Jazz phenom comes home for rare concert

In fact, there was enough time left over at the New York session for him to surprise his bandmates with a tune so new it didn't yet have a name. Like six other Omae originals they'd worked through earlier, it wound up on Here For Now, the splendid outcome of the afternoon's work now available at www.cdbaby.com .

It didn't hurt, of course, that Omae chose three of New York's hippest contemporary jazz musicians - pianist George Colligan, bassist Matt Clohesy and drummer Mark Ferber - to help him nail the tunes.

"These guys are amazing," the 34-year-old Orléans native and present day resident of South Korea says in his typical generous way. "We had a rehearsal but we didn't really need it. They just came in and caught the right vibe. They knew what my music needed and they got it done."

The praise is deserved. Colligan, especially, turns in half a dozen superb solos and puts his formidable comping chomps on display throughout the album, filling in the spaces around Omae's high-energy playing and pushing Clohesy and Ferber to match his rhythmic prowess.

But Omae, shy and self-effacing as ever, is clearly the star. Whatever eloquence he lacks in conversation he's saved for his commanding presence on the horn, on which he combines vitality, dazzling technique, a persuasive rich tone and loping, urgent streams of notes.

Omae: Accepts the blame for his low profile

Omae's compositional skills have also matured. While his tunes are frequently complex and twisting, he manages to skirt the line between melody and improvisation, and, like John Coltrane, one of his heroes, he often leaves the listener with hummable fragments.

A close listening to the title track, for instance, reveals a complex harmonic structure - "You can look at it mathematically... an equal division of octaves," Omae says - but that only enhances the tune's lovely melodic theme. In other words, it's the jazz musician's dream - easy to listen to, not so easy to play.

The saxophonist will perform some of these tunes, as well as new compositions, when he makes a rare Ottawa appearance next Saturday on the National Arts Centre's Fourth Stage as part of bassist John Geggie's annual concert series.

Omae won't be accompanied by his CD sidemen, but his supporting cast will be far from lightweight. Nor are they unfamiliar to the saxomphonist, who has played with them all before.

In addition to Geggie, Toronto pianist Dave Restivo and New York-based drummer Mark McLean, also from Toronto, will join Omae for the gig, to be recorded by CBC Radio for broadcast later in the year.

For Geggie, who has known Omae since he was a graduate of Gloucester High School, the concert is a chance to broaden the saxophonist's audience.

"I think Kenji can be on the same level as great players like Donny McCaslin, both in terms of his playing and his profile," Geggie says. "He's become a real virtuoso player, melodically and harmonically."

But, the bassist says, it's no secret that Omae is not very goot at self-promotion. "He needs someone to hire him, an established player who can showcase him, play some of his tunes. Maybe the CBC broadcast can be a start."

Geggie also hopes the broadcast gig leads to long-overdue bookings at jazz festivals, including Ottawa's, which has - remarkably - never invited the hometown boy to perform with his own band.

"That's a shame," the bassist says. "The Ottawa festival would absolutely fit the bill for Kenji. I don't know why it hasn't happened."

Omae accepts his share of the blame for his low profile. He knows he doesn't do a good job of selling himself. And it hasn't helped that he's lived four of the past six years in Seoul, not exactly a jazz mecca, where he teaches and plans to remain for another two years after he returns next month from a six-week stay in Canada.

The other two years Omae spent in New York getting his masters from the Aaron Copland School of Music. It was his second stint in New York, where he frequented late-night jam sessions looking to meet other up-and-comers, occasionally playing paying gigs with some big names - Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, Ari Hoening, Antonio Hart, Jimmy Heath and Kenny Werner.

But he concedes he didn't do enough to get "myself out there." In fact, he says, he might never had made the record if his wife of a year, Hee-Jung, a piano teacher he met in Seoul, hadn't persisted. Now, with their first child on the way in April, he thinks she'll be pushing him even harder.

When he was younger, Omae had an almost monastic reputation as a practice fanatic, spending eight or 10 hours a day working on scales, harmonic exploration and technique, mostly alone, sometimes playing along with CDs.

These days in Seoul, though, he practises less - "as much as I can, but never eight hours," he says - and gets out more, generally performing four nights a week in clubs.

"I've leared it's good to play more often with other people," he says. "I can bring my new music and try it out with other musicians and with an audience. It helps me to work out the problems with my tunes."

And it's given him a taste for performing he wishes he'd acquired when he was a scuffling musician in New York. "Now that I'm back in Korea I really regret that I didn't do more things when I was in New York," he says. "You can practise all you want but after a while you need the experience of playing with others."

And an audience to enjoy the results.

John Geggie and guests Kenji Omae, Dave Restivo and Mark McLean perform Saturday, Jan. 26 at the NAC's Fourth Stage. Tickets & times, 613-755-1111.