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.