Inner Knot

Schon wieder so ein Album, das es nur als Import gibt. Naja, wenigstens findet man es relativ schnell bei einem bekannten Onlinehändler. Traurig an der CD ist sicherlich, dass es die letzte vom Trio sein wird, denn Ian Wallace, Gründer und direkte Verbindung zu King Crimson, ist unerwartet an Krebs gestorben. Positiv fällt auf, dass sich die Interpretationen stärker von den Originalstücken abheben, es wird mehr improvisiert und auch ganz allgemein freier gespielt, zwischendurch singt Jody Nardone und Mel Collins hat einen Gastauftritt (Islands Suite). Überhaupt ist es gerade die Islands Suite, die das Album perfektioniert (Islands ist neben THRaKaTTAK, Larks‘ Tongues In Aspic und Lizard eines meiner Lieblingsalben von KC). Hinzu kommen noch drei Eigenkompositionen – diese erweitern die Stücke aber lediglich und dienen der Improvisation. Schade, dass die Band nicht mehr besteht, denn eine Jazzinterpretation von THRaKaTTaK oder Larks‘ Tongues In Aspic wäre grandios geworden!

]]> http://irom.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/cd-jazz-the-crimson-jazz-trio/ Thu, 21 May 2009 21:03:55 +0000 irom http://irom.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/cd-jazz-the-crimson-jazz-trio/

“The King Crimson Songbook Volume 2″ (Inner Knot)

By Fernando Gonzalez

Standards in jazz have become what they are, in part because of their harmonic and melodic possibilities, but also because of the shared language they represent between players and audiences. Only when both are familiar with the music — be it a Cole Porter song, “Someday My Prince Will Come” or “My Favorite Things” – does the dialog between improvisers and listeners (and the understanding of the art and craft of improvisation) truly take place and flourish. And so, for the past 25 years, jazz musicians have been looking to remain in touch with their audiences by updating the repertoire — with various degrees of success. Consider Miles Davis’s remake of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” Herbie Hancock’s take on Kurt Cobain’s “All Apologies,” or more recently, and most notably, the efforts by Brad Mehldau or The Bad Plus.

The Crimson Jazz Trio, on the other hand, is a jazz group specifically created to explore a rock group’s repertoire (the art-rock cult band King Crimson) with a jazz sensibility. It’s an intriguing proposition with some obvious challenges.

Formed in 1969 and still somewhat active, the original King Crimson has been reassembled from time to time, featuring different lineups, by its guitarist, composer, and creative mastermind, Robert Fripp. But even as it changed members and instrumentation over the years, King Crimson consistently informed its music with elements of rock, European classical music and jazz. Still, the changes in the sound of its music over those decades might have given even some brave souls pause — but they didn’t seem to faze the Crimson Jazz Trio.

Led by drummer Ian Wallace, a King Crimson alumnus (1971- 1972, appearing on “Islands”), and featuring Jody Nardone, piano, and Tim Landers, bass, the Crimson Jazz Trio (or CJ3) began by approaching the music not as a tribute project (something Nardone explicitly address in his notes) but rather, as a true re-imagining of the material. The group’s first album, “King Crimson Songbook Volume One” (Voiceprint, 2005), brimmed with an insight, imagination and why-not? attitude usually missing in other rock-to-jazz reinterpretations. And oh yes, by the way, it was a very rewarding jazz record.

Sadly, Wallace died in February 2007, but not before recording a Volume 2. To the Trio’s credit, they took the concept even further. Volume 2 offers a mostly instrumental set (all but one song), drawn from Crimson’s book going back as far back as “The Court of the Crimson King” (1969), and “In The Wake of The Poseidon” (1970) and up to “THRAK” (1995). The CD also includes original contributions, brief solo pieces, by Wallace, Nardone and Landers as part of an “Islands Suite.”

Throughout, the trio manages to convey the elegant design and brilliant neurosis of Crimson’s music, while also offering surprising alternative readings, finding hidden melodies, and blowing up small rhythmic gestures from the originals into fresh grooves.

No doubt, this in part reflects the range and musicianship of Wallace who, in his life after his King Crimson tenure, became a busy studio hand and sideman while holding on to his love of jazz. He sounds at ease and in control here at every turn.

The trio seems to mock the faux majesty of “The Court of the Crimson King” by arranging it instead as a playful, high-energy, Latin-tinged piece — a king’s court set not so much in royal crimson as in a warm Caribbean mango-orange. “Inner Garden” gets a smart rethinking that turns the almost morbid original into a luminous, open-faced ballad. (Extra credit here to pianist Nardone whose voice and delivery sound not just expressive and effective but, well, Crimsonian.) “Frame by Frame,” from “Discipline,” (1981), features another Crimson alumnus, saxophonist Mel Collins, and emerges as a hard swinging post-bop piece. And “Pictures of a City,” from “In The Wake of the Poseidon” (1970), smoothly alternates a sort of heavy metal rock jazz (those doubled lines) with driving swing, down to the almost-sinister ending.

Still, you don’t need to know the originals to enjoy “King Crimson Songbook Volume 2.” This is, after all, a jazz record and it works as such. Still, perhaps one of CJ3’s most obvious contributions will be to work as both a window for jazz musicians and fans into the music of King Crimson, while serving as an introduction and enticement to jazz for fans of Crimson and art rock in general.

And if you are already a fan of both, you’ll probably find yourself smiling, nodding in recognition at the smarts and musicianship of these players – just what listeners 40, 50 years ago must have felt when they heard their Cole Porter songs or their favorite Broadway tunes turned into jazz standards. Aging has its privileges.

Reinfused

First things first, sorry for the extended and unannounced pause. I was out of town for the first week of February off following unforeseen developments that occurred the preceding week-end. Since then I have been trying with more or less success to catch up with everything, and finding that particular Mountain of Stuff very hard to climb. Hopefully I will have everything sorted out soon. In the meantime, here’s the belated Clip Of the Day #73.

As I mentioned last fall, when I complete a composition there are often ideas left over. And when I am lucky enough to see how to combine some of them, then I have the embryo of a new piece. I have already presented “Leftoverturned” and “Questioning Tasteless Creepers” as illustrations of this recycling process. Today’s clip features “Reinfused,” which stands as the original rehash in the poligrafic chronology.

The creative impulse behind it came one evening in 2001, sometime around the end of May, or most likely on the first of June as it was a Friday. I remember watching King Crimson’s “Déjà Vrooom” live DVD, which features music from the “Thrak” studio album. One characteristic of this album is that it includes three closely related pieces, namely “Vrooom,” “Vrooom Vrooom,” and “Vrooom Vrooom: Coda,” which are built around similar musical ideas, played at different speed or inverted in time.

After a few numbers, I got out of the house for a walk in the neighbourhood, as was my habit at the time. Animated by the just seen performances, and intrigued by the idea of reengineering music, I began to fancy the thought of doing something similar using some of my own unused ideas. Recalling recent musical discoveries, I observed that “Lifeforce” had produced many offshoots which apparently didn’t quite fit into the main piece, so I decided to work on those.

On the morning of June 2, 2001, I gathered the following sequences into a folder, and started to see how I could expand them and assemble them. I had this variation on the “Infused” theme, which eventually became the intro :

There was this segment that I had written as a part of “Derelict,” but didn’t fit its mood :

And a third file, entitled “Reprise,” which as it turned out wasn’t used in the original draft version but eventually became the piece’s ending section :

So, a little before dinner time, after an inspired day in studio, I had the following sketch entitled “Coda” :

Ecco una delle mie canzoni preferite in una delle mie versioni live preferite. Questa versione di Red è eseguita dal “double trio”, di cui parlavo nel post precedente, durante il tour del 1995.

Semplicemente devastante:

Quasi quasi………………mi rivedo tutto il concerto!!

Scrivo questo post ascoltando uno dei dischi (a mio avviso) più folgoranti dei King Crimson, THRAK. Per chi non lo sapesse, il titolo è proprio THRAK e non Thrak o thrak (l’Altissimo ha voluto così).

I King Crimson ritornano dopo un’assenza di 11 anni (THRAK è del 1995 mentre il loro prcedente disco, Three of a perfect pair, era del 1984) con una formazione inusuale nel mondo del rock, conosciuta come “double trio”: 2 batterie, 2 chitarre e 2 bassi. Alla batteria abbiamo il veterano Bill Bruford e la new entry Pat Mastelotto; alle chitarre Fripp e Adrian Belew; ai bassi/sticks il grande Tony Levin e Trey Gunn.

I King Crimson come non mai hanno a disposizione una sezione ritmica incredibile, a cui si accompagna la disciplina chitarristica di Fripp e la chitarra onomatopeica di Adrian Belew.

Il disco è direttissimo, senza mezze misure e la opening track ne è la conferma: VROOOM (si, questo è il titolo) è devastante, una versione rivista, corretta e sviluppata di Red; le chitarre graffianti si intersecano con i due bassi, creando un ritmo straniante.

Dopo la breve Coda:Marine 475, ecco Dinosaur, altro pezzo fortissimo dove addirittura si risentono gli echi del Mellotron!

La quiete dopo la tempesta sonora non si fa attendere: Walking on air è una delle canzoni più delicate della discografia dei KC, dove Adrian Belew dimostra ancora una volta di esser un validissimo cantante.

Dopo questo intermezzo di paca, ecco che si ritorna nuovamente nella tempesta: B’Boom è l’unico assolo per 2 batterie della storia dei KC e serve da introduzione per la title track “THRACK”, un vero e proprio incubo rock. Secondo il mio modesto parere è una delle canzoni più complesse dei KC: lascia davvero perplessi al primo ascolto per quanto sia dissonante; non fornisce alcun punto di riferimento all’ascoltatore, che si perde tra i meandri delle dissonanze.

Quando l’ascoltai per la prima volta, devo ammetterlo, rimasi sconcertato dalla sua apparente asimmetria. Col passare del tempo capii che sotto quell’apparente “disordine” c’era un senso logico, una sorta di disciplina del caos.

Il disco procede con canzoni estremamente diverse tra loro: si va da “People”, col suo ritmo pop quasi funky (Tony la suona usando i funky fingers), alla delicatissima One Time, ai Soundscapes di Radio I e Radio II, alla maliconia di Inner Garden I e Inner Garden II.

Il disco si chiude con due perle: Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream e VROOOM VROOOM. La prima è una delle canzoni più accattivanti dei Crimson (sempre secondo il mio modesto parere) che progressivamente si evolve arrivando quasi a “violentare” le orecchie dell’ascoltatore. La seconda è una variazione sul tema di VROOOM, forse ancora più estrema.

In conclusione, THRAK è un album davvero notevole e secondo me ingiustamente sottovalutato da alcuni critici. Secondo me Fripp non è riuscito ad ammaestrare la furia della sua creatura per come doveva (gestire altri 5 musicisti di quel calibro è un’impresa non da poco) e questo ha causato la produzione di un disco poco organico.

La mia tesi è corroborata dal fatto che successivamente al tour di THRAK Fripp decise di metter in cantiere i ProjeKcts, ovvero “progetti musicali frattali” formati da diverse permutazioni dei membri del gruppo, con l’obiettivo di trovare una lineup che meglio si confacesse con la sua idea di come dovessero esser realmente i KC.

Enjoy………