The Squid's Ear Magazine


West, Brodie Quintet: Meadow of Dreams [VINYL] (Astral Spirits)

The third release from the Toronto-based Brodie West Quintet of Evan Cartwright on drums, vibraphone & guitar, Josh Cole on bass, Nick Fraser on drums, Tania Gill on piano and Brodie West on alto saxophone, performing Brodie's uniquely inclusive and sometimes atypically metered compositions, leading to fascinating solo and group interplay from reflection to fire.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Evan Cartwright-drums, vibraphone, guitar

Josh Cole-bass

Nick Fraser-drums

Tania Gill-piano

Brodie West-alto saxophone


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Label: Astral Spirits
Catalog ID: AS191/ANS003
Squidco Product Code: 31986

Format: LP
Condition: New
Released: 2022
Country: USA
Packaging: LP
Recorded at Canterbury Music Company, in Toronto, Canada, on February 29th, March 1st, and March 2nd, 2020, by Jeremy Darby and Julian Decorte.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Saxophonist and composer Brodie West has a history of working with a Dutch school of wide-ranging improvisors who stretched between Free Jazz, so-named 'Anarcho-punk' and encompassing African dance en route. What's left of this is heard as unexpected collocations of resonances and rhythms in his new album, Meadow of Dreams. Much of this current music is elegiac; it's of equable disposition and is very subtle, showing a certain, considered incoherence which mesmerizes the listener.

Passages of hushed reflection are generated by the bass and piano, but they also work at rekindling the inner fires of the music. The drummers meanwhile manipulate the seemingly inanimate channels to arouse the life within. Evan Cartwright is particularly exuberant in his jubilations on both guitar and vibes, bringing complete, profound and reverberating consistency to the conformations.

Brodie West has frequently played improvised gigs and with a wide range of creative musicians, also working as composer. He has worked in varying, investigative fields, including exploratory jaunts into melody and new grounds in rhythm. His groups have often included two or three percussionists.

West's compositions are very loosely structured, leaving lots of room for musicians to add their own elements, to come along and enjoy the framework and feel free to develop it in their own way. This is true of the present album and you can hear it in the four players behind him. His overt, melodic dream is crystal clear in the exquisitely poignant song that is the title-piece of this album: Meadow of Dreams. It is discordant and mournfully yearning, hauntingly beautiful."-Ken Cheetham, Jazz Views


Get additional information at Jazz Views

Artist Biographies

Evan Cartwright is a Canadian drummer. He is known for the groups Cola, Eucalyptus, Tasseomancy and The Brodie West Quintet.

-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/4550134-Evan-Cartwright)
7/1/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Josh Cole is a Canadian bassist, composer and producer. He is known for the groups Ken Aldcroft's Threads (Quintet), The Brodie West Quintet and The October Trio.

-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/2765445-Josh-Cole-3)
7/1/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Nick Fraser has been an active and engaging presence in the Toronto new jazz and improvised music community since he moved there from Ottawa in 1995. He has worked with a veritable "who's who" of Canadian jazz and improvised music including Justin Haynes, Mike Murley, Rich Underhill, P.J. Perry, Phil Dwyer, Michael Snow, John Oswald, Andrew Downing, Jean Martin, Christine Duncan, Lina Allemano, Quinsin Nachoff, Dave Restivo, Jim Vivian, David Braid, Ryan Driver, David Occhipinti, William Carn, Nancy Walker, Kieran Overs, Kelly Jefferson, John Geggie, Scott Thomson, Marilyn Lerner, David Mott, Lori Freedman, Jean Derome, Ron Samworth and Kirk MacDonald.

In addition, he has had the opportunity to perform and/or record with such international artists as Tony Malaby, Michael Moore, Bobby Shew, Donny McCaslin, Marilyn Crispell, Anthony Braxton, Joe McPhee, William Parker, Jean-Luc Ponty, Bela Fleck, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Wynton Marsalis, David Binney, Steve Turre, Matt Welch, Bill Carrothers and Bill Mays. Nick's recorded works as a leader include Owls in Daylight (1997), Nick Fraser and Justin Haynes are faking it (2004) and Towns and Villages (2013).

For 10 years, he co-led the co-operative group Drumheller with Brodie West, Rob Clutton, Eric Chenaux and Doug Tielli, who released four critically acclaimed CDs between 2005 and 2013. Other projects that occupy Nick regularly are Ugly Beauties (with Marilyn Lerner and Matt Brubeck), Peripheral Vision, the Lina Allemano Four and Titanium Riot.

Nick is a founding member of The Association of Improvising Musicians of Toronto, a non-profit organization dedicated to the Toronto improvising community."

-Nick Fraser Website (http://nickfraserthedrummer.com/bio.html)
7/1/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Toronto-based pianist and composer Tania Gill has spent over twenty years cultivating a singular but polymorphous musical approach. She has developed a distinctive improvisational language in jazz and improvised music, and has played in ensembles such as the Brodie West Quintet, Rebecca Hennessy's FOG, See Through Trio, and the Titillators. She has also performed and recorded alongside Anthony Braxton, Kenny Wheeler, Joe Morris, Jean Derome, and Nick Fraser. Her own group, the Tania Gill Quartet, comprises leading Canadian musicians Lina Allemano (trumpet), Rob Clutton (bass), and Nico Dann (drums). Their acclaimed disc Bolger Station (2010, Barnyard Records), was nominated for best debut album in the Village Voice jazz critics' poll and was included among the Globe and Mail's top ten albums of the year. The follow-up, Disappearing Curiosities, launches in March 2022.

Gill's unconventional versatility keeps her engaged in an eclectic array of styles. She was a member of Deep Dark United and the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, and is a regular collaborator to vocalist Fides Krucker, and singer-songwriter Kyp Harness. She has also shared the stage with Steve Reich, Chris Whitely, Man Forever, Gord Downie, Mary Margaret O'Hara, the Weather Station, Hector del Curto, Margaret Atwood, and Charles Spearin's Happiness Project.

She is also supportive and dedicated educator and currently teaches at Humber College and University of Toronto, in addition to her roster of private students."

-Tania Gill Website (https://www.taniagill.ca/biography/)
7/1/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Alto saxophonist Brodie West's fascination in sound has taken him from Alexandra Park to Addis Ababa. As a bandleader and collaborator he is a key member of Toronto's vibrant creative music scene. Leader of avant-calypso unit Eucalyptus as well as his eponymous quintet, West also regularly performs with the The Ryan Driver Sextet, the Lina Allemano 4, a duo called Ways and an ongoing collaboration with Andrew Zukerman/Fleshtone Aura. Brodie's music has been released by some of Toronto's most celebrated labels, including Healing Power, Pleasence, Blocks Recording Club and Rat-Drifting, while his European connections have put him in the company of legendary art-punks The Ex as well as the late Getatchew Mekuria, the revered veteran of the Ethiopian saxophone.

Originally hailing from Nanaimo, British Columbia, jazz studies at Humber College brought Brodie to Toronto. Emerging as a member of Zebradonk, Deep Dark United and Drumheller, he was soon in demand as a featured guest, adding his spirit to recordings ranging from Broken Social Scene's seminal You Forgot It in People to more recent appearances with Jennifer Castle, Snowblink and Tasseomancy. Studies at the Amsterdam Music Conservatory with Misha Mengelberg lead to musical encounters with percussionist Han Bennink as well as The Ex, culminating in two tours to Ethiopia and the group's collaborative recordings with Getatchew Mekuria.

West's current artistic practice sees him inspired by the radiant joy of being a father as well as frequent improvised gigs with a wide range of musicians. As a composer working with some of Toronto's leading creative musicians (including Nicole Rampersaud, Ryan Driver, Mike Smith, Nick Fraser, Tania Gill and Evan Cartwright) he is always leading new melodic excursions while his ensembles, often featuring two or even three percussionists, are also exploring fresh rhythmic terrain."-Joe Strutt, Mechanical Forest Sound

-Brodie West Website (https://www.brodiewest.com/about)
7/1/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



SIDE A



1. Entrainment 5:02

2. Fortress 5:43

3. Inhabit I 4:05

4. Grotto 3:35

5. Inhabit II 1:50

SIDE B



1. Inhabit III 4:45

2. haunt 6:07 3. Meadow Of Dreams 5:55

Related Categories of Interest:


Vinyl Recordings
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Canadian Composition & Improvisation
Quintet Recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
New in Improvised Music
Jazz & Improvisation Based on Compositions

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Astral Spirits.


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