We all grew up improvising in that rhythm”. June 8th said “That to us is like the blues to you. His name was June 8th he was born on June 8th so that was his name. The rhythm fascinated me so much there was one Turkish musician, I remember his name. We were doing odd things.īlue Rondo A La Turk was a street rhythm that I heard street musicians playing in Istanbul. Eugene Wright would think “How I am going to hold this together”.Īs a leader you gotta be part psychiatrist and get your ideas over in a rather delicate way. Paul was always sceptical of any new move he didn’t get excited about doing things in different time signatures. When I brought up the idea with my quartet of doing this experimental album, Joe Morello was so pleased that he would be able to do more compound times playing in different time signatures. That was kind of the start of the way I thought about rhythm. I could hear how to put a different beat against that. ![]() If you’re alone and just riding miles and miles with just nothing but you and your horse and the horse going along at a steady gait, I would start thinking of rhythms that I could hear from the horse’s hooves. Well, I wanted to do an experimental album using time signatures that weren’t usual in Jazz. ![]() This interview was subsequently included in the Columbia Legacy 50th Anniversary edition of Time out released in 2009. The most definitive version Dave gave was in an interview to Columbia Records at his home in Wilton on September 12, 2003. If there is to be a Volume 3 in this superlative series, it would behoove fans of bright and timeless music to place their names on the waiting list now.The origins of Time Out & Take Five - Dave Brubeckĭave gave thousands of interviews over his long career and invariably since 1959 he was asked about one the biggest selling jazz albums of all time, Time Out and also the first jazz single to sell a million copies, Take Five. Much more could be said about the musicPhil Nimmons was (and is) a master of melody, harmony, rhythm and colorbut it may be sufficient to note that every number bears his unequivocal stamp of brilliance, and that those who were chosen to perform them are among the most perceptive and talented jazz musicians that Canada has to offer. As noted, when it comes to Canadian jazz, the cream of the crop. "Carey Dance," with its Irish overtones, is a tour de force for the ensemble, as are most other numbers, and especially the ebullient "Transformations," which at times calls to mind the Dave Brubeck classic, "Take Five." The octet consists of Sean Nimmons saxophonists Tara Davidson, Mike Murley and Alex Dean trumpeter Kevin Turcotte, trombonist William Carn, bassist Jon Maharaj and drummer Ethan Ardelli. The octet is securely in step, as it is on every number regardless of mood or tempo, while the soloists (each member of the group has one or more chances to shine) are beyond reproach. "Generational" is light and airy, "Bella Shores" even more so, as the younger Nimmons leans heavily on charm and tenderness to press his point. That primacy begins with the buoyant opener, "Arf," and continues apace, as the octet revisits enchanting selections from the JUNO Award-winning Atlantic Suite (Acta Records, 1976) ("Islands," "Transformations") and three more treasures ("Under a Tree," "Carey Dance" and the dreamy closer, "Night Night Smiley," the last featuring a handsome vocal by Heather Bambrick). And given their pedigrees, its members should have no concern about reaching the same level of excellence as the first two. Generational, the second in a series of warm tributes to Nimmons' legacy and music, is superbly performed, as was the first one, To the Nth (Self Produced, 2020), by a world-class octet whose pianist and arrangernone other than the elder Nimmons' talented grandson, Sean Nimmonsalso wrote a pair of the album's eight charming numbers, "Generational" and "Bella Shores." As Phil Nimmons composed more than four hundred songs for his various ensembles, from big band to quartet, and others for film, radio, TV, theatre and special events, the group should have no trouble finding enough fresh material to piece together as many testimonials as it wishes. ![]() He retired from teaching at the University of Toronto (whose Jazz Studies program is one of several he founded) in 2019, at age ninety-six. ![]() Suffice to say that Nimmons has been active as a composer, arranger, performer and educator longer than most Canadians have been alive. Nimmons, who surpassed the century mark in June 2023, is often referred to as the "Dean of Canadian Jazz," and listing his many accomplishments and awards would require far more space than is ordinarily set aside for a complete review. If you live in Canada and are not familiar with the name Phil Nimmons, you probably have not been paying close enough attention.
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