Cordame
Montréal, Quebec, Canada | INDIE | AFM
Music
Press
Every one of the thirteen songs here has a winning memorable melody as well as consistently crafty playing and smart arrangements.
Cordâme features Marie Neige Lavigne on violin, Julie-Odile Gauthier-Morin on cello and Jean Felix Mailloux on contrabass & compositions plus guests Rémi Giguère on guitars and percussion by Ziya Tabassian and Pierre Tanguay. Migration is an odyssey through a world imagined by Jean Felix Mailloux. By researching on ancient, Persian, Indian and Armenian music and modal and improvised music, Jean Felix was able to absorb it to create this universe somewhere in between tradition and modernity, improvisation and written music.
I must agree with that description. I found this music to be a superb blend of exotic and modern influences. Encompassing a jazz trio (electric guitar/acoustic bass/drums) and a string trio, the shifting/blending between the two trios is seamless. Percussionist Ziya Tabassian plays strong hand percussion that supports and uplifts the spirits. I wasn’t familiar with guitarist Rémi Giguère before this disc but I am most impressed with playing here, reminding me of the way Brad Shepik plays those Middle/Eastern Euro melodies in Pachora or the Tiny Bell Trio. If I didn’t know any better, I would think that this disc would be found on the Radical Jewish Culture series of Tzadik. Every one of the thirteen songs here has a winning memorable melody as well as consistently crafty playing and smart arrangements.
- by Bruce Lee Gallanter in Downtown Music Gallery (USA), January 22, 2010
highly recommended to fans of John Zorn’s Masada String Trio and Bar Kokhba.
I wasn’t impressed with Cordâme’s debut CD, but I definitely like this second opus entitled Migration The trio of Montreal doublebassist Jean Félix Mailloux has expanded to a quintet (Marie-Neige Lavigne, violin; Julie-Odile, cello; Rémi Giguère, guitars; Ziya Tabassian, percussion), and even to a sextet on two tracks (with the addition of Pierre Tanguay on drums). The music blends jazz with Jewish music and prominently features the strings. Is it ringing a bell? Yep, this one is highly recommended to fans of John Zorn’s Masada String Trio and Bar Kokhba. Less edgy, but if you’re drawn by the sheer, shameless beauty of those projects, Migration won’t disappoint you. - by François Couture in Monsieur Délire (Québec), November 3, 2009
Fusione ammaliante e pastosa di jazz e suoni etnici medio-orientali e da diaspora in stile Masada. Ma non è una semplice emulazione di un sound che tira. Il percorso sonoro della sezione d’archi di Marie Neige Lavigne, Jean Félix Mailloux e Julie-Odile ha una struggente autenticità. Rémi Giguère suona la chitarra con uno stile terso e semplice, arricchendo di contro-temi un paesaggio che è tra deserto e mare (Méditerranée). Le percussioni di Ziya Tabassian e Pierre Tanguay giocano col battere organico di cuori in perenne peregrinazione. Un controcanto lirico alla storia di Welcome. - by Dionisio Capuano in Blow Up #140 (Italy), January 1, 2010
Continuando a “gittare” lo sguardo Oltreoceano - grazie agli stimoli che continuano ad arrivarci copiosi dalla canadese Ambiances Magnétiques ci si imbatte, innanzitutto in qualche golosa uscita di...
Jazz deviato
Il Normand Guilbeault Ensemble pubblica un notevole Hommage à Mingus dove - grazie al sestetto allestito dal contrabbassista canadese - vengono riletti sei classici del grande musicista statunitense: molto intensa l’iniziale Passions of a Woman Loved così come il blues malato di Song with Orange.
Su di una frequenza più elettrica si colloca il Pierre Labbé 4tet che con Manivelle sforna un lavoro molto denso ed intimista magnificamente introdotto dalla convincente - ma (pur)troppo breve - Pour le moment. In effetti Labbé si rivela fiatista e compositore molto interessante e “felpato” in grado di far emergere il lato più lirico di due musicisti davvero unici: il chitarrista Bernard Falaise (che abbiamo apprezzato sia nelle scorribande avant di Klaxon Gueule che nei suoi grandissimi lavori solisti) e il percussionista Isaiah Ceccarelli: in Corpus i due forniscono un apporto davvero convincente così come nella rarefatta La Kuchika dove emerge imperioso anche il contrabbasso di Clinton Ryder.
Per rimanere ancora in situazioni più strutturate va menzionato Nozen, (Live! au Upstairs) quartetto che ruota attorno al già noto fiatista Damián Nisenson grazie alla cui penna possiamo godere di un jazz a spiccata propensione etnica. Sorprende la duttilità dell’onnipresente Falaise così come l’efficace panneggio bassistico di Jean Félix Mailloux mentre Pierre Tanguay si conferma batterista in grado unire inventiva musicale a solida strutturazione ritmica.
Ancora più bello - nella sua esotica fragranza - Migration di Cordâme. Si tratta di un sestetto gravitante attorno al già citato Mailloux (che, tra l’altro, firma tutte le tredici tracce) dove - così come il nome del progetto allude - le corde emergono in tutta la loro fragranza mediterranea: il violino di Marie Neige Lavigne, il violoncello di Julie-Odile, le chitarre di Rémi Giguère unitamente all’onnipresente Tanguay e alle percussioni di Ziya Tabassian. Molto bella l’omonima Migration - nella sua purissima arabicità - cosi come il nervoso peregrinare di Trajet.
- by Vincenzo Giorgio in Wonderous Stories #17 (Italy), April 1, 2010
Hypnotic. 4 stars - by Annie Landreville in La Scena Musicale #15:5 (Québec), February 1, 2010
Discography
Lieux Imaginés (2011)
Migration (2010)
Cordâme (2006)
Many tracks from both album can be heard on many radios across the world.
Photos
Bio
"Hypnotic" - Annie Landreville - La Scena Musicale - 2010
"Every one of the thirteen songs here has a winning memorable melody as well as consistently crafty playing and smart arrangements."
Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown music gallery, New York 2010
"A splendid record." Serge Truffaut, Le devoir, 2009
Cordâme is a very dynamic group dedicated to the interpretation of Jean Félix Mailloux's compositions that explores the textures, the richness of the stringed instruments. Influenced by many cultures the music of Cordâme has a really refreshing sound.
The name of the show we're presently touring is Migration.
Migration is an odyssey through the world imagined by Jean Félix Mailloux. In doing research on ancient Persian music, Indian, Armenian, improvised music, modal music and jazz-World, Jean Felix created a music of his own. The result is a trip out of the ordinary. For this project, the string trio Cordâme is augmented by Rémi Giguère on guitars and by Ziya Tabassian
on percussions.
Jean Felix and the musicians create the music and take us with them in a world where tradition stands next to modernity, improvisation and written music are blended together. Each piece includes one or more specific mood. Some meditative, others more upbeat, some sad and others happy. Migration is the second record by Cordâme and includes 13 Jean Félix Mailloux’s compositions.
Cordâme won the Mon accès à la scène contest of the Montreal mayor for youth fondation (FMMJ) and Cirque du Soleil, consisting in a grant to record a cd in 2005. The self-titled disc includes 11 pieces written by Jean Felix Mailloux. The group has also been selected for the FMMJ tour of cultural centers in Montreal in 2007-2008, and directed the music of documentary Devoirs de mémoires by Mirella DiBlasio presented at the Rendez-Vous du Cinéma Québécois in 2007. In 2008, Jean Felix received two grants from the Canada Council write new music for the group and the record another cd called Migration. In 2009, Jean Felix received another grant from the Canada Council to write some more music and is supported by SODEC and Cirque du Soleil to produce the second disc by Cordâme - Migration.
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