Jazz breaking news: Christian Scott and Joachim Kuhn’s Gnawa Jazz Voodoo with Pharoah Sanders light up Jazzfest Berlin
Friday, November 1, 2013
Opening this year's Jazzfest Berlin on Thursday night, Christian Scott quickly established his credentials not just as a remarkable trumpet player but also as a skilful composer and bandleader.
From the lyrical to the forceful he unleashed a constant flow of ideas, some delivered in short stabbing phrases, others as long sinuous sentences, but all adding up to a satisfying musical statement. His longest musical partnership, stretching back ten years to their student days at Berklee College, is with guitarist Matthew Stevens. A fine, thoughtful soloist with a rounded tone that is sometimes at risk of being overwhelmed by the rhythm section, his role in the basis largely supportive, accompanying soloists or as an additional voice in ensemble passages.
After Scott brought his initial solo to a dramatic close, Braxton Cook adopted a contrasting approach to his alto sax solo. Unhurried and leaving plenty of space, he delivered a couple of short, oblique motifs from which he developed a satisfying solo, full of interest and devoid of superfluous technical displays and clichés. Scott's concern to select colleagues with strong individual voices is equally apparent in the rhythm section. Drummer Corey Fonville (who also competes head-to-head with his boss in the interesting hairstyle stakes) doesn't simply propel and support the band. He is at its heart of its music, prodding, cajoling, stimulating and suggesting with ferocious fills and polyrhythmic patterns. He, together with bassist Kriss Funn, guitarist Matthew Stevens, and pianist Lawrence Fields make an outstanding rhythm team.
As if to show that in spite of their youth they are aware of jazz history, Scott chose to play ‘Blue Monk’ as their encore. This seemed unnecessary at the time as the audience was clearly delighted with their music, but the reason became clear when Scott summoned their guest, saxophonist Richard Howell, to the stage. Probably twice their average age, Howell played a beautiful, passionate solo that rounded off an entirely satisfying performance.
One of the themes defined for this year's festival by its artistic director Bert Noglik was Africa and for this concert he commissioned a project by pianist Joachim Kuhn (pictured above) under the banner Gnawa Jazz Voodoo. Kuhn is no stranger to interesting to challenges and at first it seemed that he may have finally taken one step too far by combining the his European jazz and classical roots with Moroccan Gnawa music, West African Griot, a Spanish drummer (Ramon Lopez) and the post-Coltrane saxophone of Pharoah Sanders. However, whether from the sheer force of Kuhn's enthusiasm or the combined talents of these disparate musicians, the result was an enjoyable and joyful mélange of musics that allowed space for all to do what they do best and to respond to each other’s traditions. The inclusion of Pharoah Sanders was a masterstroke – his timeless sound and passionate playing being the factor that brought cohesion to the whole project.
– Charles Alexander