Big Band Jazz - Exploring the Limits

Spooner's Zeitgeist reviews an evening of big band jazz as part of the Klang_2 Biennale at the German state of Hesse Studios, Bertramstrasse 8, Frankfurt am Main.
Saturday 21 November
Ticket price 16 Euros

The HR Big Band were like putty in the hands of three avant-garde jazz composers. They premiered the complex compositions with flair.

We were here to see veteran jazz innovator Django Bates. The big band played three of his pieces to top the evening off. We were expecting to hear something mad. But after the intense emotional workout of Bernhard Lang's 'Monodologie VIII', Django's upbeat rhythms were somewhat of a relief.

Django wrote the pieces in honour of his old big band 'Loose Tubes' who with 21 members were active from 1984 to 1990.

First came 'Gaza' which was quite a circus trip. I thought I heard samples of children laughing in the background, but I may have been mistaken. In the plush programme Django writes that he was trying to create a musical illustration of meaningless triumph. The end effect was quite uncanny, a black humour take on the middle east situation.

Next up was 'Midnight Roundabout' which certainly did have samples of traffic on city roundabouts blaring in the background. The piece was quite gloopy and a bit too meandering for this reviewers liking.

Finally, came the piece 'Loose Tubes'. An electric bass line held the whole thing together as brass and keyboards had a fun play around. Unfortunately, the electric guitar was virtually inaudible throughout the whole evening. Surely this was a mistake. There is subtle, but then there is superfluous. The guitarist himself was a rather irritating fellow forever chewing gum, so his impact was negative if anything.

Django's pieces actually sounded quite tame, compared to the earlier works of the evening. German avant-garde composer Hans-Joachim Hespos made the big band sound like an orchestra with a wonderful light piece reminiscent of a dawn chorus in summer.

'Monodologie VIII' by Austrian avant-garde composer Bernhard Lang was the most challenging and rewarding piece. The percussionist had his work cut out, alternately improvising solos on a squeaky wooden block and rustling shells and hitting other objects. Tension and release was skilfully exploited with volcanic rhythmic excerpts suddenly cutting to silence before spewing another jarring eruption forth.

It's not very often that you get to see three cutting-edge composers premiere new pieces all within one evening. And the HR Big Band allowed themselves to be contorted with sadomasochistic joy.

City and Restaurant Reviews

And we're back! Spooner's Zeitgeist has been mulling the world's situation during September and October. Now it's time to share those musings and in doing so create yet more musings until we get nearer to the essential truth. Chasing the Zeitgeist isn't easy.

In the meantime read these city and restaurant reviews that SZ penned for the online men's magazine www.askmen.com.

Frankfurt am Main

Oslo

Ambiente in Prague

Bull and Bear in Frankfurt

Too Much Metallica

Sonisphere Festival 04 July 2009 at Hockenheim Ring, Germany

Metallica

Die Toten Hosen

The Prodigy

In Extremo

Down

It was an inferno of beer-guzzling metal fans. The sun beat down on us without mercy. Thousands were gathered as if in worship of the black hole in front. Defenders of the faith took to the stage for the 1000th time. But could they still inspire revelation?

There was only one band people were really here to see. The posses of sun burnt beer guts and jaded biker couples in black were all waiting for one thing.

Sure as clockwork Mesa Boogie amps were racked up and a special stage constructed. Out came Hetfield and Co. and ripped into some ear-bleeding riffage. It was LOUD. It was FAST. It was MONSTROUS.

Have Metallica just become another Great American export? Just like a MacDonalds or a Starbucks they roll up into town and present their wares. Here we are. We are Metal Gods. Jump up and down like monkeys and we'll play Master of Puppets. Job done.

The word is BLOATED. Hammett mashed the solos. Looked like he hadn't picked up the guitar since the last concert. Hetfield spouted shit about 'Lovin' Germany'. Where's the originality? Sorry guys, but your show was a total cheeseburger with fries.

The Prodigy were the highlight of the day. Here was real energy and passion. Keith Flint was jumping around in fluorescent pink pants like a mad jack-in-the-box. The strobe lights they brought in pounded to the sick electronic beats as our rib cages throbbed. This was a show with colour and razzmatazz.

In between The Prodigy and Metallica, all the other bands were pretty uninspired. Die Toten Hosen aren't bad if A. you like radio-friendly punk and B. are German.

Maybe heavy metal and summer just don't belong together... More original bands like The Prodigy and it could have been a real party.

Photojournalism

Reporters hate photographers. Reporters painstakingly gather the facts, write gripping articles and bold headlines. They bring people the news. They should be the stars of a newspaper. But then someone with a camera takes a picture - suddenly nobody is interested in reading anymore.

"A picture tells a thousand words." Rarely has a saying been more accurate or more used.

Witness the photo here: 'Migrant Mother' taken in America during the 1930s depression.

The Farm Security Administration (FSA) sent out a team of photographers to document rural poverty and the attempts to solve it.

[The US Library of Congress recently released an amazing set of these images on Flikr.]

Documentary photography was never the same again. Dorothea Lange's photo, here, was the beginning of a more compassionate style. One which took a humanitarian view and attempted to influence world opinion.

Some argue that photographers of this style are too biased, forcing their own beliefs onto the situation. But isn't a photo always subjective to some extent? Covering human stories needs a degree of human feeling.

Perhaps this is what infuriates reporters. How can their words ever capture the raw emotion expressed in a brilliant snapshot?


Sources:

Excellent blog post by BBC photo editor Phil Coomes

Further reading:

New York Times article "When a Picture Is Worth a Thousand Debates, Give or Take"

No Rules!

Hey All! Don't worry SZ is back. We're dropping the rules for now and going for short sharp comment on all that is NOW.

Here's a Japanese proverb for the road:

"Better to write down something one time than to read something ten times."

[Unless, of course, you're reading Spooner's Zeitgeist]

Awesome Writer Dies

J G Ballard has died aged 78.

If there is one book you should read before you die, it is his autobiographical novel 'Empire of the Sun'.

It is a fictionalized account of his internment, at the age of 12, inside a Japanese prison camp in China during WWII. Surrounded by violence, starvation and death, Jim's spirits never fall and neither does his iron determination to cling onto life.

Self-pity is not in Jim's repertoire. Flies clog his sick gums and pus oozes from the sores that cover his body, but his black humour and ability to barter favours sees him live off a single mouldy sweet potato a day.

The Collins English dicitionary may define 'Ballardian' as 'dystopian modernity', but Ballard's writing in 'Empire' thrives on the man-made catastrophe of war.

Prostate cancer may have taken him, but I look foward to exploring his 15 novels and many short stories further.

• 'Empire of the Sun' was made into a film by Steven Spielberg in 1987
• 'Crash' was made into a film by David Cronenberg in 1996 and tells of a group of people who take sexual pleasure from car accidents
  

The Reader

1950s Germany: a teenage lad ends up knocking around with a sultry blond tram conductress. For some reason she gets him to read classics to her before she teaches him a new position. Although the reading is a bit odd at first, he enjoys it.

The affair lasts the summer and then she disappears. By the mid 60s the young man is a law student attending a special seminar on a war crimes trial. Who should be sitting in the dock, but his first love. She was a guard at Auschwitz.

The Holocaust and German guilt are major themes, but it is essentially the tragic love story which drives the film. We follow Michael’s relationship with Hanna throughout.

German actor David Kross is utterly convincing as the nervous besotted youth. But Michael holds his own and is soon rutting Hanna in bed with growing confidence. This is not child porn as some critics have argued. This is a fully consensual adult relationship. As with any relationship the power balance is in flux.

Kate Winslet is outstanding as Hanna Schmitz and fully deserving of her Best Actress Oscar. She’s hot, but at the same time mysterious and rather coarse. Her voice is dry with a hard edge – no cheap German accent here. The way she always calls Michael ‘kid’ is brusque yet affectionate.

Hanna is accused of letting 300 Jews die during a death march in 1944. She has a piece of evidence that may help her defence, but she is so ashamed of it that she keeps it a secret to the bitter end.

Are we supposed to feel sorry for Hanna? Most of the film is shot from Michael’s perspective so his point of view offers a guide. He cannot forgive her for what she has done. But is it more the betrayal of his trust or the fact that she was complicit in the Holocaust? It is certainly a mixture of both and her betrayal becomes even more enormous given that she hid her terrible wartime past from him. Think about it, what if your first ever lover was a death camp guard? Wouldn’t that make you complicit?

Ralph Fiennes plays the grown-up Michael and is a perfect match for Kross. The make-up artists do a very thorough job of making Winslet look old as her character ages, maybe too thorough, since she looks like a decrepit zombie. But the overall artfulness of the cinematography lets them get away with it.

Ironically, the book by German author Bernhard Schlink is too cluttered by words. Director Stephen Daldry reads aloud with a clear voice and the emotionally heart of the story shines through.

April Rule of the Month

No rules this month! Anything goes!

Suggestions welcome for a killer rule in May.

‘Raising Sand’ by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

I’ve only listened to ‘Raising Sand’ once, but I love it. How many new albums can you say that about?

Call it Country, Folk, Bluegrass or Rock. Whatever you call it, this is sheer musical genius.

The laid-back vibe is tantalizing. Only two artists with such rich pasts could have assembled thirteen such amazing songs about love and loss to create a fresh new entity.

Plant leaves the rock star exaggeration behind to deliver perhaps his most rich and mature vocal performance to date.

Krauss arguably leads proceedings. Her beautiful clear voice shines out. She leads love songs that were originally written from the man’s perspective. There’s something exquisite about this.

Plant clearly learnt a lot from her. After all, this is more her musical territory than his.

T Bone Burnett’s backing band provides the perfect spaced out country vibe for the singers to shine. Instrumental highlights are songs with banjo by Riley Baugus and those with fiddle played by Krauss herself no less.

The magic really happens when they sing together. Their voices are distinct yet perfectly harmonious at the same time.

INTERVIEW WITH MUSICIANS

Metallica’s ‘Ride The Lightening’ – 25 Years On

A spotty 21-year-old James Hetfield howls ‘Flash before my eyes, now it’s time to die’. The year is 1984. It’s the album’s title track. No prizes for guessing what ‘Ride The Lightening’ is about. There’s a shiny electric chair on the album’s cover for God's sake!

If debut ‘Kill em All’ was a furiously fast paced statement of intent, then ‘Ride the Lightening’ sees Metallica take the thrash metal genre to a whole new level.

Lars Ulrich’s drumming is frenetic yet so intensely focused that the double-bass roles seamlessly augment Hetfield’s violent riffage. The snare is so dry it has you gasping for water.

Rhythm-section other half Cliff Burton pumps his bass like a heavy calibre oozy throughout. Just listen to those belches on ‘Trapped Under Ice’ and the 9-minute horror instrumental ‘The Call of Ktulu’. It’s arguably the best mixed Metallica album – the bass riffage is clearly distinguishable throughout. Next album, ‘Master of Puppets’ maybe the bands seminal work, but it’s so damn heavy Hetfield and Burton are basically at one – aurally at least. Then Burton died in that crash and bass took a back-seat in the Metallica sound.

Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett departs from the pentatonic speed-blues soloing of ‘Kill em All’ to a rawer more haunting model attack. And where would metal be now, without the awesome guitar harmonies that feature throughout the album? They perfectly complement the move to longer more symphonically arranged pieces.

‘Fade to Black’ and ‘Creeping Death’ are the album’s classic groundbreaking compositions. The former was the first thrash metal ballad and the latter the nihilistic clarion call to metal heads the world over. For 20 years a Metallica set-list without ‘Creeping Death’ was like the arrival of the four horsemen without the apocalypse!

Ride the Lightening is when the Metallica sound was born. No such coherent force could be heard on early 80’s Slayer or Megadeth albums. It wouldn’t be until 1986 when ‘Reign in Blood’ and ‘Peace Sells, but who’s buying’ would be released and by then of course the brutal intensity of Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’ was all-powerful.

Seven albums later, Metallica have been through a lot – MTV success with ‘One’, chart success with their eponymous album, an arty 90’s phase and a struggle to adjust to the disparate metal scene of the nought’ies. But last year’s ‘Death Magnetic’ sees Metallica back to thrashing good form. Death is undoubtedly their best muse. Ironically, thrash metal is never more alive than when death is in the air.

March Rule of the Month

This month will see a few short sharp posts all about music.

Enjoy!

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

OK, I know it’s March now, but it’s no leap year and I want to get one more Winslet piece in before I introduce my next rule of the month.

In 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' she plays Clementine Kruczynski an impulsive American chick always on the lookout for adventure. She meets Jim Carrey’s character Joel Barish at a beech party in New York State. Joel is a reserved sensitive guy who enjoys sketching crazy caricatures and keeping a journal for a hobby. So here you have two very different actors cast in each others’ typical roles: Winslet plays the wild one, Carrey the serious one.

If that isn’t interesting enough, the story itself is an amazing tale about human memory and falling in and out of love.

Joel and Clem find happiness together against the backdrop of a drab winter in their dull East Coast town. But at some point down the line they start to have arguments. Impulsive as ever Clem goes to a doctor who claims to be able to erase specific memories. She simply has the memory of Joel erased from her mind.

Joel finds out and is completely devastated. Carrey is totally convincing as someone who comes up against such an unfathomable crisis. Out of pain and maybe a helpless bid for revenge he decides to undergo the same procedure.


This is when the film really starts to play with your mind. Two geeks from the doctor’s company show up at Joel’s apartment one night to perform the procedure. Patrick (Elijah Wood) and Stan (Mark Ruffalo) hook Joel up to all manner of wires and a brain scanner as he sleeps. They’re great as the careless bumbling removal men! Kirsten Dunst plays Stan’s girlfriend, Mary, but is excellent as the innocent yet compassionate doctor’s secretary.

Meanwhile we see Joel transported back to all his memories of being with Clem – one by one they are deleted. But then he realises that some of the memories he wants to keep and makes a last ditch attempt to save them and his love.

It is a story of heroic hope against the odds. The film’s frenetic confusion is so gripping you won’t dare look away – you want Joel and Clem to rediscover their spark.

French director Michel Gondry seamlessly weaves the story together. The scene where Joel takes Clem back to his childhood to try and escape the memory erasure is one of the movie’s highlights. Gondry plays with the size of the characters – and even switches them for two little children at one point. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen such a funny yet poignant scene.

The film won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 2005. Although it shares themes with ‘Being John Malkovich’, ‘Spotless Mind’ is a far more engaging piece from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Fair credit should also be given to eighteenth century English poet Alexander Pope who penned the poem on which the film is based. The beautiful title is directly taken from his ‘Eloisa to Abelard’.

Kate Winslet was nominated for Best Actress but lost out to Hilary Swank in ‘Million Dollar Baby’. For me it was easier to sympathise with Joel than Clem, but that in no way detracts from a brilliant performance by Winslet. Together Carrey and Winslet pull your heartstrings all over the place, but by the end the emotional gymnastics are most definitely worth it.

She's Got It!

Sixth time lucky! Kate Winslet won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in 'The Reader' at the 81st Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood.

And she was over the moon. Now aged 33 she said she used to practise receiving the award when she was 8 in front of the bathroom mirror with a bottle of shampoo.

Kate was much derided in the British press after her 'Oh my gosh... gather' Golden Globe speech, but she kept it together tonight. Alright, when she made it to the podium she was panting like a dog on heat, but this time she was relatively coherent.

Just before Christmas her mum won a pickled onion competition at their local pub in Reading and got her photo in the paper. Kate joked, after a few celebratory drinks no doubt, that another Winslet would be hitting its pages now.

The nature of celebrity is fascinating isn't it? I believe Winslet was flattered and genuinely overwhelmed at the Golden Globes.

All things considered her rise has been meteoric. A normal English kid from Reading to starring in the most successful film of all time to Oscar success.

Apart from the awards ceremonies, Winslet and her husband, director Sam Mendes (also an Oscar owner), shun media attention and focus on raising their two young daughters.

Compared to Angelina, Brad and Tom she's refreshingly down-to-earth.

Congratulations Kate! You deserve it.


[Review of Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind out soon]

Revolutionary Road

Going to watch a heavy drama about a marriage on the rocks may not sound appealing, but ‘Revolutionary Road’ is also an intriguing psychological thriller.

‘You're sick,’ shouts Leo. ‘And you're a pathetic self-deluded little boy,' cries Kate. On-screen relations have evidently soured since ‘Titanic’.

Frank (DiCapiro) and April Wheeler (Winslet) have a nice house and two kids. They’re supposed to be a happy 1950s American couple. But they’re not.

Frank commutes to an office job in the city and April cleans the dishes at home. Their lives are boring and they know it. Deep down each is raging at the other’s lack of understanding.

Then April has it, why not move to Paris? Frank was there and always said it was the only place where people ‘really live’. They tell their neighbours who react politely, but clearly think the idea to be unrealistic.

Meanwhile, Frank is offered a promotion at work whilst April discovers that she is pregnant. Frank dithers at the critical moment.

Leo and Kate both act superbly. Leo’s role as the male-breadwinner is more consistent, but he plays it with fiery aplomb. Kate’s character develops as the film progresses and in my opinion her acting gets better and better too. Not to say it starts bad at all, but I was paying such close scrutiny to her after all the hype that I couldn’t help finding some of her initial lines and facial expressions melodramatic.

Kathy Bates is excellent as the prim and proper neighbourhood estate agent who remains friends with the ‘perfect couple’ after helping them find their house ten years earlier. She has a middle-aged son who spent some time in a lunatic asylum. Michael Shannon is terrific in this role. Expect fireworks in the scene when he visits the Wheelers for tea with his fussy mother and reserved father.

Revolutionary Road may not sound like too much fun, but you’d be missing out if you didn’t go and see it. One scene made me burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter and the next scene made my girlfriend burst into tears (almost). The existential torment in the film is a lot like that in ‘Fight Club’ but in a realistic domestic setting. Who wouldn’t want to see that?

February Rule of the Month

This month every post will have at least one reference to English actress Kate Winslet.

With the film awards season in full-swing everyone is talking about her - not least for her role as former concentration camp guard Hannah Schmitz in 'The Reader'.

Spooner's Zeitgeist will look at her acting and any other little tasty titbits about her.

Reader's opinions welcome!

Get Your Obama T-Shirt Now!

If you haven't got an Obama t-shirt yet, you better get your skates on. Now he's actually the President of America and the 'Yes We Can' bubble could burst at any moment.

Isn't it fascinating though? Where else apart from the USA would ordinary people start to wear t-shirts of living politicians? Well, ones that show them in a positive light at least.

Take the UK for example. It doesn't help that Gordon Brown has got a face like an English Breakfast. You might see a few spotty students wearing a t-shirt bearing Brown's likeness and reading 'Gordon is a Moron' or with him holding a sign proclaiming 'The End is Nigh'. Yep, the British are a cynical bunch of bastards.

The Americans on the other hand can be infuriatingly optimistic. Maybe they have a right to be with Obama. So catch ya laterz alligators coz I'm gonna order my black XXXL 'Obama Is My Homeboy' shirt right now!

Visionary Architect: Jan Kaplický (1937-2009)

Narrow-minded conservatives in Prague despise it, but Kaplický’s National Library design is one of wonder, beauty and daring.

It recalls the curvaceous streamlined structure of his media centre at Lord’s cricket ground in London, albeit on a far grander scale.

Although the library won an international design competition in 2007, building has been blocked. And public debate in Prague has raged ever since. The library even has its own nickname: the ‘octopus’.



Based in London since he emigrated from communist Prague in 1968, Kaplický realised many adventurous and uplifting projects around the world with his group Future Systems.

The National Library was to be his first building in his homeland, and the pinnacle of his architectural career.

He died this week aged only 71. It is a great shame that he did not live to see his library built. Let us hope that we are more fortunate, even though the signs are not promising.

GALLERY

‘Entropa’: EU Art Controversy

‘Entropa’ made a great news story this week.

The sculpture was commissioned by the Czech government to mark the start of their European Union presidency and illustrate their slogan: ‘A Europe without Barriers’.

Instead, Czech artist David Černý created a work lampooning crude national stereotypes.

With Bulgaria shown as a Turkish toilet the Czech ambassador was summoned to Sofia to explain himself. Germany is presented as a patchwork of motorways vaguely resembling a swastika. Britain is missing altogether.

Most government art is unobtrusive and bland. This piece is challenging and interesting.

Another English Cricket Cock-Up

Kevin Pietersen is the most entertaining batsman in the world. He is also temperamental and actually mad. But so is every genius.

It is scandalous that he was pressured into relinquishing the England Captaincy after only 5 months on the job.

KP told the bureaucrats that the coach, Peter Moores, was useless. And they couldn’t handle it. Who’s more important in a team, the best player or the coach?

I thought he was hired for his direct approach.

It’s a shame he won’t lead England in the Ashes, but thank god he’s still in the team!

VIDEO

January 2009: Rule of the Month

Happy New Year, readers!

Rule of the Month: each post will be less than 100 words long.

This is a new feature I'm introducing to spice up Spooner's Zeitgeist and get you lot out there coming back for more.

If you have an idea for February let me know!

SZ