It was a question of names – and numbers – when the Titanium Trio played in Ottawa on Sunday, January 22.

Toronto trumpeter Lina Allemano had composed all the material for the group – which also includes drummer Nick Fraser (originally from Ottawa) and bassist Rob Clutton – in one celebratory gulp last spring, but she hadn't originally given the pieces any individual names. For a while, she was referring to them as #1 to #10 (the equivalent of a classical composer having concertos 1 to 10), although she eventually named about half.

But for most of this show, the titles didn't give the audience much of a hint of what to expect. The first set, for example, consisted of #2, #4, #7 (aka Bagpipe), and #3.

What the audience actually heard was a tight collaboration among all three players. There was a considerable dynamic range: Clutton's Fender electric bass provided a warm, strong underlayer, from he which he regularly emerged with intricate but understated rhythmic patterns.

Allemano and Fraser provided a constantly varying and interesting dialogue on top. Fraser's drumming moved from the lightest touches with brushes on cymbals, to staccato and fierce. Allemano's trumpet curlicued, called out, moved from intense fast riffs to slow, full lines, and even echoed a Mingus piece at one point.

The overall mood was introspective and almost elegiac, but each piece included a large portion of improvisation and innovation. The musicians occasionally even surprised themselves when they came to a somewhat unexpectedly fast ending on a couple pieces, or restarted in another direction.

At several points, Allemano used a 1930s-style bucket mute to achieve a particularly sonorous, warm sound unlike that created by a regular mute. And then she went one step further near the end, using a soft drink can (filled with small rattling pieces) as a mute to create an interestingly breathy sound.

The audience appear to follow along smoothly with the musicians, listening intently to the music, and responding with warm applause at the end. The concert was part of the Improvising Musicians of Ottawa-Outaouais (IMOO) series, and attracted some Ottawa jazz fans who had not attended IMOO concerts before.

    – Alayne McGregor

See also: The Titanium Trio: a different sound each time

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The SSS Trio (Sean Duhaime - guitar, Sacha Contant-Nagy - drums, Stefan Ferraro - electric bass) are hosting Wednesday Jazz nights this month at Café Nostalgica.  On January 11, 2012, the trio was joined by saxophonist Daniel Ko, on his Christmas break from Berklee.  The hard-working group filled the evening with with music ranging from jazz standards to Beatles, and a few of Sean's originals. Mid-evening, the In-young Choung Trio played a short set, to give the group a well-deserved break. In-young and Renée Yoxon both joined in on vocals with the SSS Trio as well.

You can catch the SSS Trio on Wednesday nights in January. View our event listing

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It was a competition for the most unusual "musical" sound at IMOO on December 4, as a quartet of Ottawa improvising musicians and regular IMOO performers took the stage. Listeners who closed their eyes to focus only on the sounds of this show would surely have been challenged to understand what they were hearing.

Linsey Wellman played percussion with his music stand and metal water bottle, but mostly he stuck to alto sax and bass clarinet, having fun getting unusual sounds, including perhaps the appropriate Mooing of a cow, out of those, more conventional, instruments. Following Linsey's moove, one could imagine a farm coming to life in the following minutes.

Double bassist Philippe Charbonneau was a serious contender with his wire clothes hanger vibrating and being used to bow his bass strings.

Trumpeter Craig Pedersen upped the ante when he borrowed Charbonneau's bow and used it to coax notes out of the bell of his trumpet and flugelhorn. He got even more points for borrowing one of drummer Scott Warren's brushes, and using them to brush his trumpet, then mooving over to the side of Charbonneau's bass.

But the winner had to be Warren himself, when he brought out a roll of packing tape and did his best to control the crackling, squealing sounds coming out of what everyone (including himself) agreed was by far the least controllable instrument in the room. But definitely the one that riveted everyone's eyes and which he had the most fun with.

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