Charles Papasoff

[JSngry]

A good friend hipped me to PAPASOFF, a side on Red Toucan with the all-star lineup of Bakida Carroll, Santi DiBriano, & Pheeroan AkLaff, all of whom sound like they came to play, the focal point of the album.

I confess ignorance of Papasoff, but I found his playing to be appealing. Not extremely "deep", but definitely forceful, controlled, and honest. I was also impressed by how his "sidemen" responded on what is, I think, a "debut" album - no skating going on here!

If anybody's wondering, the music is largely what I would call "accessible avant-garde", what is going to be the "new mainstream", if it isn't already. Carroll in particular comes out swinging, literally and figuratively. What a fine player is he! He's a trumpeter that I would think would appeal to many in these parts. But truthfully, so is this entire band, and so is this album.

Any information/further recs on Papasoff would be most welcome. I'm particularly intrigued after reading about INTERNATIONAL BARITONE CONSPIRACY on AMG (and not because of Thom Jurek's reveiew either!).

[JSngry]

Nobody knows Papasoff?

[Nate Dorward]

Jim--I've seen him play twice (some years ago in Halifax, NS). Pretty good concerts, both of them, though for one of them the bassist was experimenting with some kind of annoying miniature/travel bass (halfway through he gave up & went to the back & dug out a real bass). Papasoff's based in Montreal; haven't heard much of him lately.

(You don't mention his instrument explicitly in your post, but it's baritone sax.)

[JSngry]

Yeah, mostly bari, but on this Red Toucan disc, he also plays flute and soprano as well. Good sound on all of them, obviously a very well-practiced musician who's applying his abilies to good ends.

No recent activity, eh? What's up with that, is Montreal turning into Dallas?