there was no subtle audience reaction to this group. the venerable françois houle, peggy lee, dylan van der schyff, sylvie courvoisier and mark dresser offered something challenging and not entirely successful. houle had been asked to make a dream-team up, and this was it. i have to agree that this was a nice lineup, and this was one of the shows i was most looking forward to.

something didn't go right, though. courvoisier's piano was too quiet through much of it (until several people in the audience pointed this out by yelling). houle had difficulty finding his entry into the performance, and seemed a little shaken by the vicious audience reaction to courvoisier's piano being amped too low. i'm not sure why it didn't gel - van der schyff, houle, and dresser have all played together before i believe. i guess sometimes the magic isn't there, or players are exhausted from several days of jazz, or i'm an idiot and the performance was brilliant.

sylvie courvoisier
on a completely unnecessary side note, i feel really awful that every time i hear sylvie's last name i hear "pass the courvoisier" in my head. i hope this can be twisted into a compliment somehow. nonetheless, i look forward to seeing her play again some time when i can actually hear her performance. she's supposed to be fantastic, and i liked what i could make out.

mark dresser
i was also tickled to get to see mark dresser, who's another one of those musicians i've heard and enjoyed but never seen. dresser is an aggressive bass player. he has the outward appearance of, say, your grade ten math teacher. but when he gets playing he looks like a man possessed. it's as though all of the secret violence within mark dresser is unleashed on audiences via the bass. seeing some of his techniques in action has put the recordings i've heard in a new light.

dresser also did an excellent performance earlier in the day with guitarist andreas willer and percussionist tom rainey. willer did some fantastic guitar processing, dresser was maniacal, and i think rainey entered another dimension for the duration of the performance. that is to say, it was brilliant.

shows at the roundhouse performance centre, vancouver, july 4, 2004