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…
Aug 17 2012
Deric Dickens – “Speed Date”
Here’s what I learned about the album before I sat down to listen to it.
This is what I love about the creative process. Artists who have worked together previously, recognize that they shed in the same peapod, and they decide to record an album that allows complete artistic freedom as long as they abide by a nifty hook/restraint.
Your hook for this album is the stopwatch. On six of the album’s twenty tracks, a stopwatch was set to expire at just under a minute fifteen seconds, and when that timer went off, that was the end of the tune. In fact, on title-track “Speed Date,” the timer alarm is audible at the end of the track, something I’m glad Dickens left on the finished recording… it’s just more proof of the good cheer of this album’s origins. No track is less than a minute twenty in duration, and only one track exceeds five minutes in length (the seven and a half minute tune “Swing It Sista,” with Jeremy Udden).
In many ways, this is a ridiculous challenge set to the musicians. They’re required to sit down, aware of the time constraint under which they must suss that creativity out, and then they’ve got that stopwatch staring at them. To my mind, the reasonable reaction to that scenario is to laugh.
Here’s what my assumption was about the music before I sat down to listen to it:
I was right.
Your album personnel: Deric Dickens (drums, percussion), with guests: Jeremy Udden (alto & C-melody sax), Jon Crowley (trumpet), Ben Cohen (tenor sax), Kirk Knuffke (coronet), Jeff Lederer (tenor sax, clarinet), Matt Wilson (drums, wooden flute, Marks Mark Bottle).
All of the tracks are duos between Dickens and a guest musician. Six guests in all, they each participate on three tracks total, except for Wilson and Knuffke, who participate on four tracks each. While Speed Date does have a remarkable cohesion considering its sizable guest roster, it’s also noticeable how each guest artist is able to give voice to their specific sound on their respective tracks, and the consistency of that sound across the span of their contributions.
On trumpet, Jon Crowley generates an energetic bounce throughout. Sometimes it’s a buoyant march, sometimes it’s a sadistic hopscotch, hitting notes that don’t seem to make sense in the moment, but perpetually sounding to land right where they were supposed to (Dickens sounds like he’s played this game before).
On alto and C-melody sax, Jeremy Udden provides his familiar lazy Sunday afternoon sway. Dickens sounds right at home matching Udden’s easy breeze pace.
Ben Cohen’s first contribution on tenor sax is about as straight-ahead jazz as it gets on this album, but the other two tracks he blows on possess a plaintive lighthouse moan, and Dickens colors it with percussion like the sounds of a pier, as the sea gently laps against it.
Jeff Lederer is tough to nail down. Whether on tenor sax or clarinet, he is shadowboxing personified. Sometimes circles Dickens’ rhythms, sometimes he creates squiggly lines that Dickens playfully tries to nail down, and sometimes they trade spastic bursts of sound.
Three of Kirk Knuffke‘s four contributions have plenty of fight to them. Shooting out sharp notes on cornet, sometimes definitive statements, sometimes inquisitive challenges. On his fourth and final track, Knuffke sounds to be done with all the provocation, and he and Dickens have an amicable conversation on their instruments.
Drummer Matt Wilson, who aided Dickens in the planning of this album, has four enjoyable tracks, either doubling up on drums or playing a wooden flute, giving an intriguingly rustic haze to Dickens’ free jazz bursts of rhythm. On “Termites,” the duo utilizes a full bottle of Maker’s Mark bourbon. Once the bottle became less full, Wilson uses it as a wind instrument while Dickens mans the drums.
Taken as a whole, the album is to appreciated as much as a creative experiment as a music listening experience. For musicians to embrace a fun, exciting challenge, and then endow the music with those same qualities, that’s the kind of thing we should want from our artists… to take chances, to produce creative pieces of quality, and for it spring from some kind of emotional basis that elevates the piece from simple craft to inspirational art.
This one came from a place of good humor. Speed Date communicates that loud and clear.
Released in 2011 on Mole-Tree Music, which appears to be Dickens’ own label.
Jazz from NYC.
There’s a nice interview of Deric Dickens by jazz interviewer extraordinaire Jason Crane on Crane’s site, The Jazz Session.
You can stream the album, and purchase it, on Dickens’ Bandcamp page. There’s also a link on the Bandcamp page to purchase the physical CD, too.
Available at: CDBaby | Amazon MP3
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2011 Releases • 2