MUSIC preview
Make Up Edinburgh: The Venue, Fri 19 Nov.
Make Up are. without doubt, one of the best live bands you will ever see. They play a form of raw funk, with sleazy organ licks and loose- but-tight JB's style drumming. What makes Make Up great, however, is the fact that political goals are as responsible for their 'gospel yeh- yeh' sound as any admiration the group have for artists like James Brown.
'Make Up have always been inspired by the desire to invert the consumer/producer paradigm in music,’ explains frontman Ian Svevonius. ‘To do this we appropriated certain aspects of gospel culture - mainly the idea of exaltation as opposed to the blues paradigm of macho aloneness.’ This desire to work outside the standard rock ‘n' roll milieu is not just a means of involving the audience in the means of music production; instead Make Up are reacting against decades of capitalist consumer culture: 'What you have to realise is that when rock 'n' roll was injected into world culture in the mid-SOs. America was trying to rebuild Europe in its own image. They wanted to inculcate American capitalist ideals in the world population, and they did this via massive financing with the Marshall Plan and by promoting cultural forms - jazz, abstract expressionism, rock ’n' roll. And the C.I.A. had specific criteria for these forms; they had to be about the individual, pro-capitalist and inarticulate, with apolitical ideas implied through posturing and coolness. Gospel is the opposite of that.’
Whether or not you agree with this paranoia-stained Marxist interpretation of recent cultural history, the fact remains that 905pel yeh-yeh in action takes over a crowd like a snake-handling Southern preacher. There is one obvious difference, however: a Make Up gig is not an act of worship. It's more like politics for the spinal
It's ammunition: Make Up
cord, with each call to shout 'Yeah!’ and every voodoo funk note imbued with the Make Up philosophy. The only downside is, sadly, that every live performance you see after testifying with Make Up is just a hollow promotional exercise designed to propogate that old producer/consumer paradigm. (Jack Mottram)
Setting sonic standards: Jan Garbarek
44 THE LIST 18 Nov—2 Dec 1999
JAZZ PREVIEW ECM Weekend
Edinburgh: Queen’s Hall, Fri 19 Nov; Glasgow: McLellan Galleries, Sat 20 and Sun 21 Nov.
It all began with a sound in Manfred Eicher's head. A bass player involved in jazz and classical music, his experiences as a production assistant on classical recordings inspired him to try to apply similarly exacting standards to jazz when he launched ECM Records in November 1969.
Thirty years on, ECM has recorded several of the biggest names in American jazz, including Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and Pat Metheny. It has all but defined a lasting European jazz aesthetic in the work of Jan Garbarek, John Surman, Tomasz Stanko, and others. It has pioneered adventurous world music collaborations and built up an equally impressive catalogue of new composed music from Europe and America.
Eicher has achieved all of this without compromising his artistic or production values (ECM’s sonic standards are
legendary). The label has had its odd big success — Jarrett’s The Ko/n Concert (1975) has sold over 4 million, while Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble’s Officium is a more recent million seller - but they have been achieved within Eicher’s musical philosophy.
’I want to do music which seems necessary, and which will not be done by bigger companies,‘ he insists. 'If you work as intensively and as independently as I do, then you can only do what makes you feel right. You follow a certain kind of musical argument, and try to achieve it. It doesn't always succeed as I wish, but I feel that together with the musicians we have found our own direction.‘
The ECM 30th anniversary will be marked by a major festival in Brighton all this month, but Assembly Direct and the CCA are also celebrating with a weekend of concerts. It begins with Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow (the ECM connection) in Edinburgh, followed by solo concerts featuring Eberhard Weber and John Surman in Glasgow. (Kenny Mathieson)
Personal Stereo
This issue: Fans of thoughtful fem- fronted folky rock weary of Mom'ssette histrionics need to discover McCabe. Meet singer Jenny Jones and keyboardist Matt Booth.
Name an album that's an unrecognised classic
J: The Lemonheads It’s A Shame About Ray
M: Michael Nyman's soundtrack to The Draughtsman’s Contract
Which artist or record first made you want to make music?
J: 'Who's Sorry Now?’ by Connie Francis
M: ’lt's Too Late’ by Carole King
Name a song you wish you'd written? J: ‘Fast Car’ by Tracy Chapman
M: 'The Whole Of The Moon’ by The Waterboys
Who was the first pop star you had a crush on?
J: Adam Ant
M: Debbie Harry
What song makes you cry?
J: I don't really cry at songs, but ’The Town I Live In’ by Paddy Reilly makes me emotional
M: REM 'Nightswimming’
Name a gig that changed your life
J: Oasis at Earl’s Court, when l was sixteen years old
M: Our first gig at The Alleycat, Reading
Name a non-musical influence on your music
J: Human relationships
M: Sleep deprivation
Who would be on your dream Top of the Pops?
The Rolling Stones, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Elvis, James Taylor, Dame Vera Lynn
What do you play as an aid to seduction?
J: KD Lang, Ingenue
M: Jason Rebello
What do you sing in the shower?
J: Our own stuff
M: Nothing anyone would recognise as musrc
What was the last single you bought? J: I don't buy singles
M: The Only Way Is Up by Yazz
What was the last album you bought?
J: The Bond Themes Collection
M: The Best Of David Bowie '69—'74 Name a band or artist who has influenced you
J: Joni Mitchell
M: Dave Stewart
I McCabe’s EP ’Fetish’ is out now. An album follows in the New Year. They play Glasgow: King Tut’s, Sat 27 Nov and Edinburgh: Heriot-Watt University Sun 28 Nov.
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