Robert Wyatt-Comicopera

Robert Wyatt-Comicopera

Domino

Comicopera is like meeting an oid friend. Conversation begins immediately where it last left off. What's new? How you been? Has it really been that long? No, really? Shame about so and so. It's not that nothing has changed. Static friendships die. The capacity to accommodate difference and change that revitalises the friendship. There are new influences and new songs. There are life-changing events. New loves and old ones rekindled. Life happens somewhere between comedy and tragedy - Comicopera. Robert Wyatt, his partner Alfie Benge and their comrades understand this well. There's observational comedy in 'А Beautiful Peace' and ‘А Beautiful War', romantic comedy in ‘Just As You Are' and slapstick in Orphy Robinson's ‘Pastafari'. We feel pity and loss for Hattie in ‘A.W.O.L.', while Richard Dawkins pops up cartoon-like on 'Be Serious' There's solidarity with the oppressed in `Haste Siempre Comandante' and in Robert's setting of Lorca's ‘Cancion dе Julieta' and righteous anger in Out Of The Blue'. We shared those thoughts and those emotions and then we danced together. Oh, how we danced to On The Town Square'. And then we laughed and laughed again, as if we were the very last ones to get the joke of ‘Anachronis’.

Duncan Heining

Orchestra Baobab-Made in Dakar

Orchestra Baobab-Made in Dakar

Worid Circuit

Five years after feted specialist In All Styles, Dakar's ever-wonderful Orchestra Baobab return with an album in which they remain precisely that - and more. From the smooth but meticulously delivered opener Pape Ndiaye - all sax curliques and reflexive, empathetic orchestration - the reformed collective offer a varied yet uniformly excellent follow-up. Recorded in Youssou N'Dour's Xippi Studio's in Dakar, Senegal, Made in Dakar combines a series of old and new tracks underscored by soaring praise singer voices, idiosyncratic yet sublime guitar playing and the sort of effortless group dynamic that comes from musical bonds forged back in the day. Emphasis on the hard-cracking sabar drum - a fixture of the mbalax sound that originally elbowed them off their perch - make for cha-cha-cha rhythms and galloping pay tracks alike. Influences still range from rumba and high life to calypso to Cuban and Afro-pop - all polished with an insouciant swagger. Orchestra Baobab are back at the top of the tree.

Jazzwise talks to guitarist Barthelemy Atisso of Orchestra Baobab about the album Do you consider yourselves a bridge between the old Afdca and the newAfrica? For us there is no distinction. We only have one Africa! The Africa of all time! We have added sabar drum to enrich our work but it isn't the first time we've used it; back in the 70s we recorded an album, Une Nuit au Jender, with (Guinean percussionist) Doudou N'Diaye Rose who was the maestro of Senegalese percussion. Is Cuban musk still as strong an influence? Well yes - we were brought up on Cuban music, as were all Senegalese of our generation. All the nightclubs specialised in Cuban music. Everyone loved it. Though it should really be referred to as Afro-Cuban music because it had left Africa in the first place and come back again - where we added African ingredients: the tam-tam, the bell, the traditional flute. Now much has jams musk influenced Orchestra Baobab? Is jam in West Africa defined differently than in the West? Baobab's music has a variety of influences - and one of them is jazz. When we used to play at Club Baobab in the 70s the mixed crowd had mixed tastes, so we tried to satisfy everyone by playing them a bit of jazz, rumba, salsa, bolero, cha cha cha, rock, reggae, soul, tango. For me in particular jazz and blues opened up a world of possibilities. 1 was down away by people like BB King, Jimmy Smith, Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery. The track 'Ben, Barale' is your tribute to the great Guinean outfit Bembeya Jam. Why were they so important to you? There was a period of time when the two best known groups in Senegal and Guinea were Orchestra Baobab and Bemebya Jazz. We complemented each other. It felt important to pay tribute to that spirit.

Jane Cornwall

Tony Smith-The Window

Tony Smith-The Window

www.tonysmithguitar.com

In a similar way to the ‘Parental Advisory' label seen on many heavy metal and hip-hop/rap albums, Tony Smith's fifth solo album The Window really ought to carry a "Smooth Jazz free zone" label on the jewel case. Recorded live over three days, the three vocal tracks included on Smith's previous release Loyalty have on this occasion been dispensed with entirely. A long-standing featured guitarist with the touring band of US vibes legend Roy Ayers, the guitarists eight-track instrumental collection ranges from the catchy opener ‘Blister' to the oasis of calm provided by The Window, by way of the Zawinulesque chromatic bass line and memorably orgiastic climax of 'suspicious'. The guitarists catholicity of style is impressive. Even within the confines of a single track such as ‘Jekyll and Hyde' he can switch between James Brown style funk to a wailing, take no prisoners rock solo: Jimmy Page, Muddy Waters and Wes Montgomery all inform the Smith sound. Including keyboardist Jason Rebello and drummer Jerry Brown, the hand-picked band seem to revel in their surroundings. Fusing a jazz brain with a dues heart, Smith's coruscating signature sound and passionate intensity continues to impress.

Peter Quinn

Andy Summers/Ben Venlery-First You Build А Cloud...

Andy Summers/Ben Venlery-First You Build А Cloud...

Repertoire Records

Summers has taken a while to find his solo guitar voice, but give the bloke credit, he's taken on projects that reveal no little musical ambition. This collaboration with maverick classical guitarist Verdery bears intriguing comparison to current John Etheridge/John Williams outings, although if you have to pitch it in a niche, its nearer the rock end of the spectrum than even summers' own jazz work outs, like his overreaching Mingus project. First You Build A Cloud is a series of improvisations and meditations rather than through-written compositions, so, accounting for the risks involved in such a process, its no surprise this is a hit and miss affair. Verdery tends to lay down a series of arpeggiated lines and chordal progressions rather than melodies. Against this Summers reacts with textures, rhythms and soundscapes rather than solos. When he does solo, its often with extreme distortion. Sometimes this works - his Stuka dive into `Fez', for example, vividly hits home, coming in on top of the acoustic guitar with all the furore that Renbourne's sudden blitzkrieg's on fuzz guitar would bring to the idyllic calm of a Pentangle concert. Other times the overladen effects add up to little more than fuss and bluster - Summers has never been the happiest of `soloists' as some of his live `jazz' performances attest - but the best tracks are the simplest, like the dark re-visiting of `Bring On The Night, or the bottleneck against harmonics of the quirky 'Stone Town'. Guitarists of various genres, from jazz through rock and classical, will find this outing fascinating as much for its flaws as its high points.

Andy Robson

 

John Scofield-This Meets That

John Scofield-This Meets That

This mutha swings.. maybe it's the change of label, or the feisty youth like Medeski, Martin and Wood that Sco's hung with of late, but the man is currently mining a rich lode, playing again with a vigour, bite and breadth of musical terrain. And he's done that, ironically, by reaching back into his own musical roots. This Meets That (with its echo in the title of East Meets West, his debut, tummy, 30 years ago) puts Scofield back with his top collaborators, Stewart and swallow who know how to follow - and urge on - his every melodic buck and swerve. This is most obvious on the boppish 'Trio Blues', which has lovely breaks from the bass and drums, but also has the three of them weaving and dancing together in that telepathic way only long time pals can achieve. Swallow, of course, has been a mentor of Sco's for 35 years, but even he doesn't go back to `House Of The Rising Sun' and `Satisfaction', the kind of primordial stuff Scofield taught himself while learning guitar as a kid. But these aren't sentimental rehashes: Scofield sets the latter against a bullish horn section (with echoes of Gil Evans and Mike Gibbs in his arrangements), while the former features Mr Frisell on the twangsome theme. The Frisellian vibe crops up too on the affectionate lope through Charlie Rich's country hit `Behind Closed Doors' and even in the title of the genial meditation `Shoe Dog'. But it's those horn punctuations, tight, tough, harmonically enriching that lift up this impressive release, whether counter-pointing the harsh gnash of Sco's axe on `The Low Road', suggestively colouring `Heck Of A Job' and intriguingly doubling the melodies of the free `Pretty Out'. This Meets That is immediately recognisable Scofield, recalling so many of his musical incarnations over the decades, yet it remains fresh, dynamic and urgent.

 Andy Robson

Adonis Rose-On the Verge

Adonis Rose-On the Verge

Criss Cross Jazz 1294

As with Rose's previous two CDs for Criss Cross, the line-up is basically that of the Nicholas Payton Quintet. Usually the pianist was Anthony Wonsey, but, from memory, he was away in Japan with his own trio at the time this was recorded. Why it's taken nearly four years to get a release is hard to justify. And, sadly, it turned out to be one of the last recordings before that group finally broke up. With the ever-improving, versatile Goldberg subbing for Wonsey and the introduction of an outstanding new young vibes player, Warren Wolf (like Mike Moreno and Tommy Crane, a member of Jeremy Pelts experimental 2005 group), who has many of the characteristics of his main inspiration, Bobby Hutcherson, this is a superior session of tasteful quality jazz. Rose's three tunes are very varied. The opener, `Robin in Pink' (an equally good alternative take is also included) is very down-tempo, very relaxed, very enjoyable. His CD title composition, with exciting solos by Goldberg, Warfield and Wolf, is a total burn-out. The other equally free-style track, with effective double-time in places, is an original stop-go treatment of the Jimmy Heath standard, 'Gingerbread Boy'. Then there's an `up' 12-bar ('Liyah's Blues') with a forgettable theme, but storming solos over as swinging a rhythm section as you could possibly wish for, with Rogers' bass lifting everyone. Warren Wolf is wonderful on this one. Towards the end of Warfield's solo, there's a wickedly wild, off-the-wall quote from an early Bird dues theme (is it `Buzzy'?). Warfield's main feature is his own sensuous ballad, `Lies in Beauty', while Goldberg's `Shed' in 5/4 is also strong. Payton is happy to be a stellar sideman and plays inventively throughout, while Rose gives ample evidence of the reasons Payton used him for so long.

 Tony Hall

24 THE WALL (1982)

ROGER WATER'S NIGHTMARE ON FILM

On 14 July, 1982, a select audience of London cinemagoers emerged reeling from the premiere of Alan Parker's The Wall. What did it all mean? It meant whatever you wanted it to. What did Bob Geldof's rock star Pink represent? He represented whatever you wanted him to. A quarter of a century later, it still doesn't pay to think about The Wall too hard. Bar the recurring theme of human alienation, Parker's interpretation of Pink Floyd's 1979 album (with a script by Floyd visionary Roger Waters) is as illogical as an acid trip and - thanks to the nightmarish animation sequences of Gerald Scarfe-as disturbing as any Manga cartoon. As a sensory experience, it's also as powerful as a sledgehammer, although, ironically, that's why bassist Roger Waters felt it failed. "I found it was so unremitting in its onslaught on the senses," he noted in 1988, "that it didn't give me, as an audience, a chance to get involved with it."

Classic Rock

24 THE WALL (1982)

ROGER WATER'S NIGHTMARE ON FILM

On 14 July, 1982, a select audience of London cinemagoers emerged reeling from the premiere of Alan Parker's The Wall. What did it all mean? It meant whatever you wanted it to. What did Bob Geldof's rock star Pink represent? He represented whatever you wanted him to. A quarter of a century later, it still doesn't pay to think about The Wall too hard. Bar the recurring theme of human alienation, Parker's interpretation of Pink Floyd's 1979 album (with a script by Floyd visionary Roger Waters) is as illogical as an acid trip and - thanks to the nightmarish animation sequences of Gerald Scarfe-as disturbing as any Manga cartoon. As a sensory experience, it's also as powerful as a sledgehammer, although, ironically, that's why bassist Roger Waters felt it failed. "I found it was so unremitting in its onslaught on the senses," he noted in 1988, "that it didn't give me, as an audience, a chance to get involved with it."

Classic Rock