ODED TZUR - The Space Between The Notes
"If a curtain were to be drawn in front of him, no one could tell which instrument was being played” - Hariprasad Chaurasia
After celebrating their 50th anniversay last year, 2020 looked to start off quietly for ECM, but label boss Manfred Eicher had other ideas and as one of the first new releases of the year presented us with Here Be Dragons, the incredible album by Israeli born - New York based saxophonist Oded Tzur.
A natural storyteller, Tzur brings forth an album of startlingly original compositions, and new techniques for the tenor saxophone that allow his music to breathe in a most organic and natural way that is totally refreshing.
The tenor saxophone has been at the forefront of the development of the music for some ninety years from Coleman Hawkins' early efforts to find a fluid voice for the instrument away from the vaudeville effect deployed in the 1920's and early 30'. Along with the ultra cool and hip Lester Young, Ben Webster, Don Byas the tenor was to find its own distinctive voice with each of these giants bringing their own unique persona to the sound of the instrument. Through Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane the tenor was pushed further and further, with advances in technique and false fingerings taking the music into new territory.
The weight of the instrument's history within this ever widening idiom we call jazz, must make it a somewhat daunting task as a saxophonist to find your own voice and context in which it may be best expressed, but that is exactly what Oded Tzur has managed to do. Through extensive study, and hours of painstaking practice Tzur has found a new and personal sound for the tenor saxophone utilising techniques from both the jazz tradition and Indian classical music, coupled with a new and unique phrasing that allows each and every nuance to be clearly heard. "I started playing as a kid and progressed through the usual reed instrument channels to the saxophone", explains Oded . "I completely fell in love with jazz and for years wanted nothing to do with the world but transcribe Dexter Gordon. Lester Young, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and many others were (and are) my heroes, but I also loved other musical styles I was aware of, like Flamenco, European classical music, brass bands from the Balkans, Brazillian music, West African music and so on. The principle of choosing one - only one - to be my point of focus got me in a lot of trouble, because non of them is really my native language. It is - in my opinion at least - the crux of being a 21st century musician, having to decide what your native language is. This process eventually led me to discover Indian classical music, which - although full of its own local ingredients - is very much like a laboratory of sound. In that, it is the perfect tool to try to work with what all music on the planet has in common."
With the discovery of Indian classical music and his extensive studies with bansuri master Hariprasad Chaurasia beginning in 2007 Tzur has been able to introduce and develop new techniques which he calls the Middle Path to enable him to occupy the space between the notes, sliding between them and highlighting the microtones within each. "The technique developed organically at first, simply because I was trying to follow the musical sentences of my (then) teacher, Hariprasad Chaurasia" says Oded. "In the Indian classical tradition, lessons are mostly a call and response type of situation with very little spoken words or explanations. The teacher plays a phrase, the student repeats. So the frustration of having to recreate my teacher's phrases without any of the grace and fluidity they had when he played them on his instrument, led me to try to find various ways to sound more and more like him. This process gradually matured into a more global view of the horn, as something that simply contains possibilities I haven't (or we, as saxophonists haven't) fully discovered yet. I started to work systematically on each tone and investigate how it could slide to its neighboring tones, or even just hint at a neighboring tone by being ever so slightly sharp or flat. In the context of this music, 'ever-so-slightly' is a mountain and a river: there is nothing that is too small to notice. Of course, we do have the sliding tradition of clarinet players, or that of Johnny Hodges, but these tools don't always serve the purposes of Indian classical music because the space between the notes here is a state you want to have absolute control over. It's not an effect - it is the music. So when the time came to start playing full concerts of Indian classical music on the saxophone, I had created this set of techniques that helped me navigate the priorities this music puts on microtones with the saxophone. They are generally different ways to artificially create an end effect - which is an acoustic phenomenon that occurs naturally in the higher end of the horn, where the standing wave departs the saxophone through a few different tone holes rather than just one. With an end effect it's easier to slide since each key affects the sound a little less, proportionally, which is why most saxophonists would agree it's easier to slide on the higher end of the horn. My technique, in a nutshell, attempts to create an end effect in the other registers of the instrument and in so doing enable more pitch fluidity and control."
After celebrating their 50th anniversay last year, 2020 looked to start off quietly for ECM, but label boss Manfred Eicher had other ideas and as one of the first new releases of the year presented us with Here Be Dragons, the incredible album by Israeli born - New York based saxophonist Oded Tzur.
A natural storyteller, Tzur brings forth an album of startlingly original compositions, and new techniques for the tenor saxophone that allow his music to breathe in a most organic and natural way that is totally refreshing.
The tenor saxophone has been at the forefront of the development of the music for some ninety years from Coleman Hawkins' early efforts to find a fluid voice for the instrument away from the vaudeville effect deployed in the 1920's and early 30'. Along with the ultra cool and hip Lester Young, Ben Webster, Don Byas the tenor was to find its own distinctive voice with each of these giants bringing their own unique persona to the sound of the instrument. Through Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane the tenor was pushed further and further, with advances in technique and false fingerings taking the music into new territory.
The weight of the instrument's history within this ever widening idiom we call jazz, must make it a somewhat daunting task as a saxophonist to find your own voice and context in which it may be best expressed, but that is exactly what Oded Tzur has managed to do. Through extensive study, and hours of painstaking practice Tzur has found a new and personal sound for the tenor saxophone utilising techniques from both the jazz tradition and Indian classical music, coupled with a new and unique phrasing that allows each and every nuance to be clearly heard. "I started playing as a kid and progressed through the usual reed instrument channels to the saxophone", explains Oded . "I completely fell in love with jazz and for years wanted nothing to do with the world but transcribe Dexter Gordon. Lester Young, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and many others were (and are) my heroes, but I also loved other musical styles I was aware of, like Flamenco, European classical music, brass bands from the Balkans, Brazillian music, West African music and so on. The principle of choosing one - only one - to be my point of focus got me in a lot of trouble, because non of them is really my native language. It is - in my opinion at least - the crux of being a 21st century musician, having to decide what your native language is. This process eventually led me to discover Indian classical music, which - although full of its own local ingredients - is very much like a laboratory of sound. In that, it is the perfect tool to try to work with what all music on the planet has in common."
With the discovery of Indian classical music and his extensive studies with bansuri master Hariprasad Chaurasia beginning in 2007 Tzur has been able to introduce and develop new techniques which he calls the Middle Path to enable him to occupy the space between the notes, sliding between them and highlighting the microtones within each. "The technique developed organically at first, simply because I was trying to follow the musical sentences of my (then) teacher, Hariprasad Chaurasia" says Oded. "In the Indian classical tradition, lessons are mostly a call and response type of situation with very little spoken words or explanations. The teacher plays a phrase, the student repeats. So the frustration of having to recreate my teacher's phrases without any of the grace and fluidity they had when he played them on his instrument, led me to try to find various ways to sound more and more like him. This process gradually matured into a more global view of the horn, as something that simply contains possibilities I haven't (or we, as saxophonists haven't) fully discovered yet. I started to work systematically on each tone and investigate how it could slide to its neighboring tones, or even just hint at a neighboring tone by being ever so slightly sharp or flat. In the context of this music, 'ever-so-slightly' is a mountain and a river: there is nothing that is too small to notice. Of course, we do have the sliding tradition of clarinet players, or that of Johnny Hodges, but these tools don't always serve the purposes of Indian classical music because the space between the notes here is a state you want to have absolute control over. It's not an effect - it is the music. So when the time came to start playing full concerts of Indian classical music on the saxophone, I had created this set of techniques that helped me navigate the priorities this music puts on microtones with the saxophone. They are generally different ways to artificially create an end effect - which is an acoustic phenomenon that occurs naturally in the higher end of the horn, where the standing wave departs the saxophone through a few different tone holes rather than just one. With an end effect it's easier to slide since each key affects the sound a little less, proportionally, which is why most saxophonists would agree it's easier to slide on the higher end of the horn. My technique, in a nutshell, attempts to create an end effect in the other registers of the instrument and in so doing enable more pitch fluidity and control."
One of the aspects of Here Be Dragons is the quiet and reflective nature of the music. This quietness lends itself to close and attentive listening with the subtle tonal inflections and nuances and use of dynamics becoming an integral part of the narrative of the the compositions. As the saxophonist points out, "Dynamics are certainly something I am very conscious of when working with the quartet. There are certain things I can only do on the very edge of audible sound with my instrument, including the microtonal aspect. But that requires that we all go to that level as a band. More importantly perhaps is the process of telling a story. I don't like to tell a story from the middle, I want to start from the beginning. So dynamics are one of the strongest vehicles, I think, for a band to create that feeling of narrative."
With Here Be Dragons the saxophonist certainly does evoke that feeling of narrative and the album confirms his stature as a natural storyteller. Downbeat described Tzur as 'a vocano on the ocean floor' and the the band have been dubbed as 'The Coltrane Quartet of the 21st Century', but the music on the new album feels is very different from Tzur's two earlierreleases on Enja Records, Translator's Note (2017) and Like a Great River (2015), so I ask Oded how he felt that the music has progressed between recordings? "I personally don't see them as very different, but I think that I composed Here Be Dragons at a time of my life where a lot of things came into place and had a sense of, perhaps, completion. These compositions had more of an atonement to them than previous things I wrote". After a pause he elaborates " I was sitting at home one day trying to define for myself what it is that I'm doing with my compositions. I realized that I'm taking this concept called Raga from Indian music and essentially placing it over a moving bass. This is the foundation of my music, the great experiment: can a raga survive a moving bass. This encapsulation made me realize that this is not at all a new experiment: it is the blues. The blues, if we think about it, has all the elements that define Raga music. Firstly, it is heavily microtonal music, never truly major or minor but constantly moving in between. Secondly, what we call the blues scale is much more than a scale - it's a matrix of melodies that is deeply defined by the relationships between the notes, a strong hierarchy. Finally, the blues is nothing if not distinct: when we hear one phrase of the blues we immediately say - that's the blues. Even people who don't play a musical instrument do that. All of these characteristics: microtonality, relationships and hierarchy between the notes, and a distinct mood or personality, are the very definition of a Raga. The blues is, in my opinion, the most popular and successful raga in the world, even if it's not Indian. This is all to say that when I compose I don't see it as a challenge of incorporating forms from different musical cultures, but rather as a process of working with building blocks I believe are shared by those cultures already, building blocks that are inherently universal."
With Here Be Dragons the saxophonist certainly does evoke that feeling of narrative and the album confirms his stature as a natural storyteller. Downbeat described Tzur as 'a vocano on the ocean floor' and the the band have been dubbed as 'The Coltrane Quartet of the 21st Century', but the music on the new album feels is very different from Tzur's two earlierreleases on Enja Records, Translator's Note (2017) and Like a Great River (2015), so I ask Oded how he felt that the music has progressed between recordings? "I personally don't see them as very different, but I think that I composed Here Be Dragons at a time of my life where a lot of things came into place and had a sense of, perhaps, completion. These compositions had more of an atonement to them than previous things I wrote". After a pause he elaborates " I was sitting at home one day trying to define for myself what it is that I'm doing with my compositions. I realized that I'm taking this concept called Raga from Indian music and essentially placing it over a moving bass. This is the foundation of my music, the great experiment: can a raga survive a moving bass. This encapsulation made me realize that this is not at all a new experiment: it is the blues. The blues, if we think about it, has all the elements that define Raga music. Firstly, it is heavily microtonal music, never truly major or minor but constantly moving in between. Secondly, what we call the blues scale is much more than a scale - it's a matrix of melodies that is deeply defined by the relationships between the notes, a strong hierarchy. Finally, the blues is nothing if not distinct: when we hear one phrase of the blues we immediately say - that's the blues. Even people who don't play a musical instrument do that. All of these characteristics: microtonality, relationships and hierarchy between the notes, and a distinct mood or personality, are the very definition of a Raga. The blues is, in my opinion, the most popular and successful raga in the world, even if it's not Indian. This is all to say that when I compose I don't see it as a challenge of incorporating forms from different musical cultures, but rather as a process of working with building blocks I believe are shared by those cultures already, building blocks that are inherently universal."
Click on the album cover to read our review
In an album that is comprised of superbly crafted original compositions the surprise track of the set is 'Can't Help Falling In Love' so I ask Oded why did he chose to record this tune, and is it difficult to bring the compositions of others into the concept and repertoire of the quartet? " To cement a musical concept or identity, I feel like you need to take it out of your own house. A bit like in meditation, where the challenge is to remain in meditation once you've left the carpet. Taking musical material that is foreign to what we do allows us to highlight that it's really about how we do things, and not just what we do."
With the current pandemic of Covid-19 curtailing touring and performing opportunities around the globe, music perhaps remains a comfort to many and while it is not possible to attend concerts there is wealth of recorded music on all platforms to discover. And for Oded, until things return to a more normal way of life, "I'm composing the music for my next album these days, trying to make the most of this very difficult and unnerving time that we all live in. I hope to be able to record it early next year. "
With the current pandemic of Covid-19 curtailing touring and performing opportunities around the globe, music perhaps remains a comfort to many and while it is not possible to attend concerts there is wealth of recorded music on all platforms to discover. And for Oded, until things return to a more normal way of life, "I'm composing the music for my next album these days, trying to make the most of this very difficult and unnerving time that we all live in. I hope to be able to record it early next year. "
Here Be Dragons is available from the Jazz Views Shop
For more information visit Oded's website and ECM Records
