In The Moment.
Perfect name for a jazz CD, don't you think?
It personifies spontaneity and improvisation. Now it also stands for quality and class.
In The Moment is the name of a CD released last year by Mississauga jazz bassist Pat Collins. It's a beauty that contains searching, honest music filled with harmonic shifts and a thing that seems to have gone out of style in too many sub-genres of jazz, melody.
The CD is so good that it's just been nominated as best album of the year for the National Jazz Awards (www.nationaljazzawards.com).
Collins, who has lived in Mississauga for about 15 years, is also nominated as bassist of the year.
Maybe the reason that this music is so compelling is that it's been welling up in Collins for so very long. The full-time faculty member at Mohawk College (labour disputes aside) has played on about 50 albums by his count and has performed with the likes of Diana Krall, Dizzy Gillespie, Tal Farlow, Joe Henderson, Shirley Eikhard, Oliver Jones, Jimmy Cobb, Lee Konitz, Peter Appleyard, Rob McConnell etc. In other words, lots of players of the first rank.
He's the regular bassist of choice for Denzal Sinclaire, whom Collins calls, "the best singer in the world."
In an interview at his Levi Creek home, Collins said that writing started coming naturally to him when he stopped trying to force it.
"I was trying to write something I wasn't necessarily hearing. I tried to be true to myself and things have worked out better since then," he said.
Of course, having saxophonist Mike Murley, drummer Barry Elmes and guitarist Reg Schwager in the band doesn't hurt the product. The nine tunes he penned for the CD came out differently than he envisioned, but he's more than pleased with the results.
There are numerous influences on Collins' playing, including, rather surprisingly, a guitar player.
"Ed Bickert really influenced the way I play," said Collins. "Everything he plays is musical. The amazing thing about Ed (who's no longer playing unfortunately) is that in every solo, he would surprise you with something. He would always pull something different on you and that's what improvising is all about."
Among his bass heroes are the late Ray Brown, with whom Collins got to spend time and play golf a couple of times.
"It's neat when you get to meet your heroes and they turn out to be nice people," he said.
One of his idols is Paul Chambers, the bassist who died far too early after seminal work with Miles Davis and John Coltrane. The two share initials as well as a passion for the instrument.
"If you were to take his solos and play them on another instrument, they would still sound great," said Collins. "He transcended the bass in terms of melodic concept. He shaped the way bass players have played for the last 60 years."
Collins laughs when he's asked about the tremendous stable of jazz bassists in Toronto, including his fellow Mississaugan Kieran Overs, the man he once replaced in Moe Koffman's orchestra.
"There are too many good ones," he said. "We all know each other and we all get along really well, and we all play differently. I love going out and hearing the other guys play."
Of course, you can't talk to a Mississauga jazz guy and not ask about Oscar.
It turns out that, growing up in B.C. with the great saxophonist Phil Dwyer (they've known each other since they were 4), the pair were fascinated with Peterson.
"We would put on Oscar records, get excited about them and try to figure out what was going on," said Collins.
In 1997, a long way from Mississauga where they were both living, Collins got his chance to play with the good doctor. Oscar needed a bassist on short notice for a concert in Chicago and someone at York University, where Peterson was once chancellor, recommended Collins.
"That's the most nervous I've ever been in my life," recalls the bassist," whose wife Sherri heads the music department at the Cawthra Park School of the Arts. "My knees were literally shaking at the beginning of that concert. But I was fine after playing the first few bars."
Peterson "was a complete gentleman" who sent flowers to Sherri, who was pregnant at the time and then sent a gift of baby clothes when the couple's son Matthew was born. There are songs on the album for Matthew, who suggested his Dad write a song called Trigalory and for son Daniel, 7. His song is called Siwash, because he's into whales.
One of the problems for jazz musicians is the shrinking opportunities to play, as clubs like the Top of the Senator meet their demise.
So give yourself a treat and go see Collins and his quartet play Monday, March 27 at the Montreal Bistro beginning at 9 p.m.