Edgy Hollywood: Pre-Code Cinema

I watched William Wyler's Counsellor at Law recently and was very impressed. I haven't greatly enjoyed many of the older (1930's-1960's) Hollywood films I've seen, having found them somewhat hokey and/or sanitised (...and you might suggest this describes many current Hollywood films as well...). Marius, a 1931 French film written by the great Marcel Pagnol, revealed to me that old cinema could deal with human relations in a way that feels honest and immediate, and Wyler's film was another piece of the puzzle. Why? It was made in 1933, soon after Talkies (sound film) took over and just before Hollywood became subject to the Motion Picture Production Code. The Code resulted in the censorship of Hollywood films made between 1934 and 1968, imposing particular requirements for the careful portrayal of sex and gender relations, crime, and authority figures, etc. So-called "Pre-Code" Hollywood, however, is a different animal, as revealed by the edgy treatment of various themes contained in Counsellor at Law. I'm certainly looking forward to watching more Pre-Code films.

Relax with Some Stimulating, Modern Chamber Music

Here's an album recorded (in excellent sound) in London and released as part of a series by F-IRE, a collective of young musicians dedicated to creative expression. Repose features Jiri Slavik on bass and Fred Thomas on piano in a series of what sound to me like semi-improvised pieces that take in impressionism; minimalism; simple rhythmic grooves featuring percussive bass playing; abstract sonic explorations, tempered with a restful ambience and concerned with beauty of sound. This is engaging, inventive music, and I can't seem to get tired of it.

Hat Tips to Miles

Miles Davis is one of the most influential Jazz musicians of all time. He was gifted with the ability to reinvent his music every decade or so and shape the history of Jazz by so doing. A seminal, pivotal figure in Cool Jazz, Hard Bop, Modal Jazz, and Jazz-Rock Fusion, he was, simply put, way ahead of the pack.

He began as a bebopper in the 1940's, and established himself as a peer of the likes of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. At the end of that decade he made his first major sortie on the annals, with the nonet recordings later known as The Birth of the Cool. These are particularly beautiful, exciting, and colorful Jazz recordings that added sophisticated, delicate arrangements and lighter textures to the relatively stark Bebop from which it emerged, and gave birth* to the dominant Cool Jazz sound of the West Coast for over a decade, a gentler, pastel hued counterpoint to the East Coast's Hard Bop. The Birth of the Cool recordings are also considered seminal of so-called Third Stream music, a fusion of Jazz and Classical styles. Give them a listen!

Twenty years later, a session was recorded in LA and released with the subtitle Birth of the New Cool. The leader of the session was Sonny Criss, the album Sonny's Dream. It is a gorgeous, well-recorded tribute that moves far beyond the recorded subjects of its admiration, while retaining their color and elegance (and also reprising their original instrumentation). Criss' saxophone playing is indeed a dream, and this Jazz record is another one for music lovers of all stripes. I note that Sonny's dream band includes musicians previously referenced by this blog, Pete Christlieb and (indirectly) Tommy Flanagan.

The music of Sonny's Dream was composed, arranged, and conducted by a man who was to become a major figure in West Coast Jazz for decades - Horace Tapscott. Tapscott never became exactly a household name in Jazz circles, partly because the West Coast was not a major center of Jazz throughout his career, and partly because much of his music is quite uncompromising (though very much worth seeking out by adventurous listeners). He was particularly active as a pianist and leader for LA's excellent, underground Nimbus West record label. Dissent or Descent (which features the superb bassist Fred Hopkins) is an evocative, original, and strikingly beautiful piano trio record.

Discography (with sound samples):

Birth of the Cool - Miles Davis

Sonny's Dream - Sonny Criss

Dissent or Descent - Horace Tapscott

LA's Unsung - Nimbus West Compilation

* OK, there were other players and leaders who also were significant progenitors of the Cool sound: Lester Young; John Kirby; Claude Thornhill; Tadd Dameron; and Lennie Tristano to name a few.

Deliverance from the Humdrum... (with Apologies to Fans of Madonna)

I am still in "Wow" mode, having just arrived home after seeing Paul Metzger live in concert at Cafe Oto in East London. Oto, which regularly for several years has featured the likes of Joe McPhee, John Tchicai, and The Sun Ra Arkestra, has surely by now earned the title of London's Premier Venue for Experimental Music. Tonight's concert, featuring an obscure but brilliant musician, has certainly confirmed that for me.

Metzger uses a modified banjo, strummed, picked with a plectrum or fingers, and bowed(!), to produce improvisational, trance-like, altered ragas. Tension and release are deployed via dynamics, rhythmic excitement, cleverly developed repetition, and subtle fills. He is a masterful musician who absorbs the listener through his own absorption in the music, and control of musical narrative. I recommend his album Deliverance, which can be sampled at Amazon UK. It is improvised and thus rough-edged as one might expect, but the lengthy tracks demonstrate the communication of musical ecstasy of which Metzger is capable.


I had the slightly surreal experience during the post-concert taxi ride home of hearing Madonna on the radio. It was as if the curtain had been replaced, obscuring a world of wonder and leaving me stranded in a blandly humdrum, colourless world. Viva Paul Metzger and those few like him, who can draw back that curtain for us, for a fleeting moment.

Byungki Hwang - Musical Dynamo from South Korea

Underlying the rich variety of traditional musics worldwide is a variety of aesthetics and of purpose. Stylistic factors can have cultural, even philosophical roots and, although understanding this web of cause and effect is primarily the job of the musicologist, the amateur music-lover's experience of listening to music can surely be enhanced by some well-chosen contextual information. I'm grateful therefore to the issuers of the five book-and-CD volumes of Byungki Hwang - Kayagum Masterpieces, which document the work of an important South Korean composer and musician. Each of the sets combines fascinating music with beautiful B&W photography and an unusually rich and thoughtful set of notes (be aware, though, that all the sets have most of their notes in common).


The kayagum is an indigenous Korean zither, with close relatives in other Asian countries (e.g. Japan's koto, with which it shares a Chinese ancestor, the zheng). The accompanying notes refer to yet another zither, China's qin, with its playing tradition, dating back to Confucius, encouraging of introspection - to "please the mind, not the ear". There's certainly an introspective quality to much of this music, which may strike unfamiliar ears as stark minimalism. A meditative approach to listening is richly repaid, however. Hwang writes about the importance of the decay of a single plucked note, and how this arises from the Oriental philosophical aesthetic of man acting in accordance with nature ("The philosophy of the Orient is predominantly mystic."). Parallels are drawn with the spaces left in traditional Oriental paintings. Plenty of food for thought then, but the music is of course paramount...

Hwang is an accomplished musician who has been highly influential in the resurgence of the kayagum since the post-war emergence of South Korea, from the shadow of Japanese imperialism. He offers a great variety of sounds and styles across, and within each of, the five volumes. Both folk- and court-music traditions are drawn upon in his compositions. Strings are plucked, strummed, arpeggiated, lengthened for tonal variation and vibrato, and the body of the kayagum is used for percussive effects. The instrument is played solo, in combination with other Korean traditional instruments, and with voice. The results range from the traditional-sounding, meditative music described above, to an occasional verging on the avant-garde, with much in between.

This series is a feast for music-lovers, and should not be missed by anyone with an interest in Oriental music. Sound samples are available from Byungki Hwang's site. The discs are available, along with many other great South Korean cultural products, from the Seoul Selection bookstore.

Jazz Meets... Gently Radical Theology?

Elise, by Norwegians Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Håkon Kornstad, is a celebration of a religiously inspired folk music tradition, and of family. That family is the eponymous Elise Flaten, whose vintage, unaccompanied recording of a simple hymn is heard on track 1 and sets the tone for what follows. The hymn, set to a folk melody, is one of a body associated with a bygone breakaway religous movement in Norway, whose philosophy of simplicity rebelled against the mainstream middle-class church. The remaining tracks are a minimalist Jazz interpretation of that hymn tradition, and by extension that philosophy and way of life. The music is heartfelt and gently radical, like the tradition that inspired it.



This is lovely stuff, slightly challenging at times, but well leavened with beauty and simple, genuine expression. Sound samples are available at Amazon.

Folk Music for the Ages

Folk Roots, New Routes is a meeting of two consummate artists who came out of the English folk tradition. Davy Graham was a highly eclectic and original guitarist, drawn to Jazz, US folk and Eastern music. Shirley Collins had quite simply one of the most beautiful, crystalline voices ever recorded (and it's interesting to note that prior to making this recording she accompanied Alan Lomax on a folk song collecting trip to the Southern United States). This mid-60's collaboration, rooted in the English folk ballad tradition, but taking in the influences mentioned above, is one for the ages.


Everything here is excellent, but some special moments for me are "Love is Pleasin'", which will move anyone who has ever lost a love; "Rif Mountain", an Eastern-flavored solo feature for Graham; and last but not least "Bad Girl", in which the words "cold as the clay" (when we realise that the protagonist is dead) never fail to send a shiver down my spine.

One of the highlights of recorded music, full stop.

EDIT: Sound samples from Amazon.com.