TOBIAS DELIUS/WILBERT
DEJOODE/DYLAN VAN DER SCHYFF
The Flying Deer
Spool/Line
SPL 119
APA
INI
Apa Ini
Data Records
033
Listening to the archetypal sounds on these two discs involves a certain
bit of ethnomusicology fascination as well as music appreciation.
That's
because the two sessions recorded in Holland are yet more examples of
the universality of improvised music. Both feature British-born, Amsterdam-resident
woodwind player Tobias Delius and veteran Dutch bassist Wilbert de Joode.
Completing the trio on The Flying Deer, is South African-born, Vancouver,
B.C.-raised drummer Dylan van der Schyff. Apa Ini, which means "what's
this?" in Indonesian, finds Delius and de Joode partnered with British-born
trombonist Hilary Jeffery and Senegalese multi-percussionist Serigne Gueye,
both of whom now live in Amsterdam.
Tellingly
enough, notwithstanding the exotic percussion of bugarabu, calabas, djembe
and sawrouba used by Gueye, the sound of the trio is as striking as that
of the quartet.
All
five players are world musicians in the best sense of the word. De Joode,
best known for his membership in clarinetist Ab Baars Trio, is self-taught,
but versatile enough to play in an improvising string quartet and as an
orchestral soloist. Also self-taught, Dakar-born Gueye was playing in
traditional ceremonies when he was seven years old. Yet he since toured
Europe and North America with African pop bands and is now attempting
to link West African musical heritage to improvised jazz. Jeffery is involved
in jazzman's Paul Dunmall Octet and the band Kreepa's electronic improvisations
when he travels to England. Canadian van der Schyff has played with everyone
passing through his hometown, from British saxophonist John Butcher to
American trumpet Dave Douglas. Delius is not only involved with Available
Jelly band whose repertoire ranges from Broadway tunes to African lines,
but has also lived and played in Mexico and Argentina.
As
a matter of fact, the only real jazz-like swing you'll hear on The Flying
Deer is in the final minutes of the very last tune, when the drummer switches
to brushes and the bassist walks. Before that, however, van der Schyff
has been clip-clopping all over his kit, producing a bell-like sound at
one point, the scratch of a drumstick on a ride cymbal at another -- and
there are times you'll swear he's playing a balaphone. Meantime De Joode's
bass tone has moved from bowed, symphonic suggestions to speedy double
stopping. Only Delius, plows ahead in his solos like a proper Edwardian
civil servant n maintaining his colonial decorum in an outpost assignment.
But that respect for the mainstream doesn't stop him from growling out
split tone and producing speech-like reed interjections when he solos.
The
tenorman's foggy, Don Byas-like intonation comes to the fore on the title
track. But its dense moodiness is leavened by a sometimes-wavering tone
and minute, altissimo squeals, particularly when the tune becomes more
rhythmic and De Joode's buzzing strings begin vibrating as if he was playing
a guiro or berimbau. Not to be outdone, van der Schyff bounces his mallets
off the metallic surfaces of his cymbals and the sides of his drums, bends
notes on his drum heads and comes up with wooden echoes as if he had smuggled
a balophone onto the stage of the Zaal 100 club.
If
there's a complaint, it's that sporadically van der Schyff's bell tree,
machine machinegun-like rat-tat-tats and timpani mallets pressure are
a little too upfront in the mix. The recording would have been better
served with a little more balance between the three instruments.
More
seriously, Gueye's solo showcase could have been dispensed with all together,
while APA INI's one ballad suffers from an arrangement that makes it sound
like "'Round Midnight" played by 1950s band with an intrusive
conga drummer. Still, African and Euro-American sounds are better integrated
elsewhere.
"Wooden
Horse," for example, with a whispering beginning conveyed from Delius'
chalumeau register clarinet, soon finds the reedist in a chromatic interchange,
intertwined with Jeffery's grace notes. Add some double-stopping slap
bass from De Joode plus bell-ringing and hand drumming from Gueye, and
you end up with the right instruments for Dixieland, but a tune that would
never be confused with trad jazz. This is especially true when Gueye's
bugarabu and djembe produce a rhythm that could have only been heard in
New Orleans' Conga Square before jazz was born.
Jeffrey's
plunger talents do get a workout on "Parodia Sanguiniflora,"
though he'd never be confused with Big Jim Robinson or Jack Teagarden.
Here he extends the melancholy, muted tones by humming along with them,
then turns his solo rubato. With the drummer clacking his djembe like
a conga drum the 'boneman is so able to prolong his high-pitched wah wahs
that's it's almost as if he's playing a cornet. Content to stay in a deep-toned
Ben Webster mode, save the odd post-Trane slur, Delius picks up the tempo
as he and the trombonist unite and separate as they play their lines.
It
may also be the power of historical suggestion, but despite its title,
"Fusspot" isn't fussy, but a lilting dance tune. The tenor man
forces a buzzing comb-and-tissue-paper tone from his reed. while Jeffrey
vibrates a slurring tone that may come from a Harmon mute. Meanwhile,
the limpid Township jive beat here is more reasonably reminiscent of the
influence South African musicians have had on British and Dutch musicians
over the years, not Delius and De Joode's meeting with van der Schyff
who left South Africa as a child.
Subjects
for joyous listening as well as serious ethnomusicology -- if those ideas
turn you on -- these CDs show the many ways musicians of different nationalities
can combine to produce exceptional sounds.
--
Ken Waxman
Track Listings:
Apa: 1. Zwerfvuil; 2. Parodia Sanguiniflora; 3. Bugar; 4. Wooden Horse;
5. Star Barnacle; 6. Fusspot; 7. Message; 8. Gootsteen; 9. Pok
Track Listing: Deer 1. A Good Idea; 2. Seven Day Itch; 3. The Flying Deer;
4. Bar Flies; 5. Zaal 100
Personnel:
Apa: Hilary Jeffery, trombone; Tobias Delius, tenor saxophone, clarinet;
Wilbert de Joode, bass; Serigne Gueye, bugarabu, calabas, djembe, sawrouba
Personnel:
Tobias Delius, tenor saxophone, clarinet; Wilbert de Joode, bass; Dylan
van der Schyff, drums