Allison Au with the Migrations Ensemble: Migrations
Allison Au

With a Juno award and an impressive number of releases to her name (both as a leader and contributor to others' projects), saxophonist Allison Au has established herself as a formidable force in Canadian jazz circles. The esteem with which she's held should increase considerably with the release of what's clearly her most ambitious statement to date, Migrations. Augmenting her quartet—pianist Todd Pentney, bassist Jon Maharaj, drummer Fabio Ragnelli, and herself on alto and soprano saxes—with singer Laila Biali, vibraphonist Michael Davidson, and string quartet (violinists Aline Homzy and Jeremy Potts, violist Catherine Gray, and cellist Amahl Arubanandam), Au has fashioned an episodic suite that explores the many facets of the migration experience, from the hardships it entails to the promise and hope it engenders.

It's an intensely personal project for Au, as her family history involves multiple instances of migration. The life she's living now wouldn't have happened had her grandparents not left their homelands for Canada. Descending on her father's side from Southern China and Malaysia and on her mother's from war-torn Poland and Israel, the biracial Au is certainly qualified to write about the disorientation upheaval brings and the challenges involved in forging a new identity after moving to a new place. To help explore such themes, she carefully selected lyrics for the suite from texts by Chief Dan George, Langston Hughes, Wanda Coleman, Emma LaRocque, Ruth Padel, and others. As a mix of British, American, and Indigenous Canadian writers, their diversity is consistent with the character of the project in general. On thematic grounds, the project was a natural one for Au, a life-long resident of a city long celebrated for its multicultural makeup.

Her writing and arrangements are terrific, but her fourth studio recording wouldn't have the impact it has without the exceptional contributions of her musical partners. While the instrumentalists bring the music to wondrous life, it's Biali who merits an especially enthusiastic mention. Whether infusing the poets' words with emotion (e.g., the ravishing vocal she delivers in “Migration”) or singing wordlessly, her lustrous voice illuminates Au's music splendidly. Mention also should be made of Pentney, who not only contributes keyboards but produced the album, as he did her earlier three. Musically, the material's grounded in jazz, yet it transcends pigeonholing in the sophistication of its structure and its deft integration of through-composition, vocal content, and improvising. Soloing is present, and Au takes her share (her vivid, fleet turns on “Prayer” and “Progress” are representative), but it emerges out of the fabric of the piece and in service to it. With a concise running time of forty-two-minutes, this carefully woven mosaic of many hues also doesn't exhaust the listener's patience but instead advances breezily through its thirteen parts, some vignettes and others adventurous explorations.

Whereas the work's symphonic sweep is conveyed by the scene-setting “The Choice” in its marriage of spoken word and orchestral colour, the album's sultry side is accounted for in the mellifluous “Prayer” when Biali sings wordlessly alongside a dense array of strings and jazz instrumentation. She subsequently elevates “Progress” with an acrobatic vocal performance that complements the infectious, high-octane swing of the large ensemble. Featuring words by Harlem Renaissance figure Hughes, “For Russel and Rowena Jelliffe” receives a lyrical musical treatment perfectly in keeping with its poetic text. The suite closes with words by Hughes again, those in “I Dream A World” optimistically envisioning an idyllic realm free of hate and bigotry. Memorable instrumental touches dot the journey, including Prophet 6 textures by Pentney and a Davidson vibraphone solo in “The ISM” and a rapturous violin solo by Homzy in “Racing Across the Land.”

November 2023