SWIFTY joins forces with Rob Swain at Gamma Proforma to produce Full Circle – a retrospective book of his “typo-grafix” from the Eighties to now.

Even if you’ve never heard of Swifty you can bet your life you’ve seen or even owned a piece of his artwork. For over two decades this man has cast an innovative and distinctive visual shadow over contemporary urban culture as we know it. However, we need to go back in time to the dawn of clubland to fully get the picture. Back in the late Eighties, Swifty was fresh from art school in Manchester. He moved to East London and was operating as right hand man to the most radical designer of the day, Neville Brody, and working on The Face and Arena magazines.

Inn the beginning there was the Apple MacSE

I was introduced to Swifty by Neil Spencer, a former editor of the NME and a co-founder of our “designer fanzine” – Straight No Chaser. Swifty was looking to do something of his own and Straight No Chaser was a blank canvas. The arrival of Apple Macintosh had laid the foundation for a DIY revolution and Swift was a “Mac Daddy”. He was totally on it. Swift’s design of Chaser rapidly notched up a ‘XYZ Magazine Designer of The Year’ award. Chaser was at the hub of into the jazz infused wing of the club scene. ‘E’ swept into town and “Rave” nudged the rare Groove scene onto the sidelines. There was a surplus of energy. We were all on a mission.

In ’90 Swifty left Neville Brody’s Studio and we set up shop in Hoxton. The area was derelict and run down, it bore little resemblance to the thriving Shoreditch we know today. The Chaser office became club flyer central. Prior to Swift, club flyers had been knocked out, punk fashion, cut and paste, either with a felt tip or Letraset. It was Swifty on his twinned Mac SE’s who revolutionized the art of the club flyer. It was those designs that brought him together with the flyer queen of the day, Janine Neye. Yes, it’s the same Janine who organizes annual Dingwalls session with Gilles P and Patrick Forge and they’ve been together ever since.

Talking Loud & Saying Somethin’ at Dingwalls was our “office” each and every Sunday. It was all about the music and the session was a radical melting pot of inner city cultural politics. The club became synonymous with the ‘Acid Jazz’ movement through bands like the Brand New Heavies, Jamiroquai and the James Taylor Quartet. In reality, the session was fierce meeting point between the hard core post Electric Ballroom Jazz dancers, refugees from the Rare Groove and boogie scene, the musicians at the heart of the Jazz Warriors, the Acid Jazz crew and a controversial hip hop sensibility best characterised by the recordings of Tribe Called Quest. Hip hop’s sampling sensibilities found their way into Swift’s artworks where they collided with the classic sleeve art of Blue Note records.

When Gilles Peterson launched Talkin’ Loud records, Swift was the natural choice for art director and believe me he made the most of it. His output was staggering – a seriously radical body of work. Check out those Talkin’ Loud album covers and 12” singles – Young Disciples, Galliano, Incognito, Marxmen and Omar amongst others. Cast your eyes over the spreads from Straight No Chaser. We weren’t looking to develop “a look”, we simply embraced the creative energy that is implicit in change. Chaser had a format but there would be seismic shifts with every issue. At the heart of that was Swift’s fonts. This is a man who took a font and then blasted it with 12 bore shotgun – the result was a new font called “Gunshot”. Swift’s growing body of work was mightily impressive and pretty soon he was designing for labels as far away as Japan.

Limited edition etching done for the ‘Build & Destroy’ exhibition @ the Saatchi Gallery. Click to enlarge.

When 17 year old James Lavelle appeared in the Chaser office suggesting we give him a column ’cause “we needed him”  another phase in Swift’s work ensued. Swifty and James were on the same page. They were united by their herbal intake, the joy of “toys”, a love of Japanese graffix and Seventies TV programmes like Man From Uncle (hence U.N.K.L.E – geddit?). Both had a passion for NYC subway art and street artists like Futura and Stash. James was hungry and eclectic and he set about releasing music from Japan’s Major Force and DJ Krush along with a US crate digger, DJ Shadow. Once the Mo’ Wax records was up ‘n’ running they were “kickin’ more funk like a shaolin monk”. When it came down to Mo Wax’s creative vision it was Swift and James who laid the foundation.

In ‘95 Swift moved from Hoxton to the Harrow Road end of Ladbroke Grove. He set up shop and invited a bunch of younger designers to join him. It was became known as ‘Studio Babylon’ alongside Swift it was home to Mitchy Bwoy , Kam Bohgal , Robi Walters and Fred Deakin. Swift’s stay in the Grove resulted in hundreds of album sleeves for labels like Far out and B&W Music. In 1995 he Art directed and curated the ground breaking Fosters Ice ‘Street Art’campaign which won a Media Week award for the best use of a singe medium. The effect was so radical that it inspired a whole generation of Graffiti artists from Bristol to London and beyond and help lay the foundations for the ‘Street art’ movement we know today! Mode2 and Delta both traveled to London in ’96 to check out what all the fuss was about and resulted in Mode joining studio Babylon as a permanent member until its demise in ’99.

Studio Babylon Posse + Fosters Ice VW

Not content with print Swift then expanded his skills to include title sequence design and as he slipped into the new millennium Swifty graphics hit the TV screen via Peep Show, Smack The Pony and Derren Brown as well as music docs like Jazz Britannia and Soul Britania. Today, Swift still does flyers, album sleeves, logos, fonts, TV Titles, clothes for Addict and designs and makes his own skateboards (old skool – he still skates!). But most crucial are his own artworks. Branded but twisted, he loves the opportunity to mesh the technology with rootsy lo-fi production techniques. Visit him in his shed and he’ll be knocking out screen prints or working on etching techniques! He’s a modernist with a nostalgic streak.

Swifty skateboards : check ’em at http://swiftytypografix.bigcartel.com/

My working relationship with Swifty has spanned 25 years – 97 issues of Chaser along with dozens of other projects. We are good friends and kindred spirits. The “Freedom Principle” lay at the heart of what we both did. Producing Straight No Chaser was all about respect and trust and under the guidance of the “Graffix Overseer” the magazine was an ever changing phenomenon. For that I’m eternally grateful.

PB – Straight No….

FULL CIRCLE is a full colour, hard back, 200+ pages, strictly limited to 300 copies. Preorder’s will be signed by the artist. 30 hand made boxed special editions with screen print, t-shirt and original archive items are also available. FULL CIRCLE is a pre-order item, expected to ship in Autumn 2015

http://www.gammaproforma.com/index.php/ecwid#!/SWIFTY-FULL-CIRCLE-PRE-ORDER/p/49998067/category=3263234

Hustler’s Convention premieres @ the Sheffield Doc/Festival and the 90 minute film will be shown at the Molinare Library Theatre
Jun 7th @ 15.30.

Jalal: 2014 Pic by Carl Hyde

Riverhorse have just announced that ‘Hustler’s Convention’ – the documentary that traces the impact of the 1973 long playing record of the same name and the journey of its creator Jalal Mansur Nuriddin aka Lightin’ Rod- is poised to hit the big screen at the prestigious Sheffield Doc/Festival in June.

Public Enemy’s Chuck D is on board as Executive Producer: “‘Hustlers Convention’ is a verbal bible to understand the streets” but maintains that, “Very rarely does ‘Hustlers Convention’ get mentioned in the annals of what emerged from it. Jalal’s legacy is important – both as a member of The Last Poets and as the creator of this profoundly influential work. This is a story that needs to be told.”

In early 2014, through the tireless efforts of Liverpool based poet, activist, Abdul Malik Alnasir, we were able to witness Jalal deliver a staggering performance of ‘Hustler’s Convention’ at the Jazz Cafe in Camden Town. We were all – including Mr George Clinton – blown away. Some of the footage from that night is included in ‘Hustlers Convention’ – the documentary – which also blends archive, photographic imagery, and interviews with unique animated sequences set to the album score. The film locates this hugely original album in its wider social context and explore Jalal’s personal mission as one of rap’s undisputed pioneers.

‘Hustlers Convention’ is in many respects a forgotten masterpiece. The scores were composed by Kool & The Gang, Brother Gene Dinwiddie and Eric Gale. The musicians recruited to play on the album included King Curtis, Billy Preston, Cornell Dupree, Philip Wilson and Julius Hemphill. It is a tale within a tale of ambition and greed, of culture and identity and of an ongoing struggle to get paid. Released in 1973 on Douglas Records this classic album tells the story of Sport and Spoon – two young hustlers who attend the eponymous convention, only to get tangled up in a financial disagreement that leads to a shootout, a police chase and finishes with Sport on Death Row weighing up what it all means:

It had cost me twelve years of my time,
to realize what a nickel and dime,
hustler I had really been,
while the real hustlers are ripping off billions,
from the unsuspecting millions,
who are programmed to think they can win. 

THE LP

For the Premiere & Q&A with Jalal Nuriddin:
https://sheffdocfest.com/

For more info check: facebook.com/HustlersConventionFilm.
Or follow on twitter: @HamhocksHall

The Jazz Cafe review : http://ancienttofuture.com/2014/02/12/jalaluddin-mansur-nuriddin-hustlers-convention-40th-anniversary/

The Boxes!

Let’s Go (Yorkshire) is proud to present Sound System Culture: Bristol, a new photographic exhibition celebrating the history of reggae sound systems in Bristol from the 1950s to now. Expect to visit The Bamboo Club, The Dugout, St Paul’s Festival…. and get a taste of the culture that provided the bass driven foundation of Portishead, Smith & Mighty, Appleblim, Shackleton, Pinch and, of course,  Massive Attack.

Sound System Culture: Bristol is a part of national tour documenting the history of the sound systems that provided the musical edutainment for the Afro Caribbean communities of Bristol, Birmingham and London. It’s curated by Al “Fingers” Newman – think Clarks in Jamaica, Greensleeves The First 100 Covers – and Mandeep Samra who developed this tour following the positive response to her 2013 project Sound System Culture: Huddersfield.  

Enterprise Imperial HiFi and friends, circa 1977

Taking place in the Glass Room, Colston Hall from 8 June–17 July 2015,  visitors will have an opportunity to interact with Heritage HiFi, a vintage-
style sound system which comes complete old skool record deck, amps, speaker boxes and a stack of vinyl including a dub-plate special  featuring sound bites from foundation Bristol sound-men. The HiFi was custom-built for the project by Paul Huxtable.

Reaching out to the next generation of potential sound system lovers the project also includes a children’s picture book, The Sonar System by Ras Mykha.

After its stay in Bristol the exhibition moves on to document the history of sound systems in Birmingham (August) and London (February 2016).

EXHIBITION DATES:
Sound System Culture: Bristol exhibition and sound installation
8 June–17 July 2015
The Glass Room, Colston Hall, Bristol BS1 5AR
Opening times: Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 2pm–4pm
Free admission

EXHIBITION LAUNCH EVENT
Sound System Culture: Bristol exhibition launch event
Saturday 13 June 2015, 2pm–4pm
The Glass Room, Colston Hall, Bristol BS1 5AR
Free admission
For further info: http://www.facebook.com/events/629429537190641

LIVE SOUND SYSTEM SESSION
Roots Revival Showcase with Bristol heavyweights Sir Bastian, Enterprise & Jah Lokko
Saturday 27 June 2015, 10pm–3am
Malcolm X Centre, 141 City Road, Bristol BS2 8YH
Ticketed event
For further info: http://www.facebook.com/events/690048074458126

THE  BOOK: Sound System Culture, Celebrating Huddersfield’s Sound Systems is available from: http://www.onelovebooks.com/Sound-System-Culture-1#.VWgyYVKqmYk

BRIAN CASE presents ON THE SNAP: Three Decades of Snapshots from the World of Jazz Film & Crime Fiction courtesy of Caught By The River

The Book

It’s mid-week, mid-day and the sun is shining in Soho. Upon entering the customary gloom of Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in Frith Street I’m immediately welcomed by Jeff Barrett, a prime mover (along with James Oldham) behind the publication of journalist Brian Case’s On The Snap – the first book to be published by the Caught By The River crew. I make my way upstairs and into the room which I hadn’t been in since Dave Hucker was resident DJ there in the late Eighties. Back then we’d slip out onto the roof for a reefer while a side-long Fela or Franco tune held sway on the dancefloor – a most pleasant experience.

Scanning the room for familiar faces there was journalist Emma Warren, journo/author Paulo Hewitt, A&R/PR don Eugene Manzi, Rough Trade’s Jeff Travis, playwright Alex Webb, the legends that are John Jack and Val Wilmer, Glyn Callingham, Mike Gavin and Paul Pace from Ray’s Jazz Shop and our interview/host Richard Williams – former editor of the Melody Maker, retired sports writer and man behind the excellent http://thebluemoment.com/

Settling into a corner at the rear of the room perennial mod Glyn Callingham recalled how they used to organise “a hang” at Ray’s just so they could indulge in the diverse repertoire of yarns that Brian Case had to offer and what followed at Ronnie’s was definitely in the tradition and provided an excellent taster for On The Snap.

Brian Case – On The Snap Portait by Brian David Stevens

The son of Deptford copper, the teenage Brian Case dressed like a Ted but listened to Lee Konitz. He failed to escape National Service and went on to study history at Hull University where he inevitably clashed with an uptight and nasty Philip Larkin. On the suggestion of Charlie Gillett – who pointed out that he’d get free LPs if he took up reviewing music – Brian ended up writing for the Melody Maker, NME, Time Out and Uncut amongst a host of other publications.

As a jazz journo at the NME he inevitably became a soul mate for the paper’s “practical rabbit” – Roy Carr and during the Q&A he readily recalled them embarking upon a joint mission to communicate with the late Buddy Holly. A very funny story! At the NME Brian was cast in amongst a crew of inveterate rockers like Charlie Murray, Mick Farren and Nick Kent –“who always had two pairs of leather trousers on – one covered the holes in the other” – but clearly enjoyed the cameraderie of the post publication pub sessions. The picture he paints of the teenage Julie Burchill is scathingly funny.

As the Q&A gathered momentum he recalled being dispatched – along with Big Don, a beefy 6’3″ photographer clad in a damson coloured suit – by the Observer to Caerphilly where they were to report on the Sex Pistols Anarchy In The UK tour. In short, once past the Baptist Watch Committee picket line and into the fleapit cinema he finally got his interview. The Pistols were essentially a bunch of “cunts”. However, Case concedes that Malcolm McLaren was altogether something else – “a hustler of the highest order”.

His interviews have carried him far and wide and I’ve definitely picked up a few choice reads on the back of Brian’s Time Out book reviews. On The Snap reflect his diverse passions and this modest 63 page volume consists of short pieces/reminiscences – occasionally accompanied by the illustrations of Joseph Ciardiello – on a serious array of players from Art Blakey to Al Pacino to Duke Ellington to Ian Dury to James Ellroy to Dexter Gordon to Sam Fuller to Michael Caine to the Sex Pistols to Richard Harris to Johnny Griffin et al.

To cap off the Q&A Brian told us the story about a doctor enquiring of Robert Wyatt what he going to do, career-wise, after being confined to a wheelchair. Robert explained he could still play percussion and sing and write songs. The doctor then turned to another patient, a former cat burglar who was also confined to a wheel chair, and asked what career he now planned to follow. “Fraud” was the reply. OK, it was undoubtedly funnier when Brian dropped the punch line live… but you get the vibe. So, check the book… a nice addition to the bookshelf and/or a lovely little present for some lucky person.

To check the man himself reading from the book: https://soundcloud.com/caughtbytheriver/sets/on-the-snap

The book is on sale now from : https://caughtbytheriver.greedbag.com/buy/on-the-snap-by-brian-case/

Got a text yesterday… “Ornette has gone”. At the age of 85 years old Pulitzer Prize winning master musician and composer, Ornette Coleman passed away due to cardiac arrest. His heart could take any more. The curtain on an era of radical innovation in America that gave us musicians like Don Cherry, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Horace Tapscott, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon and Philip Cohran is gradually drawing to a close.

Ornette!

The LP

Ornette didn’t want his musicians to follow him. He wanted them to follow themselves but be with him. That approach inderpins all of his recordings which gradually evolved to embrace his theory of “harmolodics” – a contraction of harmony, movement and melody.

The Sixties saw the ‘Free Jazz’ album with its wicked gatefold sleeve and a cut out window that revealed a Jackson Pollock painting. The album was truly radical in the sense that it featured a double quartet – one in each of the stereo channels. Check it out. Then there were the classic trio albums for Blue Note which fetaured Ornette on alto and violin and David Izenzon on bass and Charles Moffett on drums. The follow up album – ‘The Empty Foxhole’ – showcased his 10 year old son Denardo on drums!

I vividly recall reading a brilliant piece in 1972 by Val Wilmer, in the Melody Maker, about Ornette and the London Symphony Orchestra and how he dealt with the elitist and potentially racist attitudes of the classical musicians enlisted to play the score for ‘Skies Of America’. That was something a revelation.

In the mid Seventies Ornette had us ‘Dancing In Our Head’. Sidestepping the concert key system of Western tonality he transported us to the Rif mountains of Morocco where he united with the deep trance inducing reed players and percussionists of the Master Musicians of Jajouka. That LP also introduced Ornette’s first electric band, Prime Time, and paved the way for the saxophonist’s own record label Art House.

Prime Time – Saturday Night Live in 1979

Prime Time made their first London appearance at a theatre in Victoria. It was most definitely the session to be at that week! It was post punk times. James Blood Ulmer was on Rough Trade. Expectations were high. I recall arriving in the theatre and seeing these weird round white speakers onstage and when Prime Time strolled onstage and plugged in this was definitely no straight ahead jazz gig. Two electric guitar players – Charles Ellerbee and Bern Nix, Jamaldeen Tacuma on electric bass and Shannon Jackson on drums… it was rockin’ and Ornette on alto was firing on all cylinders. People at the front were shouting that “It’s too loud”. Ornette’s response was something like “Maybe you should move back!” The Rip Rig and Panic crew… Neneh Cherry, Andi Oliver and co… were dancing wildly in the aisle. That was a night to remember and though I’ve consistently delved into his fresh, sometimes demanding, recordings and seen him play live several times, that’s how I want to remember Ornette – alive and attuned to the times, blazing a revolutionary pathway through the music of his comrades.

ABOVE: 1978 Germany. Ornette Coleman – sax, violin; Ben Nix – guitar; James Blood Ulmer – guitar; Fred Williams – bass; Shannon Jackson – drums; Denardo Coleman – drums

Ornette Coleman – March 1930 – June 2015. RIP.

Next Monday – July 13th – will see the first FREEDOM! – The Art of Improvisation jam since the highly enlightening two day FREEDOM! Festival held at The Vortex in Dalston’s Gillett Square over the weekend of June 27/28th.

The FREEDOM!Festival was inaugurated by Warriors International. The roots of this collective are in the original Jazz Warriors – an ensemble who transmitted the cultural experiences of the Caribbean community and others from the former British Empire into this thing called Jazz. In 2015 these master musicians have succeeded in uniting with a new generation of players, all eager to shatter boundaries, and a fascinating array of virtuoso fellow travelers from the world of new classical and pure “improv”. Each day began with workshops. Cleveland Watkiss led a voice workshop, Claude Deppa and Ray Carless tackled music from the original Jazz Warriors LP and Steve Beresford dealt with approaches to advanced improvisation. As with the rest of FREEDOM!Festival it was all about exchange and the art of listening.

Tony Kofi – Homage To Ornette

The day kicked off with Amplifier – an impressionistic spoken word piece with an accompanying film by spoken word artist  HBK Finn and fellow American poetess Nubluz Aesthete. Britain’s most innovative trumpet player Byron Wallen added his own unique array of sounds and melody and yours truly was roped in towards the end of the piece to add some impressionistic rhythms and sounds from my vinyl collection… Amina Myers’ ‘Have No Fear’ felt wonderfully apt.

The Saturday session coincided with the funeral of a Master of the Art Of Improvisation – Ornette Coleman in NYC and it was down to alto saxophonist Tony Kofi’s Spinx Trio – which was supplemented by the vocals of Cleveland Watkiss and the vibes of Orphy Robinson – to offer up a transatlantic musical libation that plumbed the depths of Ornette’s music. Intermittent taped interviews, done by Jazz On 3’s Jez Nelson, with Ornette, Don Cherry et al added to the ethereal dimension of the event. The synchronicity of events combined with Kofi’s passion for Ornette’s compositions and skill on alto produced a stream of muscular music underpinned by the composer’s “harmolodic” concepts. The set was bright,  angular, soulful and challenging. Kofi’s spirit possessed horn opened the pathways and filled the room with a reflective celebratory energy that touched all present.

The stunning Xenicibis Ensemble made their debut mid afternoon and blew us all away. Playing together for the first time. they harnessed the combined talents of five women and three guys. Everyone onstage was outstanding. This young ensemble provided a unique listening experience, a shifting soundscape laced with the element of surprise. Two horn players, piano, harp, harmonica, percussion, electric bass. Beibei Wang aired a splendid red thunder drum emblazoned with dragons and Philip Achille on Harmonica never failed to dazzle. The communication between Freedom regulars Renell Shaw (bass) and Tori Handsley (harp) helped ground the compositions while pianist Zuri Jarrett-Boswell delivered urgent, intermittent shards of sound. The vocalist, Sahra Gure, introduced a range of middle eastern echoes that sat well with her fellow musicians, especially Nubya Garcia on tenor sax and Cath Roberts on baritone sax.

Xinicibis Ensemble – Pic: ‘Big Mike’ Edwards / UK Vibe

Saturday ended downstairs at the Vortex with Orphy and Cleveland – Two Bad DJs – on their laptops mixing vintage Duke Ellington era swing with dub before they went off on a classic set of ska and reggae tunes that drew on their youth-days in their local manor of Hackney.

SUNDAY continued the vibe and I’m going list a few quotes from other scribblers who were in the house to paint the picture. First up came, a mesmerising strings set built around Kate Shortt and Alison Blunt:

Thomas Rees – Artsdesk : “Tt was down to the Freeform Improv Strings to start the final afternoon. A short improvisation from violinist Alison Blunt and cellist Kate Shortt incorporated beguiling snatches of dialogue along with scampering pizzicato lines and trembling melodies. James O’Sullivan prepared his guitar with spanners and plastic rods, producing sudden pops and gargling distortion, and Theo Sinarkis reached for a broken bow, wrapping the limp horsehair around the strings of his bass to delicate, percussive effect. The session ended with a collective improvisation from all the strings on stage that opened with palm slaps and yelping guitar before settling into something softer and more mysterious, with special guest Steve Beresford’s piano lines insinuating themselves into the music like white-hot nerve fibres.”

Though he hadn’t planned it Guillaume Viltard was recruited to the Freeform strings and delivered some stunning bass. It more than prepared him for the epic Rowland Sutherland Quartet set which incorporated the pulsating modal music of McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson and Alice Coltrane that was to come next.

Rowland Sutherland Quartet Pic: Michhael Edwards / UK Vivbe

Kevin Legendre – Jazzwise : “A majestic set by Rowland Sutherland that took as its point of departure a series of landmark moments in the journey of jazz to the East, both culturally and musically above all, Alice Coltrane’s ‘Blue Nile.’ After recent studies in Japan with shakuhachi masters, Sutherland has enriched what was an already formidable technique, and the unique configuration of this ensemble – double bassist Guillaume Viltard and multi-instrumentalist Ansuman Biswas – only heightened the freshness. Indeed the moments where Biswas brought a fluttering low end into play by way of a bansuri flute dipping under Sutherland lead were beautiful, as were some of Beresford’s needlework electronics”.

Black Top’s Orphy Robinson + SDNA Projections

For me, Black Top provided the most radical set of the festival. Thrilling is the only way to desctibe their shape shifting sets and this is how Kevin Legendre, who was our host/compere for the day, heard it.

Kevin Legendre – Jazzwise : “Watkiss the jazz vocalist slips seamlessly into the guise of dancehall chatter, or perhaps toaster, to retain the temperature-raising metaphor, as horns and keys crackle and hiss into silence, and therein lies the beauty of Black Top. At face value it is an avant-garde adventure in sound: an unscripted session in the lineage of anybody from AEC and Lester Bowie to Sam Rivers and Rivbea. However, it is also a direct engagement with what passes for popular music but has a fiendishly advanced sonic science at its roots: dub, specifically, electronica, generally. In the process the ground between the aforementioned players and producers such as the Perrys and Bunnys is leveled while the audience is invited to rake over the idea that the cry of a saxophone belongs in the same emotional and musical space as the holler on a microphone that is held deep in the echo chamber.

Virtuosity with an instrument is deemed high art and ingenuity with word and sound a more lowbrow endeavour but these two strands deliciously intersect at a Black Top session. Following a couple of years of performances featuring anybody from Steve Williamson to Evan Parker via Jamaaladeen Tacuma the guests joining core navigators, Pat Thomas [piano, synths] and Orphy Robinson [vibes, laptop] are drummer Mark Mondesir, bass guitarist Otto Williams, trumpeter Roland Ramanan, tenor saxophonist Rachel Musson and the aforementioned Watkiss on vocals, spoken word and electronics.

Black Top PIc: Big Mike

With Williams on board there is a resonantly funky undertow to proceedings with his sponge-like tone and wiry pentatonic lines laying down solid ostinatos over which Thomas and Robinson make merry with all manner of chordal twists and turns on their respective keyboards. Sketching out deliciously spiky harmonic territory, where snatches of distorted and filtered samples are thrown into the air, the ensemble locks into a groove that brings the rhythmic pummels of Musson and Ramanan well to the fore. And then the changes of direction come thick and fast as Thomas triggers a beat that enables Mondesir to show the percussive finesse of his tympani sticks and Watkiss to articulate a series of spooky, glassy melodies before the group sound splinters into pinball call and response amid a barrage of artisan audio.”

DEEP. That was how I’d describe Black Top. There is no other ensemble, in the world, quite like them. And finally, each afternoon finished in traditional FREEDOM! fashion whereby anyone in house with their instrument was invited to play… inspiration continued to flow and the spirit continues.

Final thought: During the weekend I played a lot of tunes between sets / compositions on my single turntable and had a constant flow of people asking what was what… Unfortunately, I’ve emptied my record bag but the weekend had a strong emphasis on AACM related projects… here’s a few tunes I recall created a vibe:

Muhal Abrams & Malachi Favors – Way Way Way Down Yonder
Amina Myers – Song For Mother E LP
Famadou Don Moye & Joseph Jarman – (dble LP)
Milford Graves & Andrew Cyrille LP
Henry Threadgill X75 Vol 1
Charlie Haden Closeness Duets LP
Eddie Gale – The Rain
Kenny Cox – Beyond The Dream
Congos – Congoman Chant – 12″
Ja Fumni – King Sunny Ade 12″
Ephat Majura LP
Glen Brown Dub LP
+ Reggae 7″ singles – ‘Midnight Organ’ – Jackie Taylor, ‘Yoruba Dub’ (DATC), Tower Of Power Rock (Clocktower), Freedom Dub (City Line), Callying Butt – Upsettter, Montego Rock – Lennie Hibbert, East Of The Rio Cobre – Junior Dan … nuff more.

Phillip Achille’s Harmonica

Full articles QUORED ABOVE ON ARTS DESK & JAZZWISE : Thomas Rees: http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/freedom-art-improvisation-festival-vortex-dalston
Kevin Legendre – http://www.jazzwisemagazine.com/pages/live-jazz-music-reviews/13660-black-top-funk-up-freedom-the-art-of-improvisation-festival

Peace Truce Runnings / London 1977: Claudie Massop, Tony Welsh, Bob Marley, Tek Life

The Book!

One evening, as I left the home of friend and fellow scribbler, Neil Spencer, he thrust a weighty tome into my hands and said, “You need read this but I want it back after.” The book was A Brief History Of Seven Killings by Marlon James. I’d read James’ first novel John Crow’s Devil – a deranged and dark tale of spiritual combat in a remote Jamaican hamlet – and had recently toyed with reading his award winning second book, The Book Of Night Women – “a devastating epic of savage history, relentless oppression, and souls that refuse to be shackled”. As I weighed A Brief History Of Seven Killings in my hand I knew I was about to be immersed no holds barred account of the most violent era in Jamaica’s post slavery history.

Over 686 pages Jamaican novelist, Marlon James, gives voice to a cast of players who were at the dark heart of the murderous political division and ‘Tribal War’ that punished Jamaica during the Seventies and led to the cocaine fuelled “Yardie” incursion into America’s drug trade in the Eighties.

Marlon James – The Author

The book is split into 5 sections – Original Rockers, Ambush In The Night, Shadow Dancin’, White Lines / Kids In America and Sound Boy Killing. It opens with a cast of characters and then it’s down to the ghost of a murdered politician to set the scene, it’s “a story of boys who meant nothing to the world still spinning, but each time they pass carry the sweet stink scent of the man who killed me.”

We drop into this brief history in December 1976. It’s election time and Jamaica is under Heavy Manners and Discipline and as I’m reading the book I cant help but match the timeline of my own visits to Jamaica with the events that unfold in the book. My partner at that time had grown up in Kingston. She was a leftist who supported Trevor Munroe’s Workers Party. Her parents were ex Communist Party members who had left England in the 50s traveling in the opposite direction to the Windrush generation. Her father had designed Marcus Garvey’s tomb and her mother was a doctor based in the clinic just down the road from Studio 1. Her patients came from the “garrisons” of Central and West Kingston. She passed away just last week aged 98 and lived face to face, on a daily basis, with the impact of the violence – political and other wise – that leaps from the pages of this book. I also was an active leftist but one obsessed with Jamaican music… the vision of the Rastafari, the cultural militancy, the history, the journalist lyrics… the word sound and power. People had got tired me talking about the music and had pressured me to start writing. So, upon arriving in Kingston during the Xmas holiday 1976, post the election which the PNP had won, that’s what I did.

Pivotal to A Brief History… is the attempted assassination of Bob Marley on Dec 3rd 1976, two days prior to the Smile Jamaica concert. In the book he is simply called The Singer. While you can read this book simply as a novel which is rooted in actual events, the more you know about the actual politics and the real characters involved the more shocking it becomes. Basically, Jamaica, not unlike Greece today was being held to ransom by the IMF and trapped in a cycle of debt. Armed with the Rod Of Correction, the charismatic leader of the People National Party was talking Socialism and building ties with Cuba. The CIA didn’t like that and backed Edward Seaga (CIA-aga), the leader of the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP). The enforcers and their soldiers were armed and the ghettos blazed

Marlon James takes inside the minds of the political party enforcers – the soon to be “dons” – and it’s not pretty. As cocaine and free-basing enters the frame he paints a brutal picture of crazed Tony Montana style psycho-violence. As readers we are transported into PNP and JLP garrisons like Arnett Gardens aka  ‘Jungle’ and Tivoli Gardens. We are taken into a warren of zinc fence lined streets and  swept up in the dialogue and the intrigue. Following the failed assassination attempt of The Singer and two years of exile, we want to know why The Singer is back and there’s a Peace Truce in the making. What’s driven the leading enforcers from across the Party Political divide to sit and reason over a chalice while others in their ranks are plotting other wise.

Back In Hope Road: Tek Life, Bob Marley, Claudie Massop

I never made it to the Peace Concert in April ’78 but Neil Spencer – as editor of the NME- did. It was an event where Peter Tosh berated both Manley and Seaga and it earned him a brutal beating at the hands of the police. I watched the concert on video. Marley was a man possessed and flanked by the baddest gun men in Jamaica he forced Manley and Seaga to join hands. Lightning flashed and thunder roared. Ironically, or maybe predictably, 85 years old CIA-aga is one the few people on that stage still alive.

Peace Concert: Politicians, Rankings and Bob

As these events evolve in the book I became fixated on who was who. Who in this book was Bucky Marshall, who was Claudie Massop, who was Tony Welch, who was Tek Life? Is Nina Burgesss real or is she a character in the novel who represents fear? She looked into the eyes of the man who orchestrated the raid on Hope Road and wisely fled. I have to believe, in real life, that man was Lester Coke aka Jim Brown  – “Don Of Dons” and father of the infamous Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke. I always thought he was the same Jim Brown that appeared on the odd 7″ Studio 1 single but apparently it’s not – he’s just another fan of the movie star and NFL legend.

James’ characters live and breathe in the pages of A Brief History… but they are caught in a cycle of mutual and self destruction. Another pivotal event in the book is the Green Bay Killings when a group of youth are tricked into picking up a shipment of weapons only to be mown down in an ambush by the army. The tide turns. The Gun Court is not enough. The police are turned loose like an avenging posse and the freedoms the “dons” enjoyed through their political allegiances all but expired. But in the end, why be a soldier for a politician when you’ve now got links to the Cartels through the ganja you’ve shipped to America. You can buy your own politicians and become a real life ‘Scarface’. And that leads us to the final chapters of this story as it end up on the frozen streets of Brooklyn and beyond, where the youth have swapped their string vests for duck down puffer jackets

I have my own memories of these times. Fear and suspicion was everywhere. We once went to deliver a sack of leather footballs to a group of youth in a small ghetto community near the University campus at Mona. The balls had been bought with money raised at the youth club I ran in North London and the plan was to deliver them to where the local youth hung out – “Style Corner”. Our enquiries amongst the locals as to the whereabouts of “Style Corner” were greeted with a mix of frosty suspicion and open hostility. Two white people delivering gifts to the local youth – couldn’t be good. It had to be payment for some kind of badness. Time had to invested in explaining how it had all come about. Eventually, we made our delivery to a bunch of grateful, football loving teenagers.

PB: Looking shifty & nervous outside the Gun Court

Michael Smith: The NME Article

It’s not one of the killings in this book but, for me, one of the most painful experiences of loss during the early Eighties was the killing of the poet Michael Smith. Mikey was stoned to death by a gang of JLP supporters on a government work detail. I’d spent time with Mikey interviewing him up in Red Hills for an NME piece on dub poetry. After the interview we were sat in the shade quietly enjoying a smoke and sipping on a Red Stripe.The sound of Count Ossie came up on one side of the mountain and Light Of Saba on the other. It was a deep moment. His death was a huge loss to the culture of Jamaica but despite demands for a statement from Prime Minister Seaga, a man who claims to have a deep passion and knowledge of Jamaican culture, there was nothing but silence.

That final chapters of A Short History… shadowed my own withdrawal from the local sound system and reggae scene. I was deeply involved but I was clearly wandering through that life with blinkers on. I’d met Dennis Brown a few times and his physical demise was truly shocking. Initially I could believe it when one of the girls from the youth club said, ” I just saw Dennis Brown in Ridley Road market and he looked like a tramp!” I thought, ” No. He’s an international star! Women love him. How could that be? ” Cocaine was the answer. Another story, which involved a fellow writer, took place in Errol Dunkley’s shop when a fierce looking beaver hat sporting gent asked where he might get “a teeth removed.” When the name of a dentist was proffered the gent shook his head and indicated that it was a bullet, not a tooth that needed removing.

Around that time I was an avid follower of Coxsone OuternationalSound System. Lloydie Coxsone was one of the first people I interviewed. He’s a fantastic spokesman for sound system and has genuine gravitas. But as a Sound Man he has lived his life in that subterranean world and it’s not all “life, love and unity”. One day, I quietly and somewhat naively asked him why he had Ranking Dread on the sound. Basically, I’d never enjoyed his delivery on the mic – especially in a clash. Lloyd just said, “You have to encourage the youth.” I wasn’t convinced but in reality it wasn’t any of my business. Not long after that Ranking Dread made the headlines and it wasn’t related to his toasting. He made it onto the front page of the Daily Mirror and into the Guardian as “the most dangerous man in Britain and the Number One Yardie Godfather”. Apart from his dark and illegal runnings in Hackney he was wanted by Jamaican police in connection with over thirty murders! He was a friend of the late JLP enforcer Claudie Massop. The circle was squared and I needed to come up for fresh air.

As I sit here writing this, almost four decades have elapsed since the raid on Hope Road, at my side is my old Goldring Lenco turntable and a constantly changing stack of much treasured pre-release 7″ singles that provide a lyrical soundtrack to Marlon’s book. Reading A Brief History Of Seven Killings was a deeply troubling but essentially cathartic experience. I found it difficult to put it down and straight after I’d finished felt compelled to cross reference by re-reading Laurie Gunst’s classic Born Fi Dead. I have a huge respect for Marlon James for the way he tackled this book – which has just been released in paperback by Oneworld. So, my friends, if you are in any way interested in the music driven culture of Jamaica and the deadly politics of its recent history you have to  read this book.

Aston ‘Bucky Marshall’ Thompson & Claudius Massop

CIA-aga’s former constituency – Tivoli Gardens

L.A. born and bred saxophonist Kamasi Washington has just sent shockwaves around the globe in the form of a 3CD album ‘The Epic’ which was released in the USA on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label and here on Ninja Tune. While Kamasi and label-mate/bassist Thundercat also contributed to Kendrick Lamar’s much discussed and globally acclaimed 2015 album, ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’, he is clearly an heir to the Leimert Park jazz radicalism of Tribe records and musicians and poets like Phil Ranelin, Horace Tapscott, Dwight Trible and Kamau Daaood. As the man is due to bring ‘The Epic’ to the Barbican on December 9th I thought I’d go on-line in search of interviews that give us an insight into the world Kamasi Washington. By far and away the deepest piece was in the L.A. Record and penned by Sweeney Kovar – a former contributing editor to Shook magazine. I caught up with Sweeney on his return from an exhausting week-long camp in Northern California organised for “almost 100 teen men of color to develop leadership, organizing principles, healthy notions of masculinity and cultural acknowledgement” and he was vibed and energized by my request to run the interview here. Take it away Sweeny…

RAISED IN A POCKET OF BLACK L.A. that carved out a place for forefathers and history, Kamasi Washington was able to channel his universal teenage restlessness into laser-like focus on his instrument. He honed his craft with childhood friends like the Bruner brothers and Terrance Martin and while studying in UCLA was already touring, using his powerful horn to back up Snoop Dogg on his way to performing with Chaka Khan. He has various projects and innumerable live shows to his credit already, but for many his most recent release—the 3-LP The Epic—is an introduction. Large in frame and soft in voice, Washington looks the part of a burgeoning jazz master, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. His jazz acknowledges the rise of hip-hop without catering to it. Washington is religious but his music doesn’t clash with the secular like traditional gospel might. It’s spiritual music, in the purest sense. When I spoke with Washington about the vibrancy in Black L.A. jazz, his own journey in music and the impetus behind his Brainfeeder debut, I’m reminded that masters transcend their instrument. We’re living a moment of transcendence in American music and that gift is irreplaceable.

Kamasi – Photo by Asato Iida

You’ve always been keenly aware of your place and—now that you’ve come into your own—of your role in the history of L.A. jazz. Do you spend time thinking about being a part of something bigger?

Definitely I’m aware of it—there’s a movement that’s been blooming and cultivating for years. I always knew that one day—I didn’t know when it would happen, or if it would even happen in our time—that the world would recognize. This was back before me, like my dad. I grew up around my dad and his friends. They were all musicians. And it dates back even to what they were doing. It started cultivating before they were even born. I knew how good these musicians were and how amazing and dedicated they were, and how powerful that music was—how beneficial it could be to the world—and I always wondered why why nobody was playing them. As I got a little older and started meeting musicians from around the country, and I realized they didn’t know at all who these people were, I used to wonder, ‘How do you not know?’ Then I realized that in a way it’s a gift. Because the world has overlooked this, no one’s been pushing me one way or the other. The directions I’ve gone in my life and in my music have all been so good. I feel blessed because this has allowed all of us to develop what we’re doing. It was a long learning curve for Miles Mosely to get from that pedal steel to that upright bass, and he needed time and support and kind of a little bit of—a little lack of attention to get it right. And now he has it. It’s like with my work — you have a plan, and then you have the reality of what happens in your life. Musicians mostly start early, and you have to plan for what you want your life to be, but in the end, what happens is what is supposed to happen. You might think that Thundercat came out of nowhere, but he didn’t. He was living with that sound for decades. Whether you like it or not, you’re going to get that sound on your music when you play. So it’s cool to see that people are now — it’s the perfect time. The rest of the world is getting it at its height.

So you must be aware that there is a little bit of building momentum from outside the jazz world.

Oh absolutely. My first West Coast tour was with Snoop Dogg. The second one was with Raphael Saadiq, and I think my third was with Lauryn Hill. So that relationship, and what we do—L.A. is just like that. It’s not a land of specialists. Everyone here, they’re really great and they do everything. You don’t really find too many people that just do one thing. The opportunity is not there to just do that. You’ve got to branch out. Growing up in high school, I was practicing ten hours a day to be this jazz saxophone player and I come out of high school and the first tour I get is with Snoop Dogg. I toured with Snoop for like three years. I learned a lot, actually. That was important. The way I look at music, I look at it with a detail that a lot of jazz musicians—they look at jazz from so wide, so deep, so high, and so far, it’s like sometimes you lose your sense of detail. With hip-hop, it’s like—that detail is what it is. It’s not real hard to play. But you’ve got to play it in an absolutely perfect way and find that groove and feel and all these little nuances have to be there to make it sound exactly right. Like my record—I finished my album last year. And for whatever reason it kept getting pushed back because there were other albums that I was meant to work on first before my album came out. And I was mad at the stars and yelling at the moon, like, ‘Hey man! Why is my album being pushed back?’ But everything happens for a reason. Part of that whole thing of people noticing jazz is because of hip hop. You put these labels on music because it helps organize it, but the reality is that if Jellyroll Morton and John Coltrane are both jazz, then you can say that John Coltrane and James Brown are both jazz. And if John Coltrane and James Brown are both jazz, then James Brown and Snoop Dogg are both jazz, and all this African-American music is related. And we put these dividers up as if they’re not, but they are. And so groups like A Tribe Called Quest and Kendrick and Outkast made super real hip-hop records, and like most of the other super real hip-hop records in history, if you listen to them, there’s a lot of jazz in them. Jazz is an integral part of the African American experience. So of course, if jazz is having a resurgence, it might be related to hip-hop.

Kamasi Washington Live Photography: Asato Iida

I’m glad you said it was part of the African-American musical experience. Something that’s really interesting about this jazz resurgence in L.A. is that it’s young Black musicians. Do you think about your music as an African-American thing? As a Black experience? Or do you not really see labels on art like that?

I think music is a form of communication. Jazz is Black music in the way that English is a white language. It has origins in the culture, but the spirit behind it—the feel, the groove— originates from the experiences that we’ve had. Anyone who wants to really play this music has to be aware of that, and be aware of those experiences because that’s the language of the music. That’s what it speaks from. It speaks from the blues and the pain the came from slavery. That’s where this music originates. The whole African American experience is so rooted in slavery. Not only slavery, but the reason why there are African-Americans is because of slavery. So if you’re talking about African-American music, you’re talking about music that comes from this really dark history, and the music is the light that allowed us to make it through the darkness. That’s what the real point of it was. We’re further out of that darkness—we’re not out of it, by any stretch of the imagination—but we’re further out of that darkness. But just like anything else, there are other people who are involved in the darkness and in the light. There are white people who are involved in shining a light to help us get out of the dark, and there are white people involved in trying to keep us in the dark. So that energy, that communication that this music has, it has all over different types of cultures—not just white and Black. Historically, slavery wasn’t just a Black thing—it was a world thing. There were other people involved in slavery, not just white people and Black people. I don’t look at jazz like a music that’s only for African Americans, but I do look at it as a music that represents the experiences that African Americans had. And I love it and I think it’s great for everyone. I don’t deny its origins or the history that it represents and that it speaks to. I also don’t think that I should somehow not be included and partaking of this art—or speaking this language or being involved in this music—because I’m not a part of that history. The origins don’t come from that culture, you know what I mean? So in a sense … I don’t think it excludes anyone, but I definitely think if you’re going to play this music you have to understand the origins. Just like if you’re going to play Cuban music, you have to understand the origins. Or you could just play it and have fun with it. Music is also light—it could be just for fun. So if you really want to play it, you have to understand the origins—the culture—or you could say, ‘I’m really not playing that; I’m playing something else.’ Which is fine. The term ‘jazz’ to me speaks to that. But jazz has styled off into so many different places that sure, you could play improvised music with saxophone and bass and drums and call it jazz and it could be great. And you could say, ‘I have no connection to the African American experience but I’m playing this music,’ and you can. There’s nothing wrong with it. But to me, the history of the music comes from that place. That’s the origin.

Something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is that in the last several years we’ve also seen a resurgence of Black and brown activism on a large scale. The other night I was thinking of the parallel between the two and how we’re seeing a resurgence of the kind of improvised music that was more popular in the mainstream in the 60s and 70s—and we’re also seeing the same kind of social consciousness and action, more importantly, that was also around in that time. That’s kind of a long way of asking … when you compose and you write, do you feel like you’re responding to the present times? Or is it an internal conversation?

My take on that is that music—people may disagree—but music comes from a place outside of us. When I’m writing a song, I’m reaching for something. I don’t really know what I’m reaching on, but in my reaching, over the years, I learned where to go with my subconscious mind to get to it. And it comes to me, and then it’s pretty ambiguous and it’s pretty unformed, and then I form it into what I want it to be. So when I write music and the form is in the inception phase, I can’t really control the inception of the music that I write. It is what it is. Sometimes it just comes. I can try to direct it, I can say ‘I want to write something dark’, and maybe I will or I won’t, and maybe something bright and happy is going to come out, and that’s just what it is. So then other times, once I have it in me, then I direct it into the direction I want to go. And then yeah — there are things that I want to speak to and music is almost like an attempt to make it this one thing, but that doesn’t meant that’s what it’s going to be. If you’re talking to someone … you have ideas in your head that you’re trying to convey, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to hear or believe it. If I want to communicate to someone, I may or may not have a choice as to how they’re going to hear it. Once I get the music inside me, that’s when I make something that I put out to the world. A lot of the songs are actually from 2011. A different time period, actually. And a lot of my current music is definitely much more influenced by what’s happening in the world. Even the music I hear now—it’s not like these things that are happening now are new. They were happening back then as well. People weren’t as conscious of them or speaking about them as much, but we all knew it and we all felt it. So it’s in there as well. But music is pure in and of itself—it’s something that you just give to people and you don’t get to control what it is. You can just add what you want to add to it. So to answer that question … what I add to it is always something going on in my life, either because of the society I’m living in or … if I’m going through a tribulation with my family, my history, different parts of myself—sometimes the song itself will inspire what I put into the song, if that makes sense. Like take ‘Change of the Guard.’ I heard these chord changes and it just felt — it felt moving. That song is really a tribute to my dad and his generation. I always felt like they didn’t get the chance to be the guard. They were ready, but somehow the torch passed over them.

Why do you think that happened?

I wish I could tell you. I don’t know. From a social-historical perspective, Los Angeles has always been known as a film town. But it’s also a big city and you can make a living. It’s not like living in a little small town, where if you want to play music at all, you have to leave. You don’t have to leave L.A.. And so for whatever reason, people just overlooked it. And that overlooking process is what caused them to not necessarily take their right places as musicians who could have an impact on the world. There’s a lot of music that was lost between the ‘70s and now. Not lost… but it just wasn’t experienced by people that could have been able to help them. Because music changed my life — my cousin giving me an Art Blakey tape in sixth grade was life changing. Art Blakey changed my life. He didn’t mean to do it, but because his music was so powerful, and he did what he did, it changed my life. Whereas my dad gave me John Coltrane, but before I heard Art Blakey, I couldn’t relate to the jazz my dad tried to play me. But when my cousin gave me that tape, I was able to understand and hear that other jazz. You never know what power or what change happens from one album or one song. So it’s a shame that so much brilliant brilliant music has been passed over because it could have had an effect on the world.

Art Blakey flanked by Wayne shorter & Lee Morgan

You have a very specific presence on stage, with the clothes that you choose to wear and how you present yourself. Is there an intention behind besides aesthetics? That long flowing tunic with the top piece at the release party—is that a little bit of a throwback, or is that just you?

It’s both! I’m a big fan of African culture. The clothes that I wear, I just like the way they look. I enjoy my culture, and I enjoy African culture as well—and I like those clothes, yeah! I do feel a sense of responsibility because I understand that there’s pressure on African-Americans to not like their culture and be ashamed of being Black—to be ashamed of being connected to Africa, and to feel like it’s at very best a sad story, that these kings and philosophers who invented all these amazing technologies, who did a lot for the world … we don’t really get taught to be proud of that. If I can be an example, hey—I’m proud of it. I’m very honestly proud of it, and actually I do honestly really like the way the clothes look! I just think they look cool. It saddens me when I see my niece or like my little cousins and they’re ashamed of their hair. They think that their culture is ugly or stupid or inferior or primitive and the clothes are weird. And it’s like, ‘Why do you think about it like that? They’re cool!’ And when I wear them, people look at me and are like, ‘Wow, that’s really cool!’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know it’s cool!’ So it’s more that. It’s not like I’m trying to make a statement with it. I think it’s cool! And why shouldn’t I wear it, and you’ll think it’s cool too. Nothing wrong with a suit or jeans. I wear all kind of clothes. Clothes are just clothes. But there is a sensation of … if I can be a bit of a force against that mentality that somehow there’s something wrong with what we do, then well … I hate the way that if African-American people do something, it’s immediately turned ‘ghetto.’ Like this or that thing is ‘ghetto.’ You’ll never hear me say that in my life. It’s like — what does that mean? If we do something in our neighborhood, it’s somehow bad, you know? And it’s like no — the clothes we wear and the clothes people wore in Africa or what they wear now, or even what I’m wearing, it’s coming from a different place. And I think it’s cool and I like it and that’s why I wear it.

Kamasi & crew….

What’s your vision for the future of yourself as a musician? What ambitions do you hold?

It’s been so beautiful, the response that I’m having to the album. There’s such an excitement for it. I’ve always felt like people have been needing this music and it has the power to change people and blow people’s minds because there’s so much beautiful music out there. When I heard that Art Blakey record, that’s what opened my mind to John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy — Art Blakey. And if my record can somehow open people’s minds to that, that would be dope. I want my music to do something like that, and that’s always what I wanted. Even when I was young I was always going to my friends, like ‘Check this out!’ and giving them tapes of this person or that person. They’d look at me crazy when I gave them avant-garde records, but it opened their mind. Music is powerful like that — you can’t help it, but when you hear music, it’s going to communicate with you and whether or not you decide to act on that information is up to you. So I think that’s important, and I think people are looking for music to do that too, and I want to do it, and I want to express it. Music isn’t something that I want to horde or keep secret or buried somewhere — I want to get it out for everyone.

Based on the way that you were mentored and encouraged, do you feel a sense of responsibility to encourage that for the next generation?

Absolutely. I know what it means to have someone to look up to for encouragement and support and I know what it means to look up and not have encouragement and support. I never want to do that. And I think that—not that I’m old, but I’m not young, and there’s a whole younger generation of musicians who have a perspective that I don’t have. They were born with it and I didn’t get it til I was older. Everyone has an obligation to help those that come after them. And that will make the world a better place. The only way to do that is to help people.

This interview was first published in the LA RECORD – L.A.’S BIGGEST MUSIC PUBLICATION SINCE 2005

Check Sweeney Kovar at:
@sweeneykovar

Check ‘The Epic’ Live at the Barbican on December 9th 2015. Hosted by Gilles Peterson

The Sound Of Xáos: This is a Greek Odyssey with a 21st century sensibility that proudly delves into a nation’s rich, mysterious musical past to produce an album that flies a defiant banner for a Greek nation battered and bruised by Euro-capitalist austerity.

l -r: Dubalah & Ahetas

Xáos is not Nana Mouskouri nor Demis Roussos nor Vangelis. This is no plate smashing bazouki runnings, this is some very deep Greek bizniz that’s been fermenting in the radical musical minds of Nick ‘Dubulah’ Page and his cousin Ahetas Jimi for nigh on ten years. Both are couple of deeply intellectual Greek geezers who I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and reasoning with for more a couple of decades. In fact, I’ve known Nick since the days of the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra – an ensemble that could well have been a source of inspiration for Soul II Soul- and I’ve followed his moves through Transglobal Underground to more recent projects like the incredibly on point ‘Syriana’ and the Ethio-Reggae experiments of Dub Colossus. Jimi on the other hand is a wild card who moves between the Greek islands and London; he paints, makes microtonal music and is a talented avante garde survivor.

‘Xáos’ is pure ancient to future. From the opening salvo of ‘Pontos Blues’ we are immersed in sounds and evasive melodies that span the northern most part of Greece, the island of Crete, Pontos by the Black Sea, Thrace, Ipiros and the Peloponnese. Along with Ahetas’ analogue synths (Arp 2600), keys and programming and Dubulah’s de-tuned Dobro guitar we are treated an array of ancient instrumentation that emerge through a haze of time. There a timeless Nay flutes, Bul Bul double pipes, the haunting Gaida (bagpipes), Clarino and the exquisite Pontic lyra. There’s a junk drum kit and various frame drums plus there’s an amazing bassist – Georgios Kalaitzoglou – who plays, according to Nick, “high harmonics in the style of Byzantine singing, quarter tones and all!” Head straight to track 9!

Personally, I play this album loud and whoever I’ve played it to ‘Xáos’ has generated the warmest of responses. I have huge respect for these musicians, who despite the odds and initial lack of interest from the powers that be, for pulling off this politically timely and deeply resonant artistic project. They’ve already notched up 5 stars in the Guardian, one of an impressive stack of adulatory reviews, and right now, I would love to hear the full Xáos ensemble, in all it’s Grecian glory, in a church or an equally appropriate acoustic setting.

ALL MUSICS FOR ALL PEOPLES – Sound Of Detroit – Motor City Rhythms – Carhartt WIP has teamed up with DJ Amir Abdullah (of Kon & Amir) to assist with the creation of a modest Strata clothing collection plus a radio broadcast and a limited edition magazine.

Detroit 2015 remains a symbol of a dark side of America’s post-industrial economy but with or without the motor industry, the city remains a unique place for musicians, producers and djs. Whether from rock, soul, funk, jazz or techno the inner city experiences, insights and emotions of these Chicago rooted artists have consistently translated into an array very unique  Detroit manifestations.

Since 2013, Carhartt WIP has paid tribute to the music of the Motor City with its bi-annual Sound Of Detroit T-Shirt series and this latest selection pays tribute to the outstanding work of the legendary, underground Detroit based Strata label.

All Musics For All Peoples is the original slogan taken from the 1974 Strata Catalogue,

Strata Records was launched by pianist Kenny Cox and trumpeter Charles Moore in the late 1960s. It became a vibrant hub for Detroit’s jazz scene in the late Sixties and early Seventies and it was a destination for heavyweight musicians like Charles Mingus, Elvin Jones and Herbie Hancock whenever they were in town. Strata’s principles were focused on artistic freedom, a philosophy that is still going strong to this day. Their albums embody a wonderfully expansive approach to music-making that is truly distinct, and although they were pressed in small quantities, their cult following continues to expand.

Original artwork for a Herbie Hancock show at the Strata Concert Gallery 46 Selden Street in Detroit, 1973.

Strata was independent, run and owned by artists, released less than ten records and was established an art gallery-come-live venue that started the first university Jazz music program to educate and create awareness following the Detroit riots of ’67 and ’68. In 2010,  Amir Abdullah was commissioned to create a lost youth culture exhibit for a Detroit online museum. He chose to celebrate Strata’s huge impact by re–issuing their catalogue through his own label 180 Proof Records.

Above: The Detroit Jazz Renaissance was a public project of the Allied Artists Association with the support of the Michigan Council of Arts and the Detroit Council of Arts. Started at the end of the 1970‘s in an effort to support the crumbling Detroit Jazz scene one of the main aims of the Jazz Renaissance was to find and even build new venues for the music. The logo is taken from a 1979 poster promoting a show of Detroit jazz artists.

To check the free spirited and groundbreaking sound of Strata Records check the Carhartt WIP Radio broadcast where DJ Amir takes us on a personal journey through the goldmine of Strata records that features music by artists like Maulawi, The Lyman Woodard Organization, Kenny Cox and The Soulmates. https://soundcloud.com/carharttwip/carhartt-wip-radio-september-2015

Tracklist:
Maulawi – People Make The World Go Round
The Contemporary Jazz Quintet – Nguzo Saba (Struggle)
Larry Nozero – Tune For L.N.
The Lyman Woodard Organization – Help Me Get Away
Maulawi – Naima
Sam Sanders – Face At My Window
Fito Foster – Salsa Pt. 1
Kenny Cox – Clap Clap! The Joyful Noise
The Soulmates – I’m Really Gonna Miss You
Maulawi – Maiden Voyage
Sphere – Where
Maulawi – Eltition

Pin based on original artwork taken from a 1979 tour poster promo-ting an all-star show of Detroit Jazz artists

http://shop.carhartt-wip.com/view/gb/men/tshirts/soundofdetroit

ARAB JAZZ, CUBAN NOIR & A REVOLUTION BETRAYED…. this summer’s reading has been heavy! It kicked off with Marlon James’ A Short History Of Seven Killings – see the earlier post on that devastating tome – and that was followed up with Karim Miské’s award winning banlieue based thriller Arab Jazz which was touted as required reading after the Charlie Hebdo murders and had just come out in paperback.

Well, as I write this the press is still reflecting on what might have happened if Ayoub El-Khazzani’s Kalishnikov hadn’t jammed on that train from Brussels last weekend and if we are looking for insights into the forces that drive such an individual, who claims to have found his AK-47 in the park, then Arab Jazz is not really the place to look. However, if you enjoy the twist and turns of a thriller, a murder mystery, which is set in the marginalised racial melting pot of the Parisian suburbs with a central character, Ahmed Taroudant – a traumatised recluse of middle eastern origin – and a couple of intriguing detectives, Rachel Kupferstein and Jean Hamelot, this is well worth a visit.

From the first description to Ahmed’s flat we are drawn into his world. There are books, hundreds of books, all of which he’s read, plus 3 cds – Fela, Gainsboug and French polymath Boris Vian. Along with murder there’s also a new drug on the block. It’s a contemporary and offbeat tale that weaves a web between a crew of alienated hip-hop headz, the local fundamentalist imam, a dodgy barber, a leading light in the Jahovas Witnesses, a sleazy brocanteur, an “ulta Orthodox Jewish Rasta’ and, of course, a couple of corrupt cops. Arab Jazz offers a ground level view of a city, a nation grappling with its own diversity. Miské’s writing comfortably reflects the contradictions of community and life in the banlieue and the lack of prospects and hope that confront the youth on a daily basis. It offers a ground level view of a city, a nation grappling with its own diversity and, while there’s not a hint of jazz anywhere in the book, Miské’s tale gathers splendid momentum as it spirals towards resolution.

Karim Minske

Basically, I can’t resist a good thriller and after Arab Jazz I was tempted to acquire the Walter Mosley’s latest Leonid Mcgill mystery. However, I got waylaid by the discovery of a Cuban thriller writer I found on the Havana Cultura website. I invested in Leonardo Padura’s first novel – Havana Red: A Mario Conde Mystery – and was immediately transported to a Cuba that I hadn’t experienced since I’d read the Pedro Juan Gutierrez’s disturbing Dirty Havana Trilogy. The discovery of a dead transgender man in a local park is a launchpad for our underpaid, impoverished and politically disillusioned detective to engage with an underground literary community where rivalries sparked and maintained by the dogma of the Communist Party lead to shame, hopelessness and death.

Only now are we beginning to get a real picture of what it was like in 1990’s Cuba and the physical suffering and hardships that its people went through post Glasnost and Padura’s book led me me to check out what else he’d written. I was immediately drawn to The Man Who Loved Dogs, a story about a despondent Cuban writer relegated to writing stories for the veterinary magazine who encounters a mysterious man on the beach walking two Russian wolfhounds. At the core of this 572 page book is the exile and assassination of Leon Trotsky, and as an ex-Communist Party member with no illusions about Stalin I was keen to read a novel about Stalin’s most vehement critic, penned by a writer who had grown up in a country shielded from the trials and the tyranny of Stalin’s Russia.

As a fledgeling student activist I read Trotsky’s Permanent Revolution to try and get an insight into why there was so much friction between the leftist political parties and organisations. It didn’t really help. The conflict between Stalinism and Trotskyism was irreconcilable. Too much water under the bridge. Also, I wasn’t interested in battling “Trotskyists” – Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit were on the move, the NF were rife in East London, youth unemployment was severe and the globally it was kicking off in Latin America while the struggle against apartheid was intensifying. Besides all that, there was Black Nationalism and free-jazz, the music of of Curtis Mayfield, the drums of the Nyabinghi and arrival Punk rock to be reckoned with.

Natalia Sedova & Leon Trotsky

It’s with hindsight and the passing of a more than a couple of decades that I was drawn to Padura’s book. It would flesh out the story that I’d read in Barbara Kingsolver’s excellent The Lacuna and as only fiction can I hoped it would make human the reality of Trotsky’s exile and fundamentalism of those hardened by the struggle. I was not disappointed. Padura reveals the physical and psychological impact brought about by the systematic mental and physical destruction of those that comrades, friends and family that Trotsky and his wife, Natalia, had fought alongside and loved. From that first encounter on a deserted Cuban beach were are initiated into the intricacies and betrayals of the Spanish Civil and introduced to the central character of this story – Romon Mercarder, the man who eventually assassinates Leon Trotsky/Lev Davidovitch. We get follow the Trotsky’s into exile, into forced isolation, from the snowy wastelands of Kyrgystan to Turkey to Finland and finally to Mexico and the house they share with the painters, Frida Karlho and Diego Rivera. Padura’s research is thorough. History unfolds interspersed with Moscow show trials and betrayals. War looms large as Hitler and fascism take power in Germany. At that point it seems that Trotsky is so isolated and irrelevant in face of catastrophic world events that one has to see the madness in Stalin’s final order – the last surviving Bolshevik from Lenin’s inner circle had to die in order to make Stalin’s deification complete.

Leonardo Padura

Life goes on. Capital-ism and schism still prevails and ironically, just as The Man Who Loved Dogs dropped through my letter box (I’ve got a big letter box) the language of the left, of socialism and social justice, was about to be revived via a dedicated old skool leftist MP – Jeremy Corbyn – standing for leadership of the Labour Party. His mission was to force a debate that wouldn’t have happened had he not stood. The freedom to challenge those in power – the people that we elect and employ to do a job – that’s something worth fighting for. The lessons of near history that are revealed in The Man Who Loved Dogs are harsh and, in my mind, simply demand that we pursue creative, radical and humanitarian ideas and activism that better our lives and the lives of others while addressing the long term future and survival of the planet.

RUBBLE KINGS is an illuminating and poignant the documentary by Shan Nicholson that boldly documents NYC’s gang wars and the truce that led to the birth of b-boying and hip hop.

Yesterday afternoon, we slipped into the Curzon Soho to checkout a showing of Rubble Kings – a documentary that revealed the real story behind one of my all time fave films ‘Warriors’. From 1968 to 1975, gangs ruled New York City and the focus of Shan Nicholson’s documentary is the Bronx – “home to 101 gangs… take your pick.”

When images of the Bronx surface here in the early Seventies it was shocking. With its burnt out shells of buildings it looked like bombed-out Beirut had been transported to New York City. The Bronx was once a thriving community and Rubble Kings points an accusing finger at Robert Moses’ urban renewal project for New York City and the Cross Bronx Expressway, completed in 1963, as the decisive factor in the physical demise of the borough.

Charlotte Street, South Bronx 1970s

July 1972, The Bronx, New York City, New York State, USA. Members of the Savage Skulls. The trademark of the, primarily Puerto Rican, gang was a sleeveless denim jacket with a skull and crossbones design on the back. Based around Fox Street, in the popular South Bronx neighbourhood, the gang declared war on the drug dealers that operated in the area. Running battles were frequent with rival gangs Seven Immortals, and Savage Nomads. — Image by © JP Laffont/Sygma/Corbis

The Sixties gave birth to Peace & Love alongside the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam. Meanwhile the inner cities gave birth the radicalism and militancy of Black Panthers and the Puerto Rican Young Lords but in the Bronx and the other 4 boroughs of New York City simmered an unfocused rage. Neither law enforcement nor social agencies could end the escalating bloodshed between gangs like the Black Spades, Bachelors, Savage Skulls, Javelins, Reapers, Turbans, the Roman Kings et al.

However, a peace truce came about after the 1971 killing of Cornell Benjamin, a widely respected “peace counselor” from the more community conscious Ghetto Brothers which was led by the charismatic Benji ‘Yellow Benjy’ Melendez and Carlos ‘Karate Charlie’ Suarez. Both of whom are interviewed in the film and remain quietly distressed at the events of that fateful day. It was following a visit to the mother of Cornell Benjamin that led the Ghetto Brothers, who were initially bent on revenge, to organise a city wide peace truce, an serious event would change life for generations to come.
When it held, gang life shifted from turf wars to the block parties, hosted by the likes of Kool Herc and Afrika Bammbaata, that incubated the wild style of breaking, rapping and turntablism.

Benji Melendez addresses the Truce Meeting. Can you dig it!

Rubble Kings chronicles life during this era of gang rule and in one moment of clarity upon signingthat truce their leaders saw that when they stopped killing each other the medea weren’t interested in the real issues facing the youth in the city. The film tells the story of how a few extraordinary, forgotten people did the impossible, and how their actions impacted New York City and the world over. This what the director, Shan Nicholson, had to say about his documentary.

“I was instantly drawn to the story behind Rubble Kings. It was the backdrop to all I knew as a kid growing up in New York City during the 1980s. Hip-hop was my world- it was a movement growing on every stoop in every borough throughout the city. As kids, we would hear the echoes of generations past and the stories of the outlaw gangs that ruled the streets. Looking back, the tales seemed almost folkloric in nature filled with names like the Savage Skulls, Seven Immortals, and the Black Spades. We had no idea that these gangs played such an integral part in the birth of our generation’s song. Later in life, I started producing music and DJ’ing throughout the city. Record collecting became a daily ritual and on one of these missions, I ran into one of the holy grails of record collecting – a Latin funk album called “Power Fuerza” by the GhettoBrothers. Not only was the music amazing, their story would haunt me for months to come. The fact that The Ghetto Brothers chose peace over violence after the death of one of their own brother’s resonated with me deeply. I too had lost my best friend to an act of senseless violence. It shattered my world and here I was faced with this story of extraordinary courage in the face of adversity. I knew I had to tell this story.”

Enough said! Check it out. You can view it by pay to view or download online via Vimeo, amazon, itunes etc.

Black Panther Party: Vanguard Of The Revolution hit the big screen at Hackney’s Rio Cinema during the East London Film Festival and was joy to behold. It is now poised for nationwide release. In the shadow of on-going institutionalised police brutality and the Black Lives Matter campaigns across America the legacy of the Panthers remains both inspirational and deeply relevant.

Co founders of the Black Panther Party – national chairman Bobby Seale, left, wearing a Colt .45, and Huey Newton, right, defense minister with a bandoleer and shotgun are shown in Oakland, Calif. – Photograohy: AP Photo/San Francisco Examiner

Back in 1969 I picked a copy of Bobby Seale’s book Seize The Time. The cover had a clenched fist inside a black leather glove, a sartorial style that the Twisted Wheel generation of soul devotees had adopted post Tommy Smith and John Carlos’ Black Power salutes at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

Bobby Seale and Huey Newton had founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defence in Oakland California in October of 1966 in response to ongoing police violence against the black community and Seize The Time told the story of the impact that their stand off with the US power structure had. I wanted to know more and upon moving to Cheltenham I discovered a small shop at the back of Cavendish House (the town’s equivalent of Harrods) run by an African who sold the cane chairs like the one Huey Newton was photographed in brandishing a spear and rifle. He also sold literature by Eldridge Cleaver (Soul On Ice), Angela Davis (If The Come In The Morning) and Franz Fanon (Wretched Of The Earth). My education continued.

Black Panther breakfast programme

As now, the world was in a turbulent state at the end of the Sixties. The Peace & Love generation of American youth were confronted with the draft to fight in Vietnam. The dream of Civil Rights ended in Memphis in 1968 with the assassination of Dr.Martin Luther King and the baton was passed a new generation who that responded to America’s endemic violence against its black citizens with a call for revolution. The vanguard of that movement became the Black Panther Party.

Previous efforts to document the story of Black Panther Party have all too often been concocted from scattered repackaged parts, often depicting tragic, mythic accounts of violence and criminal activity. That’s not the case with documentarian Stanley Nelson. The man goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure of rare archival footage with the voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it.

Black Panther: Women Activists

Black Panther Party: Vanguard Of The Revolution is not intended to be definitive but what we do get is an essential history. The bold arrival of the heavily armed Panthers at the California senate and the response then governor Ronald Reagan is classic. We get to witness Bobby Seale standing for mayor of Oakland and the impact of the breakfast programmes in the ghetto. They were masters of getting their own publicity and the Panther newspaper with the explosive graphics of Emory Douglas made a huge impact. The FBI had already initiated a covert action program – Cointelpro – against Martin Luther King Jnr, Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael and in 1969 Hoover moved against the Panthers. While toll of arrests and deaths rose it was left to women activists like Kathleen Cleaver, Ericka Huggins and Elaine Brown to lead the struggle and provide inspiration for a whole generation of women to get involved..

The assassination of Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party is thoroughly documented in the film. It was clear that the charismatic Hampton, a born leader who had cut his organisational teeth with the NAACP, was perceived as major threat by the FBI. Word is that Hampton was on the verge of a merger between The Panthers and a 1000+ strong gang on the Southside of the Chicago. He was murdered while sleeping in his apartment during a joint police/FBI raid.

Fred-Hampton at Dirksen-Federal Building-

Through J Edgar Hoover and the FBI, the weight of the American “justice” system was directed against the Panthers. It was a protracted war aimed at destroying their infrastructure with arrests and killings that eventually succeeded. Though Huey Newton was eventually freed from prison after a long campaign it appeared from the film that the brothers who surrounded him on his release were not from the daily struggle but associates from his jail time. In Eighties Newton studied at the University of California where earned a PHD for ‘War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression in America’ – it was eventually published by Harlem River Press. He reputedly succumbed to cocaine addition and died in a confrontation with a local drug dealer and member of the Black Guerilla Front in 1989. Eldridge Cleaver, proved himself an politically corrupt opportunist but Bobby Seale, Emory Douglas, Ericka Huggins and Elaine Brown, among others, carried on their work in the community. They left a lifeline of activism to those today who choose to campaign for change and to resist police forces across America, that equip themselves with the second hand armaments from failed US wars in Afganistan and the Middle East.

Black Panther DVD – Sept 2015

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, is a vibrant, human, living and breathing chronicle of a pivotal movement in global history. If you get the chance to see on a big screen, don’t sleep on it.

THE MAN FROM WAREIKA HILLS: RICO RODRIGUEZ 1934 -2015

Always loved this photo of Rico Rodriguez and his daughters by my bredren Jean Bernard Sohiez.

Veteran of the legendary Alpha Boys School band and further educated in the camp of Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari in Wareika Hills in East Kingston, Rico Rodriguez brought the distinctive and often melancholy sound of the ska trombone, as defined by the legendary Don Drummond, to these shores in 1961. He worked nights in the Ford car plant in Dagenham, did a portion of painting and decorating but had a long standing working relationship with hands-on, Island record boss, Chris Blackwell. Though well known on the underground UK reggae scene, it was Rico’s seminal mid-Seventies ‘Man From Wareika’ LP and it’s dub version, recorded for Blackwell, that remains for me the creative peak of his long career. Rico’s trombone was further immortalised on the Specials’ magnificent ‘Ghost Town’ single and it was always brilliant to see him in the ranks of Jools Holland’s Big Band or Gary Crosby’s Jazz Jamaica. One of my best friends named her son after him. Rico passed away aged 80 and as I pack a box of tunes for the FREEDOM! session this evening I’ll make sure the Man From Wareika is in the mix.

In the mix:

INTO FOREVER is Matt Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra’s second album and it’s been rotation on my CD player since it dropped through the door. 

Mathew Halsall & some of the The Gondwana Orchestra

There’s  a real confidence about this latest record. ‘Into Forever’ continues Matt Halsall’s “spiritual jazz” trajectory and extends his already radical Gondwana Orchestra to embrace some lush string arrangements while maintaining a surprisingly strong song-based feel.

The rhythm section of bassist Gavin Barras and drummer Luke Flowers underpin these thoughtful compositions with gently rolling grooves while Rachel Gladwin delivers rippling waves of sound via her harp that are fluidly matched by Taz Modi’s piano. Keiko Kitamura is present on koto and it’s a joy to hear Lisa Mallet’s flute take flight on a spacey drum’n’bass-ish ‘The land Of’ and on the evocative composition dedicated to Taiwan’s ‘Longshan Temple’ and, in turn, the bodhisattva of mercy, Guanyin.

As the ensemble leader he focusses on the arrangements, creating space for all involved and allowing the music to breathe. It almost a surprise when Matt’s horn actually makes an appearance. on the title track of ‘Into Forever’ He shares shares writing credits on the vocal cuts with vocalist Josephine Oniyama who delivers her compositions with soulful panache. On the penultimate track of ‘Dean Park’ Matt’s horn line echoes a spaced out ‘Take 5’ meets Don Cherry while final track , ‘Jamais Vu’, introduces Bryony Jarman-Pinto who adds a different vocal dimension and explores the phenomenon of experiencing a situation that one recognizes in some fashion, but that nonetheless seems very unfamiliar.

‘Into Forever’ – Matthew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra is on Gondwana Records and is out on 2nd October. Pre-order today! 

http://www.gondwanarecords.com/

Matthew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra’s perform at Union Chapel in London on Thursday 29th October.

One would hope by now, that everyone reading this will know about JAZZ RE:FEST and that this year’s event is happening at the Royal Festival Hall (The Clore Ballroom), Southbank on Sunday September 20th 2015. But for those of you who don’t know, here’s the rundown.

When they did the first JAZZ RE:FEST the Jazz Re: Freshed crew quickly realised that this was the beginning of something BIG and 2015 sees JAZZ RE:FEST take another step forward with a change of venue – the world renowned Clore Ballroom in the Royal Festival Hall. Once they secured the venue, they made the massive decision make this year’s event free entry… YES, FREE ENTRY! 

They also wanted to make JAZZ RE:FEST family friendly and accessible to all age-groups, so they’ve switched from a night-time event to a daytime format – although, there will be an after-party for those of you that want to continue the party into the night, hosted at Bar Topolski’s literally 30 seconds from RFH.

Even though this year’s JAZZ RE:FEST is free to enter, it goes without saying that they haven’t on the quality of the line-up. This year, as with every year and with every event that they put their name to, Jazz Re: Freshed have put together a sterling collection of artists, musicians and deejays.

BANDS:

Ty & Ezra Collective / Richard Spaven / Soweto Kinch / Carmen Souza & Theo Pascal / Yussef Kamaal (Yussef Dayes & Henry Wu) / Peter Edwards Trio / Nerija / Myriad Forest

DEEJAYS:

Mikey Futuristic / E Double D / Man vs Wife / Eric Lau /Patrick Forge / Sarah Love / Hosted by Motet

PLUS, as always Jazz Re: Freshed have music, art and fashion for sale courtesy of UNITED 80.

Here’s the key info… JAZZ RE:FEST – Sunday 20th September 2015,  The Clore Ballroom – Royal Festival Hall London SE1 1  –  2PM – 7PM   FREE ENTRY

Source: JAZZ RE:FEST 2015 – THE COUNTDOWN

THE BOOK!

SHEN GONG and NEI DAN in DA XUAN is the first book to be published in English by Paris based “urban daoist”, Serge Augier. This “manual for working with mind, emotion and internal energy” is a genuine opportunity for students of The Way to engage with the essential concepts of the rare Daoist tradition that the author has inherited – Ba Men Da Xuan (the Big Secret).

I first discovered Serge Augier in one Alex Kozma’s early books. He came across as a young, intriguing and mystical character, a spiritual adept with a deep knowledge of the Yi Jing, Chinese medicine, Feng Shui and array of devastating martial skills. Serge’s teacher was the lineage holder of the Ba Men Da Xuan tradition and along with being an early disciple of Ziranmen (Natural Boxing) Grandmaster Wan Lai Shang he had  also studied with Wan’s legendary teacher Du Xing Wu and with Zhang Zhao Dong who had skillfully, blended the Fa-Jins of Xing Yi with Ba Gua Zhang. Serge Augier has been practicing since his childhood, likes to share and teach, and has over 35 years experience

It was on the basis of his reputation that, a few years ago, I signed up to do a weekend workshop with Serge in Gloucester. It was held in a cavernous sweaty gym and attracted practitioners from numerous styles. It was very practical and involved a lot of partner work. Serge would only demonstrate on his own students and I suspect they were the only people in the hall capable of taking the blows and strikes which he delivered with an ease that was totally deceptive. I came away from that workshop with little understanding of what the Da Xuan tradition is but felt exhilarated by the experience of the training.  In reality, I was more than a touch dismayed that, despite years of training taijiquan forms (Yang and Chen), there was a serious disconnection. My practical skills were painfully lacking.

I returned to training Chen taijiquan while personally exploring foundation skills and the nei gong practices that connected other arts like xing yi, bagua and yi quan. If you are a regular reader of this on-line journal you’ll know that I do like to read the odd book (ha!) and the publication of  this book – Serge Augier’s Shen Gong and Nei Dan in Da Xuan – was filled with promise as the author declared,

“Be not fooled by nebulous writings.

It should be simple, because this practice has been developed by very practical people.

It should be usable and easy to understand.

You will discover through this tradition, as it is presented here, the infinite possibilities are within your reach.”

It seemed to provide a way to understand the interconnected nature of the Da Xuan tradition. It was clear from the off that the reader was required to go deeper into himself or herself, and the Shen Gong / pure mind training – demands daily practice accumulative practice which is not easy.

“Dissociating the mind means no longer existing the way that the mind has established itself and this implies dying. that is what we fear most and this is why the mind defends itself in so many elaborate ways.”

Serge readily outlines the principles and exercises in the Shen Gong Training that are to be followed if we are achieve happiness by calming the mind. He then progresses to the Nei Dan –  inner alchemy / the way of transformation – aspect of his tradition which focusses on breath and internal energy. He outlines numerous practical  breathing techniques and exercises before  introducing us to The Eighteeen Methods Leading To The Gates Of Madness – a deepening of the practice where one’s work on the mind is based on three stages:  1. Calming the mind 2. Dissociating 3. Uniting. Yes, it’s deep stuff and though it is rooted in ancient meditation practices it’s also what underpins the modern practice of mindfulness.  However, after reading the chapter The Nine Words Of Guidance it was back to Basic principles and Theory – I needed to learn to walk before I can start running.

My initial enthusiastic attempts to follow the manual kept falling by the wayside despite the dire warnings that if you keep taking the kettle off the hear it will never boil. I intuitively felt, “I need to make this journey!” but also felt I needed guidance. I saw from his website that Serge offered distance learning and was seriously considering it when I experienced a most fortunate episode of synchronicity. One day I’d turned up to do some training in my local park and as my regular spot was occupied headed off to an alternative place. Upon arrival there was a guy chatting on his mobile. I just got on with practicing my Chen taiji forms. He finished his call and went through some bagua and xing yi practice. Once he’d finished I immediately introduced myself. It turned out that his name was Darren Rose. He has studied with Serge Augier for 14 years, s a formal disciple and is the Da Xuan school representative in London.

Initially, this encounter presented me with a small dilemma. Having read the chapter on Serge in Alex Kozma’s book Warrior Guards The Mountain I knew the martial practice within the Da Xuan tradition unites Ziranmen with the General Li’s taijiquan,  Zhang Zao Dong’s bagua and Li Cun Yi’s xing yi. I wasn’t sure how this would work for me. I’m no spring chicken – should I be concentrating on my precarious health or fighting or both. Would I have to abandon what I was already practicing? Or maybe I should just be more disciplined? That said, I am a sucker for synchronicity and, in that sense, there was no option but to ask to join his training group.

Darren was openly encouraging of my pursuing both distance learning with Serge and training with him as well. And so, I happily embarked on a new stage of the journey, which is currently focussed on Chapter 13 of the manual and deals with Wai Dan and “how to train the qualities developed through physical training”. For me, martial arts practices are about personal cultivation and by unifying, in a very organised and systematic way, the following five aspects of practice we will deal with the interaction between the Three Treasures of mind, body, and energy.

Wai Gong ( external training)

Nei Gong (internal training)

Nei Dan (inner alchemy)

Shen Gong (mind training)

Xin Yi Dao Yin Fa (emotion training)

Serge Augier maintains we don’t retreat to the mountain. Through practice we build that mountain in our daily lives. As I said earlier, Serge makes no bones about the need to go deeper into oneself and I sense that this book is going to be well thumbed and a valuable reference, consistently referred to, in the years to come.

SERGE AUGIER’S SHEN GONG and NEI DAN in DA XUAN is published by Singing Dragon – https://www.singingdragon.com/

His web site is: http://www.sergeaugier.com/

MAGIC SCIENCE QUARTET meet BLACK TOP @ The Vortex

Henry, Orphy, Marshall by Roger Thomas

Dissappointed at not being unable to reach the I’klektik ArtLab in South London to hear the MAGIC SCIENCE QUARTET conjure up a live score to a vintage silent film that reinterpreted the mythological tale of OEDIPUS I was much relieved to discover that the quartet was to join forces with the ever innovative Black Top duo for a late night benefit session for the Vortex in Dalston.

I arrived in the wake of Christian Muthspiel’s session to find legendary bassists Steve Swallow and Henry Grimes in conversation. A sight in itself. Following a feverish onstage swap over of kit and minimal sound check, 91 year old Marshall Allen, forsaking any formal introductions, stepped up to the mic to hush a room full of cosmic music devotees with a furious flurry of sound that couldn’t have come from any other horn player on the planet.

Marsall was out of the blocks quicker than Usain Bolt leaving his fellow musicians to simply follow in his wake. In his inherited role as skipper of Sun Ra’s Arkestra he is a natural leader and the fellow members of the Magic Science Quartet immediately locked in behind him. Tucked away behind Black Top’s Pat Thomas, who was already bouncing on his seat as he sought out a swirling myriad of sounds from that radical self programmed keyboard of his, was Swiss pianist and ‘spirit drummer’ Ka. Her playing demonstrated both grace and lyrical attack while the bass of the legendary Henry Grimes quietly but confidently shape shifted beneath the drums of Avreeayl Ra.

Henry Grimes by Fabio Lugaro

The art of improvisation lies in listening. Feeding on the powerful dynamics of the ensemble Orphy Robinson delivered cascading waves of sound and stark repetitive grooves on the xylosyth – the triggers and samples that normally characterise a Black Top performance were left for another day. Just when I thought it might just be all over, Henry Grimes laid down his bass but swapped it for a violin. An ethereal and memorable excursion punctuated by bamboo flute, ensued and offered refuge in another musical dimension. The avant garde meshed with the tradition to close the night and Marshall’s response to Grimes’ easy snappin’ bluesy bass lines was, as ever, sonically mesmerising. His right hand fluttered across the keys of his alto, the sound of which simply grew in power.Overall, it was a dazzling demonstration of purely improvised music where science and magic produced a profound and pure energy! The last bus had long gone but I was happy to walk home with the music, as Ornette once said, dancing in my head.

Here’s hoping I’ve the energy & spirit that Marshall Allen’s got when I’m 91!

ROCK AGAINST RACISM – LOVE MUSIC, HATE RACISM: Syd Sheldon’s Photo-Documentary History Lesson

“In collaboration with UK reggae and punk bands, RAR members took on the orthodoxy through five carnivals and some 500 gigs throughout Britain. In those five years, the National Front went from a serious electoral threat into political oblivion.” Syd Sheldon

Paul Simenon – The Clash : RAR Victorian Park

Last night, after watching Mona Chalabi’s ‘Is Britain Racist’ I had to wonder how far we’d come since the rise and demise of the National Front (NF) in the Seventies and early Eighties. The ground rules might have shifted with Islam painted as the enemy within but the relentless issue of immigration guarantees a racist undertow in Britain that is persistently fuelled by fear and topped up by the media, the arrival of UKIP and a complicit Tory government.

It’s therefore timely that ABP has announced the first major exhibition of Syd Shelton’s photographs which capture in Black & White one of the most volatile periods in British post war history. As a Hackney resident, I recall the NF standing at the top of Ridley Road market, where the Mosleyites stood before them, selling their papers. Hoxton was home to the NF and not a safe place if you were Asian or Afro-Caribbean. In 1976 Notting Hill carnival exploded as the youth took on police. They’d had enough of the harassment and ‘SUS’ laws. Punk had created a moral panic across the nation as banning orders prevented them from playing. Out of that came Rock Against Racism (RAR) and between ’76 and ’81, the movement confronted racist ideology in the streets, parks and town halls of Britain.

RAR – Live

RAR was formed by a collective of musicians and political activists to fight fascism and racism through music. They didn’t have an official photographer and it was down to Syd Shelton to produce the largest collection of images on the movement.

“Photography for me has always been an autobiographical tool, a sort of staccato visual diary….I also used my photography during that period as a graphic argument, enabling me to be a subjective witness of the period which could, hopefully, contribute to social change ….”

Under the slogan ‘Love Music Hate Racism’, RAR showcased reggae and punk bands on the same stage. It attracted massive cross cultural audiences like their pivotal festival in Hackney’s Victoria Park. At a time when the NF were gaining support, RAR provide a wave of resistance to street level violence and institutionalised racism.

Sham 69 – RAR Brockwell Park

It was a confrontational era and it didn’t pay to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. One march though Hoxton to Bethnal Green provided one such lesson. It was small, a few hundred people, a lot of whom seem to slating anyone in the area as racist. Not good. As we passed the Birdcage pub at the top of East Road the punters all came out to greet us with Nazi salutes and I was thinking this is going to get worse. And it did. By the time we’d reached to the top of Brick Lane we were flanked by Police and a small army of skinheads. A hard core gathering older NF members hurled threats and abuse from outside the Blade & Bone pub and it was clear that we had to get off this march before it finished. During one moment of confusion we ducked out and circled round to Bethnal Green tube only to catch the mounted police leading a charge against the skinheads who would have been intent on giving any stragglers a good kicking.

There were a lot of battles and few more fierce that The Battle for New Cross in Lewisham in ’77. The NF took a battering that day and Syd’s photo below shows well known Race Today activist Darcus Howe and Mangrove veteran addressing the crowd.

Battle of New Cross , Lewisham ’77

It was about making a stand, making our voices heard, building a movement. They were volatile times. It still surprises me that so few people know realise that every major city in Britain was set alight in 1981. So, in 2015 when all forms of protest are on the verge of being illegal there are lessons to be learned and one major one is how does a movement for social change tap into the culture… our culture! Finally, one wonders where was our current London Mayor, Boris Johnson, on the day of RAR in Victoria Park… maybe he was hanging out with his Bullingdon Club brethren, toasting the rise of Margaret Thatcher and dreaming of water cannons. Lest we forget.

Image above: Leeds – Northern Carnival A=gainst Racism – The Specials rocked it!

Rock Against Racism: The Exhibition is showing at Rivington Place, London EC2A 3BA from 2 October – 5 December 2015. Admission: Free.

Rock Against Racism: The Book is published on 1 October 2015 via Autograph ABP.

Available via: http://www.autograph-abp-shop.co.uk/books/rock-against-racism

Price: £30

More Martial Musings… this time it’s CS Tang’s The Complete Book Of Yi Quan

Yi Quan devotees & Master Wang Xiang Zhai (centre – light coloured gown)

Over the years I have accumulated a repertoire of various internal martial arts forms and practices from a number of teachers and on reflection I don’t think I’m an easy student as I’m always cross-referencing what I’ve learned.

Back in the day, there was no internet so I’d be scrutinising the handful of books that were available and comparing what I was being taught to what was in the books. Nowadays, as this column testifies, we can reference a very diverse and growing mountain of literature along with an array of original Chinese martial arts manuals (check: https://brennantranslation.wordpress.com/). On YouTube there’s amazing footage amid an increasing sea of dross. Maybe there’s too much information and you end up spending all your time on-line or collecting books instead of practicing. Not that long ago Chinese martial arts were shrouded in mystery and it appeared that only few inner door students got the real teachings. Today, there’s a wealth of information available which can clarify why you might feel that the curriculum offered by a teacher – despite respecting him or her – doesn’t offer a path that you intuitively feel you need.

One invests a lot of time, effort and belief in training in internal Chinese martial arts and while I enjoy my practice and continue my journey undeterred it can be frustrating. Not only, do you meet people who’ve trained less time than you but have superior martial skills you can also have periodic doubts about one’s own internal practice. There’s a lot of truth in the saying, “Who feels it knows it”. The history of the internal martial arts in China shows a wealth of exchange between practitioners. It’s how they have evolved and currently having the opportunity to explore the qualities of the three main arts of taijiquan, baguazhang and xingyiquan is an interesting challenge. Maybe, my restless questioning and that elusive search for more depth will finally prove worthwhile.

So, before I go to the park and do some actual practice I want to pen a few words about a new book, a comprehensive guide to Yi Quan, a martial art practice focussed on intent, that I touched on a few years back and became part of my own journey.

Above: Yao Chenrong goes through the postures of Yi Quan… sorry it’s in Chinese… but you get the vibe!

CS Tang’s Yi Quan manual.

At that time, to complement the various Chen and Xing Yi forms I’d learned I was looking into Zhan Zhuang – static standing practices which were conceived to develop power. I had already incorporated into my own Chen practice a set of standing postures taught to Hunyuan Chen taiji master Feng Zhiqiang by Master Hu Yao Zhen – the founder of modern Qi Gong. Through training Wang Shujin’s Xing Yi Quan I had also started practicing his Eight Standing postures. As Wang Shujin had studied with Wang Xiang Zhai – the founder of Yi Quan – it was short step from there to exploring the art itself.

The internet provided easy access. There were texts of Wang Xiang Zhai available to download on-line and and one could view various students of his on YouTube. I was curious and having a little bit of spare dosh back then I treated myself an Xmas present of an on-line training course linked to the sons of Yao Zong Xun – an inner door student of Wang Xiang Zhai.

The comprehensive set of DVDs and the accompanying manual had all the basic routines of of Yi Quan including the Zhan Zhuang postures, Shi Li (test Strength exercises) and Mo Ca Bu (footwork) etc. While Yi Quan has the appearance or a reputation as a stripped back, simplified system of health and self defence that’s not the case. It was immediately clear as started working my way thorough the DVDs that Yi Quan was inevitably, in essence, complex. I liked the visualisations that go with the static and moving postures which are intended to focus intent. The solo movements, punching and footwork – the Fali/emit strength – were all good but in the end you need people to train with and give you those crucial tips and corrections. I believe in hands on corrections. The concepts and methods of Yi Quan are definitely worth taking on board. Wang Xiang Zhai was a modernist and his methodology was a response to the times. Yi Quan was born out of an era post the Boxer Uprising of 1900, when the secret society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists led an rebellion against the spread of Western and Japanese imperialism. By the mid 1920 and 30s there was a lot of necessary exchange between martial arts masters and that included actual combat. Wang Xiang Zhai was undefeated and therefore remains an influential and radical figure at that time.

CS Tang practices Xingyiquan – San Ti

Master CS Tang’s book is clearly a labour of love. Published in conjunction with Swimming Dragon it’s a chunky tome that weighs in at just over 400 pages. It’s thoroughly researched and for anyone interested in the practice of Yi Quan or the internal martial arts potentially very enlightening. The first section of the book – six chapters -is given over to the the history. It details the evolution of Yi Quan through it’s founder Wang Xiang Zhai but also details the influence of Liang Zi Peng who was hugely influential in bringing Yi Quan to Hong Kong. Liang was credited by Bruce Lee as his internal martial arts teacher. This section also sheds light on the author’s own path to Yi Quan.

Master Yao Zong Xun

Part III offers advanced techniques in relation to Big Step and Fist Stances, the Jian Wu (Fist Dance) and weapons before going onto a section on health, “supernatural power” and teaching and gradings. The modest conclusion outlines Four factors that lead to success in Yi Quan along with thoughts on the purpose and the way of learning martial arts. Whether any book is “The Complete…” version of anything but for now this book is the benchmark and I suspect it will become a well-thumbed reference in the years to come.

Above CS Tang talks with Ted Mancuso and Debbie Shayne from the excellent Plum Publications (http://www.plumpub.com/)

Vintage footage of Yao Zongxun, formal successor of Wang Xiangzhai(the creator of Yiquan).

CS Tang’s The Complete Book Of Yi Quan is published by http://www.singingdragon.com