Don Scott (left) and Michael HerringKevin Parnell
For the past decade, bassist Michael Herring and guitarist Don Scott have been ranked among the most promising young jazz musicians in Toronto. Their band, Peripheral Vision, celebrates the release of its first CD this week in Toronto, and it marks the duo's maturity as composers, improvisers and bandleaders.
WHY THEY MATTER
Already in their careers, Herring, 32, and Scott, 33, displayed a distinctive approach to jazz, one that emphasizes rhythmic flexibility and freedom while remaining staunchly melodic.
Herring notes that when he and Scott were at the University of Toronto, they absorbed both the lyrical, composition-based approach of Kenny Wheeler and European jazz groups, as well as the visceral, groove-based New York aesthetic promulgated by musicians such as Dave Douglas and Kenny Werner, both of whom taught at the Banff Centre, in Alberta.
"The indie rock scene here is also pervasive, and all of us have played in it to some extent," Herring adds, suggesting that the confluence of influences has given the Toronto scene its own identity. "Maybe we are crossing over with other Toronto musics, instead of worrying about where we are in the continuum of jazz," he says.
HOW THEY GOT TOGETHER
For several years now, Herring has played bass in Scott's quartet, while Scott has played guitar in Herring's band, a sextet called Vertigo. One day, drummer Nick Fraser, who was playing in both bands, asked if the two had ever considered merging bands.
"It made a lot of sense," says Herring. "We were playing similar music, in a similar genre, exactly the same band members. So we stuck 'em together, and it's been great."
"Another reason we put it together," Scott says, "was we had done all this work with Michael's six-piece band. But it seemed to be more of a special-project band, where we could only play maybe once or twice a year, depending on everybody's availability. We thought it would be better to put together a working band that could play more often, and develop the material more."
WHERE THEY'RE GOING
Scott came up with the name Peripheral Vision because he and Herring had been focusing on both long-form compositions and "outside" improvisation. "That's kind of the peripheral side of things, and we had a vision for that," he says, laughing.
Along with Fraser and saxophonist Trevor Hogg, Herring and Scott have already made one tour across Canada, and are planning more. "We really developed our sound," says Scott. "We had three weeks to get the music developed to a high level, and had a great rapport on and off the stage. That's why this band is a little different for us."
"We are working on booking a tour in April, to follow up on what we just did," adds Herring. "We're trying to do all of Canada again, probably next fall, and we're working on getting ourselves over to Europe and down into the States."