Jazz, Period. - A Flat in Oslo

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A Flat in Oslo
Composed by Kevin Dean

Kevin Dean - Flugelhorn
Al McLean Saxophone
Morgan Moore Bass
Dave Laing Drums

Recorded on March 25, 2010 at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts, Montreal Quebec

This installment of the film series, Jazz, Period., features Montreal's best working Jazz musicians playing on rare period instruments. In this performance, trumpeter Kevin Dean picks up a 1950 Besson Paris flugelhorn, and saxophonist Al McLean on a highly engraved 1952 Buescher 'Big B' alto saxophone. Although the instruments are not familiar to the players, both musicians freely explore their color and response, and the results are dazzling.

The instruments were the catalyst for the film. "I'm always interested in connections between the past and present", says Randy Cole, the film's director and co-producer. "The old instruments really bring the past alive, and we can hear the origins of the music, even in the contemporary context the players create."

Cole acknowledges the challenge of having professional musicians quickly adapt to unfamiliar instruments. "The players were very gracious to play on a variety of horns that weren't their own. The result was quite special; there is a certain kind of spontaneity, and unpredictability to the performance. In some ways, it's really in the spirit of improvised music."

Although the musical composition is titled 'A Flat in Oslo'- already a clever play on words by composer and occasional Oslo resident Kevin Dean -- this film is an affectionate vignette of Montreal, and more specifically, Plateau Mont Royal and Mile End. These two neighborhoods capture the quirky heart of this enigmatic city. Somehow, the residents seem content -- there is some feeling of success on the street, not monetary success, but a kind of jealous contentment, a chest thumping belonging. One of the few places where people aren't primarily concerned with social climbing, rather, simply enjoying what is.

The performance was recorded in the landmark Montreal edifice designed by Architect Phyllis Lambert. As Dean's composition offers a framework for the artists to improvise within, the Modernist building is also deliberately structural, with a simple, skeletal framework housing a bustling hub of artistic activity.

The Segal Centre for Performing Arts is a cherished heritage building in a city that loves its history and culture. No wonder such musicians are to be found here, there is an audience for the finest in this venerable city - fine Jazz, food, architecture. It is said that Montreal is an anomaly in North American culture. There may not be any other city that can nurture a Jazz scene of such caliber and accessibility. When the Montreal International Jazz Festival subsides, these guys are just getting started...

Kevin Dean is professor, and a founding faculty member of the Jazz program at McGill University's Schulich School of Music (http://www.mcgill.ca/music/).

More on Kevin Dean:
http://kevindeanmusic.com/
http://people.mcgill.ca/kevin.dean/


Al McLean can be heard regularly in Montreal's Jazz venues, and is a sought after saxophone repair man. Read more about Al McLean here:
http://www.almclean.com/about.html