From a B.C. teen's jazz mix tape to touring across Canada: The Kate Wyatt Interview

The Montreal-based jazz pianist and composer is taking her top-tier quartet on the road to play Canada’s jazz festivals.

Published Jun 22, 2023 • 8 minute read

Montreal jazz pianist Kate Wyatt released her debut album, Artifact, in 2022. She is playing Canadian jazz festivals from Victoria to Halifax this summer with her quartet.

Pianist and composer Kate Wyatt is making some of Canada’s most exciting and engrossing small-ensemble jazz these days. It’s a good thing then that music fans across the country will have a chance any day now to hear her top-tier quartet, which includes trumpeter Lex French, bassist Adrian Vedady and drummer Jim Doxas, as the group hits the country’s summer jazz festival circuit.

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Below, Wyatt discusses her musical upbringing, her priorities in music and life, and her esthetic that results in such exploratory but ear-catching jazz.

You’re from Victoria, but you attended McGill University. Tell me about your earliest days as a music lover, pianist and jazz student. What were some of the biggest attractions of music and jazz, and why were they meaningful? What drew you to Montreal for your undergrad?

When I was a teenager living in Victoria I happened to end up at a high school that had a “Career Preparation Jazz Studies” program. In Grade 9 they allowed students to join the jazz band. I played clarinet in the school concert band, and the teacher said that if any clarinetists or flautists wanted to join the jazz band they’d have to learn saxophone (which didn’t interest me… I think I was just too lazy to want to have to learn another instrument!), but then he said that they also needed a piano player, and since I’d had lessons since I was a kid I decided to give it a try.

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Honestly, I think the thing that caught my interest the most about jazz in the beginning was the social aspect of playing with my peers and sharing this common interest. I had always loved playing music, but the solitary nature of piano practice had brought me almost to the point of quitting. At some point a friend of mine (who’s still a great friend) made me a mix tape of Cannonball, Miles, Monk – all kinds of stuff – that really grabbed my attention. And another friend gave me a tape of Oscar Peterson’s Night Train for my 14th birthday that I pretty much wore out. That’s when I really fell in love with the music.

At that time, McGill was considered the best jazz program in the country, rivaled by U of T. In my high school everyone was interested in McGill though, because a group of the professors had come to our school to perform a concert and give a workshop. I remember Kevin Dean was leading the group, and Andre White was playing piano, but I don’t remember who else. Anyway, a whole bunch of us who graduated from that high-school program all applied to McGill and got in. I think there were six of us in my year! Some are still super-active in the jazz scene, like Montreal tenor player Al McLean, and Vancouver-based drummer Jesse Cahill.

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How old are you, and how long have you lived in Montreal? Tell me what appeals to you about the music scene there.

I’m 46. I came to Montreal when I was only 17, so it’s been almost 30 years that I’ve lived here!

After I graduated from McGill, I had no desire to move away. Montreal has a really vibrant arts scene, and, especially back then, it had a really low cost of living, which allowed for musicians to focus on their art without needing to give a lot of time and energy to money-making. I can’t imagine leaving at this point. There are so many world-class musicians living here and such a great culture around music. I feel like there’s an adventurous spirit in a lot of the jazz being played here – an openness to exploration that I find crucial.

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You released your debut album, Artifact, in 2022, to great reviews. Do you wish you had made this record sooner, or gotten out there as a leader sooner? Tell me about what kept you busy, musically and otherwise, in the years between your graduation from McGill and last year.

Yes, I’m so happy with the reception that Artifact has received! And I’ve had a lot of people ask me why it took that long for me to come out with my first album.

Twenty-odd years ago I released an album with the group I was in: godsoftaste, which featured a lot of my compositions. We did a few tours, and actually recorded a second album which never ended up being released. So, things were going well in my career, and I was making a name for myself. Then I ended up having kids at a pretty young age. I was the only person I knew here who had kids, and we had no family living in the city at the time, so it was kind of tough for a while. I did continue to gig after having my first, but it got a lot trickier once there were two. When the kids were a bit older I started working more again, but at that point I was a bit outside of the scene… if you’re never out there, hanging out at jam sessions and shows, then people stop thinking of calling you for gigs. Kind of “out of sight, out of mind.”

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In all those years I was still writing music, developing my voice as an improviser and composer, and playing in certain groups with certain people, but it’s only in the past few years, now that my kids are old enough to look after themselves, that I’ve really made myself known in the scene again.

I have to say that waiting until now has allowed me to mature as a musician to the point at which I was able to put out something that I’m very proud of, so in that sense I’m happy to have waited. But at times it’s been frustrating, for sure. It’s super important to have work out in your name in order to get opportunities to perform outside of the local scene, and that’s something I haven’t been able to do that much of until now. But, that said, ultimately what I value most is having been able to spend that time with my kids, so I think everything ended up just the way it was meant to.

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How would you describe what you’re going for as a composer, pianist and bandleader? With respect to these roles, who have you looked up to, and why?

I am a super laid-back Type B personality, so I don’t crave the limelight or the bandleader role. But I’m passionate about improvising, and especially about playing with musicians who listen deeply to one another and prioritize the musical whole over individual voices. I love being a piano player, in part because one of our main roles is to comp for the other musicians and I absolutely thrive on getting in the zone where we start to get some telepathy going on. As a composer, I love to write tunes that serve as vehicles for improvisation that is open and adventurous. I’m not afraid to colour outside the lines, and I love to push the boundaries of rhythmic and harmonic tension, and then try and find the sweet spot of resolution.

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People have asked about my influences before, and I always wonder if they’d ever be able to guess from my playing or writing. Back in the formative years I spent a lot of time listening to Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett, and Herbie Hancock and checking out the compositions of Wayne Shorter, Billy Strayhorn, Thelonious Monk, and Kenny Wheeler. I love music that has groove or creates a vibe, and I love music that surprises me and makes me think “what are they doing?!” I don’t tend to approach playing and composing in a super intellectual and analytical way. Not to say that I don’t have a good understanding of complex musical concepts, but when I’m actually improvising or writing I rely on my ear and my instincts and I don’t tend to overthink things. So there are many players and composers who I look up to, but I would hesitate to try and break the “why” of it down into a list of attributes. It’s music that speaks to me for whatever reason and so I’ve listened to it a lot and let whatever aspects of it find their way into my playing by osmosis. I’ve never sat down and thought “I’m going to write a tune using some of those harmonic devices Wayne uses” or anything like that.

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Tell me why you chose Lex, Adrian and Jim to interpret your music.

Oh, that all happened completely organically. We started playing together as a group on the last night that jazz clubs were open in March 2020, before everything got shut down because of the pandemic. Lex had a gig booked that night with Adrian, Jim and a different piano player, and that piano player was worried about the emerging pandemic and didn’t want to do the gig. I ended up on the gig and it was an incredible night. We gelled really well musically – it was this instant chemistry where we were all listening and responding to each other and pushing each other into uncharted musical territory.

After that, throughout the on-again-off-again restrictions and shut downs of the pandemic, we continued to play as much as possible. We played outside in backyards and parks, and in Jim’s basement when it was allowed. It was such an unusual treat to be able to play regularly with these fantastic musicians, just for fun. We pushed ourselves with harmonic and rhythmic musical challenges, and just generally helped each other stay sane through that crazy time. When clubs opened up again in the summer of 2020 we played the first gig at Upstairs, and then several more, and eventually at the Off Jazz Festival under my name. At that point Jim said to me “we have to record this group” and encouraged me to apply for a Canada Council for the Arts grant, which I received, and the rest is history!

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What’s next for you musically?

I have a few other projects in the works. My next recording will be a trio album, which I’m looking to record in the late summer. And I have another collaborative project with Erik Hove, Adrian, and Guillaume Pilote called Short Story that I’d like to spend some more time on. I’ve also been spending more time in B.C. recently, and have some ongoing collaborations with Steve Kaldestad and Jesse Cahill in Vancouver, and Roy Styfe and Kelby MacNayr in Victoria. And part of me has been toying with the idea of doing some writing for larger group, like a 10-piece band. We’ll see!

Kate Wyatt Quartet on tour
June 8: JazzFest Regina
June 20: Medicine Hat JazzFest
June 22: TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival
June 24: TD Victoria International JazzFest
June 25: Vancouver International Jazz Festival
June 26: Nanaimo Jazz Society
June 30: Ottawa Jazz Festival
July 1: TD Toronto Jazz Festival
July 2: TD JazzYYC Summer Festival
July 3: Sasktel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival
July 7: Festival International de Jazz de Montréal
July 13: TD Halifax Jazz Festival

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