| New album from the Jane Fair & Rosemary Galloway Quintet | ||||||||||
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Playin' Jane Jane Fair (tenor and soprano saxophones) |
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One of the Top 10 CD's of 2007 Chances Are made two of CODA Magazine's critic's top ten lists for 2007 |
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Listen to samples: Fu's Feast Poco Luce Chances Are |
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Reviews Tenor saxophonist Fair . . . is a major talent and an extremely under-recorded Canadian. This new release of a live session at the Cellar in Vancouver in 2003 has her joined over five tracks by Bill Coon, Jodi Proznick and Dave Robbins. Don’t miss her look at Strayhorn's Johnny Come Lately. - Len Dobbin (Montreal Mirror) 9/10 stars Jazz saxophonist Jane Fair is one of this country's great unknown musicians. A professional for more than three decades, she's divided her time between family, teaching and music, so her recording output has been minimal. This disc, recorded in 2003 at Vancouver jazz club The Cellar, is only the second she's put out under her own name, and lots of luck trying to find that first CD. With an able supporting cast of guitarist Bill Coon, upright bassist Jodi Proznick and drummer Dave Robbins, tenor saxophonist Fair runs through three originals and two standards. On the opener, Fu's Feast, she uses all parts of the horn, and utilizes space to great effect. The title track features a unison line with sax and guitar, and nimble brushwork by Robbins. Highlight of the set is the ballad Lazy Afternoon, where Fair captures the poetic sensibility of the composition, holding notes and crafting phrases. - Marke Andrews (Vancouver Sun) 3½ / 4 stars. [link] Tenor saxophonist/composer Fair is no "Jane-Come-Lately" to the Canadian jazz scene: CBC Records released her first and, to this point only, album way back in 1975. But while she's long been a musical polestar to the likes of Jane Bunnett, she's not widely known outside of Toronto. One hopes that this excellent CD — recorded live at the Jazz Cellar in March 2003 — will help to change that. Fair has chops to burn. However as is clear from the CD opener — an up-tempo original entitled Fu's Feast — she prefers to take an almost leisurely, investigative approach to the music; she mulls over short phrases and spins them into intricate musical statements artfully punctuated with silence. She has a rich throaty tone and a languid way of phrasing that she puts to excellent use on the ballad Lazy Afternoon, one of two non-originals on the CD. Her quartet for this date was composed of Dave Robbins on drums, Jodi Proznick on bass and guitarist Bill Coon. While all are deeply involved in the music on this CD, Coon, who met Fair for the first time one day prior to this performance, deserves special mention. His ability here to support and enhance Fair's flights of fancy as well as his own highly melodic soloing, lifts him far beyond the role of sideman and into the realm of creative co-conspirator with Fair; rarefied company to be sure. |
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Jane Fair / Rosemary Galloway Quintet Waltz Out RGCD001-2 (2002) |
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Jane Fair (tenor, soprano saxophone) |
Waltz Out Poco Luce The Paths that Cross Blue Velvet Chances Are T's Vamp Fu's Feast Little Dark One Falling in Love with Love |
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| Jane on tenor and soprano saxophones and Rosemary on
acoustic bass co-lead an adventurous quintet through both originals
and standard material. With Nancy Walker on piano, Lina Allemano on
trumpet and Terry Clarke on drums, the listener will enjoy a powerfully
fresh personal approach from each player. These are seasoned players
who have found new resonance and inspiration working together. With the release of their CD Waltz Out in 2002 the group performed at the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the Waterloo Jazz Festival, the Ottawa Jazz Festival, The Montreal Bistro and the Rex. It's impossible to overstate the role saxophonist Jane Fair has played for women in Canadian jazz. Without the emergence of the Guelph native in the early '70s as the first Canadian-born female instrumentalist of consequence, there would likely be no Jane Bunnett -- an early student of Fair's -- or Ingrid Jensen. Bassist Rosemary Galloway has been another strong role model for Canadian women in jazz over the past 30 years. The quintet they co-led yesterday is the latest of three bands that have carried their names since 1981. With Terry Clarke on drums, Lina Allemano on trumpet and Nancy Walker on piano, this is their best unit yet, and their program of post-bop originals bristled with energy. It is difficult to do anything but bristle with Clarke propelling a rhythm section. An economical, precise percussionist, he provided subtle support, stepping forward only briefly in T's Vamp -- a song Galloway wrote in his honour. Along with Jensen, Allemano is one of the generation of younger female instrumentalists to follow on the heels of Fair and Galloway, and like Jensen she is exploding the stereotype that the trumpet is a male instrument. Echoes of Kenny Wheeler can be heard in her tart tone and artfully cracked notes, but Allemano also has a nicely burnished sound that's all her own. Jane Fair / Rosemary Galloway Quintet |
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