Recordings

Join the celebration, as two of Canada’s finest musicians, clarinetist Martin van de Ven and guitarist/pianist Brian Katz offer their first joint recording, Collected Stories. This long-awaited CD features fresh, vivid renditions of Klezmer classics, and extends outwards to include Armenian, Israeli, Bulgarian and original compositions. Jazz, classical, new music, Middle Eastern and African influences are integrated in ways that do not alter the integrity of a given composition but, rather, extend tradition and generate new understandings that speak to our time.

Two respected Toronto players team up to create a remarkably classy, heartfelt piece, a rumination on musical vocabularies and personal/collective histories. Van de Ven’s clarinet is playful, smooth, thoughtful and challenging; Katz’s guitar is harmonically rich and reaching, with rockin’ rhythm as the bottom line. With a repertoire of Eastern European and Yiddish melodies and rhythms as their launching pad, the duo deftly combust and re-fuse these kernels of inspiration. It’s refreshing to hear accomplished folk stylists making utterly contemporary music out of traditional sources rather than re-treading, or worse, remixing. Their studio vibe feels incredibly creative and relaxed, as if they’re discovering the record along with the listener.

BY JOSH DOLGIN, THE HOUR – MAY 8, 2003