GREG AMIRAULT TRIO

A CHANGE OF PACE

Independent Label

Greg Amirault, guitar/composer; Adrian Vedady, bass; Andre White, drums.

Greg Amirault says that his favorite music format is leading a trio. So, this is a project dear to his heart. His album features six of Amirault’s original compositions and a few standards like the beautiful “I Wish I knew” by Harry Warren and “Besame Mucho.”  They open with Amirault’s tune, “That’s a Fact.”  It’s a slow swing, based on the chord changes of “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” but the melody is all Amirault’s.  The guitarist and composer has completely changed the old standard to something new and fresh.

Based in Canada, Greg Amirault is one of the most significant jazz guitarists and composers in that country.  Amirault has a smooth, warm, inspired style of playing that invites the listeners in, like the hug of a favorite grandfather.

Track #3 “On a Swing” opens with Andre White on drums setting the pace and improvising briefly as a percussive introduction for 8-bars.  Amirault takes a long, creative solo on guitar before trading fours with White. “Ballade Pour La Butte” is a folksy ballad that he wrote to celebrate Acadian Village in Nova Scotia where Greg Amirault grew up. Adrian Vedady, one of Montreal’s most in demand bassists, offers a bass solo that primarily sings the pretty melody.  They arrange the familiar standard “If I had You” as a moderately paced shuffle. It makes me want to ‘swing’ dance.  The trio plays “Besame Mucho” in 5/4 and changes the complexion of the song in a lovely way.  They close with a slow blues, born from an open string guitar riff that Amirault extended into a 12-bar blues.

Greg Amirault has been living, teaching and performing in Montreal, Canada since 1987. He relocated there from La Butte in Nova Scotia, and holds a graduate degree in Jazz Performance and Composition from McGill University. For the past 25-years, he’s been a professor of jazz guitar at McGill and Concordia Universities.  “A Change of Pace” is an album that spotlights Amirault’s composer skills and guitar mastery.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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