ORAN ETKIN - Gathering Light
Motema Records -233833
Oran Etkin (bass clarinet, clarinet, tenor sax) Ben Allison (bass) Curtis Fowlkes (trombone) Lionel Loueke (guitar, vocals) Nasheet Waits (drums). Recorded at the Bunker Studio, Brooklyn NYC. No specific date given.
I’ve been enjoying this recording now for over two months and if I’d got my finger out and reviewed it before Christmas it would certainly appeared in my best of 2014 list. Oran Etkin is a young Israeli born, New York based musician and educator, noted for his work with children, and in this recording he has put together the most perfect synthesis of jazz and world music elements I’ve heard in a long time. In his booklet notes he talks of being inspired by the Kabbalist creation myth in which the conduit whereby divine light enters the world shatters under the strain sending sparks into the darkest areas of existence, the abyss of `godlessness`. The story goes on to say that until these fragments of divine light are gathered up and re- united the world will not be at peace with itself and Etkin draws an analogy between this cosmic quest and the bringing together of the creative sparks inherent in the music of different cultures. Thus, Etkin shows that what seems unlikely to be realised in a metaphysical sense is achievable in musical terms and to demonstrate this notion he has created a set of pieces positively shot through with brilliance, holding out the possibility, to paraphrase Albert Ayler, that music can be a healing power, an agency for co-operation and mutual understanding.
Operating in a trio format with added trombone and electric guitar in five of the twelve pieces, Etkin concentrates on his clarinets picking up his tenor for a sleazy blues work out on the title track and a brief episode elsewhere. Pitting the clarinet against Fowlkes’ gusty trombone counterpoint momentarily brings to mind Jimmy Giuffre’s work with Bob Brookmeyer, but these guys are re-visiting a different sort of traditionalism taking in African, West Indian, Indonesian and Jewish influences, all laced with a good helping of blues and jazz driven momentum. A stand out track is `Gratitude` which displays a rollicking, joyous, New Orleans quality whist incorporating Louke’s primordial, oud –like guitar sound and African vocal refrain with Fowlkes’ growly tailgate trombone, all driven along by some infectious `second line` drumming from master percussionist, Nasheet Waits.
Throughout, the music is rhythmically mobile, replete with references to the dance: similarly it is infected with humour as in a trio of pieces in which Etkin imagines the misadventures of a hapless tourist called Tony who gets into various scrapes with transport and directions. `Tony’s Dance` has him dashing hither and thither to an increasingly agitated Klezmer style tune.
To set alongside these frolics there is plenty of reflective music, some of it very moving, like `Der Gasn Nigin`, a Yiddish lament with Arabic overtones and blues inflections, opening with a sombre `Lonely Woman` bass line and morphing into a slow march tempo. To close the album the trio perform a luminously beautiful rendition of that old classic `When it’s Sleepy Time Down South` in tribute to Louis Armstrong, who first `sparked` Etkin’s interest in jazz.
Instrumentally, Etkin makes a strong case for the bass clarinet’s validity as a jazz instrument and for the return of the clarinet to a more central position: his playing being virile and delicate as the situation demands. Loueke’s guitar sound is powerfully distinctive, at turns fractured and menacing yet exquisitely subtle in a harmonic role, never overplayed or clichéd. Curtis Fowlkes, though he takes few solos provides ballast to the melodic lines often in unison with the clarinet as well as adding a bustling voice to the ensemble passages. Finally, bass and drums provide such virtuosic shifts and turns in the rhythmic patterning that they almost steal the show. Simply brilliant!
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Motema Records -233833
Oran Etkin (bass clarinet, clarinet, tenor sax) Ben Allison (bass) Curtis Fowlkes (trombone) Lionel Loueke (guitar, vocals) Nasheet Waits (drums). Recorded at the Bunker Studio, Brooklyn NYC. No specific date given.
I’ve been enjoying this recording now for over two months and if I’d got my finger out and reviewed it before Christmas it would certainly appeared in my best of 2014 list. Oran Etkin is a young Israeli born, New York based musician and educator, noted for his work with children, and in this recording he has put together the most perfect synthesis of jazz and world music elements I’ve heard in a long time. In his booklet notes he talks of being inspired by the Kabbalist creation myth in which the conduit whereby divine light enters the world shatters under the strain sending sparks into the darkest areas of existence, the abyss of `godlessness`. The story goes on to say that until these fragments of divine light are gathered up and re- united the world will not be at peace with itself and Etkin draws an analogy between this cosmic quest and the bringing together of the creative sparks inherent in the music of different cultures. Thus, Etkin shows that what seems unlikely to be realised in a metaphysical sense is achievable in musical terms and to demonstrate this notion he has created a set of pieces positively shot through with brilliance, holding out the possibility, to paraphrase Albert Ayler, that music can be a healing power, an agency for co-operation and mutual understanding.
Operating in a trio format with added trombone and electric guitar in five of the twelve pieces, Etkin concentrates on his clarinets picking up his tenor for a sleazy blues work out on the title track and a brief episode elsewhere. Pitting the clarinet against Fowlkes’ gusty trombone counterpoint momentarily brings to mind Jimmy Giuffre’s work with Bob Brookmeyer, but these guys are re-visiting a different sort of traditionalism taking in African, West Indian, Indonesian and Jewish influences, all laced with a good helping of blues and jazz driven momentum. A stand out track is `Gratitude` which displays a rollicking, joyous, New Orleans quality whist incorporating Louke’s primordial, oud –like guitar sound and African vocal refrain with Fowlkes’ growly tailgate trombone, all driven along by some infectious `second line` drumming from master percussionist, Nasheet Waits.
Throughout, the music is rhythmically mobile, replete with references to the dance: similarly it is infected with humour as in a trio of pieces in which Etkin imagines the misadventures of a hapless tourist called Tony who gets into various scrapes with transport and directions. `Tony’s Dance` has him dashing hither and thither to an increasingly agitated Klezmer style tune.
To set alongside these frolics there is plenty of reflective music, some of it very moving, like `Der Gasn Nigin`, a Yiddish lament with Arabic overtones and blues inflections, opening with a sombre `Lonely Woman` bass line and morphing into a slow march tempo. To close the album the trio perform a luminously beautiful rendition of that old classic `When it’s Sleepy Time Down South` in tribute to Louis Armstrong, who first `sparked` Etkin’s interest in jazz.
Instrumentally, Etkin makes a strong case for the bass clarinet’s validity as a jazz instrument and for the return of the clarinet to a more central position: his playing being virile and delicate as the situation demands. Loueke’s guitar sound is powerfully distinctive, at turns fractured and menacing yet exquisitely subtle in a harmonic role, never overplayed or clichéd. Curtis Fowlkes, though he takes few solos provides ballast to the melodic lines often in unison with the clarinet as well as adding a bustling voice to the ensemble passages. Finally, bass and drums provide such virtuosic shifts and turns in the rhythmic patterning that they almost steal the show. Simply brilliant!
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
