Bands

NOMA

Tom Walsh formed NOMA in 1989.

NOMA II, driving its own hybrid design, plays the radio dial as a keyboard programmed to surf style. Highlighting the group’s unorthodox instrumentation with stop-on-a-dime arrangements, Walsh & Company are evolving a repertoire and playing vocabulary unmatched in modern music. NOMA acts as a harmonic de-scaler for Canadian Jazz.

NOMA plays sneaky music. Beginning as a sextet (2 gtr-2 dms-keys-tbone) in Toronto, NOMA later evolved to feature up to eleven members (3 gtr-2 bss-3 dms-keys-reeds-tbone) in two cities: TO & Montreal.

Quickly achieving “cult status” nationally, NOMA mushroomed outside the existing “petri-dish” of Canadian Avante Garde, as poet Michael Ondaatje, singer Mary Margaret O’Hara (both featured on the CD, Climbing the Waltz) and Juno-winner Richard Underhill jumped into the mix...a mix which, in hindsight, now seems to have foreshadowed modern DJ culture. Experiments dividing “cells” of the larger group in concert would sometimes find two mini-NOMAs “scratching” with each other live!

NOMA’s reminder: Only living musicians can bring us truly modern sounds ... all else is photoshopped!

NOMA‘s very instrumentation even began to reflect the music’s own “spiraling” growth, becoming modular; collapse/expandable...

NOMA science weds Ornette Coleman with Cecil Taylor... in Marshall MacLuhan’s laboratory... only in Canada, you say? By 1994, Americans Don Preston (Zappa), Bern Nix and Al MacDowell (Ornette Coleman) and Vinny Golia (ROVA Sax Choir) were joining NOMA’s explorations. NOMA’s Canadian roots even sprouted smaller groups as they literally grew across borders into Quebec in the late 90’s.

In 2000, NOMA reformed as a streamlined seven piece double trio (gtr-bss-dms x 2 + bone) based exclusively in Montreal. Diversion, NOMA’s just-released CD (Ambiances Magnetiques) testifies to the present group’s seasoned discoveries. The voice is mature; the musicianship, superb.

PHAT HED

Formed in 2000, Phat Hed Trio has shared the stage with Montréal’s NOMA & New York’s Sex Mob. Lately, trombonists Wolter Wierbos (Amsterdam) & NYC’s Steve Swell have joined Walsh & Co. adventures in 2002 concert productions for Traqu’enart & the Montréal Jazz Fest.

Walsh originally formed Phat Hed to work ‘in vitro’ with modular portions of the larger NOMA’s more demanding compositions; i.e. breaking the double trio into electric & acoustic trios to find the heart of each song.

The group’s tenor/bass colors have since evolved into a unique voice, featuring driving grooves, extended techniques and above all a sense of humor and irreverence. There is no icon or no style of music too rare to be brought into the recipe book.

Phat Hed has unearthed Jazz roots & aims to follow the vein.