August 1999 [a]

Alive & Well & Underground

The Rob Lo fidelity experience...

Whilst seeking the word on the Innerzone Orchestra's album, Programmed (Talkin Loud), from various record shop assistants, I got mixed reactions and one "Too much jazz for my liking". I should have responded with Jimmy Porter's line from Look Back In Anger : 'Anyone who doesn't like real jazz, hasn't any feeling either for music or people'. Instead, I thumped the counter and, in my own Angry Young Man style, cried "You can never have too much jazz!". Pretty good answer, I thought.

Well, now that the ten-inch record box-set is in my possession, I don't hear much that resembles 'jazz' , but it does sound like the Album Of The Year. And I'm immediately retracting that statement because it's an outmoded concept rooted in a publishing world for which I have absolutely no respect, and 'The Year' is irrelevant since Now ceases to be significant in relation to the weight of musical history. Most contemporary efforts are mere mustard at the great feast of music, and you know everybody dreams of beefsteak sometimes, to paraphrase the Polish composer, Lutoslawski.

The album's opening statement speaks of a light 'guided by Sun Ra, Miles, Blakey, Coltrane...', but it doesn't do to dwell on these supposedly inspirational figures because one may expect music which bares some relation to them. The 'jazziest' track here is 'Basic Math', a homage more to Hancock and George Duke than Coltrane or Miles, but still, there's diversity galore as Craig guides us through several genres reshaped by himself, Craig Taborn on keyboards, Francisco Mora on drums, and various guests.

'The Beginning Of The End' features rapper Lacksi-Daisy-Cal delivering a psycho-babble sermon centred on the millennium, backed by hi-tension strings and a nasty bass line - great for the end-of-the-year party! Vocalist Paul Randolph, meanwhile, turns in a beautiful version of The Stylistics' 'People Make The World Go Round' which, at midway point, Craig transforms into a gentle house epic. The other cover remoulds the original A and B Sides of War's classic, 'Galaxy', creating a whole new de-funked but excellent alternative. Craig's own 'At Les' is also remade into something quite sublime due largely to Taborn's acoustic piano-playing, and 'Blakula' is quite simply astounding, a fusion of subtle drum patterns, seductive melody, and a b-line straight from Jamaica's golden age of dub. Elsewhere there are other undefinable excursions and, yes, things drift now and again, but otherwise, this is still a revolution against ignorance, and Programmed is much needed ammunition.

Part Two: The Out There sounds of Cecil Taylor, plus Jazz for the Now generation from The Quartet.

© Rob Lo 1999.