I
I
L A V T S E F S E U L B & Z Z A J H G R U B N D E / S D D O D N A R E K
I
MUSIC | Previews Tia Fuller
80 THE LIST 11 Jul–22 Aug 2013
JAZZ/BLUES EDINBURGH JAZZ & BLUES FESTIVAL Various venues, Edinburgh, Thu 18–Sun 28 Jul
Characterised by critic Gary Giddins as bringing the Cotton Club revue to the church, Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts, originally performed in 1965, 1968 and 1975, featured Ellington’s big band, solo singers, a choir, and a tap dancer. This rare revival, featuring pianist Stan Tracey and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra chorus, is sure to be a highlight of the festival, the music as joyous as it is reverent. Tracey, still playing at 86, also performs with his Trio Quartet, augmented by Scottish-born tenor saxophonist Bobby Wellins. Blending the skewed, rhythmic approach of Thelonious Monk with the elegance of Ellington, Tracey is one of British jazz’s greats. One of the more adventurous spirits in mainstream jazz, Tracey has made detours into the avant-garde, most notably through his ongoing partnership with Evan Parker.
Events by Arika and Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra prove that there is an audience for avant-garde jazz in Scotland, but it’s an area that remains under-represented at the country’s jazz festivals. Although Pharaoh Sanders has long since relinquished his role at the vanguard of free jazz, it’s always an honour to witness a true great. As long as you don’t go expecting tthe ecstatic pan-African visions of classics like Karma, Thembi and Black Unity, you’ll find much to enjoy in his soulful, Latin-tinged post-bop.
If all this seems a little too retrospective, there’s no shortage of contemporary voices, from energetic young revivalists like the California Honeydrippers to Beyonce’s saxophone lieutenant Tia Fuller (her own style is more Young Lion bop than ‘Crazy In Love’). The programme also showcases the current Scottish jazz scene with gigs from Brian Kellock, Martin Kershaw, Phil Bancroft, Konrad Wiznievski Quarter and Euan Stevenson’s Vilnius Quartet. (Stewart Smith) ■ To win tickets to the EJ&B Festival, see page 87.
ARENA RAP EMINEM Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, Tue 20 Aug
’Got an Oscar but I’m still a grouch, I use it as a doorstop,’ says Marshall Mathers on ‘Symphony in H’, the opening track on his as-yet-untitled upcoming eighth studio album. It’s a typical Eminem song, built around a weird, brain-gnawing beat with a rap that is clear, sharp and as confessional as ever. It’s also littered with drug references, which should come as no surprise from a guy who had a years-long painkiller addiction. It’s heavy content and exactly what we’d expect from Mathers, a man whose trials and
neuroses are key to his appeal as an artist, as is his ability to craft a skilfully-delivered ‘up yours’ response to the world at large by way of his lyrics. The question is whether the world really needs more words from Mathers, who smashed through to success by documenting his troubled upbringing, fractured first relationship and concerns for a young daughter being born into this lifestyle. So how does a guy who’s sold more than a hundred million records, and whose biggest controversies now revolve around who’s going to sue him next, stay in touch with the fans? He certa inly seems to have no trouble retaining their attention, with this huge Glasgow Summer Sessions date having sold out already, but the sneaking suspicion is that the follow-up to 2010’s Recovery will see him no longer a man who’s been shaped by his times, but rather one who has conquered them – which may fill playing fields, but might not help ward off creative inertia. We wait to be astounded. (David Pollock)
EXPERIMENTAL ROCK AKRON/FAMILY Broadcast, Glasgow, Sun 21 Jul
’A thick, purple, perfumed mist spreads out across the cracked desert floor as the raider AKs ride forth on bloodied white stallions’ writes Swans’ Michael Gira of Akron/Family’s former label Young God Records, in a blurb for the band’s latest album Sub Verses. ‘A conflation of orchestrated jazz, prog psych, R&B and devotional mantras. Their hermetic hero guitars serve the master sky.’ Nope, we’ve got no idea what he’s on about either. But Gira’s bouquet of flowery prose (and
there’s much more where that came from) does somehow capture the unquantifiable majesty of a troupe of musicians vastly spread-to-the-winds not just geographically (Portland, Tucson and New York), but stylistically too. Akron/Family could practically be a different band every day of the week if they wanted to – none of them easy to define in mere earthly words. After their self-titled 2005 debut placed firmly in the then-emerging US freak-folk camp, their route then pointed towards rustic psychedelia – think a pared-down Fleet Foxes several years ahead of their time. But if you haven’t checked in on Akron/Family since then, try giving Sub Verses a spin and marvel at just how far off that trajectory they’ve travelled – into the outer space of Black Mountain-style sludgy, hard-rock riffage, woven with heavenly harmonies and huge, transcendent slabs of dense, dark noise. Quite what that’ll all add up to as a live experience is hard to say. We predict only that unpredictability shall reign, as these bloodied guitar heroes serve their perfumed purple horse masters in the misty desert sky. Or something. (Malcolm Jack)