Jul 11 2012
Nils Berg Cinemascope – “Popmotion”
The world is big. The world is small.
The compositions on Popmotion are inspired by videos that Nils Berg Cinemascope found on Youtube and Vimeo, of people from all across the planet, from places as varied as Brunei, Ghana, Sweden, the U.S. and Japan, expressing themselves through music. A few of the videos were filmed by Berg himself. Others were found while sitting in his home. A whole wide world of music coming together in one place, inspiring more music.
As Nils Berg explained to me in an exchange of emails,”The overall idea is to prove that there could be music, or great art, anywhere.”
Basing his compositions around these videos, and in some cases, inserting samples of the music directly into the music, Nils Berg took all these disparate elements and focused them through his own creative vision. He collaborates with the world.
Your album personnel: Nils Berg (tenor sax, bass clarinet, computer, synth, zither), Josef Kallerdahl (bass), Christopher Cantillo (drums, percussion, synth, zither), and various guests as attributed to each video.
On the inclusion of segments of the videos that inspired each composition, Berg said, “We really have to love these performances by the video guests, and care for them to make them thrive and blossom. You just have to look carefully, and be open to the fact that everyone is expressing themselves with heart and soul, and are great musicians or performers.”
It is easy to forget that they aren’t all in the same room.
In Japan, a roomful of musicians are rocking out on koto. Berg gives their music wings, lifting off on bass clarinet with languorous notes that contain a deceptive propulsion. Cantillo’s percussion adds permutations on the kotos’ hypnotic rhythm. Kallerdahl’s bass blends in with the kotos, guiding from within as if they were in the studio together, collaborating on the song “We Are Nobody.”
On “Benibanatsumiuta,” the trio gives the airy sound of a bamboo flute a dark undercurrent, a probing inquisitiveness to what, by itself, was a lighthearted reminiscence. And despite the emotional shift, they all sound on the same page, with the same motivations and aspirations, as if the finished product was what they each envisioned, though their contributions were performed on different parts of the world at entirely different times.
By combining the sound of a traditional song performed solo on an African gyil and a 19th century Christian hymn performed on bowed dulcimer, and then adding their own instrumentation and visions, Berg’s trio creates “Accra Underground,” a modern jazz piece with a polyrhythmic shuffle and a zig zag bass clarinet.
Yellow flowers fill the screen on”Benibanatsumiuta,” which begins as a Japanese folk song on bamboo flute and koto. The Cinemascope trio simply add their own gentle textures to the mix, leaving the meditative qualities of the song undisturbed while, simultaneously, making it a more nuanced performance. Berg’s bass clarinet is a prayer lifted up to the skies, and Cantillo’s percussion the sounds of a silent planet waiting for a reply from above.
Berg’s bass clarinet is the deep counterbalance to the airy notes of the cimbalom on the Romanian folk music of “Marlon,” which the trio guides into a nifty groove. As much as any album song, it displays the care and craftsmanship the trio deftly applies to the composition’s original source music as they bring the music off a city street in Slussen, Stockholm and into the recording studio.
A performing troupe of musicians and dancers from Tamil Nadu set the table for Berg’s winding notes, Kallerdahl’s loping bass lines, and Cantillo’s percussion, scattered like stars, on the song “Orissa (In the Hands of the Lord).” Voices raise up, mirrored by Berg’s woodwind, the sounds playing off one another though each miles apart.
I love an inspired theme. When an artist presents a creative premise, I am all over seeing the project come to fruition. But really, there is a value and nobility to inspired ideas that, in some ways, make the outcome irrelevant. Creative ideas, like dreams, are building blocks of our humanity, just as they bind us to one another, and proof that as vast as this planet may be, we are all connected.
On Popmotion, Berg finds a way to exemplify both the vastness of our music breadth and the connections that tie it all in together.
Released on the Hoob Records label. Jazz from the Stockholm, Sweden scene.
Videos that inspired album tracks can be found on Berg’s site HERE. I include a few below.
Download a free album track at AllAboutJazz, courtesy of the artist and label.
Available at eMusic. Available at Amazon: CD
Here’s one of the videos that Nils Berg & Company used as the inspiration for the tune “We Are Nobody” (streamed above). Various musicians in Osaka, Japan.
Here’s one of the videos that Nils Berg & Company used as the inspiration for the tune “Accra Underground” (streamed above). It is Aaron Bebe Sukura performing a traditional African piece on the gyil.
And here’s a video of a live performance of the Cinemascope trio incorporating the video into a live performance of an album song…
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. Worth noting that the eMusic version has an additional track that the Amazon (U.S.) version does not have.
Jul 15 2012
Frank Wright Quartet – “Blues For Albert Ayler”
So, until I get my Know Your ABCs: an Album, a Book, & a Cat series up and running again, for the time being, I’m gonna start using my Sunday slot to put the spotlight on some re-issues and archival finds that have been catching my attention. I’ve got one right now, in fact. Let’s begin…
*****
Frank Wright Quartet – Blues For Albert Ayler
Your album personnel: Frank Wright (tenor sax, flute, vocals), James Blood Ulmer (guitar), Benny Wilson (bass), and Rashied Ali (drums).
The album is broken into tracks, or “parts,” per the cd.
The album opens with ripples of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, both in terms of the phrases utilized, but also with the powerful spirituality they convey. Wright briefly played with Coltrane, and he was certainly there during a fertile period in the free jazz movement, so hearing echoes of music like that isn’t terribly surprising. The tune becomes increasingly freer as it progresses.
It leads into “Part 2,” which opens with an extended drum solo. Miller is the first to accompany, with Ulmer clearing this throat here and there, but both seem to hesitate when confronted by Ali’s massive rhythmic assault. Ali owns the track.
“Part 3” marks the return of the other quartet members; it also marks the return to the theme of “Part 1.” Phrases reveal themselves as familiar in a peek-a-boo style, glimpses of things that came before. As the song progresses, the structure breaks down, as if watching the erosion of a mountain on a video set to fast-forward… tufts of notes kicked up in the wind like scattered stars, dust returning to the soil, and wild time lapse shadows crossing the path of sunlight streaks. Wright’s tenor sax returns occasionally to that opening phrase, giving just enough cohesion to a deconstructing mass. Rashied Ali plays like he was born inside a tornado. The song ends with notes drifting slowly back to earth.
“Part 4” is an extended arco solo by bassist Miller, which leads into “Part 5″… a furious attack by Wright on flute, then Ulmer on guitar. Wright later enters on sax with a firestorm of skronking and screeches, blistering everything in sight. But that gradually dissipates, and Wright inserts brief phrases into the mix, Ulmer’s guitar speeding along, Ali’s nonstop rhythmic barrage, and Miller maintaining a curious lope that, somehow, snappily fits into place. At twenty-four minutes in length, it’s by far the longest track on the album. Miller’s arco on “Part IV” is especially enjoyable in how it provides an eye to the storm of the music that surrounds it.
The final track “Part 6” is a return of sorts, coming full circle to where things started, though the quartet sounds only vaguely tethered to one another. Ali’s drums is the only thing resembling glue at this point. But in a way, after the tumult of sound and fury that preceded it, there’s something natural about the seeming messiness of the conclusion… a sense of travelers returning from their separate journeys to the same spot.
It’s an album that’s best appreciated for its raw emotional power, the ferocity and perseverance of the artists through the long performance given, without pause, and the unbridled desire to conjure up everything they had and show it to the world.
This isn’t the best example of what the musicians were capable of performing, but for an album like this, that’s a little beside the point. Wright passed away in 1990 and Ali in 2009. The days of the New York loft scene are long gone. Free Jazz is definitely still around, but those early incubation years are decades in the past. Blues For Albert Ayler is a found note thought lost, a message in a bottle from the past, one of those rare opportunities to hear something new from ensembles and times that are long gone. Archival finds like this should be treasured. Flaws in this kind of diamond enhance its character, because its value is found the music’s existence, and not in how it stands up to the pantheon of recorded jazz.
The sound quality ain’t bad, all things considered. It’s an analog-to-digital transfer. The cd comes in digi-pak format, including a booklet with some very cool liner notes and photos. The liner notes were put together by ESP’s Michael D. Anderson, who deserves sincere thanks for putting albums like this out. Obviously, I’m very focused on the jazz of the present day, but I got introduced to jazz by the musicians of the past, and I’m always thankful for opportunities to hear music, especially from the under-the-radar artists and especially in live settings.
Recorded live July 17, 1974 at Ali’s Alley, NYC, released in 2012.
Released on the ESP-Disk label.
Available at Amazon: CD
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, The Old Stuff • 0