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The Ratchet Orchestra
Celebrating and Reflecting Back on Guelph Jazz Festival @ 30
by Josef Woodard
Guelph Jazz Festival Guelph Otario, Canada September 14-17, 2023 There are precious few jazz festivals in the Americas adhering to what could be called the Triple-A curatorial mandate: adventurous, avant-garde and art-centric. These special cases cling to a commercially fragile, demographically marginal--and also culturally vital--realm and mission. Such conditions make milestone in a left-leaning festival's life especially notable, as was the case with the Guelph Jazz Festival in its 30th anniversary edition. Although Guelph's ...
read moreThe Ratchet Orchestra: Hemlock
by Ted Harms
Wikipedia defines a ratchet as a mechanical device that allows for motion in only one direction; it also could be a piss-take or deliberate mispronunciation of “rat shit." Certainly the former is more appropriate for The Ratchet Orchestra's Hemlock, from a very large ensemble led by bassist/composer Nicolas Caloia. This group of 30 players is primarily drawn from the huge pool of improvisers based in Montreal, Canada, and the sound, thankfully, isn't just everybody playing all at once-- though there ...
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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson
The Ratchet Orchestra
