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PREVIEW JAZZ ISLAY JAZZ FESTIVAL
Various venues, Islay, Fri 12—Sun 14 Sep
If the idea of a successful jazz festival on Islay once seemed more than a touch outlandish. the actuality has been quite the opposite. The Islay Jazz Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this year with a line-up that typifies the programming policy over that decade.
The formula from the outset has been to bring together the best of the Scottish jazz scene spiced up with a sprinkling of emerging talents from the USA and Europe. then throw them together in a beguiling setting and allow them to get on with creating some memorable musical experiences.
Bass player Mario Caribe has been a constant presence at the festival. and that distinction will be marked with a celebration concert that will feature Mario in various contexts. culminating in a specially assembled 10-piece band.
Visitors from further afield include Swedish pianist Jacob Karlzon. who made a powerful impression in the Scotland-wide Swedish Jazz Festival in 2007. and New York saxophonist Jimmy Greene. Each will be heard in several contexts. including within the same band on Saturday, while Karlzon will link up with Tommy Smith in what should be a fascinating duo on Friday.
The Rosetta Trio and Jen Chapin (the singer-songwriter daughter of Harry Chapin) also hail from New York, while local heroes Colin Steele, Phil Bancroft, Kevin MacKenzie and Tam White will all lead their own bands. If you want last- minute accommodation on Islay that weekend. though. best take a tent . . . (Kenny Mathieson)
The Rosetta Trio
PREVIEW ALTCOUNTRY CALEX CO Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Thu 11 Sep
‘lt’s not what some people have called a return to form, because there are new elements on the record,’ says Joey Burns, singer, songwriter and co-founding member (with percussionist John Convertino) of the idiosyncratic alt.country outfit Calexico. ‘Rather, it’s refining what we do.’
Burns is talking down the phone line from Tucson about the new album, Cam'ed to Dust. Featuring his trademark whispered vocals and Convertino’s hushed brushwork on the skins, familiar twangy surf guitar and mariachi horn arrangements, the new record is certainly in keeping with the sound Calexico made its name with. It’s a return to form in the sense that the previous album, 2006’s Garden Ruin, didn’t sound like the Calexico we know, sounding more folk-rock than Arizona-Mex. Burns and Convertino have fixed that by returning to a more hands-on and at the same time relaxed way of recording.
‘To begin with,’ says Burns, ‘John and I went into the studio and messed around with some rhythm tracks. The technicians asked if we were recording the album yet and we said, “We’re just sort of writing it.” Later, we brought in our regular band and some guests [Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam, Tortoise’s Doug McCombs, Willie Nelson’s harmonica player Mickey Raphael, Canadian chanteuse Pieta Brown among them] and let them have fun playing over the top of those tracks. It was a return to a far more informal arrangement, and I think the result is a record people will recognise but also find something new in.’
Carried to Dust is built around the story of a writer lighting out from LA and travelling around, with tracks such as ‘House of Valparaiso’ inspired by Burns’ trips to Chile. ‘We met some memorable people when we toured in Latin America,’ he says. ‘So when we came to make the record I imagined our hopper heading east on a whim,’ says Burns, ‘and being inspired by what he found on his way. The record is like a traveller’s journal, somewhat introverted, fractured and abstract.’ (Miles Fielder)
PREVIEW CALCULUS METAL MESHUGGAH Garage, Glasgow, Mon 8 Sep
Sometimes the devil is in the detail. but there are also times when the more you explain something. the less sense it makes. In Meshuggah's case both are true. As regards the first notion, their music is arguably among the most complex and sophisticated of its kind. Meshuggah is almost metal by mistake. It is only its heaviness that characterises it as such. In truth, they have as much in common
with techno or jazz musicians than Iron Maiden. The more you listen, the more you find layers of rhythm upon rhythm upon rhythm, folding outwards on itself again and again. It's like an onion. With a Rubik’s cube inside. Set inside a weird computer game. From Sweden. See what I mean? The first point proves the second. The more you try to explain Meshuggah the more confusing it gets. making the name — it means ‘crazy' in Yiddish — seem all the more appropriate.
They started out in the 803. aspirant musicians throwing down Metallica licks for fun. It took four years and several line-up shifts to find their first groove. Since then, they have explored the technical limits of rock. the most apt description being All Music's description of them as “calculus metal'. Theirs is a crunch. a growl. a thud. but also a groove; an enormous slow. deep twang, generated from the battery of drums from the uncomfortably talented Tomas Haake and a team of shredders rifting on eight (yes, count 'em) stringed guitars.
Meshuggah have truly earned the title of pioneers within rock. exploring its outer limits without ever disappearing up its tender nether regions. Accepting the nominal notion that music can go anywhere. you just have to be able to keep up. Meshuggah can keep up. (Mark Robertson)
4—18 Sep 2008 THE LIST 65