- Can you play a Rhodes and not sound jazzy? Perhaps that’s why a virulent strain of jazz has been steadily infecting the steadily evolving music -from Laneous to Jordan Rakei and a whole lot more- of (rhodes adoring) Australian neo-soul. More likely it’s because everyone came up studying jazz at uni’ but it’s really heartening to hear them move beyond the preppy crap that used to get pumped out by graduates, or the ivory tower sounds of old men making increasingly complex, unapproachable stuff; intellectual exercises, just echoes of what jazz used to be. It’s been a good few years for the genre, particularly in the hub of new noise that is contemporary London (hello Sons Of Kemet!), but Australia is forging its own way: one that’s smooth and soulful but thrumming and dance-driven, just seductive and vital in a way that jazz just hadn’t been in years.
Two outfits that have been key players in this are record label Wondercore Island and (analogue-fixated) recording studio / record store Plug Seven. With (some of) the talent and the venue provided by this pair, the majority of the music on their collaborative compilation, Seven Wonders - New Movements In Australian Jazz And Soul, was banged out in just two weeks.
It’s quite the collection too. Kicking off a little unexpectedly with composer, session muso and nascent, socialist pop star (seriously, check out his TQX: Global Intimacy) Barney McAll. McAll switches compulsively between a Stevie Wonder kind of fusion and a propulsive, tricked-out funk, all topped with a luscious vocal from Rita Satch. Daniel Merriweather’s unmistakable voice keeps the funk pumping on Everything I Need and the same can be said of Laneous with Sooki The Love Dog, although props must be given to his characteristically roaring, brassy rhythm section that bookends and bridges the cut like a snarling supercharger.
I’ve thought of Godtet, Dave ‘Godriguez’ Rodriguez’ outfit, as a driver of the new, soul and funk infused jazz sound, across the course of the couple of records they’ve released and their number here -I don’t know why it’s called Womans’ Choir- but it’s a strange, Frankenstein’s-genre-monster of a winner. Starting out like melancholy, piano-driven singer-songwriter fare it mutates into a nervously moving, sparse bit of guitar-work that suddenly finds a subtle but powerful funk. A weird, African-sounding chanted bridge pushes psychedelically into a slow-funk that early instrumental-hip-hop heads would’ve loved, before finishing on some oddly studio-treated humming; of course. Superfeather’s contribution sounds -despite ostensibly belonging to the jazz tradition- like classic Battles: nuttily energetic but insanely under-control mathrock. Really, Battles today should hope to produce a number as good as Dempsey Roll.
The ethio-jazz influenced vibe of Greg Sheehan, Vinod Prasanna, Perrin Moss’ collaboration has some curious fade-ins-and-outs, explained by the fact that it’s only a tiny excerpt of a four hour improvisation. To ruffle some feathers, it’s as hypnotic as The Necks, but its complexity puts The Necks to shame. The James McCaully Quartet pull off something quite traditional sounding in the slow and mournful harmonising of For Yu Sakamoto, which is, nonetheless, quite experimental in its drunken slides out of key, ending-up making a bid for an instrumental reimagining of a warmly broken Tom Waits’ song. There are some even more trad. sounds, like WVRBABY’s slowly, quietly moving Custard Shoulder or The Rookies’ breezy and upbeat True Realm Of The Coin, which features lashings of Rhodes, natch.
Torch song gets a look in on the amorous Waiting by Jazz Party. 30/70 push things in a more neo-soul / afrobeat / hiphop direction, which, in a nice way, feels unexpected here: usually it’s the maingame for many of these artists, but not right now. Speaking of odd, Raw Humps deliver Odyssey which packs an easygoing, stoner soul that is way too relaxed for you to expect the disco funk it shifts gear into. The hybridity just keeps on coming, fusing in ways that are delightfully leftfield: Moses Mcrae teams up with rapper Crooked Letter creating for him a smoothly insistent, slithering backing track that in once sense is jazzy, but really is pure g-funk. Those constant changes snap in right up till the end: performance poet Tariro Montevedo leads the last number, telling an ominous tale of femininity and family, or perhaps femininity versus family, titled Bones, backed up by the sparse rhythm section and eerie, muted trumpet of I Hold The Lions’ Paw.
Not bad for two weeks’ work. There’s not a single cut on Seven Wonders I would call filler or have trouble recommending. This collection of largely but not wholly Melbourne artists, demonstrates the strength of an Australian scene that is increasingly coming into its own: paying off the debts it owes and creating distinctive new sounds. Now, if anyone tries to tell me jazz has had its time, I’m going to slap them upside the head, with this record; it’ll be a valuable, Rhodes-infused, learning experience.
- Chris Cobcroft.