Michel Héroux - Conversation
on Effendi Records
Press Release by: Michel Héroux
Michel Héroux - CONVERSATION
Guitarist, composer, leader, Michel Héroux is a well-rounded musician with catholic tastes and a clear sense of direction. With advanced training and experience in both classical and jazz performance, Héroux has played pop to avant-garde and most genres in between. As both player and composer, his interest in such jazz figures as John Scofield, Dave Liebman, Michael Brecker, Kenny Wheeler and David Binney does not diminish his love for the work of the more accessible Bill Evans, Ed Bickert and Jim Hall.
On this recording of ten of his own compositions, Michel Héroux has assembled a group of outstanding players: Héroux and trumpeter Aron Doyle are well-established and active on the Montreal scene. The younger musicians, bassist Zack Lober and his boyhood friends and frequent collaborators, the brothers Doxas — drummer Jim and saxophonist Chet — are conspicuous rising stars with growing reputations. Héroux has successfully melded their talents and achieved a logical and seamless marriage of the traditional and the modern by consistently engaging both his colleagues and his audience without compromising his own well-considered musical values. A brief look at two of the selections will imply some aspects of the rest.
“4 + 3” is something of a contemporary riff tune based on an introductory vamp followed by the repeated statement of a short ascending phrase. Héroux arrived at the title after completing the composition and realizing that, “the number 7 was ‘frequent’: the head is made of fourths and thirds; you have a bar of 4 and a bar of 3 at the beginning, and the blowing section is a chord progression of seven bars.” The performance also features shifting tempos and meters — but not to worry! Like all of the music on this CD, the performance is filled with good humour and the sheer pleasure of invention. Notice how smoothly bass and drums bring Chet Doxas’ solo section down to a very slow walk — and even a pause — before shifting easily up and down through the gears, until at last cruising along at tempo under Héroux’s solo statement. Tenor and trumpet join in a background riff before the whole thing is wrapped up neatly and tied with a bow.
The meaning and intention of “Conversation,” the session’s title tune, are also indicative of Héroux’s larger vision and methods: The head is based on a Michael Brecker “lick” over the familiar harmonic and linear structure of “I Got Rhythm.” Bassist Zack Lober opens with a free and richly sonorous rubato improvisation before playing through the strict song form, accompanied and punctuated by Jim Doxas on brushes. After Lober’s full chorus, the whole band enters with a statement of the theme. Aron Doyle begins his solo with an unlikely quotation from the 1930s favourite “Donkey Serenade” and then proceeds to play with the very concept of “rhythm,” using his trumpet here, as elsewhere on the recording, in a highly percussive as well as melodic role. Chet Doxas is also fond of playing with melodic rhythm, often while jokingly throwing out sly snatches of quotes like a latter-day Dexter Gordon.
A learned professor once advised that the best way to appreciate a jazz performance on record was to concentrate on one instrument at a time and follow it through the whole performance before moving on to each of the other voices in turn. The method is particularly rewarding when applied to this recording, which for me gets better with each listening. It is indeed a civilized conversation between talented artists who express their individuality while
participating in the contributions of the others. A special mention must be made of the superb drumming of Jim Doxas; always present, underlining, commenting, facilitating but never intruding. All drummers should be as tastefully musical.
Michel Héroux is not only a talented musician and composer; he is also a thoughtful and articulate commentator: “With this project I tried to have a good balance between tradition and modernity. I tried to put together tunes that have one or more of the elements of jazz that I find essential or that I enjoy personally when I listen to jazz — clear harmonic direction, swing, interaction, melodic heads, different moods. I didn’t want an album of ‘cocktail jazz’ but also not one that is too ‘intellectual’ either. It’s a hard balance to find sometimes. I hope we achieved it.”
Balance found. Mission beautifully accomplished.
Doug Rollins
For more information: http://www.myspace.com/michelhroux
Photo by: © Effendi Records
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