Jazzing it up with Jesse Dietschi
Jesse Dietschi, a big-city musician with small-town roots, has released his debut album, which features his own modern jazz and classical compositions.
“We like to think of things as being categorized in kind of one group or another, and usually, the reality is that most art falls somewhere in between two or more things,” said bassist Dietschi, 36, who lives in Toronto.
Dietschi, who graduated from the Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive Secondary School in 2005, put out his album Gradient in October.
“The music on this album lands on a sliding scale — or a gradient — in between these two musical styles, being modern jazz … and chamber music,” Dietschi said. “Some of the songs are pretty firmly on one side or the other, but for the most part, they land somewhere in between, and many times they will change where they are on that gradient as the piece progresses.”
He says “Lake Effect” and “Canmore” are particularly good examples of songs that feature both styles.
“Now I’m at a point where I feel like I can do a lot of things in both of those styles,” Dietschi said. “They’re very different, but they both appeal to the same kinds of sensibilities within me in terms of showcasing this instrument, what it can do, what it can sound like and pushing me and expanding my own boundaries as an artist.”
The first instrument Dietschi played was the violin, but that’s not the instrument that led him on his current path.
“I almost don’t count that because I hated it so much,” he said with a laugh.
Around Grade 7, he started playing guitar, transitioned to the electric bass so he could play with the jazz band at Lockport School, then took up upright bass while at the Comp.
He was about 16 when he started to consider music as a career.
“I have a memory of attending my first professional jam session during the Winnipeg International Jazz Festival, and it was one of these things that started at probably 12:30 at night,” Dietschi said. “It was a jam session that featured all these artists from the festival who were there, and so I sat and listened, and then I knew enough of the musicians that they brought me up to play a song, and to be honest, I don’t really remember much of what happened while I was playing because I think I kind of blacked out a little bit. But at the end of it, everyone seemed really excited and gave me tons and tons of positive feedback. And I remember kind of the rush, the high that I got from that, and there was really no looking back from that point. It was really clear: this is what I’m going to do.”
After graduating high school, Dietschi continued his study of music at Brandon University, the University of Toronto and the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School.
“I love the energy. I love the creative freedom that comes with improvising. The sounds and textures that they used in modern jazz composition all really appealed to me. It was very exciting,” he said. “Then in the orchestra, I got to experience what my instrument sounds like acoustic without amplification and playing with other similar instruments like cellos and violins and violas and the way that it can blend with them. And it really just opened up this whole other world of subtlety to the kinds of things, the kinds of sounds that I can make with my instrument.”
During the pandemic’s lockdown, he didn’t have any performances, and he had more time to think about how he wanted to shape his career.
“I really had very little presence online because so much of my artistic activity revolved around live performance,” he said. “As soon as those activities stopped [during the lockdown], there was kind of nothing, and I struggled with that a fair bit. But having that time did allow me to start to take some of the necessary steps to be able to make this recording happen.”
In addition to playing with the Jesse Dietschi Trio, Dietschi works as a freelance jazz musician and has appeared as a guest musician on recordings by groups such as Headstones, Metric, Nick Maclean Quartet and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
“We play on many other people’s albums, but it’s sort of a different, a different kind of output when it’s your own creation, whether it be as a collective with a group of other players or something that is truly your own.”
Dietschi said people have commented on the storytelling aspect of Gradient. While he tries to leave open what the “plot” is for each song so people can interpret them as they need or want, he does have his own inspirations behind the compositions.
One programmatic piece — that is, a song with a narrative — is “Lake Effect.” Since he grew up in Manitoba, Dietschi is quite familiar with winter driving, but when he moved to Ontario, he learned about lake-effect snow. This type of snowfall is created when cold air moves across the warm water of a lake — and because of the size of the Great Lakes, lake-effect snow in Ontario can lead to intense snowfalls that can come out of nowhere.
“I experienced it driving out of a busy downtown rush-hour day in Toronto through … north of the city where it’s kind of Canadian Shield, and then suddenly getting walloped by the snowstorm. That is the only time I’ve never had to turn around and drive back and not go where I was going to after 24 years of … living in Manitoba,” he said. “I tried to kind of convey that story, the journey from a bustling downtown centre through sort of majestic wilderness into this kind of chaotic weather storm.”
Reviews of Gradient have commented on the storytelling aspect and have been positive.
“In terms of composition, multiple doors are open to explore, and there’s a hint of nostalgia in this music, akin to the feeling when leaving a place one has particularly enjoyed,” wrote Thierry de Clemensat in a review for Paris Move. “There’s no doubt that Jesse Dietschi’s diverse musical experiences have enriched his approach to musical composition and arrangements, achieving the rare feat of creating music that is densely layered yet remains accessible.”
Gradient can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music and most other streaming services and is available for purchase at jessedietschi.bandcamp.com. To stay up to date on Dietschi, including concert dates, visit his website at jessedietschi.com.
