Guitarist stretches jazz genre to limit
By JOHN KENDLE -- Winnipeg Sun

At 33, Toronto guitarist Michael Occhipinti is one of the country's brightest jazz lights.

His Neufeld-Occhipinti Jazz Orchestra -- formed with pianist Paul Neufeld and known simply as NOJO -- has been nominated for Junos, won Junos and been applauded by critics as group which dares to challenge the genre.

So, while a few eyebrows may rise upon learning that Occhipinti's new solo album, Creation Dream, is a collection of Bruce Cockburn tunes, it's really an extension of Occhipinti's desire to bust loose of conservative jazz traditions.

"Increasingly for the last four years I've been looking for pop songs to include in my sets because I think jazz has really ignored 40 years worth of material," Occhipinti says.

"And Bruce has such a great body of work that I wanted to pay tribute to. There's a depth of writing on his albums that goes beyond the hits."

With his Quartet (the touring version of which includes drummer Barry Romberg, bassist Andrew Downing and trumpeter Kevin Turcotte), Occhipinti spent four months playing the Cockburn songs on Fridays at The Rex in Toronto before going in to record them in four days in April and May.

What began as a one-song live tribute became a full album at the gentle suggestion of True North Records impresario Bernie Finkelstein and with the blessing of Cockburn himself, who also played on Creation Dream.

"Bruce came out a couple of times to hear it. I think he was surprised and impressed by hearing other interpretations of his material.

"And all we've been trying to do is to play the material without being too reverential while at the same time not disrespecting it. I enjoy playing improvisationally when the source material is something that people under 40 are familiar with," Occhipinti says.

"There are lots of diehards who know all the standards but it's a different experience doing this."