On “An Eager Leap”, Posgate was back on the Stratocaster and Howard Johnson blew mightily on the baritone saxophone. Johnson and French traded off some great lines, excellent playing from both reedmen. Another interesting song, “50% Pure Wool”, had Posgate and Johnson starting together, with Johnson playing the pennywhistle. The piece was inspired by a French Canadian folk song. As they played, you could easily imagine the colourful costumes of dancers dancing in a ring around the musicians. David French, on flute, harmonized with Johnson while he played the pennywhistle. Johnson would switch to tuba for the body of the song, returning to pennywhistle to close.
Posgate would also play electric lap guitar, like a steel guitar, on a very bluesy number, “Martin, Martin, Martin”. Thankfully, it was only the name of a song and not the name of one of his children as he would have liked. Allemano played muted trumpet on this number, playing some great lines under the upfront lead of French’s clarinet. Johnson played a great section on tuba with lots of vibrato and trombone-style glides, masterful playing.
The song “Quartier St. Roche” is a ballad that has Allemano letting loose in a glorious fashion. Beautiful lines, piercing, hypnotic melody and lyricism that just sounds so original. Lina Allemano produces some of the richest tones, she was working very hard to produce these sounds and I was completely blown away with her awesome sound and talented playing.
The Tim Posgate Hornband played most of the songs from their new CD of the same name. The concert was a delight; great music, by great musicians within a room with great ambiance.
In speaking with some local folks after the show I found out that Rob McConnell was to have performed. The folks I spoke with told me they were not sure if they would enjoy the Posgate replacement band and thought they might leave after the first set. They didn’t leave, but they didn’t think it was jazz because it didn’t swing. They also said, “It was interesting and the musicians were all very accomplished, so we stayed and we enjoyed it.”
