Recording: Brouwer/Dwyer/Ng

Artist: Ryan Brouwer/Ben Dwyer/Karen Ng

Songs: [excerpt from first piece] + [excerpt from third piece] (feat. Anh Phung)

Recorded at Wenona Lodge (Music Hosted by Karen Ng), November 19, 2019.

Ryan Brouwer/Ben Dwyer/Karen Ng/Anh Phung - [excerpt from third piece]

Ryan Brouwer/Ben Dwyer/Karen Ng - [excerpt from first piece]

Emerging from bassist Ben Dwyer's quiet flutters, the meditatively-dreamy intensity that this set launched itself with seemed to take the musicians by surprise, though Ryan Brouwer (on flugelhorn) and Karen Ng (on alto sax) drilled into the zone for a spell before letting things swell up. For the final piece in the set, they called up Anh Phung, whose flute added some nice little curls of sound to close things out.

Recording: The Revival Ensemble

Artist: The Revival Ensemble

Songs: Amad + Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues) [composers: Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Main Hall (TONE Festival), June 17, 2018.

The Revival Ensemble - Amad

The Revival Ensemble - Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues)

One of TONE Festival's more ambitious undertakings, this event saw reedist Ted Crosby wrangling a stage full of local improvisers (and incorporating the members of openers Sick Boss Löve) to form a thirteen-member orchestra interpreting (and bursting outward from) Duke Ellington's The Far East Suite. Organized into three "days", these mini-suites stretched out the original themes, deepened the grooves and gave plenty of chances for individual members to shine with solos.

As far as I could tell, the ensemble was:

• Ted Crosby - reeds
• Lisen Rylander Löve - reeds
• Karen Ng - reeds
• Alan Mackie - violin
• Lina Allemano - trumpet
• Rebecca Hennessy - trumpet
• Ryan Brouwer - trumpet
• Michael Davidson - vibraphone
• Scott Thomson - trombone
• Harley Card - guitar
• Cole Schmidt - guitar
• James Meger - bass
• Dan Gaucher - drums

Recording: GREX

Artist: GREX with Martha Farquhar-McDonnell + friends

Songs: Johnny's Gone to Hilo [traditional] + Holy Manna [composer: William Moore]

Recorded at Church of St. Andrew by-the-lake, June 5, 2016.

GREX with Martha Farquhar-McDonnell - Johnny's Gone to Hilo

GREX and friends - Holy Manna

Martha Farquhar-McDonnell's My Singing Bird has been issued by High Park Records, a new endeavour from Alex Samaras to spotlight recordings of unaccompanied vocal music. So on celebrating the album's release in the same Island church where it was recorded it was no surprise to see Samaras opening things up with his vocal ensemble GREX.

Performing as a trio, Samaras, Ghislain Aucoin and Ryan Brouwer tackled a couple church-appropriate numbers (including the glorious "Kviria") but the set was also structured to include not only Martha Farquhar-McDonnell (as heard on the sea-shanty "Johnny's Gone to Hilo", recorded by The McGarrigles as well as many others) but also her mother and sister and frequent singing partners Isla Craig and Robin Dann on an old shape-note number. Beautiful stuff and a totally joyful set.

Recording: Ryan Brouwer's Improv Wind Ensemble

Artist: Ryan Brouwer's Improv Wind Ensemble

Song: [excerpt]

Recorded at Array Space ("Somewhere There's Second Sunday Series"), September 14, 2014.

Ryan Brouwer's Improv Wind Ensemble - [excerpt]

Full review to follow. Ten deep, this improvised big band was under the guidance of conductor Christine Duncan, who was using a stripped-down version of the hand signals she employs with Element Choir. Performance-wise, the frenetic parts were the most entertaining to watch in real-time, with Duncan weaving the players into several cacophonous crescendos. But listening back, it was the quieter parts that resonate most, with subtle textures playing off against each other.