Vancouver is full of Canadian jazz artists every bit as exciting as the monster stars who play at the Orpheum for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival each year. Artists like Eli Bennett, for instance.
A 35-time award-winning jazz saxophonist, Leo-nominated film composer, and D’Addario Woodwinds Performing Artist, Bennett has played at the Grammy’s and alongside greats like Oscar Peterson, Dave Holland, and Terence Blanchard.
And no, despite his venerable background, Bennett is not a wise old man of Canadian jazz. He just released his first album, Breakthrough, in October 2014, and kicked off his first Canadian tour with a set at the Italian Culture Centre with the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in June.
Bennett credits his musician and composer father Daryl Bennett for giving him a step up in the music industry. The two have been composing film scores together long enough for Bennett to have over 30 credits to his name; plus, Bennett began to tag along with his father and the Powder Blues Band when was just 15. “I would have to enter through the back door of clubs and stay behind the stage,” Bennett said. “But when I was allowed to walk through clubs, I was used to it already. That was quite cool.”
Bennett also considers himself lucky to have a band that gels both musically and personally. The Eli Bennett Quartet’s connections go way back. Bennett and keyboardist D’Arcy Myronuk jammed together while Bennett was still in high school and Myronuk was on summer break from the University of Toronto jazz program. When Bennett himself headed east to Humber College on a full music scholarship, he met drummer Fabio Ragnelli the day he arrived. They instantly clicked and have played together ever since.
Ragnelli, who now lives in New York, was Bennett’s natural go-to when he decided to form a band. Bennett also tapped his West Coast connection Myronuk who plays with Dione Taylor and the R&B group Soular in Toronto. “We just called him up and said ‘D’Arcy come do a session,’ and it turned into this band,” Bennett said.
When Bennett had trouble finding a bassist, Ragnelli suggested Torontonian Jon Maharaj who plays with Juno Award winning jazz vocalist Emilie Claire Barlow. The four got together for a week of rehearsals before recording Breakthrough in April 2014, and they just gelled. “The music came together at the next level that you can’t fake,” said Bennett. “That’s organic. That just happens when you play with the right people.”
When Bennett picked up Myronuk, Ragnelli, and Maharaj at the Vancouver airport and zipped off to a sound check before hitting the Vancouver International Jazz Festival stage, the four had not seen each other since the release of Breakthrough in October. And yet, their fluid cohesion makes it hard to believe they have been together for not much more than a handful of performances.
Their jazz is crafted from tight grooves, peppered with soulful funk and R&B, a muscular touch of rock, wisps of smoky folk, sultry shades of trip hop and acid jazz, and pop melodies swelling with joy and nostalgia. It is a new type of whimsy that I am tempted to call smooth, because of its sophisticated finish, but it has legs and full-bodied complexity.
“What’s important about the album is that I wanted to make improvisation accessible,” said Bennett. “Finding the balance was the challenge. We love to groove, we love to swing,” he added. “We love to connect with our instruments and we love to sing on beautiful melodies. When you combine all those together you get the album.”
With so many stories from so many places to tell, Breakthrough sparkles with the nimble emotions of a free spirit, and, not surprisingly, it is like Bennett himself. The two-time CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award winner says he enjoys the variety of being a composer by day, sideman for the cover band Side One by night, and the switch to sultry jazzista on the weekends or heading out on tour.
Adventurous as Peter Pan, with another album already floating in the back of his mind, Bennett is charting a course toward an ever more distant star as he works on setting up a European tour and producing his own independent film scores for clients in New York and Los Angeles.
For more information, visit elibennett.com.
