Music
PREVIEW JAZZ JAN GARBAREK & TRILOK GURTU Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Wed 27 Jan; City Halls, Glasgow, Thu 28 Jan
Saxophonist Jan Garbarek’s long- standing influence from Norwegian folk music picks up on an equally well-established strand in the Celtic Connections programme, but there will be a much more broad-ranging musical canvas explored in the two concerts in which he is involved. Garbarek leads his own group in
the second of these, with special guest Trilok Gurtu replacing drummer Manu Katché, alongside the perennial Rainer Brüninghaus on piano and more recent recruit Yuri Daniel on bass. They play with energy and fluid interaction that generally brings out the best in a saxophonist who has long since established his distinctive musical signature. Garbarek has collaborated with
Trilok Gurtu often in the past, both live and on record, and the saxophonist will also feature as a special guest in the percussionist’s own headline concert the previous evening, along with Indian singer Shankar Mahadevan (on a bill that also includes the award-winning Lau). Although initially steeped in classical
Indian traditions, Gurtu has strong convictions that music is about reaching out to people rather than toeing the line on genre conventions, and his own music is liable to venture just about anywhere. It promises to be a fascinating pair of concerts from two musicians who come from very different musical and geographical backgrounds, but who have made major impacts on the contemporary jazz scene – and well beyond – over the last four decades. (Kenny Mathieson)
PREVIEW AVANT-GARDE PUNK THE EX & BRASS UNBOUND CCA, Glasgow, Sat 30 Jan
In their 30 year existence, Dutch underground legends The Ex have made connections between post-punk, Eastern European folk, free-improvisation and Ethiopian jazz, yet they’re still widely referred to as anarcho-punks. A misrepresentation? ‘Yes – in a word!’ laughs guitarist Andy Moor, ‘A lot of people who might actually like The Ex might think, oh, this is just a bunch of guys with Mohican haircuts and leather jackets screaming, “Oi!”. And that’s a shame.’
So what is it? ‘I don’t know what it is. It’s something that has evolved over so many years that it’s our own sound. The influence is from so many places, from African music, to dubstep, Hungarian music.’
If there’s a key to Ex-music, it’s in the eschewing of conventional rock attack for something more open, a high-energy trance music that recalls the rolling grooves of Fela Kuti and the mesmeric rhythms of Can. The jagged, scratchy guitar interplay gives it that punky edge, while leaving plenty of space for vocalists and
collaborators to add colour. And what collaborators! From avant-garde cellist Tom Cora, to members of Tortoise and Sonic Youth, The Ex’s list of guests is testament to their questing spirit. Recently, they have established strong connections with Ethiopia, touring the country and recording the glorious Moa Anbessa album with the great saxophonist Getachew Mekuria. For their first Scottish gig since 2003, The Ex will be
augmented by Brass Unbound, an incredible horn section that teams saxophonists Matts Gustaffson (whose trio The Thing recently covered The Ex) and Ken Vandermark with trumpeter Roy Paci and trombonist Walter Wierbos. The idea of The Ex’s joyous noise combined with free jazz is truly mind-blowing. ‘We chose players we thought could deal with our
volume, that have a hard, loud sound themselves, and are also very, very creative and free as players,’ Moor explains. ‘There are going to be songs and it should also be music that you can dance to, with riffs and choruses. Then in the middle of that we’re gonna have improvisation bits.’ Politically aware, independent and musically open,
The Ex are an inspiration. Unmissable. (Stewart Smith)
PREVIEW CELTIC CONNECTIONS BEARFOOT Oran Mor, Glasgow, Sun 24 Jan
Glasgow can be a cold place in January, but one band unfazed by icy temperatures is Alaska’s Bearfoot. The bluegrass quintet grew up with the music (all their parents played American roots music) and have gone from young local heroes to US festival touring pros (and ‘Telluride Bluegrass Band Champions’, like the Dixie Chicks and Nickel Creek) in just a few years. Fiddler Angela Oudean talked to The List from the band’s new bus, heading from New Jersey to Connecticut. ‘We’re on a two month tour’ she laughs, ‘and travel is our way of life, but we’ve now got leg room. It’s luxury.’
It’s all down to their new Californian songwriter/fiddler Odessa Jorgensen, a
delicious, vocal harmony-filled new album, Doors and Windows on Compass (banjo star Alison Brown’s Nashville label) and a great booking agent. ‘In fact,’ says Oudean, we struggled to squeeze Celtic Connections into the schedule. We fly straight from Glasgow to a gig next night in North Carolina!’ OK, all but one member are now based in the contiguous US, but will the band
pass a check by the Bluegrass Police? ‘I don’t know that it really matters about living in Alaska,’ says Oudean. ‘There was no banjo player our age when we came together in Alaska, but people still call it bluegrass because of Jason’s mandolin.’ Whatever you call it, Bearfoot’s music is the hottest, sunniest sound to radiate from
the Snow State since the end of the Bering Land Bridge. (Norman Chalmers)
64 THE LIST 21 Jan–4 Feb 2010