Alliance for Improvised Music |
JAM BANDS AT THE FREEMAN CENTER
A Knitting Factory Jewish Alternative Movement Tour, featuring Matt Darriau's Paradox Trio and the duo of pianist Uri Caine and trumpeter Frank London will stop here on Thurs, Apr 13. The show is at Duke's Freeman Center for Jewish Life, off Swift Ave, between Campus Dr and the freeway (just a couple blocks from East Campus). You can find a map and driving directions on the web at www.duke.edu/directions/mapsplash.html. Showtime is 8:30, that's 8:30. Tix are $12/$8.
To set the record straight, I must admit I am a novice when it comes to the various strains of "Jewish Alternative Music." What little of it I have heard I find intriguing--Klezmer with its manic virtuosity and irrepressible joyfulness as well as some of the quieter strains of the music that borrow rhythms, textures and flavors from throughout the Middle East and beyond. And where this JAM music intersects with strains of African-American music is, for me, especially intriguing. The popularity of this music has been spearheaded by John Zorn and Don Byron but a number of lesser-known groups make these exotic sounds a more concentrated specialty. Two of these groups, Matt Darriaus' Paradox Trio and Uri Caine's Zohar will be bringing their own special takes on this music to Duke's Freeman Center on April 13.
The Paradox Trio (actually a quartet) focuses on music from Eastern Europe and the Balkans which has a strong Middle Eastern flavor. No mere repeaters of folk songs, they combine Darriau's compositions with more traditional pieces and overlay these with the improvisational openness of jazz. This results in a music that is lively and melds spontaneity with a respect for long-standing and intertwined traditions.
The trio's third CD, Source, reflects some of the wide-ranging influences of their musical world: Turkish music, Turkish standards reinterpreted as Klezmer, Romanian horas, Yiddish theater music, traditional Yemenite tunes, and Sephardic melodies with strong Greek and Turkish overtones. Darriau is the primary composer and wind player and has deep roots in Balkan, Celtic, jazz and Klezmer music. He has written music and performed for Orange Then Blue and the Les Miserables Brass Band. Rhythm is supplied by Seido Salifoski, a virtuosic dumbek player and percussionist. His activities include gigs with Bulgarian clarinettist Ivo Papasov and has a strong musical interest in his own Rom (Gypsy) heritage as well as Turkish, Albanian and Yugoslavian traditions. Brad Shepik has gigged with Dave Douglas and Paul Motian's Electric Bebop Band. He appeared at the Duke coffee house in the group Pachora a couple of years back. He plays a number of fret board instruments--not just guitar, but electric saz and Romanian tambura. Rufus Cappadocia weaves free-ranging and sinuous lines with his self-designed 5-string cello. He started out in classical music but now dwells in the ethnic groove domain.
The Paradox Trio has won prizes in Germany for their debut CD and provided soundtracks for the silent classic films, Un Chien Andalou and Battleship Potemkin. Given their virtuosity, eclecticism and soulfulness, they should provide quite a deep musical experience for the open-eared listener. On its new CD, Keter, Zohar, conceived and propelled by pianist/composer/iconoclast Uri Caine, does for Sephardic music what he did for Mahler's music on his Urlicht/Primal Light CD.
Like the Paradox Trio, Zohar plays very respectfully with the past but it plays nonetheless. At times the music is presented "straight" or nearly so, steeping the listener in a kind of contemplative swirl of sound. At other times, this music is clearly a plastic material pulled and strained to a near breaking point and then dissected and reassembled into interesting new shapes. Caine's concept is kaleidoscopic, spanning driving combo jazz, old Jewish 78's, Moroccan Cantor singing and other strains of Middle Eastern chant. The cuts on the CD are divided into two groups: the first is a mix of traditional chant-like pieces (admirably executed by Moroccan vocalist Aaron Bensoussan) and surging powerful jazz at the tips of Caine's fingers while the other compositions are re-workings, samplings, restructurings of this music by DJ Olive. More than an attempt to "modernize" this music, the DJ stuff welds it indelibly to the present.
Once again, Caine takes a daring approach to a body of music and extracts unexpected depths from it. He grew up in a household where his parents played Middle Eastern and non-Klezmer forms of Jewish music. The entire CD reflects this sensibility by floating the listener in a wash of spiritual emotion, even if the listener is not familiar with this tradition. In other words, the music communicates by directly tapping into the listener's emotions, generating a contemplative groove through a staggering variety of rhythms, tempos and settings.
In addition to Caine, Moroccan-born Bensoussan flavors the group with his cantoring in the Sephardic tradition. His soulful voice provokes and probes but remains meditative throughout. Emmanuel Mann supplies the bass lines, Adam Rogers the guitar, and Gilad the percussion. All these guys have superb chops and are not afraid to put them in the service of this satisfying and absorbing music. They should provide quite a show.
The Freeman Center is located 2 blocks from Duke University's East Campus off Swift Ave. between the Durham Freeway and Campus Drive. Tickets are $14/$8 for Duke students and may be purchased by calling 684-4444. Show time for the April 13 show is 8:30pm.
- Jeff Badgett
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