FOLK | BLUES | JAZZ
SUSSEX
Territory: World
Sussex is the brainchild of Michael Emenau and Rob Lutes. The two renowned musicians were childhood friends and high school bandmates in New Brunswick. After graduation, they went their separate ways — Michael to Tokyo, San Francisco and Paris, where he made a name for himself as a world-class jazz vibraphonist and composer; Lutes to Montreal, where he has recorded six albums and earned a reputation as one of Canada’s finest songwriters and roots performers.
Reunited in 2012, the pair began to write together for the first time in 20 years. Encouraged by the results, they decided to make a record.
Enlisting the services of some of Montreal’s finest players, including guitarist Benoit Charest (Les Triplettes de Belleville), violinist Josh Zubot (Patrick Watson), bassist Sage Reynolds (Jordan Officer) and trumpeter Ivanhoé Jolicoeur (Les Cowboys Fringants), they went into the legendary Studio Frisson in Montreal in Fall 2014 and Winter 2015 and recorded their debut album Parade Day.
The Ocean Wide is their second album, features 13 new original songs, and a superb reinterpretation of Steve Goodman's gem, “Lookin’ for Trouble.” Some nods to Tin Pan Alley and Leonard Cohen and Ragtime and Dixieland. And some cool folk roots tunes that found a home in this album's particular sound.
SHOW
With Emenau on vibraphone and pianica and Lutes on guitar, banjo, and vocals, The Ocean Wide is an eclectic, exhilarating journey — at times joyful, at times melancholy — that takes us improbably right to the very heart of American roots music.
Featuring special guests Ivanhoe Jolicoeur on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Bruno Lamarche on clarinet and saxophone, and recorded and mixed by renowned Montreal engineer Rob Heaney (Cirque du Soleil, Patrick Watson).
CRITICS
...a truly great evening...energy, intricacy, texture, nuance, expressiveness, and power, but all with great subtlety. Suffice to say, a great show.”
Thom Meredith
Sainte-Anne Blues Café
The vibes weaving in and around the vocal lines give the song an irresistible jazzy-rootsy flavor.”
Folk Roots Folk Branches review
...a truly great evening...energy, intricacy, texture, nuance, expressiveness, and power, but all with great subtlety. Suffice to say, a great show.”
Rein van den Berg
Music that Demands Attention
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