!earshot Top 200 of 2021

!earshot year-end picks 2005

René Brisebois, En Avant la Musique!, CITR, 101.9FM, Vancouver, BC.  My show is about everything creative that is happening in Jazz improv and New Music, World Music and Classical at large, with a French touch.

Top 3 records of the year
François Houle – Double Entendre – (Earsay)
An amazing tribute to the now twenty year old seminal piece Dialogue de l'ombre double for clarinet and tape by Pierre Boulez put in parallel with new music creation exploring dialogue between reeds and electronics by Canadian composers John Oliver, Paul Dolden and Giorgio Magnanensi.

Dylan van der Schyff – The Definition of a Toy – (Songlines)
A beautiful encounter recorded on SACD Technology between two established musicians of the Vancouver scene, Dylan van der Schyff on drums and Brad Turner on trumpet, with two sophisticated musicians from the Amsterdam jazz scene, Achim Kaufman on piano and Michael Moore on reeds plus the great American bassist, Mark Helias.

Now Orchestra & Marilyn Crispell – Pola – (Victo) See Best local release.

Most under-rated record of the year
Smith Quartet – Steve Reich, Different Trains – (Signum Classics)
Some critics questioned the relevancy of revisiting this piece 17 years after the original excellent version of the Kronos Quartet, a composition that they see as passé.  The answer is simple, a classic like this one is there to be played again for each generation and the Smith Quartet deliver it!

Most over-rated record of the year
Vienna Art Orchestra – Swing & Affairs – (Universal)
The new CD of the 25 year old legendary jazz band is a little bit disappointing and too laboured compared what they produced in the past.  I am thinking about a masterpiece like The Minimalism of Erik Satie that they made 20 years ago.

Best local release
Now Orchestra & Marilyn Crispell – Pola – (Victo)
After five years, this is the first CD released by the Now Orchestra and it is an amazing comeback for the Avant-Garde jazz big band from Vancouver.  The collaboration with the great American pianist Marilyn Crispell is a real success in the pure tradition of improv jazz for those dedicated musicians who are serving nothing except for the music.

Best personal campus/community radio moment or experience of the year.
When I had the chance during the Fall to do a live interview with Marianne De Kleer and Caitlin McRae, two wonderful singers and members of one the best vocal ensembles in Canada, Musica Intima.  Their kindness and professionalism was a real charm.  2005 was the year of Thomas Tallis, perhaps the greatest English composer who ever lived and Musica Intima played a tribute to him, as well as performing a premiere of Vancouver composer Peter Hannan's new commission based on Tallis', If ye love me.

Record you are most anticipating for 2005
Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra – Not In Our Name – (Verve)
It is the first CD from the famous subversive big band in a while and we were waiting for that signal of hope announcing the end of madness in the States with the anticipated end of the crypto-fascist reign of the Bush regime.  The new CD of this band led by the bassist and former member of the legendary Ornette Coleman's Quartet, all arranged and conducted by pianist Carla Bley, is a pure treat of American songs in an anti-imperialistic spirit.