Improvised music in the heart of the Glebe
By Bradley Evans
The Improvising Musicians of Ottawa & Outwards (IMOO) will be presenting their seventh fall festival at Glebe-St. James United Church on October 13 and 14. Founded in 2010, IMOO has presented more than 200 concerts and six weekend festivals focused on improvised and experimental music in all its many forms: from jazz to electronic, rock, noise, spoken word and beyond.
This year’s festival will present more than 30 Canadian and international musicians over the two evenings, with four bands performing each night. Along with the usual complement of saxophone, trumpet and piano players you would typically expect to find at a jazz festival, we will also present an array of more esoteric instruments including accordion, marimba, synthesizers and the rarely heard hurdy-gurdy.
Friday night opens with Amber, the Montreal duo of Lori Freedman, long recognized as one of Canada’s premier voices on her instrument in both improvised and contemporary music circles, on clarinet and Scott Thomson, executive director of the Guelph Jazz Festival, on trombone. Following them will be Brûlez Les Meubles, teaming Quebec bassist Eric Normand and guitarist Louis Beaudoin-de la Sablonnière with renowned saxophonist Jean Derome and drummer John Hollenbeck. The evening continues with the German/Swiss piano-trumpet-accordion trio DDK and concludes with a rare Ottawa appearance of the Toronto-based Canadian Electronic Ensemble, the world’s oldest, continually operating, electronic music ensemble.
On Saturday afternoon, acclaimed Ottawa percussionist Jesse Stewart will host a ludophone workshop which is free and open to all, with or without a ticket for the evening performances.
The Saturday night program begins with another Montreal duo, featuring saxophonist Yves Charuest and bassist Nicolas Caloia. Following them will be the New York-based trio of Payton MacDonald on marimba, Canadian-American saxophonist Erin Rogers and percussionist Nava Dunkelman. The evening continues with Eyevin Nonet, Montreal drummer Ivan Bamford’s nine-member tribute to the late jazz saxophonist Thomas Chapin. The final performance will be Toronto saxophonist and composer John Oswald presenting a true Canadian all-star ensemble featuring Stewart (percussion), Lina Allemano (trumpet), Eve Egoyan (piano) and Ben Grossman (hurdy-gurdy) – all of them have extensive resumes in both improvised and composed music settings.
IMOO is operated entirely by volunteers and sponsored by private donors with no government funding. We are committed to presenting artists who often fall outside the margins of larger corporate-branded festivals and offer lower ticket prices than other comparable events in the city – just $30 per night or $50 for both nights. Tickets and further information are available online at www.improvisedmoo.com. We hope you will come out for what promises to be an extraordinary weekend of music in the heart of the Glebe.
Bradley Evans is the organizer of the Improvising Musicians of Ottawa & Outwards festival.
