Jordan Officer to showcase fourth album at Grove Hall

With a new album inspired by road trips throughout the southern United States, Jordan Officer will be pulling into more familiar territory as he brings his unique interpretation of the blues, jazz, country and rock’n’roll back home to the Valley with a stop in Huntingdon on May 19. Having spent much of his childhood in Franklin Centre, the musician, composer, singer and producer has made it a tradition to stop in for a visit with his dad, who still lives in the area, while playing to a sold-out audience of locals packed into Grove Hall. And, the local shows are good shows. “There’s a nice vibe there,” he says of the performing arts centre, before suggesting there is another reason Grove Hall stands out for him as a venue. It was while touring for his 2014 release, “I’m Free”, that he played his first show at Grove Hall with drummer Alain Bergé. “The chemistry was instant,” he says, and Bergé has toured with him ever since. Fourth solo album Chemistry is important to Officer. When he started to come up with material for this latest and fourth solo album, an objective from the start was to collaborate once more with Charley Drayton, a multi-instrumentalist and producer who has worked with the likes of Keith Richards, Miles Davis and Neil Young. “I learned so much working with him and he had so much to offer,” says Officer, of their collaboration on “I’m Free”. The pair were in touch over a year and a half ago and a back and forth ensued. In the meantime, Officer, who lives in Montreal, started to sample some of his new stuff at the iconic Barfly dive. When the time came, the album was put together and recorded in New York during one fervent week. “There was something about that intensity that was great for the music,” he says. “It really puts you in the moment and there is an immediacy to the music,” he explains. “I enjoyed that pressure – it gets you in touch with what the essentials are of the song.” The resulting album, entitled ‘Three Rivers’, was drawn from his experience travelling in the southern United States through areas so important to the styles of music he plays but that he had never had the opportunity to visit. He admits, that in an era where music is essentially global, he is fascinated by the geography of the music that has inspired his career. The road trip brought him in touch with the actual distance between so many legendary cities and regions that played a role in the evolution of the blues, jazz and country music. “I listen to it in a new way now that I have been there,” he says. Taking nothing for granted Having debuted twenty years ago at the Montreal International Jazz Festival in 1998 with the Susie Arioli Band, he will be back this July to showcase “Three Rivers”. Subsequent shows are planned throughout Quebec, as well as in Europe and for the first time, across the border in the USA. On his work as a solo artist, he is quick to suggest how appreciative he is of his career. “I don’t take it for granted at all. It blows me away I get to do this,” he says, of sharing his music and especially live experiences with new audiences with each show. Presented by Culture – Haut-Saint-Laurent, Jordan Officer will be playing Grove Hall in Huntingdon on May 19. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased in advance online at www.grovehall.ca.