Martine Courage’s debut disc filled with buoyant, fun surprises (album review)

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Things Are Looking Up! (self-released)
Courage 4

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I get sent a lot of albums from jazz vocalists. For all their polish and reverence for the jazz tradition, they can feel a bit cookie-cutter,  especially when taken en masse. Things Are Looking Up!, the debut album from Ottawa pianist-vocalist Martine Courage, is anything but that.

While a spot or two may lack polish, Courage’s recording is disarmingly unique and as fun as it is authentic. If you value these musical attributes, you’ll dig Things Are Looking Up!

Although Courage is a federal senior policy analyst by day, she’s a fine musician with a natural and welcome jazz feel to her delivery and a penchant for left-of-centre reworkings of well-worn material. Supported by her partner, multi-instrumentalist  and arranger Rob Frayne, Courage makes a splash with buoyant, homespun music that grabs from pop and funk to make its jazz more effervescent.

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Things Are Looking Up! is a bit of a grab bag. The core band consists of Courage, bassist Scott White, drummer Mike Essoudry and violinist Laura Nerenberg. But special guests abound, and they add distinctive solos and sonic breadth to an album of concise, sweet surprises. Some tracks are clearly studio creations, while others were recorded at an October 2019 gig at the Happy Goat Coffee Co. location on Laurel Street.

The album begins by taking If I Only Had A Brain and making it more whimsical, setting it to a groovy beat augmented by tambourine, pedal steel guitar swells and a saucy horn section. It’s a good bet that Frayne had a hand in this, as the last thing his own musical projects are is ordinary. More often they’re eccentrically good — see also the funky excursion on Things Are Looking Up! that is Just Friends, elevated by Dave Bignell’s guitar.

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Courage does slow and sultry well. The beseeching qualities of You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To and What Is This Thing Called Love are natural fits for her voice and style. Both tracks feature alto saxophonist Zakari Frantz’s smooth and eloquent solos. He’s a foil to Nerenberg’s more instinctive, less jazz-schooled contributions.