History of Jazztronica (cont'd)

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Drum 'N' Bass

Both Pine and Shipp demonstrate the sympathetic qualities of jazz and drum ‘n’ bass. But Shipp’s work with Spring Heel Jack demonstrates just how freely these styles can mix and influence each other. Spring Heel Jack formed in the late ‘80s, a collaboration between classically trained composer Ashely Wales and pop producer John Coxon. Stylistically, the group was defined as drum ‘n’ bass, though they were not always typical of the genre. Though they used the typical stuttering drum rhythms and kept them chattering away, what they put over the beats was often very abstract, suggesting other worlds and landscapes in a way that other drum ‘n’ bass music did not. This was the duo’s idea of dance music, which often bears the same relationship to mainstream dance music that Miles Davis’s idea of funk did to mainstream funk. On 2000’s Treader they inserted strings, horns, and percussion into the mix, causing some listeners to question what they were doing. The same year saw the release of Disappeared, and now even the chattering drumbeats began to drop out and disappear completely on some tracks. Next they moved into Shipp’s orbit with Masses, on which the free improvisation of musicians such as Shipp, Evan Parker, William Parker, and Tim Berne was supplemented with electronic backgrounds. Once recorded, the improvisations of Shipp and company were again subjected to studio manipulation, resulting in a very different kind of free jazz recording, and one that was worlds away from the jazz/electronica combinations that other artists were attempting. A similar approach was used on 2002’s Amassed, and the result is sometimes what one imagines Miles' Agharta/Pangea group might have sounded like if there were no steady funk beat beneath the group’s improvisations.

Some jazz musicians have decided to reverse the process, recording and playing music that is inspired by the rhythms of drum ‘n’ bass, but without the digital processing. Drummer JoJo Mayer formed the group Nerve in 1998 “interested in the current stream of electronic music styles in DJ culture such as drum n` bass, nu skool breaks, nu-jazz, abstrakt funk, electro break beats etc., while also trying to detect and explore the most recent developments in ‘intelligent’ electronic dance music.” The group was to use live keyboards, bass, and drums, with no loops, sequencers, or other pre -production. Synthesizers and samplers were used, as was audio reconstruction, but it was all done in real time. Mayer refers to the process as “reverse engineering” electronic music, and the description is an apt one. He started a live drum ‘n’ bass jam session known as the Prohibited Beatz Party, and his group is by no means the only one to take the drum ‘n’ bass sound live. Mayer was born in Sweden and came to New York influenced by Miles Davis, even hoping to get a chance to play with the trumpeter. “Miles was never a brilliant technician. People like Dizzy Gillespie were true virtuosos on the trumpet,” he says. “But Miles started the idea of reduction as a concept and really learned to do stuff with space. Then in the late '60s, when he started all of his electronic stuff, and put out Bitches' Brew—he was the first.” Mayer started bringing in MCs as well, to keep audience interest high, which changed the nature of what Nerve was doing somewhat, but he is certainly not alone in his ideas.

French trumpeter Erik Truffaz has also developed a new language in his playing and for his group, a language that is very clearly based on drum ‘n’ bass and a digital aesthetic even though he uses no electronics (other than the occasional electric bass or Fender Rhodes). Truffaz is readily compared to Miles Davis, largely because his trumpet playing is very reminiscent of Davis’s: dry, without vibrato, and somewhat limited in range. Though there are some similarities in the terrain explored by Truffaz and Davis, Erik points out that there are some clear differences as well: “My band doesn’t sound like Agharta or any of Miles’ work. We are...inspired by the moods of our time, different grooves. It’s true that there is a link between my music and the one from the seventies, but I try to look ahead instead of behind.” Truffaz also released an album entitled Revisite (Revisited), which consisted of remixes of tracks from his first two recordings. The remixers included the duo Mobile In Motion, Pierre Audetat, French underground house producer Alex Gopher, Pierre Henry, one of the founding fathers of musique concrete, Norway’s Bugge Wesseltoft, and DJ Goo. While some of Truffaz’s first recordings were very similar to Miles, his 2001 recording Mantis broke the mold, offering a new band and a sound that was very contemporary. The work of drummer Phillipe Garcia retains the link to drum ‘n’ bass, while Michel Benita offers acoustic bass work that dances and plays around the straight-eighth note drum beats. Guitarist Manu Codjia is less Hendrix-inspired than the likes of Mike Stern or John McLaughlin, but when he cuts loose there is little question that at least some of the group’s inspiration is to be found in rock and roll. The group’s name, the Ladyland Quartet, also bears out Trufazz’s contention that he is influenced as much by rock as by jazz (he claims in one interview to have listened to Led Zeppelin more than Miles Davis), and there are hints that his next recording will move into more mainstream rock territory. Truffaz manages to sum up a very interesting truism about the idea of musical fusions: “Every form of music has musicians who are closed and others who are open. I’ve played in hip-hop circles and they’re very closed, although there are always some people open to jazz. With drum’n’bass, you’ll always find someone who says that if it’s not within a given tempo, then it’s not drum’n’bass. That’s human nature.”