Jeff's Jazz Festival - Day 4

Photo courtesy of Fred Jala

I'm not sure if it's the result of 13 years of listening to Frank Zappa or if it would have developed anyway, but one of my hobbies is identifying sources of conceptual continuity in my daily life. It's pretty dorky really, but it keeps me amused and that's the important thing at this point. So imagine how much fun I had when last night's activities provided a few conceptual continuity clues that tied the first three nights together quite nicely. I'll note the clues as they come up so you can connect the dots yourself, because I know that you care so much.

The first stop was the Van East Cultural Centre, where OrchestRova was slated to be performing their interpretation of John Coltrane's "Ascension" (clue #1). OrchestRova is a 12-piece ensemble that was put together by the acclaimed Rova Saxophone Quartet who enlisted the help of the Nels Cline Singers (clue #2), Jesse Zubot and Ronit Kirchman on violins, Wayne Horvitz on electronics, Peggy Lee on cello, and soundman Myles Boisen. I'm not sure if you've heard Ascension before, but I hadn't so it was all new to me. What we got was a 45-minute wall of sound that distinctly reminded me of the Melvins cover of the Velvet Underground's "Venus in Furs". And this was improvised noise exactly as I like it... an assaultive tidal wave with a solid rhythmic foundation to hold everything together. Devin Hoff and Scott Amendola , bass and drums for the Nels Cline Singers, were on hand to keep the chaos rooted in with locked down and aggressive, driving grooves.

The Jazz Fest schedule being what it is, we cut and ran as soon as Electric Ascension was over and headed over to the Commodore to catch a bit of Baaba Maal before The Thing (clue #3) got the late show started down at The Ironworks. I later learned that we missed out on OrchestRova's amazing encore, but such is the cruel nature of such a packed roster. It was a good trade-off though, because we managed to see about half an hour of Baaba Maal's performance. I'd heard very little of his music before, but Baaba Maal is one of Africa's hottest musical exports and now I know why. Politically aware lyrics... dense and layered African drumming... an uplifting overall vibe... a high-energy stage show... perfect. On any normal night I would have been transfixed for the whole evening, but The Thing was going to be hitting the stage at the Ironworks any minute so we had to go. I pretty much walked out sideways/backwards so that I could catch every last second.

We walked into The Ironworks just as The Thing were getting started and the place was already steaming. I really needed a Granville Island Honey Lager, because sometimes I love them and it was one of those nights, but The Thing were relentless and I couldn't quite bring myself to leave the room to go to the bar. Two songs in I got a window during some stage banter from Mats Gustafsson and was able to run to the bar and back without missing more than a minute. If you read my friday night report, you have a bit of an idea of what was going on in there. Well Mats Gustafsson, Paal Nilssen-Love, and Ingebrigt Haker Flaten were up to their regular tricks and I loved every second of it. I'd say that I liked them even more than I did at the Cultch. Two sets of divine chaos later and it was getting into the wee hours. Time for bed.

I guess that was only three conceptual continuity clues, huh? It seemed like more at the time. Oh well, there's no time to worry about that because Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are up soon.