Home » Jazz Articles » Extended Analysis » Paolo Vinaccia: Very Much Alive
Paolo Vinaccia: Very Much Alive
Arild Andersen
bass, acousticb.1945
Terje Rypdal
guitarb.1947
Mike Mainieri
vibraphoneb.1938
Bendik Hofseth
saxophone
Bugge Wesseltoft
pianob.1964
Palle Mikkelborg
trumpetb.1941
While he's less-known on the west side of the Atlantic Ocean, drummer Paolo Vinaccia—he of the witty black T-shirts, such as "If I'm Reborn I'll Do It Again" and "Not Loud Enough"—is far from an unheard-of quantity in Europe, where he has been a part of a number of important groups, including bassist
Arild Andersen
bass, acousticb.1945
Tommy Smith
saxophone, tenorb.1967
Bugge Wesseltoft
pianob.1964
Mike Mainieri
vibraphoneb.1938
"
data-original-title="" title="">Dhafer Youssef's equally genre-busting Digital Prophecy (Enja, 2003), in addition to work with pop singer/songwriter/producer Morten Harket, he of 1980s pop stars a-ha. But the group Vinaccia has toured with the most in recent years has been
Terje Rypdal
guitarb.1947
Supersilent
band / ensemble / orchestra
Elephant9
band / ensemble / orchestraPalle Mikkelborg
trumpetb.1941
"
data-original-title="" title="">Manfred Eicher, but ultimately and equally the result of a commission for the Lillehammer Vinterspillen Festival in the winter of 1996. Still, its core constituents have toured almost every year since, including in an even more expanded form as part of Rypdal's most recent project, collaborating with the Bergen Big Band in 2009 for the live performance of a new commission, Crime Scene, at the city's Natt Jazz festival; recorded, and ultimately released the following year by ECM. That there's so little recorded evidence of this rock-edged but improvisation-heavy trio is, indeed, a crime, and one finally addressed with Vinaccia's Very Much Alive. The drummer has been dealing with a serious medical condition for the past couple of years, and with no releases under his own name, it seems that Vinaccia was looking to create some kind of recorded legacy under his own name. With ECM disinclined to release live shows from Rypdal's Skywards trio—more disposed, as ever, towards newer projects that, in the next few years, should finally see the release of an album documenting the guitarist's work with The Hilliard Ensemble, and another trio, this time with bassist
Miroslav Vitous
bassb.1947
Gerald Cleaver
drumsb.1963
It's an important release for a number of reasons. First, it's a chance for those not lucky enough to catch this inspired trio (and, for one show, the fifth disc's 2005 show in Arendal, Norway, a quartet with Mikkelborg) to hear it in all its power, passion and glory; second, it gives Vinaccia's visibility a well-deserved shot in the arm; and third, and it comes with some very good news—that Vinaccia is, indeed, as the title indicates, very much with us—and still working.
A relatively Spartan package, Very Much Alive's six discs come in a relatively small box, with each disc in a separate cardboard sleeve, and also featuring an insert that, along with rather incomplete information with respect to personnel and recording dates, does include uncredited liner notes by Jazzland and Gube Music cohort Dave Mullan, who provides additional perspective and insight into the careers of all involved, but mostly Vinaccia, who he accurately describes as "a musician's drummer," who can "glide into place in almost any musical setting, making the whole of which he is a part a richer, fuller sonic experience."
The five shows that make up the first five discs—recorded in three Norwegian locations in addition to Sarajevo and Berlin, Germany—cover a five-year span ending in 2005, and collect some of Rypdal's best, most well-known compositions from across his five-decade career, along with a bounty of previously undocumented Rypdal originals and a few Vinaccia-penned pieces. Rypdal's hard-rocking jam tune, "Tough Enough," dates right back to his eponymous 1971 ECM debut as a leader, while his longstanding Chasers power trio, with bassist Bj?rn Kjellmyr and drummer
Audun Kleive
drumsSkywards is represented by three different versions of its title track (one, curiously titled "Skywald"), while the near—pastoral "Easy Now" comes from a recent disc with longtime collaborator, pianist
"
data-original-title="" title="">Ketil Bjornstad, Life in Leipzig (ECM, 2008)—here, equally gentle, but more sonically expansive with the larger textural palette of Storl?kken's electric keyboards. But what makes all of these familiar pieces soar is this: there may be structural signposts for Rypdal, Storl?kken and Vinaccia to hang onto, but they're only jumping off points for exploration, where there are no rules and no predetermination; "Memory Lane," for example, ebbs and flows with predictable unpredictability in three versions ranging from two to 11 minutes. The Sarajevo 2001 version begins atmospherically, building to a rubato climax, while Sundals?ra 2002 comes in with Vinaccia already pushing a complex, polyrhythmic groove. The longest, from Arendal in 2005, enters with an immediately strong bass line from Storl?kken's synth, leading to an open-ended middle section that's as visceral as this trio gets, featuring one of Rypdal's most blistering solos of the entire box, before a curious break from form and reality, as Vinaccia and Storl?kken's groove slowly dissolves into abstruse electronics and a strange, sampled vocal chant that gradually fades to black over the course of five minutes—no surprise, given the keyboardist's noise improv work with Supersilent. Rypdal may be the big name on this set, but the increasingly visible Storl?kken comes a close second—and the keyboardist's encyclopedic command of sound, harmony and melody is heard throughout the set, as he delivers some harsh Hammond organ on the opening "Tough Enough" that's a precursor to his work with Elephant9 on Dodovoodoo (Rune Grammofon, 2008) and Walk the Nile (Rune Grammofon), and synth work that harkens back to 1970s-era fusion, but without the cheese factor.
The trio's Arendal set, with Mikkelborg, differs from the other four in its general lack of familiar material, a greater emphasis on free improv—accessible yet challenging, edgy but never over-the-edge—and, with the swelling sound of water that introduces this hour-long set of cinematic proportions, truly reflective of the island on which Rypdal lives, situated in the large fjord where Molde is also located. A master of tone and phrasing, with a vivid command of harmonic feedback, and his whammy bar creating a distinctive and definitive sound that's been influential to more than one generation of guitarist, Rypdal's echo and reverb-laden, overdriven and volume pedal-swelling approach truly evokes the sound of expansive vistas and icy fjords. Perhaps more than the other performances—and, just as likely, because of Mikkelborg's participation—the Arendal show feels more harmonically tied to the jazz vernacular, with Storl?kken's rich voicings and spare bass lines supporting Mikkelborg's lyrical, at times
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
Vinaccia may be the lesser-known here, but it's his intuitive, near-orchestral approach that makes him so essential—and distinctive—to this trio. He might look like an old metal-head (not that there's anything wrong with that), and a 1998 Montreal, Canada show with the trio supported the impression—not only was the band loud, but Vinaccia was hitting so hard that his bass drum kept creeping forward on the stage of Gésu, forcing Rypdal to constantly nudge it back into place throughout the performance. But as loud and high octane as Skywards Trio, in general, and Vinaccia, in particular, can be—and there's plenty of that on Very Much Alive—it's also about subtlety, color, and dynamics; clearly, Vinaccia's as good a colorist as he is a thundering groove-maker. Though he may rarely swing in a conventional way, "Terje Aren 2" proves he can, especially during Mikkelborg's initially muted, then open horn solo, with Rypdal providing rare chordal support alongside Storl?kken's gritty Hammond. And with four sets containing a drum solo ("Paolissimo") that ranges from short (under three minutes) to long (nearly 12), Vinaccia proves himself a soloist with a focus as compositional as the group's leader; more than a capella soloing, however, "Paolissimo is a spontaneous duet with Storl?kken, a textural keyboardist with no shortage of corresponding rhythmic foundation.
And so, Very Much Alive acts as a kind of a live counterpoint to Rypdal's self-picked collection from his ECM studio recordings on :rarum VII: Selected Recordings (ECM, 2002); but with a single lineup performing these legacy tracks, it also shows how, regardless of context, and across a period of four decades, Rypdal's compositional voice—which emerged so distinctive and focused from his earliest days—has remained unfailingly so. There has, of course, been growth in his compositional skill, just as listening to these five shows in chronological order suggests a trio that has, over the course of its decade-plus existence, evolved in its liberated approach to even the most structured of environs.
The sixth bonus disc includes two live tracks, featuring Bugge Wesseltoft, bassist Marius Reksj? and turntablist/sampler Jonas L?nn?, from a 2004 Amsterdam performance. Not surprisingly, they're less rock-edged and more electronica-centric, demonstrating Vinaccia's strength in a completely different context. More groove-centric jams than structured pieces, they'd fit comfortably on any of the keyboardist's New Conception of Jazz releases. Three additional tracks, with the Skywards Trio, fit perfectly with the Wesseltoft tracks, though they're less about groove and more completely about color, with the 33-minute "Budapest," in particular, the kind of improvisational experiment that would work well at Kristiansand's annual Punkt "Live Remix" Festival, and the set's strongest example of Vinaccia as a deeply listening percussionist.
With so much of the box consisting of music that's typically billed as Terje Rypdal's Skywards Trio, It would be easy to think of Very Much Alive as belonging to the guitarist. Rypdal is, indeed, the primary composer and titular bandleader, but what emerges from the five-and-a-half-hours of Very Much Alive is the spirit of a true collective, where each member is key to shaping music that may have familiar signposts, yet is completely different with each and every performance. Were it not for Vinaccia's commitment to first recording these and many other shows, and then sifting through and selecting the best music to create this collection, the only documentation of this vital and longstanding group would be its two ECM recordings—which, as strong as they are, only tell part of the story. Instead, rather than appearing to be a very occasional group, this essential box—its title referring as much to the group as it is Vinaccia's thankfully better physical state—positions the Skywards Trio and its drummer as, indeed, and thankfully, Very Much Alive. ">
Track Listing
CD1 (Fredrikstad 2002): Tough Enough; Happy Ryp; Skywald; Mystery Man;
The Curse; Last Night; Paolissimo; Dare Devil.
CD2 (Sarajevo 2001): Skywards; Mystery Man; The Curse; But Then Again; Memory Lane; The Return of Per Ulv; Easy Now; Last Night; Paolissimo; The Chaser.
CD3 (Berlin 2000): Skyward; Elvin; Mystery Man; Dare Devil; The Curse; The Chaser.
CD4 (Sundals?ra 2002): The Curse; Last Night; Living Metal; Paolissimo; Memory Lane; Dare Devil; The Return of Per Ulv.
CD5 (Arendal 2005): Arendal Overture; Terje Aren 1; Terje Aren 2; Storm; Paolissimo; Memory Lane.
CD6 (Bonus Tracks): Moving Metal; Budapest; Bugge 1; Bugge Amsterdam; Paolos Sister Sang.
Personnel
Paolo Vinaccia
drums
Terje Rypdal
guitarSt?le Storl?kken
multi-instrumentalist
Bugge Wesseltoft
pianoMarius Reksj?
bassJonas L?nn?
samples / effectsPaolo Vinaccia: drums, percussion; Terje Rypdal: guitar (CD1-5, CD6#1-2, CD6#5); St?le Storl?kken: keyboards (CD1-5, CD6#1-2, CD6#5); Palle Mikkelborg: trumpet (CD5); Bugge Wesseltoft: keyboards (CD6#3-4); Marius Reksj?: bass (CD6#3-4); Jonas L?nn?: vinyl and sampling (CD6#3-4).
Album information
Title: Very Much Alive | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Jazzland Recordings
Tags
Paolo Vinaccia
Extended Analysis
John Kelman
Jazzland Recordings
Arild Andersen
Tommy Smith
Bugge Wesseltoft
Mike Mainieri
Dhafer Youssef
Terje Rypdal
Supersilent
Elephant9
Palle Mikkelborg
Manfred Eicher
Miroslav Vitous
Gerald Cleaver
Audun Kleive
Ketil Bj?rnstad
Miles Davis
Paolo Vinaccia: Very Much Alive
Comments
PREVIOUS / NEXT
Support All About Jazz
All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.
Go Ad Free!
To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.Showcase
Buy Now
Featured
Darwin AI: Surivior Choice
By Alex Otey buyGiveaway
