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Product Description

Vancouver's premier chamber jazz trio (formed in 2006) makes elegant, beautifully textured music, collectively developing their own compositions and in short improvs. Peggy Lee (cello), Tony Wilson (guitar, harmonica, kalimba, ektara etc.) and Jon Bentley (tenor & soprano sax, tank drum, synths, percussion & bells) bring a wealth of experience to the group, whether it's in classical/contemporary classical music, songwriter/folk, or the use of overdubbed small instruments as well as sampling and programming to subtly heighten the music's effect.
This is Waxwing's second release on Songlines, and it's similar to A Bowl of Sixty Taxidermists (2015) in its combination of delicacy and strength with a reflective kind of lyricism, often tinged with tenderness or nostalgia – but be prepared for the unexpected as pieces move though different forms and emotional states. Bentley produced, mixed and sequenced the record, and in the process transformed some of the pieces, constructing hybrid improv/composed-sounding songs using Ableton Live and Serato Sample production software (uncommon in a chamber jazz setting), while taking care to retain the spontaneity of the original improvisation.
Bentley and Wilson both deserve wider recognition, but Peggy Lee is one of Canada's most celebrated cellists and jazz composers – her most recent large ensemble release, Echo Painting (Songlines, 2018) received great reviews nationally and internationally.
TRACK LIST:
Flicker Down On This Day Fweeo Walks By Your Bet Time Waited A Day's Life Montbretia Gates Highway of Tears Birds in Cages Crossing Paths Joe's Theme Breathe Invisible Something Just Saying Cloaks of Coax Peace for Animeek Chasing the End Parasite

Review

Elegant and bittersweet…The original compositions, by each of the three band members, accommodate fluttery abstraction as well as glowing consonance. Everything – the shifting interplay, the shape of the tunes, the mood – communicates a sense of proportion.

Nate Chinen –New York Times

***** …a rich, multi-faceted work…a treasure-trove of melody, emotion, and masterful musicianship, and I truly believe that there's something here for everyone. This is bold, exciting, fervent, often daring, but always eminently listenable jazz…

Derek Stone
Free Jazz Blog

There's absolutely no way to know what's coming next, as free jazz raves and folk-ish thoughts make nice together, dreams and nightmares call a truce, and all three musicians perform as one without losing a bit of their identities.

Dan Bilawsky
All About Jazz

The compositions-arrangements are primary to the overall sound and bring a special memorability to it all…a thoughtful, serious, chamber triumph…

Grego Applegate Edwards –Gapplegate Guitar and Bass Blog