Ad-Hoc Ensemble
Solomiya checked out the most recent iteration of cross-Canada free improv troupe Ad-Hoc Ensemble at Montreal’s Le Chapelle.
Ad-Hoc Ensemble at La Chapelle with Jesse Zubot –violin (Vancouver), Christine Duncan-voice (Toronto), Dani Oore – saxophone and things (Halifax), Guillaume Bourque – clarinet (Montreal), Jean Martin – drums (Toronto) and Jean Felix Mailloux – bass (Montreal)
How does one retain one’s own musical identity and expression while improvising, for the first time in some cases, with musicians from different musical backgrounds, styles and cities? That’s a challenging combination when an ensemble is put together ‘ad-hoc’ as part of La Chapelle’s musiques Improvisees/Compositions Ouverte series.
The idea was initially conceived two years ago by La Chapelle’s Richard Simas (Montreal) and Music Gallery’s John Gzowski (Toronto). Last year, they decided to expand the Ensemble Ad-Hoc concept to include musicians from coast to coast. The trans-Canada concept adds a challenge - albeit not an unreasonable one - when all of the musicians are of high caliber and experience in the improvised music: Jesse Zubot is one of Canada’s most active violin improvisers, already recognized for his contribution by Juno Awards for his collaborative folk/jazz and roots projects, and having recently released a solo improvised album “Dementia”. He is also the creator of Drip Audio label in BC, a label dedicated to creative music. Jean Martin and Catherine Duncan are long time collaborators on such projects as Barnyard Drama and concerts at Victoriaville Festival, they are both based in Toronto. Guillaume Bourque and Jean-Felix Mailloux have their own ensembles and are active within Montreal’s jazz and improvised music scenes. Dani Oore is a very diverse artist experimenting and working in many different mediums - composition, sound design, saxophone, performance art and choreography!
Being part of such a diverse group of musicians presents a challenge to unite the various undercurrent influences, tastes, genres, and backgrounds. Hopefully music, especially improvised music is just such a medium where these challenges can be overcome. The members of the Ad-hoc Ensemble had a few days to work on their music in Montreal before the tour across Canada. On Saturday night the group presented 16 improvised pieces for the concert at La Chapelle. The pieces where thought out sparingly as I have heard from one of the musicians just giving a certain idea of the mood for each. In certain instances I’m sure the form and the initial rhythmical drive has been chosen and practiced. It is not to say that the music was pre-conceived, it was probably chosen as a general guideline that would keep the improvisations different and fresh to our ears.
The concert began with much intriguing low vocals of Catherine Duncan whose vocal range includes five octaves, bass clarinet and sound design music emerging as something not yet seen but heard due to subtle lighting effects. The musicians’ faces were gradually revealed showing their various instruments and many instruments of Dani Oore (saxophone, electronics, tubes, voice). The opening also featured Gillaume Bourque’s bass and B flat clarinets, which gradually took precedence as the solo wind instruments, soaring above the vocal line and melting into it in a jazz-inspired improvisation. The exciting part of the concert was the fact that there was a lot of rhythm and exchange of ideas in the improvisations and all of the musicians were able to collaborate on the unity of the music flow without compromising their individual voices. This I think is the hardest quality to achieve from mature improvising musicians and it was very interesting to witness “musique actuelle” at work on Saturday night.
Be it references to other languages or vocal traditions that the vocalist Catherine Duncan brought into play or the way Dani Oore was able to suggest an outside vocal or instrumental gesture their ideas worked well together. Jesse Zubot’s way of bringing a feeling of intimacy in his improvisations even though he might be playing with musical instruments of much louder volume is very interesting. He preserves his proper musical voice be it with scratchy violin bow techniques, circular bowing, arco grain etc…showing that he truly has a talent of making the violin express any part of his imagination. In the second half though, he did amplify his violin to add to the loudness and madness of the final improvisation. The rhythm and bass section of the group was well matched for both Jean Martin and Jean-Felix Mailloux who seemed to enjoy the ‘funky’ jazzy side of things. They were well attuned with each other’s presence in the improvisations and complemented each other rhythmically.
Ad Hoc Ensemble
