Venue: Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Velden am Woerthersee / Austria
Concert date: 19.12.2007
Attendance: 70
Ticket price: 27,00€ / 30,00€
The crazy merry December at Bluesiana rolls on! Instead of heading to Old Town Ljubljana for some mulled wine, we’d rather point the car at Velden in Carinthia again. Of course, the difference in travel time between the two can be minimal, especially once you add the hefty pile of minutes you burn every December hunting for a parking spot in central Ljubljana where you won’t risk a wheel clamp, courtesy of treacherous calls to the cops from poodle-loving, thoroughly preserved Ljubljana grannies and grandpas (read: locals).
This time it was a close call. Luckily the gig started an hour and a half late, because we left Ljubljana practically at the moment of its official start, a little before half past seven, in the evening of course. The second we stepped over the threshold of the cozy club, William E. Calhoun and his band Aza kicked off the jazzing and the presentation of Calhoun’s project “Native Lands” (2005).
The Aza quintet is fronted first and foremost by Will Calhoun (drums) – first and foremost notorious as a member of funk metal masters Living Colour. Calhoun is an extraordinary musician and a one-of-a-kind musical shaman who developed a recognizable (all his own) drumming technique and breathed a unique brand of jazz experimentation into it. The man is known for live and studio collaborations with a whole slew of high-flying, big-sounding names in the music business, such as: B.B. King, Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones), Jaco Pastorious (R.I.P., Weather Report), Harry Belafonte, Pharoah Sanders, Jack Dejohnette, Paul Simon, Lou Reed, The Allman Brothers, Lauryn Hill, Marcus Miller, Dr.John, Carly Simon, Herb Alpert, Ron Wood (Rolling Stones), Wayne Shorter (Weather Report saxophonist and Grammy winner for the CD “High Life”), Lauryn Hill and rap noisemakers Run-DMC and Public Enemy.
Up on stage with Will were Antoine Roney (saxophones) – a man of mature years and a seasoned old fox who spent his glory days in bands with Arturo Sandoval, Cindy Blackman and Jacky Terrasson; then there was the fresh recruit with a barely-worn ID number, Corey Wilkes (trumpet, horn), who has already been put through the wringer by legend Herbie Hancock and rap idol Mos Def. Next to him on stage was Corey’s Mos Def buddy, “the pint-sized NBA star Charles Barkley” Mark Kelley (bass guitar), who has played with big names like Greg Osby and Pharoah Sanders. The quintet was rounded out by one of the most respected jazz keyboardists around right now, Orrin Evans, a member of Pharoah Sanders’ touring band and a guy who has played with jazz names like Bobby Watson and Kenny Barron in the past.
Phew… now that the official part of the report is behind me, I can finally treat myself to some writing pleasure. Jazz rowing on oars from outer space. Will took over almost half the stage with his gear and drums, claiming way more than just the right third of it. The other four comrades squeezed into what was left, with bassist Mark Kelley spending most of the show perched on a stool pushed up against the wooden paneling of the club wall. The guys opened with Afro Blue, from the album “Native Lands” (2005), which this very concert in Bluesiana was dedicated to presenting. A stretched-to-the-max tune in which absolutely everyone got a solo, starting with the horn section. Roney was first, clucking out his saxophone solo, and once he’d plodded off the stage, a much more agile burst of trumpet soloing followed. It didn’t take long before Calhoun jumped in, sweating buckets within moments, the stuff pouring off him in streams. By then Evans had warmed up his fingers too, adding a special charm to the freely exploring, lively conversation between the instruments. The tune clocked in at a solid twenty minutes, and it looked like the guys weren’t so much unable to finish as simply unwilling, so tightly were they fused with its groove. During Evans’ solo, Calhoun used the break to mop the sweat off himself with towels delivered to the stage just before the deed by the indestructible boss of Bluesiana, the ever-caring Gudrun. A blend of jazz and world music with brilliant twists of experimental switch-offs, masterfully controlled by the solidly cast Kelley – Calhoun rhythm line with its melodic, funk-flavored touch, it fanned the embers like the wind and made sure that Bluesiana was swept up in a one-of-a-kind musical blaze once again.
An extraordinary touch of unpredictability and spontaneity, followed by a quintet devoted to the general appeal of that “thoughtless” free-spirited approach, of the kind we’ve witnessed quite a few times this concert season in Bluesiana, didn’t go unnoticed for a moment this time either. Calhoun kept pushing his new work “Native Lands” big time, so the quintet went on to tackle the tune Pyramids.
Umoja (“Native Lands”, 2005) was the special number of the night. It was spiced up by a Nigerian drum called the “udu”, which Will carefully laid in his lap like a baby in a cradle, if Martin Krpan’s first fan Fran Levstik could have commented on Will’s act. Will didn’t dawdle, he started patting the miraculous contraption away right off the bat. It didn’t take long before I was swaying along with him to somewhere far, far away in another dimension. The highlight of the night was put in place and carried to its focal point later on, when the whole crew stepped back onto the stage. One of the peaks of the show was definitely caught during the title track of the record, “Native Lands”, when Calhoun stepped to the front of the band again, combining horn-style playing on a “wave” drum using brushed sticks with a melody built up by a “delay loop” he shaped with a Native American flute, and accompanied it all with electronic sampling from the knob-twiddling of a whole host of miraculous gizmos for “freely bending” the energy of sound. The repeating pattern was hypnotic, and once again the tune grew round after round and hit its zenith when the entire quintet struck as one on stage.
That evening, Aza played no more than 7 or 8 tunes in an hour and fifty minutes. They offered a thoroughly distinctive take on jazz. Rooted in the basic framework of classical jazz forms, but whenever the name Calhoun turns up in the lineup, that template simply can’t hold. Calhoun is the building block who dictates how much experimental switch-off gets dosed into the mix. With the allure of world music tradition, fusing it with jazz, electronic sampling flourishes and the creation of an atmosphere that easily carries you into a realm of mental “rapture”, the guys made sure everyone present left Bluesiana with a brand-new experience. Anyone who could follow along into that temporary loss of composure was especially richly rewarded.
In the finale, the quintet fired up the traditionally reserved Austrian crowd, who applauded the band’s closing acts on stage. The fascination with the coordinated flow of solo spots and the hellishly well-oiled rhythmic backing, dictated by Calhoun’s famous drumming, peaked right at the end of the set. Given all the concert mileage the individual Aza members have racked up, it hardly needs saying that the level of tightness and the on-stage chemistry between the musicians was top-notch, achieved practically on sheer routine and the vast experience these players have.
In a warm chat after the show, Will said he’d like to record a live album at Bluesiana Rock Cafe next year, because, as he put it himself, he’s drawn to the exceptional authenticity of the homey, accessible vibe that only Bluesiana has. Let’s hope Will’s plans come true as soon as possible. Once again, the event had just one flaw. Once again, Bluesiana was short on people. Clearly the Austrians are too well fed when it comes to concerts! In the process they’ve of course forgotten to appreciate what they actually have. And that (artificially) covers up the fact that on the north side of the Alps, there’s always enough money to be found for organizing shows by big music names.
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