Day 3 of 5 …
Mike’s Songs
1) ‘Down Time’ by Dave Holland Quintet (Prime Directive)
Having seen the undeniably great Dave Holland Quintet twice, I can very easily say that it is one of the most talented collection of jazz musicians ever. Their skill in deeply layered composition writing with contra-puntal arrangements full of odd time signatures is better than any group out there. But it is when they take those same qualities of composing and apply it to a group improvisation style that allows all those interlocking melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements to converge into a wall of sound that would rival any Phil Spector production. This song seems to be a bit more drawn in than most of their repertoire, but its more of a trombone feature for Robin Eubanks. Its interesting to hear the interplay of trombone, Dave Holland’s bass, and the ocassional drums of Billy Kilson lock into such a straight ahead, yet adventurous groove.
Greg’s Songs
1) ‘I’ve Found A New Baby’ by Django Reinhart (The Gold Collection)
I never get tired of the old French jazz sound. Reminds me of a late spring Saturday morning with the windows open, getting ready for a bike ride down to the coffee shop. Some nice violin on here too, I assume from Stephan Grapelli. Some nice trading fours in here. Just a trio with Django, violin, and backup four-strum guitar. This makes me want to watch The Triplettes of Bellville
Aryn’s Songs
1) ‘I Feel You’ by Depeche Mode (The Singles 86>98)
Interesting start, I heard the screeching and thought what the hell is this? But alas, a few seconds later that thick DModes sound kicks in. Very thick sound all around. Honestly I don’t think I have heard this one before. I like the droning background. Very ballsy guitar, bass and synth sounds to accompany that heroic vocal line. This one also has a pulsating (between L and R channel) that would probably have made for a pretty bad ass club experience back whenever this track was made. Something I would have rocked out to with my friends if I had been old enough to rock out in a converted warehouse artists loft space back in the late eighties/early nineties.
Stay tuned…day four tomorrow. Feel free to email us at [email protected] or leave comments here if you like. Send in your own shuffle playlist, we’ll post the best one.
I used to love Prime Directive, its one thats sat on my shelf for the past couple of years. I wonder if we can find the bootleg that we made from the KSU show. But I am thinking that is long gone. The drummer on there I remember really stood out, very tight and very distinct snare pop.
Honestly with a band made up of Dave Holland, Billy Kilson (drums), Robin Eubanks (tbone), Chris Potter (sax) and Steve Nelson (vibes) how can you go wrong? I heard Kilson isn’t playing in that group any longer but to me he was just as important to that sound as Holland or Potter.
As a guitar player I always loved the sound of Django, but I dont think I own any of his records. That is something of a tragedy I would figure for most guitarists with jazz focus like I was. There really is no one quite like him.
Dave Holland was one of the first jazz groups I saw live, and was part of a string of jazz roadtrips I went on in high school. This particular venue was at the now defunct Jazz Showcase in Chicago. That place was so great. I also had front row seats for Mehldau there (the day after seeing Keith Jarret Trio, very very back row, at Symphony Center). Too bad they closed…
Yes, Billy Kilson definitely drove the agressive polyrhythmic sound of the group. I think I’m less interested in that technical drum sound these days, although he was so well balanced with the other band members, particularly Steve Nelson, that you couldn’t help but love them. What a completely infectious sound.
Its funny, I never equated Kilson with technical sounding skills…sure he had that, but compared to other guys, I always thought he was a fiery wild card in that band that also held that tight metronome for the rest of the band to tangent off. I believe his work with AJames Brown and Parliament Funkadelic back in the day kept that tight pocket groove feel even when they were playing in crazy 9\8 type signatures.
I had no idea the Jazz Showcase closed. One of my favourite memories of Chicago, and for that matter musical memories and trips with my dad was seeing Ray Brown play there in the summer of 2002. My dad and I went up there to see the Cubs play at Wrigley since we both had never been.
The night before the game, we were looking through the Reader for some live music to check out and I saw that Ray Brown Trio was playing. I knew the work of Ray Brown decently well from his days in the Oscar Peterson trio and having been married to Ella Fitzgerald. So suffice to say, I dragged my father who had never heard of him.
As an aside: I love dragging my dad to concerts or showing him some record or band he has never heard of. In his day, he was a total music freak like me, but you know it was just harder to find music below the surface back then compared to now. So just seeing him have those reactions when he realizes how great it is, is pretty awesome. Sort of like giving back, after all those years of him playing Beatles, Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel and the blues.
Anyway, we show up to the venue early (it was the opening night of a 6 night residency at the Showcase) thinking its going to be sold out, but ironically there was no one there….not even the owner of the venue. So we walked around the block once and then since it was hot, sat on the curb outside waiting for them to open up. That is when I realize that three musician types are sitting right next to us; specifically, Ray Brown, drummer Kareem Riggins and pianist Larry Fuller. I nearly crapped my 20 year old diaper.
Another aside: A few years back, my family went to Florida for Spring Break to go to Royals spring training, and take in Disneyworld and Epcot. In line for a ride at Epcot, this woman starts chatting with my sisters. We then realize she is the wife of Royals’ star George Brett. We then realize that George Brett and former Royal Jamie Quirk are right behind us too. Obviously since either I or my dad were wearing Royals hats (spring training and all) we had the perfect and most natural introduction to one of my biggest heroes ever. But for some reason, neither I nor my dad really said much at all. Sort of acknowledged their presence and kept to ourselves. My dad said later that he didnt want to bug them on their vacation, but I have a feeling we suffered from some stage fright from being near Brett. I always sort of regretted not getting to really talk to him in such a normal way.
I think that story popped into my head when I was literally an arms distance from Brown. So I manned up and spoke to Brown. I introduced myself, told him I was a huge fan of his work, how he had literally written the book on jazz bass playing (Aryn had it!), and that I was a jazz musician (or aspiring one) myself. We made some chit chat about music, how great it was to be able to study jazz in schools and some general music advice from one all time great legend to some skinny musician.
He invited me and my dad closer to the stage than we intended on sitting and made talked to us while they briefly tuned and re-soundchecked. I would ask him about approach and some of the musicians he has played with in his long life (he was 75). Then he proceeded to play three of the best hours of live music I had ever seen.
Still to this day, I dont know if I’ve seen a more inspiring, dynamic set of jazz music. Despite being 75, he played with an intensity and nimble articulation and skill of a 25 year old with something to prove to the world. And his connection to his drummer Riggins was perhaps just as tight as any rhythm section around. Riggins was a young guy, but somehow their age gap (Brown could’ve been his grandfather) narrowed with every round of soloing and every locked in quarter note.
After the show a crowd of people gather around Brown asking for autographs and such. I was able to get back to him again briefly to shake his hand and say thank you for such an amazing show. He thanked me and then got dragged away by some other itchy fan. And then I walked away.
In hindsight I felt I should have asked for his autograph on my cd (Live at Starbucks is incredibly great by the way…do yourself a favor and pick it up!!!), but at the time it never occurred to me. I had shared some special and pretty rare intimate moments with him, so it almost felt funny to consider begging for an autograph.
A week later, back in KC, we got a call from the family member we saw while in Chicago. He informed us that he had just read that Ray Brown died the day before. Apparently he had just traveled to Indianapolis for another set of shows after wrapping up those in Chicago. He had played 18 holes of golf in the afternoon, then went to his hotel for a nap before the show and never woke up. A mere seven nights earlier we were in his presence watching him take virtuosic bass solos for a full crowd at the Showcase.
It was shocking. But even for those simple 30 or 45 minutes of being in his presence was just enough of a window into another era, another life and time when jazz music was the greatest American art form. When you could go to NYC to see Charlie Parker or Miles or Dizzy. To see Ella or Billie or Wes create this style of music on the spot I imagine probably has not seem much of the same sense of collective creativity of a scene (though I imagine, being part of the 60s counter culture, the late 70s punk or 80s hiphop scene might be similar). You got the feeling that Ray Brown had seen everything and done even more in his lifetime and though that might wear on people over the years, for him it was invigorating to share those things with others.
Anyway, it was truly one of most amazing musical moments of my life.