The Squid's Ear Magazine


Gill, Tania: Bolger Station (Barnyard)

Pianist Tania Gill with Lina Allemano on trumpet, Clinton Ryder on bass and Jean Martin on drums, music informed by American song forms, Bartok, free improvisation and the northern Ontario landscape.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Tania Gill - piano, organ, voice

Lina Allemano-trumpet

Clinton Ryder-bass

Jean Martin-drums


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UPC: 777320158529

Label: Barnyard
Catalog ID: BR0316
Squidco Product Code: 13798

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2011
Country: Canada
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded November 16th and 17th, 2009 by Jean Martin at Canterbury Music Company

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Bolger Station is Tania Gill's first solo recording and Barnyard release. Pianist Tania Gill presents her compositions with Lina Allemano / trumpet, Clinton Ryder / bass and Jean Martin / drums. The quartet's eclectic approach to improvising is playful, contemplative, combustible, sophisticated and serene. The music is informed by American song forms, Bartok, free improvisation and the northern Ontario landscape."-Barnyard Records



"According to VIA Rail, its Bolger Station in Quebec is a request-only stop in the woods, with no access by car. But maybe you can get there by listening to this CD.

Toronto pianist Tania Gill's first solo disc begins in a quiet, ambient space that feels wide-open and watchful, flecked with single notes from Clinton Ryder's bass and Jean Martin's percussion. Then a major triad forms under Gill's hands, and rolls into a simple strophic tune that feels old and new at once. It's the title track, and the overture for a whimsical album-length tour of one woman's forest trek through jazz, pop and other kinds of melodic music.

Melodic is the key word. The piano is great for presenting a compact view of music's vertical dimension - its chordal structures and harmonic shifts - but Gill's mind also runs strongly along the horizontal. Her solo playing can sound like instrumentalized voices, each line having its own co-dependent life, as in Bach or Hindemith. In a tune like Peter Johnston's On My Sleeve, the harmony forms a vapour trail from melodic notes left to hang in the air behind the moving parts. The tonal centre feels elusive, till the sly affirmation of the final moments. On this album, the path that takes you home through unfamiliar woods is always the most fun.

In other numbers, it's the rhythm that makes itself unfamiliar. Magpie begins with an appealingly angular, bebopish tune, as laconic as anything by Thelonious Monk, then lopes into a free-wheeling movement that's full of energy but slips the beat around like the pea in a shell-game. Paso springs from a jumpy, regular bass-line into a gliding fairground waltz that comes and goes like a memory of familiar places, returning most strongly whenever the music's centifugal force threatens to burst the thing into aphorisms.

Waltz-time returns in Bicycle, again acting almost as the ground for a palimpsest that at times obscures it entirely. The lilting tune of Wilf Carter's Maple Leaf Waltz emerges rather abruptly from a spatter of obscurely connected single notes that persists beyond Gill's vocal performance. "The music may stop for a while," she sings, and pauses, as the instrumental chatter continues; and then she jumps back into the verse, like someone who has fallen out of a dance whose steps require a rummaging of personal history to remember.

The fracturing of an existing melody is only the most obvious way in which this disc reminds us that you don't need many notes to be melodic. How many? Maybe not more than one, if you play it in the right place, with the right tone and feeling. Fortunately for Gill, her colleagues are also masters of that kind of melody. Trumpeter Lina Allemano is especially good at the melodification of thought and sound. Her finely textured improvisations are always intent but casual, as if she were merely picking out notes and phrases that have always been there, waiting to be made audible. Her complexities feel natural and almost self-evident.

That's true of the record as a whole. In the end, Bolger Station makes itself a destination for many travellers, journeying alone or in groups, who may at different moments find it a very familiar place, or the portal to a wilderness where no cars go."-Robert Everett-Green, Globe And Mail


Artist Biographies

"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/)
3/13/2024

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

"Lina Allemano is a Canadian trumpeter, improviser, and composer based in Toronto ON since 1993, originally hailing from Edmonton AB. She has an active international career, performing and recording cutting-edge contemporary music primarily in free-jazz/improvised/experimental/avant-garde settings, but also working in a wide array of other genres. For the past several years, Lina has been splitting her time between Toronto and Berlin, with one foot in Berlin's flourishing and uncompromising art-music scene and the other foot in Toronto's vibrant but somewhat under-the-radar experimental-music scene. Lina was featured as one of the top innovative trumpeters for the future in DownBeat Magazine, and her trumpet playing, compositions, and artistic vision have gained her international recognition as being "adventurous, expressive, compelling, forward thinking, inventive, and sophisticated".

As well as leading her longtime acoustic free-jazz band, LINA ALLEMANO FOUR, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2015, she also fronts the electric improvising group, TITANIUM RIOT. She has been touring extensively with both bands all across Europe, USA, and Canada for many years. (See below for more info on these groups). Lina is also busy collaborating with a very long and ever-expanding list of exciting international improvisers, and is a member of many other active creative groups as a side-person. As a composer, she has been commissioned to compose works for such ensembles as Vancouver's NOW Orchestra. Lina has released 8 of her own internationally-acclaimed albums on her Lumo Records label - 6 with LINA ALLEMANO FOUR featuring her original compositions: Sometimes Y (2017), Live at the Tranzac (2012), Jargon (2010), Gridjam (2008), Pinkeye (2006), and Concentric (2003) - and 2 with TITANIUM RIOT: Squish It! (2017), Kiss the Brain (2014). Her trumpet playing can also be heard on over 40 other albums as well as countless film and television soundtracks.

Lina has received support from Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council. Lina is a Yamaha Artist."

-Lina Allemano Website (http://www.linaallemano.com/profiles-page.html)
3/13/2024

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

"Musician, producer, Jean Martin was nominated for best drummer for the 2004 National Jazz Awards and is the recipient of the 2004 Freddy Stone Award. This award from the Minden foundation is for outstanding leadership, integrity and excellence in the area of contemporary music and Jazz

His group Barnyard Drama is an improvising duo featuring vocalist Christine Duncan. They toured Canadian festivals, summer 2004, promoting a CD intitled Memories and a list of things to do. The new cd I'm a Navvy was launched at the prestigious FIMAV and features guitarists Justin Haynes and Bernard Falaise.

Other recent releases are with trio Idiolalla with singers DB Boyko and Christine Duncan and the Vancouver based group Laconnor, this electronic, musique actuel group features Francois Houle on clarinet and lap top, Jesse Zubot on violin and lap top and Jean on drums and electronics. Laconnor toured Canadian Jazz festival 2006.

Jean has appeared and collaborated with: Eugene Chadbourne, Joe Fonda, Jesse Zubot, Juno nominated DD Jackson, David Murray, Don Byron, Dominic Duval, Mark Dresser, Wilbert de Joode, John Oswald, Francois Houle, Jean Derome, Frank Gratowski, Chelsea Bridge, Kevin Turcotte, Peggy Lee, Tony Wilson, Brad Turner, Lori Freedman, Tom Walsh, Pierre Tanguay, Marilyn Lerner, The National Arts Centre Orchestra, legendary Canadian blues man Dutch Mason, Andy Stochansky, Zubot & Dawson, Bob Fenton, Roddy Ellias, Tim Postgate's Jazzstory, Christine Duncan, Hugh Fraser, George Kohler, Bob Murphy, David Mott, The Bitches Brew Band, Rob Frayne, The Jivewires, Micheal Occhipinti, Rich Underhill, Justin Haynes, Hugh Marsh, The Henry's and many others.

He has appeared on a one hour TFO and BRAVO TV jazz special entitled, "DUOS" performing improvisations with Award winning trumpeter Kevin Turcotte. Jean participated in a new project put together by Ajay Heble and the Guelph Jazz festival. A Jazz Opera with the music of DD Jackson, featuring Peggy Lee, Brad Turner, John Geggie and Dean Boman among others. This piece was performed for the 10th annual Jazz festival in Guelph and in Vancouver in September 2003.

With the Jean Martin Trio: he has recorded 2 CD's and has toured Canada on three occasions, performing at most Jazz festivals in this country. The latest recording a completely improvised work was released with a tour in November 2003. The trio features guitarist Justin Haynes and national jazz awards winner, trumpeter Kevin Turcotte.

With Chelsea Bridge: He has released 5 CD's on Unity Page Records, has done 4 Canadian tours from '92 to '97, was featured at the Blue Note in NYC , the Molda International Jazz Festival in Norway and the Washington DC Jazz Fest (Canadian Jazz Ambassador Series).

With Juno winner DD Jackson: He has released 2 CD's on Justin Time Records, has toured France (including: Maubeuge & Rouen International Jazz Festivals, Feb. '97), 2 Canadian tours in '94 & '95 and was featured at various venues in Northern USA (Montana, Seattle, Buffalo and various clubs in NYC) including a CD release gig at the Fez Jazz Club in NYC, with legendary saxophonist David Murray."

-Barnyard Records (http://www.barnyardrecords.com/bio%20jean%20martin.html)
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Bolger Station 3:47

2. Magpie 3:05

3. By Ear 6:09

4. Paso 4:58

5. On My Sleeve 2:13

6. Maple Leaf Waltz 1:57

7. Bicycle 3:58

8. Prelude to Ah Ti Tah 2:00

9. Ah Ti Tah 3:24

10. Gaggle 0:44

11. Up Down 3:15

12. Lakeshore 4:53

13. It Never Entered My Mind 4:35

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Toronto Area Improvisation
Quartet Recordings
Canadian Composition & Improvisation

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Barnyard.


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