Glasgow Jazz Festiva
SOUL
ISAACIHWES
Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow, Sat 29 Jun
‘Who’s buying this shit?’ asked the NME. ‘Hayes is a monstrous shuck. His nightclub schmaltz . . . is probably selling to airline stewardesses all over the States.’
Nothing hurt the white boy soul puritans more than commercial success. And in the early 70$, Isaac Hayes was selling like hot buttered soul cakes. The Black Moses album was released the same year as ‘Theme from Shaft’ and his star was so far in the ascent he could have worn Orion’s Belt and tweaked the Great Bear’s nose.
Who’s the man? Shaft. Damn right!
Ike took his grandmother to the Oscars ceremony in 72 and picked up the Academy Award for Best Score for Shaft. ‘Just one of those things in history that you did the right thing at the right time,’ he said later.
Leap forward a quarter century and Hayes is once more a constellation-teaser. As voice and inspiration behind South Park’s libidinous Chef, he’s wowed a new generation of fans, even enjoying a number one single with the ridiculous ‘Chocolate Salty Balls’.
‘l was excited, because I thought it was a Disney thing . . . I worked years to achieve artistic excellence and then all of a sudden I get involved in this stupid, crazy, insane cartoon, and now I’m hotter than I’ve ever been. I love it.’
Mmmmmm, baby!
Last year Hayes was inducted into the rock’n’roll hall of fame. Which is probably not as painful as it sounds. His fellow inductees included Brenda Lee, Gene Pitney and the Ramones. Imagine the party . . .
Sixty this year, Ike flits between gigs much as he did
From Shaft to Chef In one hot nlght
in the 605 as a producer, composer, arranger and artist at the legendary Stax label. When not awakening New Yorker listeners to KISS FM with his sonorous tones, 2002 finds Hayes a Scientologist, a campaigner for literacy, and even a king in Ghana where he has been bestowed the title of Nene Katey Ocansey I.
But jump back again 35 years and last words go to Memphis writer Stanley Booth: ‘Standing in the lobby is a tall young Negro man with a shaved head and full beard. He is wearing a Russian-style cap, a white pullover with green stripes, bright green pants, black nylon see-through socks with green ribs, and shiny green lizard shoes. In a paper sack he is carrying a few yards of imitation zebra material, which he intends to have made into a suit, to be worn with a white mohair overcoat. His name is Isaac Hayes.’
Damn right. (Rodger Evans)
JAZZ’HOUSE (STGERNUUN 8500, Glasgow, Fri 28 Jun
Maglcal machlno muslc
Reader. meet St Germain. Seem familiar? That's no surprise. They have the dubious honour of being part of that gang of artists and producers who continually produce the most distinctive tracks around without ever
accruing the popular, overground Credit the deserve. Their tunes are played Out in bars and clubs world- wide. their fusion of traditional jazz. influences. tribal elements and cutting edge house is the key to a good atmosphere in a room full of people who've never met. and above all. they are the band who make you want to ask the DJ ‘what's that tune?'. Ludowc Navarre is the man behind the invisible empire. and it's no overstatement to say that. without Navarre. French electronic music w0uld be without one of its prime movers. Without him, Daft Punk, Air and Dimitri From Paris would still be playing at parties out in suburbia. Like all visionaries. Navarre is allergic to stagnation. Growing up to the sound of Bob Marley. Toots and the Maytals. as well as Miles Davis and Kool and the Gang. he was inculcated from early on with the idea tnat bucking the trend was the mainline to genius. Starting out as an occasional party DJ. Navarre was attracted to the
energy of real house and techno. but today he finds that the authentic goodness of these genres is harder to discern in a world where dance music is the mainstream and everyone purports to be the real deal. Thus there's only really four recognisably dance tracks on the new album The Tourist (released on legendary jazz label Blue Note). and why St Germain are appearing not in a sweaty inner city club. but at the SECC as part of the widely respected Glasgow Jazz Fesnval
The new album comes after a hiatus of five years. and this self-imposed musical exile came about as a result of Navarre‘s sense of disillusionment with his art. and a desire to rediscover the essence of what he does. 'I felt I'd got it all wrong: house music played by a white guy. There will only be four purely house tracks on the new album. The whole record will be a continuation of my work. with machines and musicians. live and sampled somds.‘ (Johnny Regan)
ROYAL. BANK I x.
_ GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL
JAZZ MCCOYTYNER AND EKNHMIHUTCHERSON
QUARTET Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow,
Sun 7 Jul
Those looking for some hard jazz action amid the crossover attractions of this year's jazz festival programme will already be making a note of this stellar collaboration between pianist McCoy Tyner and vibes maestro Bobby Hutcherson. These two great veterans are both products of one of the most excning periods in jazz histOry. the 603A time when hard bop and modal jazz turned into something much more open and experimental. and in several different directions. With the great bands of the era led by Ornette Coleman. John Coltrane and Miles Davis in the vanguard. Tyner was centrally involved in the classic Coltrane Quartet. while Hutcherson's 30 or so albums for Blue Note remain among the greatest creations of that era. This is not the first time they have worked together. but it is their first visit to Scotland with this band. Both men recorded for Alfred Lion at Blue Note Records in
McCoy Tyner
the 60s and 70s and Hutcherson recalls the ferment of that period.
'Alfred was always looking for something new.‘ he says. "He was looking for fresh ideas: for a certain thing that he enjoyed. Because of that the muse continues to scund fresh. There's a lot of those albums. if yOu were to play them right now. they'd sound like there's no date on them.‘
The music the pair play now may be less daring in some respects than in their 608 heyday. but they are both consummate artists with something to say in their work, and call on a priceless legacy of both life and muSical experience in their playing. (Kenny Mathieseni
44 THE LIST 2O Jun—4 Jul 2002