Latin-Caribbean Jazz band Canefire takes Toronto

Trinidad/Canada

Cuba

Calypso-Latin-Jazz band Canefire, last month released its second project, a CD entitled Pandemonium, in western Canada.  Revisiting Vancouver, British Columbia in April, took the core group of four full circle to where they started their summer 2009 tour.  Now the five-year old group took Toronto  on Thursday, May 19, 2010 at the Glen Gould Studio.

The Glen Gould patrons were in for a Pandemonium of Caribbean and Latin rhythms from first-hand practitioners: trumpeter Alexis Baro, drummer Chendy Leon, percussionist Alberto Suarez and bassist Yoser Rodriguez, all four of whom are Cuban-Canadians; Trinidad-Canadian pannist Mark Mosca; as well as Canadian sax and flute player Braxton Hicks and bandleader Jeremy Ledbetter whose roles also include chief composer and keyboardist.

Together, they invoked the spirit of Trinidadian style gospelypso via “Donna Lee Goes South,” a reincarnation of Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee,” a mesh of Afro-Brazilian and Trinidad steelband music channelled through “Welcome Home” and David Rudder’s unofficial national anthem “Trini 2 D Bone.”  (By the way, Ledbetter has served as Rudder’s Musical Director, producer and arranger since 2002.  Rudder himself appears on Pandemonium as the voice on “Trini“)

Heather Kitching on Pandemonium:

Now five years old, CaneFire is sounding uber tight and together on Pandemonium, with a lot more trading off between lead instruments, a lot more complexity to the compositions, and a lot more diversity too — with the addition of more Brazilian and Venezuelan sounds to its already eclectic mix of Cuban, Puerto Rican, French-Caribbean and Trinidadian influences.  The album opens with “The Madman’s Jig,” an outrageously energetic number written in 27/4 time.  Jokes bandleader Jeremy Ledbetter, “you don’t notice you can’t dance to it ‘til you try.”  Other notable tracks include “Baptism by Fire,” CaneFire’s take on a hybrid Trinidadian church music called “gospelypso”; “Donna Lee Goes South,” a calypisified cover of Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee”; and “The Fountain of Youth,” an epic journey through the Amazon featuring Venezuelan guest vocalist Eliana Cuevas as well as the iconic Pascoal.  There are also two tracks inspired by the birth last spring of Ledbetter and Cuevas’ daughter, Leila.  The first is “Welcome Home,” a gentle ballad which combines Afro-Brazilian rhythm with a Trinidad steelband.  The second is the final bonus track, “If I Could Sing,” which Ledbetter crafted around the babbling sounds of the then five-month-old Leila.  A final song of note on the recording is the distinctly CaneFire cover of “Trini 2 D Bone,” Trinidad’s unofficial national anthem. David Rudder, the soca legend behind the original also sings on the CaneFire version.

The participation of Rudder and Pascoal in the creation of Pandemonium testifies to the esteem in which CaneFire is held in the world of Caribbean and Latin music.

Canefire played the Glen Gould Theater, Toronto, May 19

Caribbean Latin Jazz band, CANEFIRE played TOBAGO JAZZ EXPERIENCE, APRIL 25

Canada             Cuba          Trinidad

update 3 on April 25

The Arbor Room, Hart House, University of Toronto was the venue of a free concert on March 12 given by Canefire, a seven piece band featuring pan men, Jeremy Ledbetter, and Marc Mosca from Trinidad; Cubans Alexis Baró on trumpet, drummer Chendy León, Alberto Suarez on percussion and bassist Yoser Rodriguez; and Canadian saxophonist Braxton Hicks.

 

The previous weekend (Saturday, March 07), the band was at the Millpond Centre at 106 Victoria St. W., Alliston, Canada where, as simcoe.com has reported, “Canefire brought the house down with a blend of saxophone and steel drums, with an infectious rhythm of the island beat.”

Canefire’s sound is grounded on Trinidadian Calypso, Latin, Jazz and Blues.  No wonder since Ledbetter has lived and worked in Trinidad and Tobago and Cuba.

His experience in and with Trinidad has seen him share the stage with all-out Calypso bands and the calypsonian, David Rudder – with whom he has a seven-year working relationship as his pianist, musical director, arranger and producer – and artists like Ralph McDonald and Andy Narell who have found a happy medium at the Calypso-Jazz junction.

Jeremy Ledbetter, who can now be said to be at home there too, earned himself a degree in Jazz performance from York University in Toronto.

Canefire goes back to Trinidad off and on and was originally scheduled to return to the Caribbean in April for the Tobago Jazz Festival, now deceased.  They in fact made the trip on April 25, but to the replacement festival called Tobago Jazz Experience.

The band was on the same Latin Jazz stage with Trinidad’s Élan Parlé led by pianist Michael Low Chew Tung aka Ming, and Mungal Patasar.

Canefire has one CD on the market, a 2005 recording of original material called Kaiso Blue.  Narell is in there as a guest.  But that was then; this is now: The Andy Narell Group, steel pan Caribbean Jazz, 8 p.m. April 3, UNC Asheville’s Lipinsky Auditorium; and April 22, Pan Jazz in d Yard, Tobago Jazz Experience with Liam Teague and others.