22. Parrot

In regards to the title of this post: If you know, you know… If you don’t go here.

Ok! Here’s how it happened. I was (as usual) trawling around on the music related newsgroups back in the mid-late nineties. Probably rec.music.bluenote or something like that. (I miss those newsgroups… They were a wealth of information and often good for a laugh.) Somebody got all atwitter about this Norwegian trumpet player named Nils Petter Molvær. They were pissed because of several things: The first is that his first album, Khmer (shown here as a live concert, which is what I listened to this evening) was on the storied jazz record label ECM, and it had electronica, turntables and beat oriented music. ECM did not put music out like that, cried the purists - despite the rich catalog of world, classical and avant music the label supported. The other, and this is the one that sucked me in, was that people were irate because they thought that Molvær was shamelessly ripping off the tone of the great Jon Hassell. Now, I seriously hate that line of thought. Sure, Nils played a muted trumpet like Hassell did, but then they were both ripping off Miles Davis, and Miles was probably ripping off someone else in that viewpoint. So, of course, I went right out and bought Khmer, and it opened up a whole new world of music for me. I loved it, and I loved the players on it, and began following them, and the record labels that supported them. Because of that I discovered many artists that I will feature in this post.

This beautifully recorded (and shot, but I didn’t watch because, you know, lights) concert highlights all the tracks and musicians on that groundbreaking (and it is groundbreaking - which is what pisses the purists off) album. Drums, percussion, turntables, bass, guitar and trumpet. A heady mix. The lights were a great companion this evening. The music fit the mood perfectly. Exciting, energetic and driving music. It could be played at a nightclub, or relaxed to in your own home or car. This is seriously great music. Is it jazz? I don’t know - it’s on a jazz label, in the jazz section of a CD store, and features a trumpet. Is that enough? Have I mentioned that I hate classification of genre? It makes no sense. By putting this in the Jazz section, all the clubbies are denied the opportunity to groove. (However, ECM did release some remix singles - so they had the right idea.) Check out the absolute STANKY GROOVE and voice box work between 49 and 51 minutes. Is this jazz? We’ll dive deeper into the music of these peers and make up our own minds. And for what it’s worth, 95 percent of Hassell’s generally brilliant stuff sounds absolutely nothing like this, but he does have one or two albums that tread similar ground and that’s no cause for outrage.

I moved on this morning to an early entry from the vast catalog of music performed, produced or released (on his Jazzland Records) by Bugge Wesseltoft called Sharing. If there ever was an album meant to be heard in a dark room with flickering red, yellow and blue lights, this is it! Track one, (All I Ever Wanted Was To Make You) Feel Good is trance inducing with a metronomic piano playing throughout, while upright bass and brush drums keep a rhythm. Interwoven with ethereal voices, and the introduction of horns, this track is intensely satisfying. The second track has an almost hip-hop vibe, while being played by acoustic “standard jazz” instruments - piano, bass, saxophone and trumpet. However, there are also clear elements of sampled voices and other techno features. There is an intense energy to this music. Existence, the next track, is more soundtrack-like - airy and open. You could drift off while listening to this track, and to be frank, I did. The sultry vocals of Sidsel Endresen make the track You Might Say an interesting listen. Another airy track, Ms. Endresen harkens back to the torch singers of the past. The music is forward thinking though. It’s an engaging dichotomy. Finally, for this morning anyway, I heard (Come on Buddy, You Got) Green Light. This track is nearly all performed by Mr. Wesseltoft on piano, synthesizer and rhythm machine. Check out this live concert by Wesseltoft from 2004. See how he seamlessly blends electronica with the more traditional jazz instrumentation. This video was also my introduction to the great Dhafer Youssef, who I wrote of in my tribute to Ustad Zakir Houssain several weeks ago. My favorite Youssef album - one of my all time favorites of all - is also on Jazzland Records. For some reason, I’ve elected not to write about it in this article - perhaps saving it for later - but it’s called Divine Shadows, and features many of the players who will be mentioned time and again in these pages…

…Including guitar player Eivind Aarset, whose fourth album, also on Jazzland Records, Sonic Codex was on my mind this evening. Sonic Codex is not an album that is particularly melodic, so to speak. There are melodies, but the overall sense is one of mood and exploration. Aarset is considered by many (including me) to be one of the great guitar innovators in recent memory. There are tracks where the instrument is entirely played backwards. There are power chords, bombastic riffs and quiet journeys. There are huge drums and quiet electronic percussion. A clarinet rears its little head from time to time. We really don’t see a formally structured “song” until the fourth track, which is still minimalist jazz based club music. We then venture back into quiet ethereal ambience for a track before the chaos begins. Track 6, Black Noise, White Silence is a pure venture into cacophony. Pounding drums and discordant guitars scream at you before fading gracefully into the following track, which is a glitchy beatless breath of fresh air. In contrast, Sleeps With Fishes is almost normal in its approach. While there is still some wildly imaginative playing from Aarset (as always) the makeup of the track is much more basic. We end up back to the chaos of The Return Of Black Noise which morphs into the quiet soundscapes of Murky Lambada. Overall, this is not an album for the faint of heart. It’s challenging and sometimes exhausting, and ultimately brilliant. Another great one for this particular Norwegian contingent.

Now, what happens when three ambient jazz electronica musicians from nearly as far north as you can get, meet up with an unsurpassed rhythmic duo who hail from right near the equator, to play a concert in Poland? This does.

Hailing from the island of Jamaica, Sly (Dunbar) & Robbie (Shakespeare) [RIP] have a list of credits as long as it is varied. From Reggae greats Black Uhuru and Peter Tosh to Bill Laswell, Ian Dury and Grace Jones. They also have nearly fifty albums under their own names. It is no surprise, then, to see them branch out to collaborate in this manner. And what an interesting session this was. Sly & Robbie are known for keeping the steadiest of rhythms. An anchor if you will, to what is happening around them. As we’ve heard in the listening above, Aarset and Molvær have existed on the more experimental side of things. And that combination works for this gig. Right from the start, Dunbar sets up a steady beat, which is slowly added to by the addition of additional musicians as they come on stage one by one, with Shakespeare being the last to join. The sampler and electronic musician, Vladislav Delay, is new to me here, but does an excellent job with live mixing - including sampled voices in real time. We see Aarset, sitting behind his array of pedals manipulating his guitar with ambient fills and washes, while Molvær sets the tone with his muted trumpet. All along, Shakespeare contributes his signature impeccable bass. This must have been a really cathartic trance inducing show to attend, as it certainly was under the flickering lights for me. I was just swept into the music. It’s an overall vibe. You don’t come out of it thinking along the lines of how great a soloist or player anyone is - you think only about the joint contributions of five amazing musicians to an evening that was incredibly special. We should be grateful that it was recorded and released for free for those of us who couldn’t attend to enjoy. (This group did release a rather underwhelming album called Nordub, but it lacks the excitement of the live gig.)

I’ll be heading off on some family business today, so this will be my last posting for a while. Never fear. I’m OK, and I’ll be back before too long.

On the medical and personal front, I’m struggling with the confines of a regimented schedule for infusions. There’s a short trip I want to take, but my required MRI and infusions make it very difficult. I’ll persevere, of course, but it’s making what should be easy a trial. Otherwise, I feel really good. Whatever is helping (and I’m doing so much now) is helping - and nothing is holding me back. I’ve created a piece of abstract art, which I’m going to use as a pedalboard for my guitar effects. This is a new form of expression for me. I’ve always been an auditory person. I’ve quite enjoyed this project - which is my third epoxy experiment, and the least linear. I did not cut the wood - I found it at a “live edge” sale that way. I use eyeshadow to color the epoxy. There are 7 or 8 individual pours happening here.

Thanks for reading,

Dy