Virginia MacDonald’s debut album is finally here! And this little chick jumped right in to see what her first statement is as a Torontonian Jazz Artist. She is a bandleader who plays clarinet. On that alone, is a bold step into jazz. I have only seen a couple of lead clarinet player in my time, so I wanted to hear this on wax.
Well the wax is hot and has flavour that caught me a little off guard. From the opening piece called-“Last Call at Dimitri’s, I was immediately drunk with dizzying myopia. I mean who starts of an album with last call?
When my double vision was kicking in, I felt that warm relaxed and loose feeling that we all get right before last call is called. My henhouse was filled with too many chicks and not enough roosters if you know what I mean.
Well, the next piece, didn’t help my cause because it is called- “In search of…”. It did keep me calm and I was now taking my time to do a little soul searching on my own.
Once we got to “Stardust”, I was in my own invisible fantasy with pixies sprinkling their famous dust all over my eyes.
This is the magic of this recording. Virginia’s style of occasionally using the past and mashing it up with her brand of modernism, really gave me a new vision and insight on a new vein of jazz.
She really created pieces like colourful characters in a great story. Each piece seemed to complement each other as this recording unveiled itself.
“Retrogression is a shining example of this. It has that old school charm with plenty of new ideas that dance together like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. This is a joyful way of clearing a dance floor and making it worth watching. It is filled with joy and excitement.
“Up high down low” is an instrumental torch song that ponders each and every emotion. It is a piece that reaches out and tries to untangle what truly is going on inside.
The piece, “Hope”, embodies the nature of this album. When I listen to this, it feels like I am in a hurray –In search of… something. It is an intense ride of running around looking for an answer. What is the lesson of Hope? Who is John Galt? (Sorry, I am having an Atlas Shrugged moment).
Virginia sends a love letter to Sir Duke with her rendition of “Duke Ellington’s Sound of love”.
I love that Virginia finished this album off in a similar way that she started. “Eternal return to the same”, the music is wobbly and spins my tiny little head until I want to fall down. I begin to feel those myopic feelings again, so the only way to combat this moment, is to put the album on again and go- In search of….
If you want to listen to Virginia’s new album, simply click this link and pick up a copy for yourself. This is an album Toronto jazz fans will be proud to own.
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