments that pulled back, including a quartet arrangement of "Nonaah" (performed by Nicolas Caloia, Yves Charuest, Lori Freedman, and Craig Pedersen) as well as a solo segment from Mitchell that opened the second set — an intense piece that spiralled outward from a drone into pure exploration that put a full lifetime's experience and technique on display. After presenting this music live in Montréal and Toronto, the ensemble also headed into the studio on the day after this show, so we can expect some formal documentation of this grand sommet to emerge in time.

---

¹ For the record, the members of the orchestra were:

• Roscoe Mitchell – woodwinds, composition, direction
• Marilyn Lerner – piano
• Lori Freedman, Yves Charuest, Kyle Brenders, Jean Derome, Peter Lutek, Jason Sharp – woodwinds
• Nicole Rampersaud, Craig Pedersen – trumpets
• Tom Richards, Scott Thomson – trombones
• Julie Houle – tuba
• Jean René, James Annett – violas
• Rob Clutton, Nicolas Caloia – double-basses
• Isaiah Ceccarelli, Nick Fraser – drums
• Michael Davidson – vibraphone
• Greg Oh - conducting

Recording: Kyle Brenders Ensemble

Artist: Kyle Brenders Ensemble

Song: Grasslands [1st mvt]

Recorded at Yonge-Dundas Square (Intersection Festival – Day 2), September 3, 2016.

Kyle Brenders Ensemble - Grasslands [1st mvt]

A lovely day, warm in the sun with a cool breeze, the Intersection Festival once again filled Dundas Square with music of all kinds, offering a counterpoint to business at usual in the ad-basked concrete canyon. With Tad Michalak (of Burn Down the Capital/Feast in the East) again taking a leading role in curating the day, the music had nods to the festival's more chamber music-intensive past while upping the noise and weirdness reverberating off the surrounding walls. That had a sort of push-pull effect on the passers-by, sometimes drawing them in, sometimes causing evident confusion and moving along.

A very-worthy re-emergence of this abstract big band (with a slightly-shuffled lineup¹ from its appearance back in February) saw them fill the square with electroacoustic soundfields. There was an interesting tug of war between the horns' drift and the electronics' drone, while Michael Davidson's vibes rode above giving things a hint of melodic direction.

---

¹ This time out the band included Kyle Brenders (saxophones, composition), Scott Peterson (bass), Nick Buligan (trumpet), Peter Lutek (clarinet, electronics), Karen Ng (alto sax), Cheldon Paterson (turntables), Brandon Valdivia (drums), Doug Van Nort (electronics), and Michael Davidson (vibes).

Recording: Kyle Brenders + Andrew Zukerman

Artist: Kyle Brenders + Andrew Zukerman

Song: [excerpt from first piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Wolf's Nacho Wednesdays), July 20, 2016.

Kyle Brenders + Andrew Zukerman - [excerpt from first piece]

Though cut from similar cloth as his partnership with Brodie West, this duo set with saxophonist Kyle Brenders pushed Andrew Zukerman into something of a different sonic zone. Paired with Brenders' full-bodied playing, this was one of the more musical and least provocateurish sets I've seen from Zukerman in a while — by the pair's second piece, he was barely even kicking back against the beauty of the music he was participating in.

Recording: Kyle Brenders Ensemble

Artist: Kyle Brenders Ensemble

Song: Grasslands [4th mvt]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Somewhere There Creative Music Festival – Show 3), February 27, 2016.

Kyle Brenders Ensemble - Grasslands [4th mvt]

Now stick with me here — this "Kyle Brenders Ensemble" is not to be confused with the Kyle Brenders Large Ensemble (which is, in fact, smaller than this one), or the Kyle Brenders Big Band or any other big band that Brenders is associated with. So far as I can tell, this particular ensemble came about more specifically for this gig, and was geared more towards a sort of large-format electroacoustic exploration than to play any of Brenders' more melodic (but still oft-tricky) material. With laptops, turntables and electronics on hand, the members¹ here navigated through six movements of a sprawling, forty-five minute piece called "Grasslands", with scratchy acoustic creaks alternating with (and then complementing) the electronic interferences. The sonic zones included menacing hums, ambient apprehensiveness, and doom-drones before closing out with a minimalist repetition groove. None of which should be taken to mean that this music was "academic" or too precious — at several points, it felt like the key comparison here was to some of the more arranged and experimental releases on Constellation Records. Brenders casually commented afterwards that this performance might be the last for this unit, but this should definitely be brought back for an encore.

---

¹ The full lineup for this ensemble was:

• Kyle Brenders (saxophones, electronics)
• Ben Grossman (hurdy gurdy, electronics)
• Germaine Liu (percussion)
• Peter Lutek (clarinet, electronics)
• Karen Ng (alto saxophone)
• Cheldon Paterson (turntables)
• Nicole Rampersaud (trumpet)
• Nick Storring (cello, electronics)
• Brandon Valdivia (drums)
• Doug Van Nort (electronics)

Recording: Kyle Brenders

Artist: Kyle Brenders

Song: [first piece]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (Somewhere There Creative Music Festival – Show 2), February 27, 2016.

Kyle Brenders - [first piece]

With the nights dominated by a series of large ensembles, the festival's first afternoon took the opposite tack, presenting a half-dozen short sets of solo improvisation, as well as a panel discussion on the theory and practice of putting one's own music under the microscope. Kyle Brenders brought some of the afternoon's most dense music, with plenty of notes in this circular-breathing sax blast.

Recording: Eric Boeren 4tet + friends

Artist: Eric Boeren 4tet / Eric Boeren/Wilbert de Joode/Scott Thomson/Karen Ng / Michael Moore/Han Bennink/Kyle Brenders/Lina Allemano

Songs: [two improvisations with local musicians] + [unknown]^* + Little Symphony [Ornette Coleman, composer]

Recorded at Burdock Music Hall, June 24, 2015.

Boeren-de Joode-Thomson-Ng - [improvisation]

Moore-Bennink-Brenders-Allemano - [improvisation]

Eric Boeren 4tet - [second set, track 2]

Eric Boeren 4tet - Little Symphony

This night at the cozy new Burdock Music Hall was formally under the auspices of the local jazz festival, but of more interest was the fact that it was presented by Ron Gaskin/Rough Idea and Somewhere There. That shifted the night from just being a blast from a talented touring unit to a chance for the visiting musicians to interface with some of their local counterparts.

On their own, the quartet (with Eric Boeren on cornet, Michael Moore on alto saxophone, Wilbert de Joode on bass and Han Bennink on snare drum) were in fine form, playing a few longer suites alongside faster bursts that included several Ornette Coleman numbers. In between those were a series of quartets, each featuring a pair of locals musicians from a group including Scott Thomson, Karen Ng, Kyle Brenders and Lina Allemano. The visitors seemed rather keen on having a chance to play with the local side, so hopefully a bit of that enthusiasm will have transferred to the audience — Somewhere There puts on a lot of great gigs with musicians from the same pool who could definitely use some bigger crowds.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Jonathan Adjemian

Artist: Jonathan Adjemian

Song: Dry Reciprocity [excerpt]

Recorded at The Music Gallery ("Emergents III"), March 19, 2015.

Jonathan Adjemian - Dry Reciprocity [excerpt]

The opening half of this Christopher Willes-curated "Emergents" night once again saw the idea of traditional composition being pushed against with Geoff Mullen's site-specific work hovering over the borderlands between composition and sound art. Footsteps on the creaky floor and distorted, ghostly music one room away gave the audience an opportunity to confront sound in a different way within the sanctuary (although there was no break for snacks this time 'round).

In the night's second half, Jonathan Adjemian brought what might be his most formally rigourous work to date with "Dry Reciprocity", a forty-minute piece arranged for drones and human breath. The latter was provided by narration, singing voice and wind instruments by Bojana Stancic, Isla Craig, Heather Segger and Kyle Brenders. There was definite room for improvisation by the performers, but situated in a framework of dronepulse and narration for them to work within. With the performers gathered to face each other in a small circle in front of the audience, the piece felt like a pulse generator of some half-hidden message, hope being broadcast in the sinewaves' subcarrier frequency.

Recording: Haphazard Hinges Ensemble

Artist: Haphazard Hinges Ensemble

Song: Haphazard Hinges [excerpt] [composer: Kyle Brenders]

Recorded at Yonge-Dundas Square (INTERsection 2014), September 6, 2014.

Haphazard Hinges Ensemble - Haphazard Hinges [excerpt]

Read a few thoughts about the day as a whole here. A keen-eyed observer might have seen an unusual number of saxophone-toting figures streaming into the Square in the leadup to this set, when suddenly there were no fewer than eighteen of 'em on stage. Under the leadership of Kyle Brenders, they explored a variety of sounds such an agglomeration could generate, from undulating waves to warped velocity to extended clacks'n'blats. Far more than the sax-a-plenty novelty this could have been, this turned out to be the day's highlight.

Currente calamo: INTERsection 2014

INTERsection 2014 (Saturday, September 6, 2014)

I've got a buncha recordings from the day ready to go, but here's a few thoughts on the event that are common to them all.

I am absolutely delighted that INTERsection exists. For several years now, I've set aside a day to hang out at Yonge-Dundas Square (pretty much the only occasion you'd find me there) to soak in what is, when you think about it, a weird mix — New Music and experimental music being broadcast to the passers-by as they scurry through the vortex of tacky commercialism.

So I'm a fan, and I appreciate all the work that goes into making something like this happen. I've also been going long enough that I also feel a pining for what this event could be. One problem is that the event can never quite reconcile the two totally unrelated audiences it should be serving. For besides acting as a random disruption in the shopping district routine, given its timing and the forces it's gathering, it could also be a sort of public gala announcing the opening of the New Music season. (Usually relegated to the Labour Day long weekend, this year saw the festival moved ahead a week, which took the airshow overhead out of the mix but also meant that the event was a bit more lost in all of the concurrent TIFF-ery.)

It also feels a little bit thrown together at the last minute, perhaps this year moreso than usual, with a schedule (and out of town headliner) being announced in the days before the event, without giving much of an opportunity to raise interest and to get a crowd besides the random passers-by.

The off-stage "musicircus" programming was also scaled-down from the previous year, and felt a little threadbare. The central idea of it — creating a sonic mix-and-match that takes over the square — couldn't attain escape velocity with just one act at a time under a miniature tent. In fact, in doing so, it often left the acts feeling less vital than (and occasionally drowned out by) the hucksters and buskers across the street. Yonge-Dundas is never going to be the sort of sonically-pristine environment that most of this music is usually heard in, so it's better to go with the sort of over-the-top/overlapping spectacle we saw a year ago and really animate the square.

All that being said, there was a lot of worthy stuff up on the stage, with local DIY chamber ensembles Spectrum, Thin Edge and junctQín putting up strong work, and Kyle Brenders gathering no fewer than eighteen saxophones on stage to perform his "Haphazard Hinges", which turned out to be the day's highlight.

I'm glad this event happened, and given that the local New Music scene has this stage, I hope it's embraced and built upon in years to come.

Recording: The Kyle Brenders Large Ensemble

Artist: The Kyle Brenders Large Ensemble

Songs: Brussels + Clomp

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), June 29, 2014.

The Kyle Brenders Large Ensemble - Brussels

The Kyle Brenders Large Ensemble - Clomp

Full review to follow. Maybe I oughtta be more jaded about it by now, but it still really blows my mind that y'can wander in off the street and — in the most relaxed and casual environment imaginable — watch a superbly-talented group of musicians work on their craft. To give some more textures to his compositions, Kyle Brenders has drafted a formidable chamber ensemble, each of whom I'd be happy to go see play in their other projects. Alongside Brenders' reeds, the group included Ilana Waniuk (violin), Cory Latkovich (cello), Rob Clutton (double bass), Mark Segger (percussion), Heather Segger (trombone), and Nicole Rampersaud (trumpet). The first set essayed a series of shorter pieces (from which we draw a couple contrasting samples here), while the second was given over to a suite entitled "Group Dynamics".

Recording: The Kyle Brenders Quartet

Artist: The Kyle Brenders Quartet

Song: Noir

Recorded at The Tranzac - Main Hall (The Second Annual Somewhere There Creative Music Festival – Show 1), February 21, 2014.

The Kyle Brenders Quartet - Noir

Full review to follow. The reconfigured KBQ continues to build up its songbook with new material, combining serious compositional and musical chops with an off-kilter sense of humour.

Recording: Thin Edge New Music Collective

Artist: Thin Edge New Music Collective

Works: Stagger and Sway [excerpt] (composer: Kyle Brenders) / 4 Postcards [Movement 4] (composer: Allison Cameron)

Recorded at Gallery 345, October 25, 2013.

Thin Edge New Music Collective - Stagger and Sway [excerpt]

Thin Edge New Music Collective - 4 Postcards [Movement 4]

Full review to follow. Part of the nouvelle vague of the local New Music scene, Thin Edge was founded by Cheryl Duvall and Ilana Waniuk to give them an avenue to perform exciting new music and create a space for their peers' compositions to be heard. Entitled "6 Degrees of Separation", this season-launching show teased out connection between a variety of composers, with pieces here from Peter Hatch, Louis Andreissen and John Zorn.

Here we have a couple quick glimpses from the local composers, including a new piece from Kyle Brenders. True to its title, the opening, more percussive part had some of the staggering that often appears when you see Brenders playing, but this stretch shows that unwinding into a calmer swaying sensation. Meanwhile, I'm more used to encountering Allison Cameron's work as an improviser, where her "small amplified objects" tend to buzz and resonate in unexpected ways — making the elegant miniatures of her concise set of musical postcards (interspersed between the other pieces throughout the night) a delightful surprise. This final one even received some dramatic staging from the performers, with the musicians flanked by a pair of readers, who begun the piece by lighting candles and picking up their books to read — then marking its conclusion by blowing out their candles when they had finished their page.

Like most of the younger New Music groups, Thin Edge is fairly web-savvy, so I'm sure these field recordings will soon be supplanted by some more polished videos that will make their way to their site. Their next gig, entitled "Unusual Spectrum III", will be at the lovely Array Space on November 21 and promises "an eclectic evening of contemporary chamber music". Sounds well-suited for anyone who wants to engage with composed music in a casual, intimate and affordable setting.

Recording: Kyle Brenders Quartet

Artist: Kyle Brenders Quartet

Song: Sparrow

Recorded at Array Space, September 25, 2013.

Kyle Brenders Quartet - Sparrow

Full review to follow. Brenders' compositional style might be "quirky and mechanical" (as he jokingly referred to one of his pieces) but they're also bursting with ideas and vitality. This show saw the first performance of his "re-complied quartet", with Heather Segger (trombone) joining alongside Wes Neal (bass) and Mark Segger (drums).

Recording: Kyle Brenders Quartet

Artist: Kyle Brenders Quartet

Song: Excerpts from the K Suite: "Kicks" + "Kazoo"^*

Recorded at The Music Gallery, June 22, 2013.

Kyle Brenders Quartet - Excerpts from the K Suite: "Kicks" + "Kazoo"

Full review to follow. Kyle Brenders, accompanied by his "new and improved" quartet (Nick Fraser, Wes Neal, Peter Lutek), played a suite of ten linked pieces, each of which begins with the letter K. Some beautiful push + pull here, and the set included a nice mix of sax and clarinet (including some double clarinet passages).

^* Thank to Kyle for passing the title to these along.

Recording: The Rent

Artist: The Rent

Song: Prospectus (Steve Lacy cover)

Recorded at The Tranzac Club (Southern Cross Lounge), May 25, 2010.

The Rent - Prospectus

My notes for this set can be found here.