“It´s a new kind of creative process and alchemy when I bring such different musicians together, listen to the results and then present them online. What joy!” The current possibilites of the internet seem to give Hayden Chisholm wings in his new roll as curator and festival director. His partner, cellist Adrian Brendel, expains more: “It all grew out of the classics, though I was always keen to go beyond the normal boundaries.” For 12 years, Brendel has run a summer music festival in Plush, a small village in the south west of England. There, it’s the music that is always put first, before trends and fads. With the expansion into other genres Chisholm is also now running the proceedings. He invited colleagues from vastly differing musical worlds, musicians that would never engage in stylistic fusion for any superficial reason, but ones “very active” in their fields, dedicated to exploring and testing the limits of their genres from within, and sometimes to even daring enough to collaborate spontaneously with other musicians present at the festival. This kind of concentration is one of the driving principles of the concerts presented on the internet platform “Plushmusic.tv” where the first concerts from Loft were already up for viewing during the festival. The festival began with a homage to Mauricio Kagel. Adrian Brendel, Claudia Aimone-Marsan, and Paolo Alvares interpreted the first two Piano Trios, and Alvares performed “mm51”, which describes the struggle of a pianist with a metronome. The musicians structured Kagel’s subversive marches through musical worlds with piercing intensity. This new amalgam of traditional material was presented in an upmost convincing manner. To close the evening, the pianists Alvares and Nabatov delivered an exuberant session on the two grand pianos of the Loft. Nabatov opened Friday evening with his own adaptions of the compositions of Jazz pianist Herbie Nichols from the 1950’s. He lent the pieces a mature rhythmic and pianistic forming, one which Nichols due to his difficult circumstances could only ever dreamt of attaining. Nabatov thus opened the way for the motto of the second half: “Out of Finity”. The trumpeter Franz Hautzinger and saxophonist Chisholm opened up worlds of aesthetic oplulence with their study of microtonal sounds in an extremely reduced volume, bordering on silence and demanding intent concentration. Bassist Dietmar Fuhr and drummer John Schroeder completed the Quartet. They avoided using amplification and thus went strongly against the trend of the usual jazz scenario in clubs and concert halls. Saturday’s first concert began with cellist Claudio Bohorquez and guitarist Goran Krivokapic, two musicians who belong at the very top of their fields. Gareth Lubbe, solo violist of the Liepzig Gewandthaus Orchertra, then dived into two “first encounters” with pianist Philp Zoubek and percussionist Rhani Krija. Previously unheard Klangwelten filled with prepared pianos, overtone singing, and new techniques for viola, blended wonderfully with the trance rhythms of the Gnawa musician. Chisholm had the final say on the Sunday. Firstly with his trio (bass: Phil Donkin, drums: Jochen Rueckert) under the title “Neo-Cool” which already hints at his intention: linear polyphonic works which do gather their strength form the usual expressive parameters of jazz, but rather from the texture of finely woven lines. The final accent was set by him with a duo with the Portuguese singer Lula Pena. Her invocative alto voice is rightly praised by critics as “the voice of new Fado” The engagement of all the musicians led to an extremely high level of playing, each pushing the limits of their respective métier through to the magical roots of their craft, far removed from any commercial intentions. Chisholm invited musicians whom he knew were prepared for this and he is adamant on maintaining this bench mark at all costs for future festivals. Lastly, Brendel mentions “the magic of the place”: In Plush it is a small country church, in Cologne the third floor of a factory building, the “Loft” of flautist Hans-Martin Mueller where once hats were made. The audience sat closely to the musicians without the separation of a stage. This provided for an immediate communication between musicians and audience which is only possible in such an intimate space without irritating amplification.
We’ve just had a quick straw-poll in the recording booth – and without question, the highlight of the festival (so far) has been Goran Krivokapic’s extraordinary guitar recital, which spanned virtually the entire history of the instrument and refreshed some remarkable nineteenth-century virtuoso pieces.
Another highlight was the food! (Incredibly, Plushmusic founder Adrian Brendel did leave us some…) The dinners, and the building, and everything in it – from the light switches to the magnificent Steinway – is the work of Hans-Martin Müller, a flautist with the WDR Symphony, formerly instructor at the Cologne conservatory, and for 20 years the proprietor, director and prime mobile of the Loft in Cologne. A man, moreover, who never stops moving, as this wholly inadequate shot of him demonstrates…
Another elusive figure has been our producer Matt – usually because he is hunting for that one elusive tape…
There is, alas, only one more set to go – not counting any late-night surprises. Lula Pena is having to put up with my frantic typing as she prepares to sing her exceptional and idiosyncratic brand of fado with the ever-cool (actually, after his recent set, rather hot and bothered!) Hayden Chisholm.
Violist Gareth Lubbe certainly put Philip Zoubek through his paces last night. Their improvisations had Philip – a skilled hand at prepared piano – practically crawling through the machinery of the Loft’s poor put-upon concert Yamaha. Afterwards our producer Matt Jolly took these under-the-lid shots of Philip’s stagecraft.
First of all, I would like to thank the wonderful Plushmusic team which has been so supportive to create the best energy to work creatively, focused and with a healthy sense of humour!
Today, I sit backstage and besides listening to the freshly-made recordings, I am also learning to become a blogger. It is a nice cozy foggy Sunday and am awaiting tonight’s last performances of the Plushmusic Festival.
Wishing everyone a pleasant and calm remaining weekend.
Plushmusic Festival director Hayden Chisholm has just walked in, fresh from a rehearsal with the fado singer Lula Pena, who’s performing at the Loft tonight.
Lula Pena was born in Lisbon and taught herself guitar while listening to pop, rock, soul and jazz as well as traditional Portuguese music. At the age of 22 she moved to Barcelona, playing in many of the city’s jazz clubs. Her first album Phados, released by the Belgian label Carbon 7 in 1998, has her unique versions of Brazilian and Portuguese songs by the likes of Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque and fados made famous by her mentor, Amália Rodrigues.
Lula Pena takes traditional Fado as her starting point, then adds layers through the use of unexpected instruments - vibraphone, udu drum, bongos, qanun, alaúde, bendir…
Tonight’s set kicks off with Hayden on clarinet. And given the number of musicians among tonight’s audience, who knows what exotic combinations will emerge.
Asked what he thinks of bassist Phil Donkin, the jazz drummer Jochen Rückert takes a deep and trembling drag on his cigarette. ‘Phil? Phil is young. Really young He’s got all the fundamentals nailed down: he’s a proper, versatile bass player in the traditional sense. And then he has this whole experimental and progressive side to him that maybe you didn’t suspect at first. That’s about it. He’s new. We’re still finding out who he is.’
Phil Donkin was born in Sunderland in 1980. He took up the electric bass at 12, playing in rock bands until he developed an interest in jazz and moved to London in 1998.
He studied at the Guildhall School, and took up the double bass, studying under the LSO principal Colin Paris. At the same time, he was playing a lot of jazz and developed an interest in Charles Mingus, Dave Holland and Larry Gales, and in rhythmic concepts introduced by the Miles Davis Quintet. He also acknowledges the influence of Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor.
Since 2002, Phil has been busy on the London and UK scene, and has also worked with internationally known artists such as Mike Gibbs, Kirk Lightsey, and Jeff Williams. He is a member of Gwilym Simcock’s various bands and is working on a new project with Gerard Presencer.
We haven’t heard much from our producer Matt Jolly in the last few hours. That’s because he’s been editing this interview with pianist Simon Nabatov, about the lost legacy of Herbie Nichols – a visionary New York composer, overshadowed in his lifetime by his friend and champion Thelonious Monk.
Simon played a blistering set of Nichols’ work on Friday night, inspiring some late-night jamming with Paolo Alvares. Then last night’s set by the Moroccan percussionist Rhani Krija set off another spark: Simon regularly collaborates with a Moroccan singer and late last night bent Rhani’s ear about a possible trio project. If it happens, our cameras will be there.
Jochen’s appearance tonight at the Loft, Cologne is something of a homecoming. Jochen was born near this city in 1975, and started playing drums at age six on carnival parades, following the long processions with his tiny snare drum. In 1995 he moved to Brooklyn, his current home. Early on, he was dubbed ‘Billy the Kid’ by the New York scene for his ambidextrous technique. Jochen has toured extensively in North and South America, Europe and Asia. He has recorded for Blue Note, and become one of the most sought after and imitated European Jazz drummers
Under the alias Wolff-Parkinson-White he programs, remixes and produces, becoming a central figure in the downtown club Nublu with a regular solo show. Of his new trio I Led Three Lives (pictured – Jochen’s on the right) Deli Magazine wrote: ‘Each member has a distinct flair and style all his own, but when they come together the result is an eclectic near-psychedelic form of tech-jazz.’
Here’s a recording from last April of him playing with Hayden and bassist Matt Penman:
I wonder: which Jochen are we getting this evening? The electronica-influenced minimalist, or the six-year old carnival drummer? Either way, I reckon we’re in for a treat.
Tonight, saxophonist and Plushmusic founder Hayden Chisholm presents an eclectic evening of jazz, world and extemporised music.
Hayden’s trio kicks off the event at 8.30pm, with Phil Donkin on bass and Jochen Rückert on drums. The trio’s ‘neo-cool’ tag is a critic’s invention: a way to express their seemless and swinging approach to avant-garde technique. They’ve converted mainstream audiences from Berlin to New York to the merits of microtonality. Now it’s our turn – and for a taste of what to expect, here are Hayden and Jochen playing with bassist Matt Penman:
The second set this evening introduces a bright new talent to Plushmusic: the Portuguese singer Lula Pena, described by one critic as ‘the incarnation of new fado’. Here she is playing at the Cabaret Maxime in Lisbon, November 2007.
