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Mike Walker: Ropes
Mike Walker
guitar, electricb.1962
Walker is an alumnus of the bands of
George Russell
composer / conductor1923 - 2009
Mike Gibbs
composer / conductor
Kenny Wheeler
flugelhorn1930 - 2014
The Impossible Gentlemen
band / ensemble / orchestra
Steve Swallow
bassb.1940
Gwilym Simcock
pianob.1981
Adam Nussbaum
drumsb.1955
At the heart of this album is the gorgeous, pastoral three-movement title track. The piece is actually quite traditional in its compositional approach—theme, variations and recapitulations with different tempos for each movement—but none the worse for it. As Walker explains in the interview below, "Ropes" is a personal piece relating to his mother's mental health issues and his attempts to understand what she was going through. The word "poignant" hardly seems to do justice to its tripping melodies, gorgeous harmonies and strong and performances from Walker, saxophonist
Iain Dixon
saxophoneLes Chisnall
pianoWalker is wistful and elegiac on "Wallenda's Last Stand" and "Bound to Let Go," while he smolders on "Madhouse" and catches fire on "Knots." This is a very fine record that succeeds in being both approachable and thought-provoking. Quite an achievement.
Mike Walker spoke with Duncan Heining about Ropes.
All About Jazz (AAJ): "Ropes" resulted from a Manchester Jazz Festival commission in 2008. It was very well-received and broadcast by the BBC Radio 3. How has it taken so long to record and release it?
Mike Walker: I went to see
Mike Gibbs
composer / conductorAdam Nussbaum
drumsb.1955
Steve Swallow
bassb.1940
The Impossible Gentlemen
band / ensemble / orchestraAAJ: The three-movement title track is the CD's centrepiece, which shifts through a series of moods from the dark, theatrical opening harmonies on "Bound To Let Go" through the lightness of "Knots" to the more pastoral qualities of "Kiss The Hills For Me Just Once." What were you looking to achieve with the piece? Did you have any particular other jazz and strings recordings in mind when you wrote "Ropes"?
MW: The three movements are based on one melody. This melody is really just a sea shanty and I wove it into the three movements to give it a different hue in each setting. I like the idea of one face that takes on different characters and personalities. "Knots," for instance, is taken from the book of the same title by R.D Laing, who also wrote The Divided Self and did a lot of admittedly controversial work with schizophrenia in the '60s and '70s. My first album Madhouse And The Whole Thing There also references Laing's work and I was drawn to it through my own mother's long battle with schizophrenia. In this respect, the two albums are inextricably linked. "Ropes" is a direct reflection of these changing faces, of how we choose to see the rope as something that binds us, gets us out of a hole, takes our breath away or tows us home.
AAJ: "Ropes" got another performance in Manchester in 2016 alongside compositions from
Steve Reich
composer / conductorb.1936
Gavin Bryars
bass, acousticMW: It was interesting to have my work alongside theirs. Those particular works are overtly repetitive whereas mine is more covertly repetitive. I have melodies sneaking around all over the place. I like the idea of listening to my music and finding out secrets the more you listen. A little like seeing a face and thinking, "Have we met before?" The pieces by Reich and Bryars are more hypnotic and I think they gave good balance over the course of the evening.
AAJ: The album features "Still Slippy Underfoot" from your debut album and the rather Bacharach-like "Wallenda's Last Stand" from the first record by Impossible Gentlemen. What made you realise that these two earlier pieces would work in this context?
MW: I've always loved Bacharach's melodies and his cheeky non-conventional forms. Joni Mitchell, too. Their music seems to come before the form. It's much more organic. It finds its own form. This is very much how I write music." I re-arranged "Still Slippy" and "Wallenda" for Ropes with the sea shanty melody hidden in there. Those two pieces seemed to sit well alongside the three movements of "Ropes." Karl Wallenda was a tightrope walker, and slipped to his death on his retiring walk at age 73, which spoke well to the narrative of "Ropes" and the precarious nature of our existence.
AAJ: Ropes has been given life by some wonderful playing from a number of friends and colleagues: Iain Dixon, Gwilym Simcock, Adam Nussbaum, Les Chisnall and, of course, the fabulous Psappha Strings. Yet you were composer, arranger, performer and producer. I have a vision of you towering above the project like a surreal puppetmaster. How did it feel pulling all these different elements together?
MW: It's been a ride for sure. A lot of hard work and some good lessons along the way. Integrating the strings with the quintet in a way that would give a more symbiotic, holistic and organic feeling was a challenge. It would be easy to have the strings just back the improvisers, as many "Jazz with Strings" albums do. There is some of that on this record, obviously, but hopefully on repeated listens one might discover more hidden in the shadows.
AAJ: In a way Ropes is a tribute to the very healthy jazz scene in Manchester and the northwest of England, where you live. What is it, in your opinion, that has enabled jazz in the area to establish such a foothold?
MW: Manchester has a long history of Trad Jazz and, obviously in the north of England in general, a tradition with brass band music. The connection of brass to big band is an easy one to make and, as we know, big bands are fertile ground for young musicians. I played with seasoned beboppers as a lad of 18 as well as young funksters cutting their teeth on
The Headhunters
band / ensemble / orchestrab.1973
Weather Report
band / ensemble / orchestraAAJ: So, Mike Walker, having conquered the sonata, what's next? An opera? A requiem mass?
MW: Conquered? I should cocoa. Much to learn yet where form is concerned. My next thing is a follow up to my 2008 album Madhouse And The Whole Thing There. I've written the music and I have a title: The Things That Make The Darklings Sing I have the artwork in my head. I have the arrangements in there too: more brass and horns, I think. I need to get this music out so I can get to writing for smaller units, trios, quartets and the like. These magnum opuses are too draining.
George Russell must have had
Duke Ellington
piano1899 - 1974
James Brown
vocals1933 - 2006
Track Listing
Still Slippy Underfoot; Ropes Movement 1 – Bound To Let Go; Ropes Movement 2 – Knots; Ropes Movement 3 – Kiss The Hills For Me, Just Once; Devon Bean; Wallenda’s Last Stand; Madhouse And The Whole Thing There; Slip Not…
Personnel
Mike Walker
guitar, electricMike Walker (guitar tracks 2-5, composer), Iain Dixon (clarinet, saxophones tracks 1-6), Les Chisnall (piano, Fender Rhodes tracks 1-3, 6, 8), Gwilym Simcock (tracks 5, 7), Steve Rodby (bass tracks 2, 6), Steve Watts (bass tracks 3, 5, 7), Rob Mullarkey (electric bass track 3), Adam Nussbaum (drums tracks 2, 3, 5-7), Mike Wilson, Steve Gilbert (drums track 3), Paul Allen (percussion track 3), Psappha Strings (tracks 1-6).
Album information
Title: Ropes | Year Released: 2019 | Record Label: Madhouse
Tags
Mike Walker
Extended Analysis
Duncan Heining
Ropes
Madhouse
George Russell
Mike Gibbs
Kenny Wheeler
The Impossible Gentlemen
Steve Swallow
Gwilym Simcock
Adam Nussbaum
Living Time Orchestra
Iain Dixon
Les Chisnall
Impossible Gentlemen
Steve Reich
Gavin Bryars
Headhunters
Weather Report
duke ellington
James Brown
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