Musical Ramblings

Bob Brozman - Blues Reflex

It’s been a while since I last purchased a blues record, so I thought I’d let you know of my feelings on Bob Brozman’s latest solo release Blues Reflex. First of all, although this is mostly a solo record (there are three tracks with drums as well as Bob’s guitars) it’s not the equivalent of a live solo performance in the sense that Bob sometimes uses several guitar layers to emulate a rhythm + lead combo. It is mostly constituted of vocal tracks although there are a few instrumentals.

I’ve enjoyed Bob Brozman's music ever since I discovered him on an obscure French TV channel eight years ago. It was a filmed solo live performance, and it totally blew my mind: his musicianship, humour and iconoclastic approach to music immediately appealed to me. Although I own most of his studio records, I have to say that few of them hold up to the appeal he has live, and although I do find a few gems in each of these albums, on the whole I find them repetitive and often a little too showy.

In recent years, Bob Brozman’s output has been mostly with guests from all around the world, and on these records he often sounds more subdued and very respectful of the musical traditions and baggage of his guests. Among these is my favourite of all his recordings, oddly enough a fully instrumental album recorded with fellow guitarist and lover of early guitaristic traditions Woody Mann. That record, Get Together, is a marvel of musicality, a collaboration in which Brozman’s amazing technique is fully and wholeheartedly dedicated to the music and showmanship is absolutely absent.

Although I wouldn’t say that Blues Reflex is quite at the same level, it’s a pleasant surprise on the whole. Of course, don’t let the title of the record fool you, Brozman has never, at least in recent years, released a record that sounds like that good old blues people used to play sitting on their back porch. He’s too much of a deconstructionist for that, but that’s one of the reasons I love his music. Blues Reflex, however, is more sober and has more consistency than Bob’s earlier albums, and the relative bareness of the music brings the more subtle aspects of his playing forward in a way I had not heard previously except on the wonderful track Down the Road from Devil’s Slide.

The best tracks are those where Brozman only plays one guitar. Rattlesnake Blues, the second piece is, in that respect, quite amazing. It’s heavily syncopated with alternating bass and lead notes, and quirky enough that Bob’s wildly gruff vocals don’t clash with the music. There are interesting rhythmic breaks and the sharp variations in intensity that Brozman so efficiently uses live. This sharpness is less tangible on some of the tracks where Bob plays rhythm and overdubs the lead, the rhythm is often a little too complex and atypical not to be intrusive. It strongly diminishes the efficiency of Dead Cat on the Line, for example, the track which opens the record. 

One of the usual limits of Brozman’s solo work is that he has trouble evoking a mood other than exhilaration. He’s amazing at projecting that particular emotion, and all his technique, from the flurry of notes to the neo-Hawaiian high-pitched slides to the sudden rhythmic breaks and changes seems geared in that direction. However, when it comes to suggesting a subtler melancholy, or even downright sadness, these combinations of quirky shifts rarely help. Furthermore, Brozman’s voice, while accurate, isn’t exactly emotional. On the whole, Blues Reflex is no exception, and you shouldn’t expect to be moved to tears or driven towards melancholy listening to this record. That being said, Blues Reflex is probably the most sober of Bob’s solo records, and some tracks are a lot more subdued than what he has accustomed his listeners to. Instrumentals like It’s Mercy we Need and even vocal tracks like Death Come Creepin’ and are actually quite sombre.

Despite these limitations, Blues Reflex is a very enjoyable record with a great sound and an overall joyous mood that may offend those who believe the original material covered here should be played as intended but will dazzle and please those who have no such qualms. It’s more focused and a little more sober than most of his earlier stuff, and while not perfect, if it’s an indication of the directions Bob Brozman is steering towards, it’s also a great omen of things to come.

Purchase Blues Reflex from Amazon.com

Hazmat Modine : Bahamut

I first heard about multi-instrumentalist Wade Schuman’s Hazmat Modine through the harmonica community. Wade and I corresponded on an irregular basis, and I even got a demo of his a few years back. The sound quality was kinda painful, but the music behind the hiss seemed intriguing enough to make me await with some eagerness a genuine Hazmat Modine album. That album is Bahamut, released a few weeks back.

Saying that it’s hard to define a musical genre for Bahamut would be a grave understatement. In fact that is, to me, one of it’s endearing qualities. Bahamut is a world music album in the best sense of the word: it draws inspiration from varied musical traditions around the world and blends them in a coherent and unique sound.

The opening track Yesterday Morning is characterised by a laid back reggae beat, but the backing horns give it a New Orleans feel, and the dual harmonicas of Wade and Randy Weinstein spice up the mix with a definite blues flavour. It calls me, which follows it, is underpinned by a delta slide guitar texture, but the combination of Wade’s falsetto, the soft bass of the tuba and the droning tuvan throat singing and instruments give it a definite far-eastern flavour. I could go on, nearly every track on the record features such mixtures, with touches of klezmer, New Orleans jazz, delta and Chicago blues, Hawaiian, Mongolian and others I probably don’t identify.

Obviously, the fact that nearly every song features Wade’s vocals, singing in English makes this blend a lot more accessible than it might be otherwise, and definitely anchors the whole thing in the tradition of American music. I’m no ethnomusicologist, but I’m tempted to believe that the fact that Hazmat Modine heads from New York may be no coincidence: if there’s any evidence of the melting pot in action, so to speak, it’s New York.

Wade’s writing draws on blues figures and turns of phrases a lot, but it has nice poetic slant to it. There’s even a beautifully bizarre cosmological poem in the middle of the album's title song. All but three of the tracks on the record are self-penned, and Wade’s gruff barytone vocals deliver an earthy, unsophisticated, quality to the songs. At times, his voice and approach reminded me of a somewhat less wacky Bob Brozman.

The breadth and variety of instrumentation and arrangements in Bahamut is astounding: to the core tuba, acoustic guitar(s), drums, horns and diatonic and chromatic harmonicas, the album adds the occasional contrabass sax, tuvan chant and strings, cimbalom, claviola and several other more unusual musical devices. All musicians are good in their own right but the nice thing here is that it’s an ensemble work. No one is pulling the rug to himself.

Often, when such ensemble work is required, it sounds less spontaneous. Getting so many instruments, and odd ones at that, to work together is tricky work. Perhaps Hazmat Modine's most endearing quality  is the fact that their recorded music does not sound clean. It’s raw, straight out of the oven. There’s no second thoughts, no rerecords (or at least you don’t hear them). And this spontaneity is what makes the exuberance of the musical mix work. When I listen to Bahamut, I don’t want to analyse it, I want to tap my feet and join the fun.

Finally, a quick word on the harmonica itself. When Wade sent me Bahamut, he expressed concern that it wasn’t much of a harmonica record. Not only is this not a drawback as far as I’m concerned, but there’s plenty of harmonica to listen to, for who has ears. Furthermore, both diatonic and chromatic harmonica are used more as backing, rhythm or horn instruments than a solo instruments, which is refreshing. Randy’s chromatic work is particularly impressive in the way he supports the harmonies. Who walks in when I walk out is a striking example of that (and features a damn fine solo too).

Wade’s diatonic style is much closer to the blues idiom and, in fact, if I had one reservation about Bahamut it’d be that Wade’s soloing often remains boxed inside this blues vocabulary even when a more varied approach would, in my opinion, be more appropriate to the genre. From what I hear, Wade has the technique to push the envelope a lot further, it’s just a matter of switching languages…

It’s a minor gripe though. Bahamut is a truly enjoyable album. It’s got none of the stifled precision of many modern recordings, the fun and spontaneity really shine through. It’s also very accessible, and close enough to our own cultural roots that the round the world trip it requires of us is easily done. Now all I need to work out is how to get Hazmat Modine over to France for a live experience !

Purchase Bahamut from the Hazmat Modine website !

Olivier Ker-Ourio has a new website

French chromatic jazz player Olivier Ker-Ourio has a new website at http://www.kerourio.com/. There's lots of flash, so the loading is occasionally slow, but there's a whole wealth of information and music there. Not only can you listen to full streaming version of 18 tracks of his (from his 5 studio albums), you can also access sheet music in PDF format for 15 of his compositions, there's even a video of one of my favourite songs from his album Somminkér, "La Météo".

When opportunity knocks...

These past few months have been taxing on the morale front, what with financial issues as well as lots of work and non-work related stress. It's part of the reason I don't update so often. The other part is laziness of course, nothing new there.

This past week however, two things reminded me that all the energy I put in the past in harp as a hobby wasn't for nothing. Let me tell you about it, it's kind of funny. The first thing happened early this week. We moved houses about a month ago, and because my work is so awfully complicated right now, I haven't been able to get Corentin (my five year old boy) to or from school a single time. Not once. Yes, I am shamed, and I also hate feeling like I'm missing something that will be gone all too soon.

Anyway, the other night, my wife jokingly says to me :

- "Corentin's teacher wants to see you".

Of course, had her tone not been humorous, I would've felt even more guilty, but she quickly added:

- "He's looking for a harmonica player for his band!"

Turns out the teacher often plays guitar in class and sings songs to the kids, and Corentin has often mentioned the fact that his dad plays harmonica. And the guy's looking for a harp player. One thing's for sure: I will definetely try and bring Corentin to school this week ! And hopefully I'll get to play live again in the not too distant future!

And then on Thursday I received an odd email on my Planet Harmonica mail address. It seemed to be a request for help from a French encyclopedia called the Quid. I first thought it was a spam and very nearly trashed it, but then I doubted and finally gave in and opened the attached document. It had only one line that said

Interpreters : Adler, Larry (1914-2001), Amer.

So it wasn't a spam, but what was expected of me wasn't particularly obvious... Since there was a phone number on the email, I called and was put through to the guy in charge of the music section of the Quid. He explained that when he noticed that there were very few interpreters listed for the harmonica, he checked on the internet, found my webpage and sent me that email.

What he was looking for was five or six names.

- "Do you want me to distinguish diatonic and chromatic?" I ask.

He didn't know what I was talking about, so I briefly explained and he told me to wait while he pulled up the section describing the instruments. Turns out there was no description : the harmonica entry only mentioned Ben Franklin's Glass Harmonica. So he asked me to write the harmonica section as well. All in all, I spent half an hour on it and contributed about two and a half lines, but boy was I proud of myself...

I guess it made me realise that although the fact of writing articles, reviews and all that sometime seems futile (at least if my referred amazon sales is anything to measure it by ;-) and a bit lonely, it's not. People may be silent about it, but hopefully they do enjoy the stuff I'm doing. All this energy is not spent for nothing.

A good opportunity to thank my readers, few and far between as they may be, and kindly request of them that they give me more feedback and yell (or politely enquire about my health) when I remain silent for too long.

Speaking of which, I'll post reviews of the new Milteau record, the first Hazmat Modine release and a few more things besides in the coming weeks. And you can complain if you don't get 'em !