René Gely came to Ottawa a few years ago, after living in cities around the world. He often plays jazz, but his musical interests are far wider than that – and that's particularly evident with his group Pulse Mondiale, which will be appearing at the NAC Fourth Stage on Thursday, February 2. The show opens the 2012 Ottawa Winter Jazz Festival.

There's a bit of jazz, there's some Brazilian music, there's Hungarian melodies: Pulse Mondiale's sound is an amalgam of many influences, but the overall feel is warm and friendly. It's defined, if anything, by Gely's vocals and guitar and Rob Graves' wide range of percussion, but it also can encompass many other instruments, as you can hear on Pulse Mondiale's most recent album, Testament, released in December, 2010.

OttawaJazzScene.ca editor Alayne McGregor talked with Gely recently about Pulse Mondiale and how it came about, what to expect at the concert, and his future plans. The interview is available as a podcast [mp3, 21 min] , and we've also transcribed it here.

Read more: Pulse Mondiale warms up the Winter 2012 Ottawa Jazz Festival

The debate that defined Ottawa jazz and improvised music in 2011 was about musical boundaries.

It  was both positive and negative. On the good side was an increasing permeability among Ottawa music genres, where, for example, the members of the Souljazz Orchestra could team up up with singer Slim Moore and create a whole new side project of soul music with a jazz sensibility. Or Mike Essoudry's Mash Potato Mashers could mash up many genres and come up with their second album of danceable, marchable music which could be called jazz or several other genres as well. Or the Capital Vox Jazz Choir and the Capital Youth Jazz Orchestra could fill Dominion Chalmers United Church with an audience eager to hear jazz versions of Beatles tunes.

Each of those projects brought new listeners and highly listenable music to the scene, even while each of those groups didn't abandon their jazz roots and their jazz projects.

On the more controversial side, there were the three non-jazz headliners at the 2011 Ottawa Jazz Festival. Because the Festival promoted these acts so heavily, and  because they all played in the first few days, they became the focus and the face of the Festival – and raised questions among fans and in the media about the Jazz Festival's commitment to jazz.

Read more: Our 2011 recap: jazz and improvisation probe the boundaries in Ottawa

When Toronto trumpeter Lina Allemano, drummer Nick Fraser, and bassist Rob Clutton visit Ottawa on Sunday, January 22, their concert will be a one-off.

Not in terms of visiting this city, or playing together: it's that their group, the Titanium Trio, specializes in constant reinterpretation of their music. "What listeners can expect is they're going to get something unique, for sure, because we'll never play it the same way twice," Allemano told OttawaJazzScene.ca. "That's a cool thing: sometimes it's scary but it's exciting."

The trio plays Allemano's compositions, but "a lot of it is improvised after we've stated the tune. The arrangement is improvised, and so, that way, each time we play the same tune it will be quite different depending on a lot of things: how everyone's feeling, or where we're playing, or whatever's been happening."

 Which could be considered quite normal, for a group inspired by an unexpected trauma and the need to find enough musicians for a club date.

The "titanium" in the group's name comes from a large plate and six screws in Allemano's wrist, inserted after she broke her wrist last year. That meant she couldn't play for several months because she couldn't move her fingers. When her rehabilitation was complete and she was back to playing, she was "super-excited": "[I felt like] 'I want to write tons of music, and I want to play all the time' ... If you can't do something and then when you get the chance to do it, then it seems even more wonderful, I guess."

Read more: The Titanium Trio: a different sound each time

The January 14 concert in John Geggie's Invitational series will feature Toronto guitarist David Occhipinti and American trumpeter Ron Miles. While Miles appeared at the Ottawa Jazz Festival in 2010, Occhipinti has not been in Ottawa since a single concert with Roddy Ellias in 2009 (and a few jazz festival appearances before that).

Which has been Ottawa's loss, as Occhipinti has been continuing to compose for both his own and other groups. While his music has been described as chamber jazz, it crosses musical boundaries. It's neither loud nor flashy, but intricate and clear, and repays careful listening. Lately, while he is still actively playing jazz, he has moved more into the chamber music realm, composing for groups like the Madawaska String Quartet. This spring, he will unveil his own chamber music ensemble playing his compositions.

He is also part of a four-guitar jazz quartet, together with Roddy Ellias (Ottawa) and Ted Quinlan (Toronto), which will be presenting one of its first concerts in Ottawa in early March.

Occhipinti, who studied with jazz guitar innovator Jim Hall in the 1990s, teaches guitar and ensembles at the University of Toronto and Humber College. He has released four CDs leading his own quartet or trio: the most recent, Forty Revolutions (2007), was nominated for a Juno Award in the contemporary jazz category. He has also collaborated with saxophonist Mike Murley on two CDs: the first, Duologue, was nominated for a Juno Award in 2003.

And most importantly for Ottawa audiences looking forward to the Geggie concert, Occhipinti has a wealth of experience playing together with bass and trumpet, and in improvisation and experimentation. And a sense of humour...

Read more: David Occhipinti: beyond categories