John Geggie/Bill Carrothers/Nick Fraser
5 Shades of Geggie
Fourth Stage, National Arts Centre
Ottawa, Canada
May 13, 2006

It's been a strong year for Ottawa bassist John Geggie and his 5 Shades of Geggie series of concerts, where he brings in artists from around the world to play in configurations that have rarely—if ever—worked together previously. With little rehearsal, the stylistic purview may be wide but the unifying link is the risk inherent in playing without a safety net. Some shows may work better than others, but you can always count on some interesting things to happen—and, on occasion, some real magic.

And there was some definite magic at Geggie's final show of the 2005/2006 season where he teamed up with Ottawa ex-pat drummer Nick Fraser (now living in Toronto), with whom he's worked over the past few years. Some may recall last year's Ottawa International Jazz Festival, where Geggie and Fraser were recruited at the last minute to cover for bassist Stanley Clarke at the Béla Fleck/Jean-Luc Ponty/Stanley Clarke show, when Clarke encountered difficulties crossing the border into Canada. There are few players, and even fewer rhythm sections, who could fill in on such short notice and do the kind of job that proves that, while Ottawa may not be any kind of jazz mecca, it does have its share of world class players, with Geggie and Fraser two of its strongest and most flexible.

Rounding out the trio was pianist Bill Carrothers. Carrothers, an American who—like his friend and sometimes musical companion Marc Copland—seems curiously better-received in Europe than he is in his own country, he's been building a consistent yet diverse body of work over the past decade. In the past couple of years he's released projects including Armistice 1918—a sweeping two-disc set marrying period songs from World War I with a distinctive improvisational approach—and the all-improvised Shine Ball featuring bassist Gordon Johnson and Bad Plus drummer Dave King. Both discs ranked high on critics' top picks for 2004 and 2005, yet Carrothers remains on the periphery of most Americans' musical radar. Like Copland, Carrothers' approach is often impressionistic and abstract, but in contrast to Copland's innate romanticism, Carrothers can sometimes be considerably darker, though optimistic rays of hope often cut through.

Carrothers' approach supports the idea that an artist's work reflect the times in which he/she lives. This becomes immediately evident when comparing the more positive ambience of The Blues and the Greys (Bridgeboy, 1997) and the bleaker Civil War Diaries: Solo Piano (Illusions Music, 2005), where the same material becomes considerably more unsettled.

The music for the Geggie/Carrothers/Fraser show was a mix of archival songs that Carrothers has covered over the years—including It's a Long Way to Tipperary and "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia —and a smattering of standards, including Thelonious Monk's "Evidence, Duke Ellington's classic "Mood Indigo and Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade. The familiar melodies seemed to flow in and out of consciousness, often creating the feeling that you'd heard the songs before but weren't quite sure what they were. That is, in fact, one of the beauties of Carrothers' playing—he may radically reharmonizing the material, but there's almost always a core melody threading its way throughout.

While the influence of Keith Jarrett on Carrothers is unmistakable, he's less an overt stream-of-consciousness player. And while his technical facility is undeniable, Carrothers avoids the trapping of being chops-oriented. Instead, he looks for the core of a song, and then filters it through his viewpoint. Speaking with Carrothers and then hearing him play makes the link between personality and style completely self-evident. He possesses an almost mischievous sense of humour, and there were times at the performance where he seemed to be egging Geggie and Fraser on with a wry turn of phrase or particularly obscure voicing.

One of the most striking features of the two hour-long sets was a clear sense of searching. There were times when Carrothers' hands would hover over the keyboard, and one could almost feel him considering his options. Still, despite a more considered approach, Carrothers was never short of completely evocative and, occasionally, provocative. His style may be approachable, but it's never complacent, and he consistently challenges the audience to reconsider the familiar in new and unexpected ways.

comments powered by Disqus