Way out West - Old Grooves for New Streets
It’s very easy to look at combinations of different styles of music as being a bit passe these days. The eighties and nineties were littered with artists blending folkloric influences with mainstream western pop music (particularly dance) and sophisticated studio techniques. Some like Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel had massive commercial success with their collaborations with musicians from the developing world, others like Bill Laswell took this brand Post Modernism to the extreme throwing several different virtuosos from just about anywhere on the planet into the pot, serving up some deliciously exciting brews of ancient and modern ingredients. Justifiably these collaborations appeared first from the bulging cosmopolitan metropolises such as New York, Paris and London simply because of the accelerating influx of new immigrants to those areas of people escaping the ravages of war in their homelands or simply because they were drawn there by the beacons of western media, commerce and consumerism. Any musician with their ears and hearts open in these places couldn’t help but be drawn to the grooves that their new neighbours were playing. This flow of musical ideas was reciprocated back to and between the ‘homelands’ in interesting ways when the internet and computer based recording techniques became ubiquitously affordable giving rise to forms like reggaeton and contemporary bhangra. This brings me to present day Melbourne from where the ensemble Way Out West hail. Lead by composer and trumpeter Peter Knight who has an extensive background in jazz and groove based projects including a jazz quartet, the 5+2 Brass Ensemble and work on film soundtracks and as a music educator. Joining him in W.O.W. are multi-instrumentalist Dung Nguyen switching between the Vietnamese dan bao (similar to a zither), dan nhi (a one string bowed instrument), dan nguyet (a moon shaped two string lute) and an electric guitar modified for Vietnamese stylings all of which he learnt from his grandfather as well as his jazz training, percussionist Ray Pereira, saxophonist Paul Williamson, Howard Cairns on bass and drummer Dave Beck. All of whom have been successful in the Australian jazz scene in their own right. Starting with the common ground of jazz, each member brings their own flavours to the banquet including the sizzling afro/latin textures from Pereira, funk, soul and jazz leanings from Knight, Williamson, Cairns and Beck as well as Nguyens highly evocative Vietnamese pallet of note bends, Glissands and more western contemporary guitar leanings that are reminiscent of artist like Adrian Belew Pat Methany and even Robert ‘Frippertronic ‘ Fripp at their best.The cohesiveness of these at first seemingly disparate elements becomes clearer only upon listening. There is an inclusive generosity within the interplay of these musicians that swings hard when it needs to, locked down by the highly experienced rhythm section as well as a grace and subtlety that is embedded in the touches of soul from the brass section. The whole collective captures a feeling that anyone who has been to Melbourne will instantly recognize. Never does it descend into the cheese that you might find in those ‘Music of …such and such-istan ‘cds that you get in the cut price stores. Like my watermelon and onion salad with good balsamic , mint and ginger which some people I served to have been resistant to try, once you experience the combination on your tongue or in this case with your ears it all makes perfect sense. ME?… I’m off to the kitchen. Jo (19) Mansell
June 13th, 2008 at 12:55 am
I’m aware of the lack of paragraphs in this article but every time i tried to edit it it reverted back to this format ! also it had to be retyped in manually because the program hates works docs special thanx to Jacinta Rosielle for her astounding speed typing skills!