Depending on when you walk in on a song, the Emma Frank Quartet might sound like folk or jazz, even R&B. It's music that never stays put, full of moving parts, shifting tempos, winding melodies. The lyrics are honest, open conversations on love and life-journeys that aim for insight, not easy answers.
Lately people have compared Emma's voice and song writing to a young Joni Mitchell. It has a breathy somersaulting quality that tumbles into warm, dark valleys, a voice that Leif Vollebeck described as “leather on silk.”
The band, formed by Phil Melanson on drums (Leif Vollebeck, Rafael Zalvidar, Bernice), Isis Giraldo on piano (Isis Giraldo Poetry Project), and Hans Bernard on bass (Leif Vollebeck, Lau Hélie) brings an improvisational spirit to the songs, lending a tumultuous, almost ticklish quality to Emma's compositions.
For Being Apart, the group's first album, was produced by Martin Rodriguez, and is now available.
Jason Sharp is a Montreal based baritone and bass saxophonist who’s sound is a combination of his interests in jazz, contemporary classical, electronic, rock, free form improvisation, and Arabic classical music. Threading these diverse influences together, Sharp has developed a uniquely vibrant sound in the groups he contributes to.
He can be heard as a regular member in Josh Zubot’s Mend Ham, Sam Shalabi’s Land Of Kush and Egyptian Light Orchestra, Nicolas Caloia’s Ratchet Orchestra, and Joe Grass’s Tiny Dictators. Jason is also a frequent collaborator in Montreal’s vibrant improvising community and has shared the stage with Lori Freedman, Jean Derome, and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble. In addition to his usual collaborators, he has recorded with Matana Roberts, Thee Silver Mt. Zion, and Sam Shalabi for the Constellations record label.
Jason will lead off the show at Cafe Resonance 5175a ave. du Parc, 8:30PM on Friday April 4th $8 or PWYC
Medusa Shaved is a collaborative performative piece with
poetry, music and dance. Thematically, Medusa Shaved engages with aesthetic
hair removal - elevating one small (some might say, negligible) aspect
of the contemporary woman’s everyday experience
to a sublime act, reviewing, critiquing, positively transforming ambivalent
responses to it. On the one hand, the hairless body becomes stark, flat,
a static blank canvas; on the other hand, the removed hair is woven into
movement, a dance, a script, creative expression. As mythical background
stands Medusa, the woman with snakes instead of hair; both empowered and
disempowered by her hair. Formally, Medusa Shaved supplements poetry with
dramatic effects to step into the gap between the poetry reading and theatre
genres. Performing this time are Simon Labbe, Jane Chan
Klara du Plessis, Nada Wood, Isis Giraldo and Emma Lee.