Racer Session #502 | Evan Shay | Jan 5, 2020

Welcome back, fans of the Avant!

This Sunday, we are excited to start off a new year of Racer Sessions with our dear friend, Evan Shay. Evan is a saxophonist and composer based in Montreal - A dual citizen of Canada and the U.S., and is originally from Seattle, Washington. Evan completed both his Masters and Bachelor degrees at McGill University, and has since gone on to establish himself as a dynamic force for jazz in the region: In 2017, Evan was named one of the “35 Best Canadian Jazz Artists Under 35” by CBC Music. His self titled CD, Lawful Citizen, was included in the “Favourite Fifty of 2017” by Dominionated online music publication. Evan toured Canada and France as a member of the multilingual hip-hop group, Nomadic Massive. He also toured Quebec and Ontario with Lawful Citizen. Previously, he was awarded an Exceptional Artist Award and featured at the National Arts Centre. Lawful Citizen also released their second album, Internal Combustion, in 2019.

Evan Shay will be joined onstage by our other dear friend and fellow Evan, drummer Evan Woodle. This is sure to be a great session with which to open up the year (and decade), so make sure you don’t miss it! As always, we’ll be starting off with the opening set at 8pm, jam session to follow until 10pm.

Read on for some words from Evan Shay on what he has planned for this Sunday!

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“2019 was a transformative year for my music. On the heels of releasing Lawful Citizen’s first record in November 2018, I felt restless about where I belonged in the Canadian jazz scene. This made me want to further explore my musical identity, and I wanted to tap into the electronic music and hip-hop I have listened to for years. I had dabbled in the past with this, but never pursued it fully. I began beatmaking and learning Ableton Live more extensively, making a beat a day for January. I quickly became addicted to the process, and my journey into this music was born.

This departure from the familiarity and comfort zone of the saxophone was drastic for me; I have been behind the mouthpiece for every musical experience of my life. I began going to Loop Sessions in Montreal in May, where beatmakers in Montreal get together each month and make beats based on samples from the same record. Everyone gets five minutes with the selected record, and you have 3-4 hours to create something from that. I wanted to use this to develop myself further as a beatmaker, and I have purposely never brought my horn so I could be the best student possible to this deep art form.

Throughout this, I struggled with my identity as an artist. I never called myself anything else than a saxophonist, and it terrified me to call myself a beatmaker or a producer. At what point can I call myself a beatmaker? Am I any good at this? Do I have a voice? There were tons of questions and no real answers swirling around my head.

I really gained my confidence while I was working at the Banff International Workshop in Jazz & Creative Music in August. There, I had the immense pleasure to work with musicians who had open minds and deep creativity. I learned and worked with the mastermind HPRIZM, who changed my life and gave me tons of encouragement and knowledge. I also had a lesson with Steve Lehman where we only talked about hip-hop and beatmaking, and I am eternally grateful for the time I got to spend with them and the rest of the faculty.

I am now beginning working on a solo project that will involve influences from all of these corners. I want to be able to combine my different worlds into one sound, combining composition and improvisation with loops and sampling techniques. This will be out sometime in October!

For this first Racer Session of 2020, I want everyone to find confidence to try something new in their improvisations. Take chances that you normally would be afraid of, and see how those playing with you react. Find ways of bringing in your personal influences outside of jazz, which doesn’t have to necessarily be from music!”

-ES