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Like A Jazz Machine 2017
Centre Culturel Regionel Opderschmelz
Dudelange, Luxembourg
May 25-28, 2017
Size, as Like A Jazz Machine knows, isn't everything. The audience in the Centre Culturel Regionel Opderschmelz amounts to just four seated rows downstairs, with a small standing section to the rear, and ten rows of seats upstairs. Yet this intimate setting is the arena for an international jazz program that would be the envy of much bigger towns and cities than Dudelange, whose 19,700 inhabitants reside half an hour south of Luxembourg, and close to the French border.
Held over four days—this review covers the first three days—the sixth edition of Like A Jazz machine 2017 featured big hitters like the
Carla Bley
piano1938 - 2023
Bojan Z
piano
Nik Bärtsch
pianob.1971
Nguyen Le
guitar, electricb.1959
Erik Truffaz
trumpetb.1960
Joachim Kuhn
pianob.1944
Enrico Rava
trumpetb.1939
Jérôme Klein
drums
Pol Belardi
bassb.1989
Perhaps, however, it shouldn't come as a surpise that Dudelange is host to such a dynamic jazz festival as Like A Jazz Machine, for the country itself is something of an enigma.
Size-wise, Luxembourg could fit into Rhode Island, while its 600,000 people makes it one of the least populous countries in Europe. Yet this tiny country, sandwiched between Belgium, Germany and France, has the highest population growth rate of any state in the world and ranks second in global GDP per capita. Luxembourg is also a visionary country, being one of the founders of the modern European Union as well as a pioneer in looking beyond our planet for resources in space. Big surprises often come in small packages.
Luxembourg's integrationist philosophy, its multi-lingual identity and its forward-looking dynamism make it in many ways the perfect house of jazz—a music that often makes similar claims, whatever their legitimacy. What is beyond doubt, however, is that jazz as an idiom and as a concept is always evolving, as the sixth edition of Like A Jazz Machine demonstrated in spades.
Day One
Klein
An Artist-In-Residence at Like A Jazz Machine 2017, pianist/percussionist Jér?me Klein got the festival off on the front foot with the world premiere of music for his trio featuring vibraphonist Pol Belardi and drummer Niels Engel. That these musicians already knew each other well from playing together in various ensembles was evident in the vibrancy of their interplay within Klein's artful orchestrations.
Engel's slow beat, Klein's melodious keyboard melody—fused with recorded voice—and Engel's arco-caressed vibraphones conjured a dreamy opening atmosphere, though it wasn't long before a shift in rhythmic gear, a joyfully tumbling keys solo and Engel's mini-Moog touches redirected the tune—the soundtrack to a drive on a sunny day. The synth-pop textures, melodious contours and infectious grooves made for a potent, highly seductive combination, setting the template for the concert.
With a Master's Degree in drums, it was perhaps a given that Klein's music was percussive and rhythmically driven to the degree it was. To that end, Engel's polyrhythms were central to Klein's concept, his quite thrilling stickwork evoking the contemporary idioms of drummers such as
Mark Guiliana
drums
Rob Turner
drums
Joshua Blackmore
drumsb.1986
A pre-programed keyboard mantra of rattling gamelan frequencies formed the backdrop to extended piano and vibraphone explorations on another melodious, beat-centric tune, though one that harbored a brief passage of spacey abstraction, crowned by a stormy drum feature. The shifting of tempi and textures— drawing you in hypnotically, then just as suddenly recalibrating your senses—was a constant feature of the music.
Klein was the architect of free-flowing jazz trio excursions, ruminative, ambient terrain and bouyant poppish fare, but at whatever tempo imposed or mood conjured Klein's music constantly. A wonderful advert for the accessible yet still adventurous side of modern jazz.
Bojan Z
Belgrade-born, Paris-based pianist/keyboardist
Bojan Z
pianoJulien Lourau
saxophone, sopranoA regal, snaking melody delivered in unison by Zulfikarpa?i?, trumpeter
Pantelis Stoikos
trumpet
Claudio Puntin
clarinetPuntin led a heady, Balkan wedding-flavored charge on the intro to another number, then steered by Zulfikarpa?i?, bassist
Thomas Bramerie
bassb.1965
Paolo Fresu
trumpetb.1961
Fresu combined with Stoikos on an episodic fifteen-minute piece that mutated from balladic terrain—underpinned by a gently bubbling, pre-programed keyboard motif and computerized beat—through howling ensemble freedom to heavy
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
The musicians took their bows to a loud ovation—an enthusiastic seal of approval for some of the most intriguing music that Zulfikarpa?i? has made to date.
Extended Hanoi Duo -Nguyên Lê & Ngo Hong Quang
Guitarist
Nguyen Le
guitar, electricb.1959
The searing fusion of "Beggar's Love Song" kick-started the show, driven by
Alex Beltran
saxophone, tenor
Jimi Hendrix
guitar, electric1942 - 1970
Paolo Fresu
trumpetb.1961
Although the music was very much the sum of its parts, Hong Quang's individual star shone brightly -his vocal range matched by his emotive delivery. He dabbled in throat singing and ripped into a jaw harp with a vengeance, while his Vietnamese fiddle wove glorious unison lines with Lê's electric guitar. His delicate delivery on the haunting ballad "A Night With You, Gone," with Miyazaki and Fresu lending perfectly pitched support, provided a set highlight.
The full force of the band returned on the vibrant set closer, "Chiec Khan Pieu," enlivened by Edouard's tabla-cum-konnakol solo and rousing ensemble vocal chants. A gripping concert that will linger long in the memory.
The Comet Is Coming
The Comet Is Coming's performance at Like A Jazz Machine was the last date of a month-long tour that has seen King Shabaka (
Shabaka Hutchings
woodwindsMaxwell Hallett
drumsFrom the opening numbers, "Journey to the Asteroid" and "Space Carnival," with Hutchings' tenor flying nine sheets to the wind, Hallett pounding his kit with relentless fury and Leavers whipping up a wicked electronics/synthesizer brew, it was clear that this was not music for the faint-hearted. In the meeting of free-jazz and psychedelic electronics some of the wilder experimentation of
Sun Ra
piano1914 - 1993
The majority of the set came from the band's Mercury Prize-shortlisted CD Channel The Spirits (The Leaf Label, 2016). In Hutchings case the spirits channelled were those of
Albert Ayler
saxophone, tenor1936 - 1970
Fela Kuti
saxophone1938 - 1997
Manu Dibango
saxophone1934 - 2020
Steve Reid
drumsb.1944
The tirelessly burrowing saxophone, pummelling polyrhythms and edgy electronics—culminating in the raucous "Neon Baby" were energizing and uplifting, even if the three musicians themselves looked, not unsurprisingly, a little drained by their exertions at the concert's end.
Day Two
Aki Rissanen Trio
Making its first appearance as a trio in Luxembourg, the Aki Rissanen Trio presented material from Amorandom (Edition Records, 2015), its debut for the notable English label, although the trio had played alongside
Verneri Pohjola
trumpetThe trio set out its stall with "Pulsar," whose simple melody served as the launching pad for the trio's interplay—at once elegant and rhythmically charged. Steered by the pianist's tightly woven circular patterns the music gathered force, typified by
Teppo Mäkynen
drums
Antti Lotjonen
bassThe pattern of moving from deceptively simple to denser, more complex terrain was repeated on "New Life and Other Beginnings"; an infectious bass ostinato and snappy drum rhythm soon dissolved into knotty, intricate discourse, pulled by Rissanen's expansive improvisation, which was melodically flowing and harmonically sophisticated. As before, the music petered out. Tempo and mood shifted on "Paysage Pas Sages," whose spare architecture centred on interlocking rhythmic/melodic mantras, Rissanen's left-hand ostinato maintained throughout even as he soloed—fitfully at first, then with greater insistence. The gradual wind-down of this composition too, was becoming something of a repeating motif in itself.
A tightly choreographed workout saw all three flex improvisational muscle, the fast-walking bass lines, hissing cymbals and flowing piano lines taking the trio into the vicinity of post-bop terrain. More personal in feel was Rissanen's spacious arrangement of Gyorgy Ligeti's Etude #5 "Arc en Ciel," which passed from a spacious and sombre intro to more robust impressionism. "Blind Desert," from Rissanen's La Lumière Noire (Aeon Records, 2008), an exercise in collectively evolving dynamism, with a fired-up Rissanen at the epicentre, drew a striking line under an impressive set.
Carla Bley Trio
With Time/Life: Songs for Whales and Other Beings (Impulse! 2016)—
Charlie Haden
bass, acoustic1937 - 2014
Carla Bley
piano1938 - 2023
Steve Swallow
bassb.1940
Andy Sheppard
saxophoneb.1957
It was with one of Bley's newer compositions, the slow-waltzing "Copycat," that the trio embarked, Sheppard's gently florid tenor lines giving way to Swallow's measured melodicism on acoustic bass—underpinned by Bley's spare, pristine comping. The trio's embrace of simple, beautiful melody, gently flowing rhythmic contours and harmonic warmth was a refreshing antidote to the bravura virtuosity and intensity of so much of the music that had gone before during Like A Jazz Machine. That said, improvisation was not in short supply, notably on the whimsical,
Thelonious Monk
piano1917 - 1982
The centrepiece, however, was Bley's brooding, three-part, suite "Andando El Tiempo." For fully thirty minutes the trio negotiated a range of moods, from darkly atmospheric tango and oblique blues—with Sheppard outstanding on tenor and soprano saxophones—to dreamy, neo-classical etude and haunting lyricism.
Bley's exquisite ballad "Lawns"—surely one of her most memorable compositions—served as the encore, ending the performance with a suitably spare celebration of the joy of melody.
Pol Belardi's Force
A day after playing vibraphones in Jerome Klein's Klein, Pol Belardi was back on his primary instrument, the bass guitar, and leading his Luxembourg-based quartet. Pol Belardi's Force, which was celebrating the release of its second CD, Creation/Evolution (Double Moon/Challenge Records, 2017) an ambitious concept album. For this concert, the quartet was joined by guitarist Riaz Khabirpour, a leader in his own right who has collaborated with
Donny McCaslin
saxophone, tenorb.1966
David Binney
saxophone, altob.1961
Khabirpour dovetailed with saxophonist " data-original-title="" title="">David Fettmann on the ruminative intro to "Prayer" with Niels Engel's mallets rumbling menacingly. A collective melodic thread gave way to expansive solos from Jerome Klein and Fettmann in turn, with Belardi and Engel in animated supporting role. A fairly straight-ahead approach was juxtaposed against more impressionistic ensemble passages on "Plankton" with Belardi's pedal-effects conjuring synthesizer-like effects on a slow-burning number of some emotional intensity, with guitar and saxophone once more combining to powerful effect.
Grand conceptual themes were treated for the most part in quite concrete, rhythmically dynamic terms, none more so than on the hard-grooving "The Secret Lives of Deep Sea Creatures," a rocking number featuring fine soloing from Klein, Khabirpour and the ever-industrious Engel. Some of Belardi's most engaging music, however, was built upon the sparest arrangements, as in the atmospheric "Snow," which, steered by Fettmann, gradually built powerful momentum.
Klein's persuasive soloing was to the fore on an infectious contemporary jazz-funk number, while the bouyant jazz-fusion influenced "Tooth Grinder" closed the set, inviting an appreciative ovation from the audience.
Thomas De Pourquery & Supersonic
Led by the redoubtable figure of saxophonist
Thomas de Pourquery
saxophone, altoSun Ra
piano1914 - 1993
It would be an injustice to describe Supersonic as a Sun Ra tribute band as De Pourquery's contemporary arrangements of Ra classics—and originally penned material—set it apart from other Arkestra-inspired bands content merely to imitate.
Arnaud Roulin
piano
Edward Perraud
drumsLaurent Bardainne
saxophone, tenorFabrice Martinez
trumpet
Charles Mingus
bass, acoustic1922 - 1979
The slow pulse, spacey synths, hippy-ish poetry and hypnotic chants of "Slow Down" was a stoner's delight, enlivened by Martinez' trumpet solo. Ripe saxophone and trumpet lines soared majestically on "Sons of Love," and artful though the homage undoubtedly was, the celebratory tone of the music was not without humour and a healthy dose of irreverence, notably with Perraud's drumming, which was often Keith Moon-like, particularly on the heady space-rocker "Give me the Money Back."
The rousing "Simple Forces" swept the crowd up in a soulful chant and, following a prolonged ovation, the band bowed out with the suitably stirring "Revolution," which wed power and lyricism to mesmerising effect.
Day Three
Dock in Absolute
Luxembourg trio Dock in Absolute was presenting its eponymous debut CD (Cam Jazz, 2017), recorded at Bauer Studios, Ludwigsburg. From the outset, the trio of pianist Jean-Philippe Koch, drummer Michael Meis and bassist David Kintziger attacked the music with confidence and energy. During the relatively compact, through-composed pieces the trio largely eschewed extended soloing, instead locking into the grooves. The tunes struck a balance between melodic hooks and rhythmic drive, with Koch's classical background filtering through the attractive melodies.
The hammered keys, bustling drums and jaunty esprit of "Broadwalk Sunshine" evoked The Neil Cowley Trio, although Dock in Absoute's lighter tread and its penchant for pretty, classically hued melody, particularly on "Exquisite Pain" and "O-Zone" set it apart from most piano trios of that ilk. Contrasts between light and heavy, lyrical and dramatic made for an aesthetic that was never staid, the over arcing effect of the music revealing itself over the concert's duration.
A summery energy infused the lively "Pride and Devotion," with Meis delivering a solo of panache squarely mid-tune. Classical gravitas colored the piano intro to "Inside," the arrival of bass and brushes steering the tune into more mellifluous mode. The upbeat "Sparkling Summer" veered between punchy motif and flowing rhythm, a piano and bass vamp inviting further fireworks from Meis in a fiery finale. Koch's elegant unaccompanied piano feature brought a timely change in mood and tempo before the trio raised the banner of collective groove and pronounced dramaturgy once again.
With their well-defined melodies and strong rhythms, Dock in Absolute's uniformly concise and direct compositions went for the jugular, scoring well with the Like A Jazz Machine audience. A talented band with a potentially bright future ahead.
Joachim Kuhn New Trio featuring Enrico Rava
It's over fifty years since German pianist
Joachim Kuhn
pianob.1944
_copy.jpg)
Chris Jennings
bass, acousticb.1978
Gary Husband
drumsb.1960
Kuhn has lost none of his fire, judging by his feverish pianism on the striking opening track, "Because of Maloud," where the pianist's choppy improvisation— punctuated by flashes of lyricism—was driven by Jennings and Husband's blistering pistons.
Ornette Coleman
saxophone, alto1930 - 2015
Jenning's slow-churning ostinato provided an infectious intro to The Doors' "The End," with Kuhn's scurrying runs, gospel-tinged melodicism and fiercely jangling waves making for a potent brew. The arrival of
Enrico Rava
trumpetb.1939
A couple of Rava's tunes from Wild Dance (ECM, 2015) followed the rhythmically propulsive "Overboard" and the lyrical "Diva," which featured a full-blooded intervention from Rava on flugelhorn. A mid-tempo, intense arrangement of
Gil Evans
composer / conductor1912 - 1988
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
The evident chemistry between Kuhn and Rava during this sparkling set suggested that a studio date, somewhere down the line, wouldn't go amiss. Powerful collective sorcery.
Nik Bartsch's Mobile Extended
Nik Bartsch's Mobile is now well into its second decade. Line-up changes and collaborations have kept the project evolving whilst retaining its core aesthetic, much like one of its concerts. The quartet of drummer/percussionists Kasper Rast and
Nicolas Stocker
drums
Sha
clarinetb.1983
The rhythms intensified, with Sha's foot working a standing cymbal for added effect and Stocker knocking out a dancing tattoo on mini-marimba. Sudden and dynamic shifts were directed by Bartsch, both musically and with the slightest nod of the head, the drama inherent in the release of tension that came with the end with one collective mantra for the beginnings of a new one.
Damped piano string grooves, metallic discs struck with tiny metal rods, piano Morse, clarinet growls, bass drum oomph,—small details and larger gestures interwove to create a multi-layered sonic fabric of hypnotic—and sometimes intense—design.
After forty or so minutes the quartet was joined by double bassist Adrian Rigopulos, violinists Etienne Abelin and Ola Sendecki, violist David Schnee and violoncellists Solme Hong and Ambrosius Huber. A brooding bass profundo groove, ceded ground to extended legato string phrasing, minimalist impressionism lightly punctuated by temple-esque gongs, and riffing ensemble gravitas. During a particularly hypnotic passage the shadow of Phillip Glass' Koyaanisqatsi (Island, 1983) loomed, a reminder that the foundations of all music, no matter how original and intoxicating, are constructed, to greater or lesser degree, from pre-existing materials.
Erik Truffaz Quartet
For twenty years, French trumpeter
Erik Truffaz
trumpetb.1960
"
data-original-title="" title="">Marcello Giuliani, "
data-original-title="" title="">Benoit Corboz and newcomer Maxon Cybile, Truffaz led the quartet through a set that embraced pop freshness, easy-going dance beats and no little virtuosity. The ambient—cum-groove number "African Mist"—from Truffaz's El Tiempo de la Revolucion (Blue Note Records, 2013)—opened the set, with Corboz on electric piano and Truffaz setting out early markers with passionate solos. The infectious head-bobbing grooves and dreamy electric piano of "Pacheco" conjured the 1970s jazz-funk of
Bob James
pianob.1939
Drum 'n' bass rhythms contrasted with Truffaz' laid back legato phrasing on a contemporary-sounding number, the trumpeter switching between muted reverie and pedal-driven ambient textures. The greatest sound manipulation, however, was effected by Corboz on an anthemic number of cantering groove, his keyboard solo imitating an electric guitar in full flight. A blues-tinged, piano-led ballad brought a change of pace, Truffaz lifting the mood with a fine solo, but in the main the music followed more robust rhythmic furrows. Another slice of clap-along, feel-good jazz-funk, featuring a wonderful Giuliani funk solo, rounded out the set.
A loud and prolonged ovation brought Corboz and Truffaz back to the stage for a blues ballad duet of nostalgia and longing, effectively returning Truffaz, the restless musical explorer, to his roots.
Wrap Up
The sixth edition of Like A Jazz Machine was full of excellent music, though what was interesting to observe was just how little of it overtly referenced jazz's past.
Jazz vocabulary was not in short supply, but of the twelve bands that performed in the first three days not one played a single jazz standard from the pre-war period. The only vocals, moreover, were sung in Vietnamese. The closest to a standard was Joachim Kuhn and Enrico Rava's arrangement of the Gil Evans/Miles Davis composition "Blues for Pablo." Carla Bley, who has penned numerous modern-day standards over the past half century, refused to bask in past glories, presenting mostly new music. Even Thomas De Porquery & Supersonic's Sun Ra homage was progressive in its approach.
Like A Jazz Machine was notably a male-dominated affair, with Bley, Mieko Miyazaki and Ola Sendecki the only women out of fifty five participating musicians, underlining in stark terms just how far jazz still has to travel.
The age demographic of the audience leaned towards the grey hair tribe of jazz fans, and nowhere was this more evident than when The Comet Is Coming's Dan Leaver was pumping his arm in the air in club-party mode, as the fifty to sixty year-olds (on average) in the downstairs seats looked on.
Whether these trends —a moving away from jazz's past towards a preference for personal compositions/arrangements, the boys-only club around jazz that continues to persist, and an ageing audience—will change much in jazz's second century remains to be seen.
However, there was plenty of youthful energy and exciting original music on display at Like A Jazz Machine that covered a wide range of styles. It was a real privilege to see the likes of Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Joachim Kuhn and Enrico Rava—veterans whose best years may be behind them but whose best music is still very much with them.
And as the old guard will inevitably make way for the next generation—as it always has—it's good to know that artists of the calibre of Bojan Z, Nguyen Le and Erik Truffaz—not forgetting the young Luxembourg musicians who contributed so much to Like A Jazz Machine 2017—are taking the music into fascinating new, jazz- without-borders terrain.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Gérard Beckers
Tags
Live Reviews
carla bley
Ian Patterson
Luxembourg
bojan z
Nik Bartsch
nguyen le
Erik Truffaz
Joachim Kühn
Enrico Rava
Jerome Klein
Pol Belardi
Niels Engel
Mark Guiliana
Rob Turner
Joshua Blackmore
Julien Lourau
Pantelis Stoikos
Claudio Puntin
Martijn Vink
Thomas Bramerie
Paolo Fresu
Miles Davis
Alex Tran
Jimi Hendrix
Mieko Miyazaki
shabaka hutchings
Dan Leavers
Maxwell Hallett
Sun Ra
Albert Ayler
Fela Kuti
Manu Dibango
Steve Reid
Verneri Pohjola
Teppo M?kynen
Antti L?tj?nen
Charlie Haden
Steve Swallow
andy sheppard
Thelonious Monk
Donny McCaslin
David Binney
David Fettmann
Thomas De Pourquery
Arnaud Roulin
Edward Perraud
Laurent Bardainne
Fabrice Martinez
Charles Mingus
Chris Jennings
Gary Husband
Ornette Coleman
Gil Evans
Nicolas Stocker
Sha
Marcello Giuliani
Benoit Corboz
Bob James
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