Mochizuki Harutaka, Suisho No Fune, Otomo Yoshihide’s New Jazz Ensemble
Le Weekend Day 4,
Tolbooth Theatre, Stirling
29/05/05
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Otomo Yoshihide’s New Jazz Ensemble provided the finale to the festival. Otomo was present at the very first Le Weekend where his monster electric rave-up band, Ground Zero, performed their first, and last, Scottish date as part of their final tour. Otomo reportedly missed the energy of that band and has convened this ensemble in part to recover some of that group dynamic. Happily the new band is every bit as energetic and exciting as Ground Zero.  Their ebullient, ragged edged sound is reminiscent of great 60’s jazz outfits like those of Carla Bley, the Jazz Composers Orchestra and, especially, Eric Dolphy. And they combine the same exuberant ensemble blowing with fierce improvisation and a love of eccentric covers.

There was a sense of barely controlled chaos to the set that alternated between beefy up-tempo numbers and smoky torch songs (which were breathily sung by vocalist Kahimi Karie). Alfred Harth and Tsugami Kenta, on reeds, were bursting with energy and sprayed burning sax over tunes by Dolphy and Jim O’Rourke. Otomo played regular guitar (instead of his usual table top instrument or his turntables) but used it more like a lightening rod. Through it he conducted blasts of electricity and earthed feedback storms of Hendrix-ian proportions.

Otomo’s long time collaborator Sachiko M was present though I’m not entirely sure what she added to this music. Her head bending sine waves and pure tones seem to fall between the cracks of this band without really adding anything but clutter to the sound. At one point she performed a beautiful duet with percussionist Takara Kumiko, sine waves and bowed vibraphone sounds merging until it was nearly impossible to tell who was playing what. It was the only time in the show where Sachiko really sounded at home. The rest of the time she was somewhat swamped by the blazing saxes and the ferocious drums of Yoshigaki Yasuhiro.

Percussionist Takara was an inspired addition to the band. Her Vibraphone’s soft metallic tones, reverbed to infinity, cut through the blare and brought Zen calm to the show. On one outstanding piece (which I think was Otomo’s Mayonaka no shizuka na kuroi kawa no ue ni ukabiagaru shiroi yuri no hana) Kumiko  provided a spacey backdrop for Karie‘s semi spoken French lyrics, reminding me of classic Archie Shepp tracks like Scagg and Malcolm Malcolm, Semper Malcolm.

They finished the night with two rousing encores. Eric Dolphy’s Gazzeloni was delivered as a blazing crime jazz soundtrack. They played it at the same headlong velocity as the version of Say A Little Prayer which appears on the Ground Zero Plays Standards disc. And I was convinced they were about to segue into it at any moment. Sadly it was not to be. Instead they wound up with an epic arrangement of Jim O’Rourke’s Eureka, which started as barely audible scratching and fidgeting and worked up to an intensely emotional, shuddering finale. O’Rourke’s plaintive melody was gradually buried under the swaggering cacophony as the band slowly went supernova and finally collapsed leaving us all, band and audience alike, grinning from ear to ear.

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Reviewed by Scott