feature photo: Parmida Vand
When Edmonton, Alberta native David Riddel set out to make his second long player, it ended up being perhaps a little more ambitious than he originally intended. A concept album he composed around a dark folktale, Ridell incorporated parts of Maurice Ravel, Bjork and his Dutch guitar mentor Reinier Baas. That concept grew into an actual story behind the compositions, and all the added ambition that a fully formed tale can bring back into the music.
The Consumption: A Tragic Folktale in Six Parts is a ten track song cycle and to carry out this vision, Riddel called upon his Dr. Purgatory band, a septet full of polished veterans from the Toronto jazz scene: Ridell, Colleen Allen, Andrew Downing, Noam Lemish, Aline Homzy, Stefan Hegerat and Conrad Gluch. The Consumption: A Tragic Folktale in Six Parts is also a forty-page illustrated novella, paired with each purchase of the vinyl record.
The Consumption incorporates elements of chamber jazz, rock and other inputs even as it reaches out to these other styles firmly grounded in the mainstream jazz tradition. As typical for themed albums, each song plays like a discreet chapter connected together by narrative thread. “The Muddy River to Nowhere” is a chapter where Riddel particularly draws inspiration from the former teacher Baas, and it’s one of the more aggressive, stimulating and dynamic compositions of the album.
A live performance of “The Muddy River to Nowhere” premieres in the video above, which is a good illustration of the sizable capabilities of Dr. Purgatory.
Beginning with chiming trill performed jointly by piano and guitar, the song quickly launches into a drum ‘n’ bass throb, and Lemish solos first with a fetching pattern until the next trill signals the choral cascade of saxes and violin. The next time sparks Riddel’s turn trading fours with Allen on alto sax, a highlight of not just the song but the whole album.
The Consumption: A Tragic Folktale in Six Parts will be available for sale on Friday, March 21st 2025.
