Guitar Heroes on the Improv Side
by Bob Pomeroy
In the movie, Almost Famous, the fictional rock band is almost torn apart by the adoration of their resident guitar hero. Almost Famous is fiction, but the cult of the guitar hero permeates practically every form of music except for hip hop and polka. Guitar heroes have become part of our collective mythology, stretching at least as far back as Robert Johnson. There is just something about guitar players.
With the Olympics playing on TV worshiping heroes of sport, it seemed like a good time to look at some guitar heroes. All of the players reviewed in this column spend a good deal of time in the world of improvised music. Jim O’Rourke and Nels Cline have somewhat high profiles in rock circles. I’m pretty sure both men have popped up on late night TV shows, but not as frontmen. Loren Mazzacane Connors will never be featured on late night TV and it’s highly unlikely an outsider jazzer like Joe Morris would either (well, maybe on PBS). German improviser Caspar Brotzmann would probably give Conan O’Brien a heart attack. My point is that these are not your typical media hype guitar gods. In fact, you’ll rarely hear these guys on the radio, unless you tune into some non-commercial station at the far left-hand side of the dial very late at night.
Loren Mazzacane Connors is one of the most expressive guitarists working on the improvised music scene today. He’s been making records for years, sometimes as Guitar Roberts and sometimes under his own name. His style is often dry and reflective. Jim O’Rourke is one of the most in-demand musical journeymen on the planet. He has been seen playing just about everything with just about everyone over the past few years. His most recent gig is as an adjunct member of Sonic Youth. One of the things about O’Rourke that makes him so popular is his ability to bring out the best in the people he works with.
In Bern (<a href=http://www.hathut.com>www.hathut.com</a>) is a duet concert and a brilliant pairing of unique talents. There is a playfulness at work here that rarely surfaces in Mazzacane Connors’ other work. The four pieces on this disc are called, “Now Who Are These Guys?” “Still Going,” “Are They Going To Stop?” and “You Can Stay If You Want, But I’m Going Home.” The pieces are subtly shaded improvisations for acoustic and electric guitars. We are definitely dealing with fine shades of color and shifting patterns. For those inclined to listen carefully, there is some fine interplay between these two master improvisers. The playfulness is somewhat akin to Zen masters trading riddles. It is very obtuse, yet very, very beautiful.
Nels Cline’s name may not be all that familiar, but it’s quite possible you’ve heard his playing somewhere along the way. Cline is equally at home playing with punk rockers like Mike Watt, insurgent country bands like the Geraldine Fibbers and improvisational groups like Scarnella. His inventive playing is as subtle or shredded as the setting demands.
Greg Bendian’s Interzone is actually a percussion-oriented group. Myriad (<a href=http://www.atavistic.com>www.atavistic.com</a>) is a fun excursion into space jazz for this group. Bendian plays a variety of keyboard percussion instruments while Alex Cline (Nels’ brother) plays drums. Bendian is the star of this show. His melodic work on vibes brings to mind a postmodern Lionel Hampton. Nels Cline is there to play a support role or to kick things into Mahavishnu overdrive.
Joe Morris is an innovator who is more often compared to reed players like Sam Rivers than other guitar players. It has been said that the entire history of the guitar can be heard in his playing, but what he plays isn’t quite like anyone else around. Mat Maneri is an innovator on the violin. His electric violin work often takes the instrument into ranges more often associated with the cello or viola. The two men have worked together in a variety of settings, but Soul Search (<a href=http://www.aumfidelity.com>www.aumfidelity.com</a>) finds Morris and Maneri sitting down for a set of fully improvised duets. What we get are ten improvisations where two players push and prod each other through a wide variety of sonic settings. “Slight of Hand” starts the proceedings with the duo playing an intricate game of tag like mathematicians chasing an elusive proof. By contrast, on “Vericolor” the duo sound like Joe Pass and Yo Yo Ma getting down at an afterhours club. Morris and Maneri challenge their audience with sounds that sometimes sound like mathematical proofs. The challenge is well worth taking.
Creating challenging music is something of a family tradition for Caspar Brotzmann, the son of legendary free jazz saxophonist Peter Brotzmann. Caspar must have had an unusual introduction to music. The younger Brotzmann took up the guitar and began his career playing heavy metal rock and roll. Eventually, Caspar formed a group called Massaker, which specialized in some of the most ear shattering instrumental music since, well, since his dad recorded Machine Gun.
Mute Massakar (<a href=http://www.thirstyear.com>www.thirstyear.com</a>) is actually a solo album. Brotzmann is working with a new rhythm section of Robert Damage and Otter Sum on this disc. The rhythm players provide a foundation over which Brotzmann’s thick layers of guitar hold center stage. Listening to Caspar roll out his thick, fuzzed out leads, it makes me wonder if this is what Jimi Hendrix might have sounded like if he’d lived and taken off in a jazz direction. We’ll never know, of course. Of all the improvised recordings reviewed in this column, this is the one that rock fans (particularly metal fans) are most likely to embrace.
So there you have a brief introduction to a few guitar heroes for the open minded. There is little similarity between these players sonically, yet they share a commitment to pushing their instruments into new territory.
