Dec. 02, 2009 - Issue #737: Climate Crossroads

PJ Perry

Jazz veteran branches out with his own songs

You wouldn't think there's much PJ Perry hasn't tried. Canada's premiere bebop saxophonist, he picked up his first instrument when he was seven, was playing in his father's big band by the time he was 14 and has spent his life hopping around Canada and the world, playing with Tommy Banks in his hometown and garnering a cabinetful of honours for his work, from a Juno to an honourary doctorate to a lifetime achievement award from the City of Edmonton to commemorate his importance in the local jazz scene.

But despite more than a half-century of playing and nine recordings to his name, there was still something fairly new for Perry to try out on his latest album, Nota Bene: putting some of his own songs on record.

"I've been very leery about writing tunes," Perry says with a voice as crisp and concise as his playing. "There's so many great songs that other people have written, it took me a while to get the confidence to perform my own material. I'm just naturally reticent, but that's starting to wane: my life is a lot more conducive to writing these days."

So while Nota Bene still includes classics from the likes of Charlie Parker and Irving Berlin, it's about half Perry originals, sharp little bebop numbers that wear their influences on the reed while still retaining Perry's distinctive voice. And while they kept him from writing his own songs for so long, Perry says he couldn't have perfected the sound that he's developed without his long apprenticeship with the jazz classics.

"I've got this incredible bank of melodic knowledge stored in my subconscious," admits Perry. "There isn't really anything original under the sun, and the most that I can hope to achieve, I think, would be a reinvention of things in my own fashion. I'm not setting the world on fire with a brand new direction, but I've found a voice in jazz, and that will have to do: I'm a slow learner, but I feel stronger now than I've ever felt." V

Thu, Dec 10 (8 pm)
PJ Perry
Yardbird Suite, $10 – $15

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