Noam Lemish - Twelve
The Noam Lemish 12tet is a nimble, yet powerful ensemble that features a stellar cast that includes many of Canada’s most prominent jazz artists, including multiple JUNO award winners. The newly released album Twelve (2022) presents a captivating set of six original compositions. These pieces stretch the conventional boundaries of the jazz idiom in more ways than one. Pushing jazz structures in new directions, the works showcase inventive, long-form, through-composed music that seamlessly integrates soaring melodies, exquisite large ensemble writing and orchestration with stunning improvised solos. Owing to Lemish’s multi-cultural upbringing and life experiences, the compositions also reveal a musical vision that embraces genre-bending as an essential feature. Lemish’s writing effortlessly blends his rootedness in jazz and western art music with the musical influences of his Israeli childhood and Eastern-European Jewish heritage.
For example, “The Nagila Mayster” (an invented English/Hebrew/Yiddish phrase - meaning Master of Joyfulness) synthesizes lengthy passages in odd-meters prevalent in Eastern Europe with writing that nods simultaneously towards modern jazz, chamber, and orchestral music. In “Beethoven’s 7th Visit to Romania,” Lemish morphs Beethoven’s mournful 7th symphony theme into a spirited, imaginary “folksong.” “Between Utopia and Destruction” transforms two melodies derived from Soviet-Jewish sources - Isaak Dunayevsky’s “Lullaby” from the 1936 film Circus and WWII-era Yiddish-song “Der verter un di shtern”- into a powerfully lyrical and heart-wrenching jazz composition. The latter piece was unearthed in Ukraine from a hidden archive only a few years ago by scholar Anna Shternshis.
The orchestra assembled by Lemish for this recording features an All-Star band from Canada’s contemporary jazz scene, made-up of multiple JUNO award winning musicians: Mike Murley and Kelly Jefferson (tenor sax and soprano sax), Allison Au (alto sax), Kevin Turcotte and Jim Lewis (trumpet), William Carn and Karl Silveira (trombone), Ted Quinlan (guitar), Michael Davidson (vibraphone), Laura Swankey (vocals), Justin Gray (bass), and Derek Gray (drums). Each of these acclaimed artists display their deep musicality and breathtaking virtuosity at every turn. JUNO award winning trombonist/composer/arranger and long-time member of Rob McConnell’s Boss Brass, Terry Promane, serves as musical director and producer for Twelve. Promane’s influence and fine touch firmly ties this production to the rich and distinguished legacy of Canada’s celebrated jazz orchestras. Lemish and his Twelve now add a new and compelling layer of cutting-edge, imaginative large ensemble jazz to this vibrant and colourful tapestry of sound.
