Solon McDade: Murals
Solon McDade Music

The quintessence of jazz is captured on this sterling set by bassist-composer Solon McDade. Helping him bring its nine originals to vivid life are his tenor sax-wielding brother Jeremiah, alto saxist Donny Kennedy, pianist Paul Shrofel, and drummer Rich Irwin, all of who bring impressive performance credits to the project. Though it's the Montreal-based bassist's debut release, it's hardly the first group endeavour with which he's been involved. Recordings featuring him have been nominated for five Juno Awards, and his group, The McDades, won a 2007 Juno Award and two Canadian Folk Music Awards for their album Bloom.

Solon's musical education began early: growing up in a musical family, he started on washtub bass before graduating to upright, after which he played with his siblings and parents in the McDade Family Band, which presented its particular brand of Canadian folk music at locales during the ‘80s and ‘90s. The bassist, who's played with everyone from blues and bluegrass figures to folk and jazz artists, augments his performance-enhanced versatility with formal training that includes diplomas and degrees from Edmonton's MacEwan University and Montreal's McGill University. Solon's someone, in other words, who's comfortable on any conceivable stage, be it jazz club, concert hall, folk festival, or blues bar.

Don't be thrown by his penchant for irreverent track titles: the sixty-five-minute Murals, laid down on a single day in April 2017, is a seriously strong and compelling set of modern jazz, firmly rooted in the tradition but hardly straitjacketed by it. Each player brings the highest level of commitment to his playing, and these well-seasoned players alternate between composed and improvised structures with fluidity and passion. In consistently enriching their performances without overplaying, Solon and Irwin provide a solid foundation and invest the material with unerring drive, Shrofel functions equally effectively as support and soloist, and having two saxes as the front-line provides its own particular kind of pleasure.

Jeremiah and Kennedy weave around one another beautifully during the opening moments of “He's a Problem in the Locker Room” and carry on such conversational maneuvers with a similar degree of ease thereafter; the two purr endearingly alongside Solon's reflective ruminations at the outset of “Buy the Tractor” before pairing up for the tune's head and smoothly riding its laid-back jazz-funk groove. Never do the two sound like competitors venomously sparring but rather players harmoniously spurring each other on, and when their voices unite they at times exude a sweetly singing sonority that might remind you of a Mingus classic or two.

Though Solon's quintet swings spiritedly for much of the date, an affecting introspective side emerges during the ballad performances. The subdued pitch of “Do Airplanes Scratch the Sky?” affords the bassist a prime opportunity to contribute a sensitive solo, which Jeremiah follows with an agile, multiple registers-traversing turn of his own, whereas Shrofel distinguishes “The Ballad of Sir William Ormerod” with a memorably elegant intro. Besides ballads, there's bop (“Off the Bed, Rose”), blues (“Blues for Sebastian”), R&B-inflected swing (“Ali's Second Line”), and a sidelong nod, one presumes, to another of the genre's greatest figures (“A Shorter Thing”).

No info with the release clarifies whether the musicians merely convened for the recording date or were playing as a unit before the session; regardless, the band certainly sounds like one that's developed a deep rapport over time, even if it's possible that musicians of such high calibre are able to come together and instantly create the impression of being a unit of long standing.

May 2018