Once upon a time- the late 1980s, actually- the Montreal quartet led by pianist Jean Beaudet set the pace for contemporary jazz in Canada. Beaudet's career has been quieter in the years since, but his accomplices in that fabled band, saxophonist Yannick Rieu, drummer Michel Ratté and bassist Normand Guilbeault, have all moved on in heady directions of their own. Guilbeault is the latest on record, taking an unusual quintet of trumpet (Ivanhoe Jolicoeur),trombone (Michel Ouellet), clarinets (Mathieu Bélanger) and drums (Paul Léger) into the studio just two months ago to produce the highly imaginative "Dualismus." (Interesting: both Guilbeault and Rieu have done without a pianist. Indeed, after Beaudet, who?) The band has the look and sometime the sound of the Dave Holland Quintet of the 1980s. Charles Mingus is also a reference point- his Tijuana-tinged Tonight at Noon is one of the CD's eight tunes- altought Guilbeault is a rather less spontaneous band-leader who use the joyous, careering Bélanger clarinet as his lone wild card. There's also an Amerindian influence here that has scant precedent in jazz; Guilbeault's The Wampum Song, in particular, is a remarkable matching of musical cultures and the single most striking performance on this impressive debut CD

MARK MILLER

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