Stars, Engines

Toronto tenor saxophonist and composer Harrison Argatoff is still a fairly new addition to the city’s jazz and improvised music ecosystem, and yet he has managed to ascend rapidly within its ranks, garnering admiration and collaboration from a number of his elder peers. One could easily attribute this to the imaginative array of projects he has hatched since graduating from University of Toronto’s Jazz program seven years ago. From site-specific solo saxophone to a contemplative Nick Drake homage alongside guitarist Ian McGimpsey, Argatoff is restlessly creative while maintaining a focused aesthetic vision.

Valley Voice expands said vision even further, seeing Argatoff front an all-star quartet featuring Elastic Recordings co-owners vibraphonist Michael Davidson, Dan Fortin on bass plus drummer Ian Wright. Stars, Engines, the band’s debut, marks Argatoff’s first recording as leader after a solo disc and several collaborative outings. The album is a vehicle for his unique compositional voice which hybridizes warm, intricate jazz writing and modern chamber music. Charting a considerable emotional breadth, its constituent pieces were honed patiently between 2020 and 2022, a period which included a residency at the Banff Centre and guidance from John Hollenbeck and Sasha Rapoport, two of Argatoff’s mentors.

The title and artwork for the album were inspired by a simple story relayed to him by his grandmother and—like this band’s name—harken back to his Doukhobour upbringing in semi-rural British Columbia, a context that valued pacifism, communal music making, and a deep reverence for life and the natural world. The account from his grandmother subtly reflects some of these values. While visiting family in a secluded part of British Columbia, she woke up in the middle of the night, distressed that she had forgotten to look at the stars before going to sleep. Kneeling on the bed, she peered out the window and marvelled at the sky, the quiet of night interrupted occasionally by vehicles on the small highway running through the narrow valley. On the closing (and titular) track, Argatoff crafts a lullaby to accompany her within that scene.

Contrastingly, the dynamic opening cut, “Wishlow” (a colloquial name for a set of rapids in the Slocan River in BC) conjures an image from Argatoff’s childhood. Floating down this thrilling section of river in an inner tube is a cherished early memory for him, but, he says, this activity also taught him essential lessons around risk-taking, safety, and respecting nature’s unforgiving power. Between these book-ends the group explores everything from urgent, interlocking groove-work to watercolour balladry, each composition carving out its own atmospheric nook within the flow of the record.

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Reviews of Stars Engines:

“Like a rich, relaxing tea, it embraces the sounds and textures of Mother Nature, while steeped in the freedom of jazz and also chamber music. Much of this album is meditative music, lending us arrangements that tickle the senses and inspire our own imaginative thinking” – Making A Scene!, by Dee Dee McNeil

“…refracting his interest in chamber music’s precision through the prism of jazz’s requirement for breathing room” – the tonearm, by Lawrence Peryer

“Each member contributes their own voice, and the music flourishes through collective interplay that feels fluid and conversational. It’s like a group of close friends finishing each other’s sentences” – Contemporary Jazz, by John Hilderbrand

“Overall, the word cohesion fits perfectly with the very good “Stars, Engines” both in terms of the group’s bonding and the sequence and matching of its material” – Jazz Buzz, by Vangelis Aragiannis

“Continuing his formal training as a composer, add Argatoff’s experience as a contact dancer, and you get the lyrical, flowing lines and phrases of an authentic artist not afraid to de-couple his instrument from the standard jazz repertoire” – The Whole Note, by Cheryl Ockrant

“…tinctures of harmony and gentleness are balanced with tougher timbres. In a procedure often followed throughout, drum shuffles and string pop stay in the background as a variant of antiphony, while metal bar resonations underline the reed output puffs and pops, snorts and shakes are traded during tune evolution” – JazzWord, by Ken Waxman

“Valley Voice experiments with enigmatic fissures and chimerical raptures, exploring abstract imagery. Mutable and mercurial at every turn, Valley Voice’s arrangements are deftly engineered and intricately twined, spawned from an artistic vision that activates the cerebral senses” – jazz2love

“…Valley Voice is highly suggestive of – never pedantically tied to – Argatoff’s Doukhobor heritage” – Rhythm Changes, by Will Chernoff

“…he founded the acoustic quartet Valley Voice, with a vibraphone instead of the usual piano. The result is once again successful” – Jazz Kompas, by Tomas S. Polivka

Michael Davidson has collaborated with the likes of drummer Joe Chambers, vibraphonist David Friedman, and saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and is a member of noted groups such as Aline’s étoile magique, Allison Au’s Migration, Clock Radio, Joe Chambers, Virtuoso guitarist and composer David Occhipinti’s Camera ensemble, The Ryan Driver Sextet and Andrew Downing’s Otterville. Jazz Journal called his playing “as sensuously immediate, yet questing, as it is both structurally rigorous and open in poetic effect.”

Dan Fortin‘s eclecticism has led him to work with a wide variety of artists in the jazz, rock and pop worlds, including Bernice, Aline’s étoile magique, The Allison Au Quartet, Emilie-Claire Barlow, Laila Biali, Will Bonness, Harley Card, Kieran Daly, Tara Davidson, Alex Goodman, Jon Gordon, Ethan Iverson, July Talk, Abigail Lapell, Andy Milne, Mike Murley, Queer Songbook Orchestra and many others. He’s been lucky enough to play at a number of great international venues, including Cafe Oto, Smalls, SFJAZZ Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival, Sunset/Sunside, JazzDock, The Cotton Club (Tokyo), Jamboree, and Jimmy Glass. Fortin co-leads the trio MYRIAD3 and has also released three albums as a leader, including last year’s Cannon (2024, Elastic Recordings)

Award-winning drummer Ian Wright is known as a member of the Autobahn Trio, Local Talent, and BROS as well as the bands of Emily Rockarts, Sammy Jackson, Kellylee Evans, Jeff LaRochelle and Kalya Ramu. He’s also been heard alongside Kellylee Evans, Uri Caine, Phil Dwyer, Roberto Occhipinti, Rich Brown, Franky Rousseau, Kelly Jefferson, Nancy Walker, David Occhipinti, and Tara Kannangara. Notable appearances include CBC Radio Q, the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC), Atina Jazz Festival (Italy), Sone (Japan), National Arts Centre (Ottawa), National Music Centre (Calgary), CBC Music Festival, the TD Ottawa International Jazz Festival, Coastal Jazz, Toronto Jazz Festival, as well as the Montreal and Halifax Jazz Festivals both of which nominated him for awards.

Harrison Argatoff‘s varied creative practice draws from his study of jazz, classical, and free-improvised music as well as his own deep and idiosyncratic curiosity. His past discography includes Dreaming Hears the Still (2018), a duet with pianist Noah Franche-Nolan, Trout in Swimwear (2020) by jazz quartet Harrison Squared, which also features two of Canada’s foremost jazz musicians: Mike Murley and Steve Wallace. Solo saxophone record Toronto Streets Tour (2020), documents a project where Harrison performed thirty consecutive concerts in various public spaces while Ontario 559 West (2020), presents fifteen short compositions that fuse jazz and folk sensibilities.