October Songs brings together pianist and composer Brian Dickinson with the renowned Penderecki String Quartet in a refined and deeply expressive collaboration that bridges chamber music and contemporary jazz. A central figure in the Canadian jazz scene for over three decades, Dickinson presents a program of original compositions that explore texture, mood, and melodic development through the interplay of piano and strings. Joined by saxophonist Kelly Jefferson and bassist Jim Vivian, the ensemble creates a rich, layered sound that moves fluidly between composed structure and improvisational nuance.
The album’s centerpiece is the three-part suite “October Songs,” a work that unfolds with cinematic pacing and emotional depth, capturing the shifting tones and introspective atmosphere suggested by its title. Throughout the recording, Dickinson’s piano serves as both anchor and guide, weaving through the quartet’s arrangements with clarity and restraint while allowing space for subtle dialogue between instruments. Jefferson’s saxophone adds warmth and lyrical contrast, while Vivian’s bass grounds the ensemble with understated precision.
Closing the album is Dickinson’s orchestration of William Walton’s “Touch Her Soft Lips and Part,” a piece that reinforces the project’s connection to classical tradition while highlighting the ensemble’s sensitivity and cohesion. October Songs stands as a sophisticated exploration of chamber jazz, offering a carefully balanced blend of composition and improvisation that emphasizes tone, atmosphere, and expressive detail.
Although I have not had the good fortune to perform with the great pianist Brian Dickinson often, I do remember one opportunity in Vancouver that was both memorable and instructive. Between tunes, the band fielded questions from an audience that was comprised largely of music students. After one particularly inspired cascading passage of improvised up-tempo 16th notes by Dickinson, a student asked the Canadian pianist how he approached these sorts of speedy extemporizations. His answer, which was both practical and hilariously banal, was that one should take all the musical language that one knows how to do using eighth notes and simply play them twice as fast. I have learned a lot from Brian over the years, both as a colleague at work, but also by listening to him play live, and I found this advice to be eminently prudent.
Chemistry is the key to performance by a duo – particularly if the instruments are flugelhorn and piano.
THE BRIAN DICKINSON QUINTET
We are going to start our reviews off with Brian Dickinson and Ted Quinlan’s “Around the Bend”. Released by Addo Records in the fall of 2010, once you put this album in your car, its never coming out. Featuring Dickinson on the Piano, and Quinlan on the Guitar, the album presents compositions by both musicians respectively. One of our favourite songs on the album is “Vibrolux”, a composition by Quinlan, originally featured on his debut album “Streetscape” (review to come). Despite our love for the original recording, Dickinson adds a whole knew element to the piece with his piano playing. Like all the songs on the album, “Vibrolux” is well organized with Quinlan and Dickinson taking turns soloing and playing the rhythm. Another song on the album to note is “Love theme from “Sparticus””, a song originally composed by master pianist Bill Evans. Our favourite part of the song is the introduction, which begins with Dickinson on the piano. As the piano progresses, Quinlan joins in on the guitar creating a beautiful harmony that you may have to stop and rewind to listen to over and over. We believe that this album should be added to any jazz lover’s “must have” list. A link to the album on itunes can be found below. Ted and Brian, you two truly know how to make beautiful music.
Toronto pianist Brian Dickinson let more than two decades go by between the release of his two trio albums. In 1993, he put out the standards-heavy Live At The Senator. And while there have been duo, quartet and other discs in the years after, it wasn’t until last year that Dickinson, who is now in his mid-50s, released the studio trio CD Fishs Eddy. That impeccably recorded album was in the running for a Juno Award this year, and with good reason. It’s a rich and revealing collection of music from an assured and lucid pianist who could already burn in the early 1990s, but who’s in his prime now. Featuring Dickinson along with the A-list American bassist George Mraz and the young but mature-beyond-his-years Toronto drummer Ethan Ardelli, Fishs Eddy is a gorgeous and substantial listen. Between its two standards and six originals, the disc reflects the influence of two of Dickinson’s main heroes — Richie Beirach, who taught him for two years when Dickinson lived in the U.S., and Bill Evans, who informs some of Dickinson’s harmonic choices and echoes in his lyricism. The standards — I Loves You Porgy, which opens the disc, and the mid-way track Never Let Me Go — are lush ballads that Evans notably elevated. Dickinson, Mraz and Ardelli do the great material proud. In the distinctive and finely wrought originals, you can often hear an appreciation of Beirach’s piquant, post-Evans harmonies. Mraz, who played with Beirach and recorded on some of his classic early 1980s albums, is a perfect fit on Fishs Eddy, and it seems as if Dickinson sought to maximize the bass great’s participation, assigning him arco lead duties on the theme of the waltzing pieces Delaware Daze and Limbo. On other tracks, it’s often Mraz’s commanding bass that takes the first solo. Other highlights include the straight-eighths title track, with its sunny and then knotty feels, and the surging piece Gateway. As compositions and performances, both expertly blend musical complexity and emotional directness. Dickinson recently told me that his next project will feature two saxophones, tenor saxophonist Kelly Jefferson and alto player Luis Deniz. “A Crosscurrents sort of band,” Dickinson wrote me, referring to pianist Evans’ 1978 album with hornmen Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh. I have high hopes for this album, of course. But let’s hope that Dickinson doesn’t stall too long before putting out his third trio disc. As a composer and a player, he obviously flourishes in that format too.
