There is a sound you may notice if you listen to Loreena McKennitt, Michael Occhipinti, Bruce Cockburn, or Mercan Dede -- all Canadians, by the way, or in Mercan’s case, partly Canadian at least. You may notice the same kind of sound when you pay attention to the music in the background of any number of films, a sound that can be eerily fantastic, softly meditative, or soaringly emotive, the sound of Hugh Marsh, the great (also Canadian) improvisational jazz violinist. What always strikes me about Hugh’s music, wherever I hear it or think about hearing it, is its rightness. His music always feels absolutely right (in somewhat the same way Emmylou’s voice always does) in its sensitivity to sound and situation, but it does more than that; its magic is the way it consistently extends the range and the depth of what is possible in the piece you are listening to.
We first saw Hugh Marsh perform back in the 90's at the Rebecca Cohn in Halifax. We didn't go to the concert to hear Hugh; in fact, we hadn’t even heard of him and had driven with our kids (who were becoming young adults by then) from Truro to see a Loreena McKennitt concert, around the time of The Mask and the Mirror. It was a nice hall for a concert, not too big, good sound, a friendly spot, and Loreena looked wonderfully medieval with her long blond hair, her slender fingers plucking the harp, and her ethereal voice exploring those richly textured songs with tall (electronic) candles flaring all around the stage. It was a fine show that really captured the great sound of her songs, but one thing that truly stood out for all of us was the catlike presence of the violinist in the band. It was impossible as you watched him play not to pick out from all the threads of the music his distinctive sound and the way it danced with and around all the other sounds of each piece. That was Hugh.
Lorraine and I saw him again a few years later when we happened upon a noonday concert down at the waterfront during the Atlantic Jazz Festival. Here was a tight little jazz band, led by Michael Occhipinti and his guitar, playing pieces from Creation Dream, Occhipinti’s melodic exploration of Bruce Cockburn’s songs, and our hearts lifted again at the sight and sound of Hugh and his athletic violin. For the rest of the Festival we were like stalkers, tracking down every performance and workshop to get more of the band and more of Hugh’s musical intelligence and emotion. We bought the cd and listened to it often, and I can still remember later that summer, while I was sitting at sunset in our rented Trans Am down a little road in Halfmoon Bay, watching the silhouette of a heron standing on a huge log boom and waiting for darkness to fall enough for Lorraine to finish the photograph she was making, the soft lament of Hugh’s violin in the ending of "Homme Brûlant" and the wonder of the music he was making.
Finally, after we moved to Istanbul, we listened to various works by Mercan Dede, the young Sufi composer and player, and heard in the textures of all the voices and sounds Mercan collaborates with, the unmistakable violin of our Hugh. We went to several Mercan Dede concerts, including one featuring songs from Su at Yeni Melek (The New Angel) where Hugh was in the audience but not on the stage, but never managed to catch his appearances with Mercan. However, his sound is there, it is available, it can be heard, so check it out. Here is a nice little vignette with Steve Bell. You too can become a Hugh Marsh follower!
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