Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra: East Meets West: Connections
Chronograph Records

Building on the acclaim its seventh album Tidal Currents received, the justly celebrated Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra (WJO) returns with East Meets West: Connections, a vibrant nine-part suite rooted in a terrific concept: in drawing on the writing talents of Canadian jazz composers Fred Stride and Jean-Nicolas Trottier, the project's presented as a West versus East summit, with Vancouver resident Stride on one side and the Montreal-based Trottier the other. Whereas a nearly 5000-kilometre distance separates the cities, the divide disappears on the fifty-minute opus when the four movements by Stride seamlessly complement the five by Trottier.

Every jazz orchestra needs a great rhythm section, and the WJO, founded in 1997, has it in pianist Will Bonness, bassist Karl Kohut, and drummer Fabio Ragnelli. Add guitarist Larry Roy and vibraphonist Victoria Sparks, and all of the animation and thrust a large ensemble requires is well-accounted for. At the front-line, ample power's generated by five saxes, five trumpets, and five trombones, the result an outfit capable of lustrous textural finesse and exuberant blaze, depending on what the music demands. The playing, individually and collectively, is consummate, with soloing spread throughout the group and distinguishing the material Stride and Trottier wrote. Helping the listener keep track, soloists are identified for each track, and the composers have also contributed commentaries for each of the nine parts. Such background enhances one's appreciation for the music, yet nothing more than the WJO's performances are required when they're so commanding.

Ragnelli drives Trottier's opening “Sounds of Joy” with brushes-wielded swing, and as the others enter and the music grows in complexity the playing never loses its tight focus and smooth sheen. Up first, tenor saxist Niall Cade rides the rhythm section's frothy wave, with Bonness and Kohut following the drummer's lead and the front-liners roaring. As baritone saxist Kyle Wedlake adds his solo statement, the deftness with which the ensemble navigates its way through Trottier's challenging charts is made resoundingly clear. The energy level remains firmly in place when the scene shifts to Stride's “Hello Jean-Nicolas,” a solo spotlight, not surprisingly, for trombonist Jean-Nicolas Trottier. The composer's “Leave No Stone,” on the other hand, finds the band easing the intensity for a multi-hued meditation that accentuates the ensemble's textural richness. No track's more fiery than Trottier's “The Jaws of Defeat,” which again derives maximum thrust from Ragnelli's efforts.

Trottier's “Echoes From Within” might be short at two minutes, but its chorale for the trombone section is a thing of beauty and a memorable pivot within the suite. Enhancing the lustre of his “The Healing Song” are Sparks' vibraphone—always an attractive component of the ensemble mix—and Roy's sparkling fretwork. Revisiting the geographical dimension, Stride's rousing “Halfway Point” references Winnipeg in being situated between Vancouver and Montreal and sees trumpeter Jonathan Challoner and soprano saxist Neil Watson taking terrific turns in the soloist's chair. Inspiration sometimes comes from unexpected places, and Trottier's “The Great Return,” written in memory after a late house cat who reappeared after a three-week absence, is a classic example. Conceived as something of a postlude, the piece eases the listener out of the album with enveloping textures and a generally warm, serenading feel. Regardless of whether the composer in question is Stride or Trottier, it's big band writing and arranging of an inordinately high order.

April 2025