The intrigue of the film reveals itself in a slow and measured way. What starts as a story about the return of a (prodigal?) son to his hometown after years overseas prompted by his father’s death, becomes a rumination on the pain of confronting our past. The mystery deepens when a key character disappears, and it is only at the end of the film that we find out just how close together all the protagonists are bound.
For New Zealanders, it is easy to view this as an archtypal kiwi film. There are certainly aspects of this work that will resonate strongly with a native audience: the need to escape our islands, the sense of landscape, the particular characters in the community, and the accents of the actors. For kiwis of a certain age, there is even a “Dougal Stevenson” moment.
Director Brad McGann (currently battling cancer again) has done a great job capturing the landscape of inland Otago, and reflecting the culture of a small town in New Zealand’s South Island. But this is a film that anyone, anywhere will enjoy. Beautiful to look at, and genuinely moving.
Crowded House – She Goes On
From Woodface: Capitol 793559 [Buy]
1. Search for Tiananmen Square on Google USA
2. Search for Tiananmen Square on Google China
The operating statement of Art Ensemble of Chicago is “Great Black Music: Ancient To the Future”. And homage the traditions of this music can be heard throughout the AEC’s long recorded career. From New Orleans polyphony to seat-of-the-pants funk, from bebop to the blues, it’s all in there, filtered by the AEC’s skills as composers and improvisers.
These two examples pay respect to the black musical heritage that spans the centuries and the Atlantic Ocean. Charlie M is, of course, a reference to Charles Mingus, and AEC appropriates the loose-limbed swing and combustible jazz mastered by Mingus’ mid-sized groups in the late 1950s. This version was recorded in New York in 1980, just a year after Mingus’ death.
Promenade: Cote Bamako channels a musical spirit that runs more ancient still. With the entire ensemble doubling on percussion and “little instruments”, we are placed in the midst of some un-named ritual on the West Coast of Africa. An evocation of musical tradition that transcends any particular named culture, a tradition of which the Art Ensemble are the present-day griots.
Cote Bamako was recorded in May 1980 at the Amerika Haus in Munich, a live show released as the double ECM set Urban Bushmen, and considered by many to be AEC’s finest live album.
The Art Ensemble of Chicago (AEC) are probably the single most influential improvising band ever. The Ensemble consists of individually brilliant musicians who submit their voices to a collective process, to create a collective sound. AEC has never been a band of soloists.
This concept of “collectivity” has been a guiding theme throughout the 40 year history of the AEC, but is particularly apparent in early live recordings, such as this extract from Oh Strange, recorded in Paris in October 1969. The personnel are Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors and Joseph Jarman. (Drummer Famadou Don Moye joined AEC the following year).
The ethos of collectivity extended to their stage presentation. Joseph Jarman explained in an interview in 1999:
“Lester would wear a doctor’s coat, the scientist, the experimenter. Roscoe was the businessman, the gentleman. I was sort of the shamanistic image coming from various cultures, so was Malachi and Moye. You know, face painting in non-Western cultures is a sign of collectivism, is a sign of one representing the community, it’s not unique at all. But in our society, it’s something unique. So what we were doing with that face painting was representing everyone throughout the universe, and that was expressed in the music as well.”
Perhaps the exigencies of recording studio albums encouraged the Ensemble towards more structured work. On Tnoona, a composition of Roscoe Mitchell, we hear the AEC’s collective approach to improvisation, but focused towards a compositional goal. Individual voices can be distiguished, but are subsumed into the creation of a unified soundscape.
AEC on DVD?
If you’ve never seen the Art Ensemble play live, I can highly recommend the Live at the Jazz Showcase DVD, filmed in Chicago in 1981. AEC on stage are highly visual, and this documentary is valuable representation of their approach to perfomance. It’s available through Disconforme.com.
[In today's exciting episode, we watch in horror as a little white boy from the vanilla suburbs of New Zealand wades into something he knows nothing about!]
There were obviously many ways to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday on Monday… A Considerable Speck recalled a passage from one of MLK’s sermons, reflecting on our calling in life. O-Dub posted a historic piece of music. And New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin did a Pat Robertson, describing Hurricane Katrina as punishment from God.
In another brain explosion from the same speech, Nagin also promised that New Orleans would be rebuilt as a “Chocolate City”: “it’s the way God wants it to be. ..You can’t have New Orleans no other way.”
Chocolate City. Kenneth Caroll defines Chocolate City as the rise of black consciousness and solidarity in Washington DC in the 1970s… And thirty years later, “right-wing-but-social-liberal” Andrew Sullivan sees the perpetuation of the Chocolate City attitude as reverse racism. In South Auckland, it’s a nightclub run by kiwi hip-hop label Dawn Raid.
For George Clinton and Parliament, Chocolate City was a story of black assertiveness in the wake of the civil rights movement, A synth-laced, jive-ass space jazz funk poem. It could only have come out of 1975, and even today, the song is a cultural and political reference point par excellence.
Parliament – Chocolate City
From Parliament’s Greatest Hits: Mercury 822 637-2 [Buy]
The possibilities are endless. Make your own church sign at www.churchsigngenerator.com
Discovery, principally, of the work of Joplin beyond the classic “Maple Leaf Rag“/”The Entertainer“/”The Easy Winners“, (tunes from which almost all life has been drained through endless hours spent with that middle-aged lady piano teacher with the horn-rimmed spectacles who inhabits so many of our childhoods).
There is the ghost of a habanera rhythm lurking deep in Solace. One thinks even of the late Rubén González and the Buena Vista Social Club… and I’m sure Heliotrope Bouquet sends me spam every week trying to sell me Cialis and rolex watches at unbelievable prices.
Time, therefore for some 1907 Scott Joplin that moves at a more measured, less frenetic pace than his most familiar work.
Alexander Peskanov – Heliotrope Bouquet: ‘A Slow Drag Two-Step’
Alexander Peskanov – Solace: ‘A Mexican Serenade’
From Scott Joplin Piano Rags: Naxos 8.559114 [Buy]
Derek Bailey vs. Jessica Simpson: A nice tribute to the late Derek Bailey. Jessica Simpson wouldn’t even know what she was doing.
Yma Sumac vs Celine Dion & Mariah Carey: Yma Sumac will sing a high note. Mariah will sulk. Celine will ignore it all and take a holiday in her mansion on St Barts.
Sex Pistols vs. Enja: Enja deserves everything she gets. This mash needs to be executed with extreme prejudice.
The White Stripes vs The Carpenters: A celebrity deathmatch between two great musical sibling duos – I like it.
Serge Gainsbourg vs. Whitesnake: Come on, Gainsbourg records were made to be mashed.
Pizzicato 5 vs Accept: P5 sound like a mashup all by themselves. this messy tryst with German Speed Metal could be like flattening a poodle with a steam roller. But Accept were big in Japan, so perhaps this could work…?
Funkadelic (“One Nation Under a Groove”) vs. Kate Smith (“God Bless America”): There’s a twisted patriotism here that could explain a lot, matt.
Bootsy Collins vs. Frank Sinatra: Dunno how the House-elves let this one through. Wingardium Leviosa indeed.
Klaus Nomi vs Sam Cooke: Classic black masculinity meet high camp East Village theatre? Ouch. You people are sick.
Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” to the music of “Sweet Home Alabama”: Another commentary on patriotism and civic duty? Possibly?
And to keep the music flowing…
Greyboy* vs Melle Mel – It’s Got to be a Love/The Message
Thanks to DJ Godzilla for this particular mash. Simple but effective. For those of you who don’t live in Auckland, DJ Godzilla plays Walter Matthau to DJ Shagpile’s Jack Lemmon as the awesomest funk DJ duo in town, The Natural Disasters (4-6pm Sundays on Base FM). Muchos Respectos.
Also, Radio France now has most of their weekly shows available on podcast! (Note, that’s “le podcast“, not “la baladodiffusion” as they’re trying to enourage in Quebec.)
France Culture and France Inter on demand is something close to pure podcast heaven if, like me, you’re trying to retain your French language. Now I can listen to what I want, when I want, and don’t have to put up with a streaming live version of Le Fou du Roi at 11 o’clock at night. Like Lionel Dersot in Tokyo, I am grateful for this new small pleasure.
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