Colin Perry was raised in Kentucky with music on both sides of his family. His father’s side of the family exposed him to Appalachian fiddlers and banjo players, and both are now among his instruments. He began learning guitar at age 10, with an early focus on ’20s and ’30s bluesmen that still influences his musical choices today. His maternal grandfather was a first-call jazz bassist in Toronto and when it was time for Colin to put down his own roots he settled in Montreal, and found the jazz path.
When Perry first arrived from Appalachia at 18 with guitar and fiddle in tow people tried to wrangle him into bluegrass, and a gig is a gig. It was late after a bluegrass night at the Barfly that Perry played some of the blues he loved on stage, fingerpicking his guitar and singing. Peter Mika joined him on piano and a life long musical partnership was born. Soon they were holding down Wednesday nights at Barfly under the name Blind, playing a bluesy sort of jazz built around standards of the ’20s and ’30s. It was a gig they maintained for 22 years until March of 2020. It is a rare and remarkable feat to stick to anything from your teens to early 40s, let alone a musical partnership at a local bar, and it attests to how well these two work together.
Colin sent me three albums last spring and that I haven’t gotten to them until now doesn’t mean I haven’t been enjoying them right along. Each is slightly different, based primarily on the lineup. Hesitation Blues features only Perry and Mika. It was recorded during the pandemic when they weren’t sure yet whether they would return to their old gig. Hesitation Blues, according to the notes, explored some tunes they had not played since their earliest days at the Barfly. Perry even brought out his fiddle for the first time in decades. “Hesitation Blues” was one of the titles they played on that first night.
The notes say “playing music together has, for us, been about prioritizing listening to each other’s playing over trying to reproduce a certain style or sound.” That is something you can really hear on this album. The stripped down lyric forward nature of the duo had me thinking of Leon Redbone, or maybe Ian Whitcomb, but there is no element of parody or comedy aside from what might be intended in the original lyrics. They are earnest interpreters of this music. These are the type of guys who earn a very devoted regional following. They certainly have a following among musicians in the area and have toured with a variety of groups out of Montreal.
Tracks include “Michigan Water Blues,” “Big Bad Bill,” “Winin’ Boy,” “How Could Red Riding Hood,” and “I Hate A Man Like You.”
Their most recent release finds Perry and Mika joined by Costa Zafiropoulos on bass. Perry says they have all played together for decades but always as part of other bands. So this is one tight knit trio. No Moon At All features twelve classic tracks, as they felt them in the period of rebuilding their music careers in the years following lockdown. There is a melancholy to it, which brings out the bluesier end of titles that could go many ways. “Shake Your Can” is a great example of this. Other titles include “A Shanty in Old Shanty Town,” “New Orleans,” “Some of These Days,” and one I very rarely hear anymore, “Stars Fell on Alabama.” It is a very intimate album; the crowds of Montreal might expect to exit onto the streets of St. Louis.
Also released this year is tape that is roughly 20 years old, which makes it in many ways from a band before its time. A hot jazz group known as Colin Perry & The Houserent Serenaders featuring, in addition to Perry on guitar and kazoo, Ben Caissie on Drums, Bernadette Fortin on violin, Matthieu Belanger on clarinet, and Jean Sabourin on sousaphone. Part of the inspiration for the band was Ben Cassie’s acquisition of a complete 1920s Ludwig drum set complete with wood blocks, and Perry’s Red Hot Jazz Archive inspired trips to the local library to explore the crossover of hot jazz and blues on CD and LP. (Kids today don’t know how it was before YouTube.)
If this was indeed pre-Hurricane Katrina, the burst in interest in traditional jazz among people in their early 20s was yet to happen. Colin Perry, with Appalachian roots, is a perfect conduit to explore the continuing connection between Americana, blues, and jazz. If you are a more is more kind of person this larger group may be the album you chose. The notes express a desire to get this group back together. They should. The album itself has a live sound, recorded by a working band in six hours with single takes and no dubs. I do love what a violin can add to jazz. Titles include “Hush My Mouth (If I Ain’t Goin’ South),” “I Wish I Were Twins,” and “Let’s Pretend There’s A Moon.”
There is a fourth album on their Bandcamp, from 2019, where Perry and Mika, joined by Andrew Horton on bass, intentionally explore the bluesy piano trio sound of the 1940s. Titled Three Blind Mice, it is distinct in style from the others but stands well on its own, and especially if you love a piano, Don’t pass it over. You can download all four albums on Colin Perry’s Bandcamp page as a discography for $34. That oldest one is also available on CD.
Colin Perry, and Peter Mika, are excellent musicians now hitting their prime, I’d love to see them at the American festivals, especially Bix Fest or the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival, perhaps joined by other musicians we cover to fill out a band. They contribute something special to interpretations of this timeless material.
