Returning I

You could be excused for believing it's yours truly who's returning, since it has been a while since I last blogged, but that's not what I had in mind.

A couple of weeks ago, IB bassist and major Pink Floyd fan "Gicken" wrote me and e-mail and asked me what I thought about David Gilmour's new album On an Island. Yes, it's Gilmour who is returning. On top of that, guitar great and nice guy Christian Saggese also wrote me an e-mail telling me that he thought Gilmour's album was fantastic, and what did I think about it? I had only heard the promo version of the title track, so even though I had gotten a bite out of this tasty dish, I was hungry for more. "Gicken" and Christian's e-mails helped wet my appetite.



I had planned to get On an Island the very day it was released, but just hadn't had the time to go to my regular record shop - yes, I know I am old fashioned - to get the album until Friday. When I came home and listened to it, I instantly recognized David Gilmour's ulta tasty note choices and his sound-to-die-for after only a couple of seconds into the first track, the instrumental "Castellorizon". This is what good guitar playing is made of!

But, on the other hand, the vocal tracks are a bit of a disappointment, I am sad to say. Sure, it does sound like old Pink Floyd ever so often, and by that I mean older Floyd, like pre-DSotM (that's Dark Side of the Moon for you non-Floyders). I can hear some Beatles influences and some Dylan in there too. But I am not really impressed. Considering it has been more than a decade since the last album Gilmour composed music for (Pink Floyd's The Division Bell from 1994) and considering it's 22 years since his last solo effort, I was expecting more from the man. I find the vocal compositions weak. There's no drive, no hooks, no strong melodies, no interesting changes, no surprises and nothing odd. To really enjoy an album, I need at least a couple of these ingedients - the more the better, but at least two - for me to be happy about an album.

On this album, I like Gilmour's lead guitar playing. No wonder, it's simply beautiful and once more do I understand why he is one of my favourite guitarists. I also like the production and the cover with it's elegant design. Unfortunately the cons outweigh the pros at this stage. But I will give this album more spins, and who knows, maybe I will change my mind.

I have to mention The Bad Plus. On March 9, they played a blinder at Jeriko. Really good guys to work with, nice people with a mission to give people good music. Wheather you want to call it jazz or not is up to you. I would call it jazz. But it's also good music, period. Before they arrived, their rider had caused quite a stir not only in my office, but also at the rental company. Now, this is an experienced rental company who have dealt with mega stars on many occasions, but in this case, they were slightly worried. Why? In one of the paragraphs in the rider it basically said that if we don't provide the drummer with this particular set of drums and these drum skins, "you will have no drummer". This is scary stuff. Sensing that we were worried, both tour manager Jonin and drummer David King put me at ease and explained that this paragraph was a joke. OK. The house was packed with a remarkably young audience who cheered for the excellent trio. Probably the best concert of the year so far.

I watched a documentary on Swedish keyboardist Mats Oberg earlier today. An amazing musician, Mats is able to fit into rock, jazz and folk contexts with surprising conviction and ease. After watching the hour-long documentary, one question remained with me, having seen and heard Mats Oberg waltz through at least a handful of bands playing some really hard-to-play parts: how can he remember it all? Check him out live if you can! I have yet to do so, but I can recommend any recording by Mats & Morgan.

Earlier this evening, to take my mind off correcting a term paper and several papers, I watched another documentary. Touch the Sound on another fabulous musician, percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Apart from being a wonderful percussionist with some interesting ideas, she tends to surround herself with interesting musical partners. No exception in this documentary, where you can hear her play on a rooftop with a wrecking ball and amazing drummer Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez (one of Jack Bruce's current drummers). Even more exciting was hearing her improvise in an abandoned factory with the one and only Fred Frith. Amazingly, Frith played some straight ahead guitar in a way I have never heard him play before. Oozing with lyricism and armed with an electric guitar, a Fender amp, a volume pedal and a Line 6 delay pedal, he really surprised me. Magic. Wouldn't this man be great for IB Expo 2006?

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The headline for this blog is taken from Robert Fripp's soundscape album A Blessing of Tears. This is may favourite soundscape CD on an emotional level. I find it very moving, with many seemingly reflecting lines full of dynamic expression. This goes for Returning I too, of course.

Idiot Wind

Just had a dreadful TV experience. Watched the Swedish finals of the Eurovision song contest. Guess who won? The holier-than-thou (scarier-than-thou would be more appropriate) Swedish charlatan Carola. If you ever need a reason for NOT becoming a christian, she is the reason you are looking for. As if a reason was needed.

The jury voted for a 70's styled retro song sung by Bono-light charachter Andreas Johnson, and eurodisco act BWO came second with a song featuring lyrics that would make any hair rock band of the 80's proud. How many songs from that era used the words "in the heat of the night"? The right answer is: too many.

Unfortunately, the jury's votes didn't help, because of the obligatory phone-in. And people did phone in. And I am sorry to say, they made a difference in a most negative way in this case. I suppose the fact that Carola won just proves a point made by witty radio personality Nick Abbot back in 1993-94: the masses are asses.

Since I am far from a nationalist, I hope Sweden will not make it to the international finals. Sending a religious nutter to Athens can hardly be to our benefit.

Just had a look at a Nick Abbot site. I must check up on his recent work. I really liked his work on Virgin 1215 when I lived in London in 1993-94.


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I am certainly not a big Dylan fan, in fact I am not a Dylan fan at all. But I can appreciate a good song when I hear it. As I am in a bitter and whingy mood today, I might as well tell you what I think of the song "Idiot Wind". Unmemorable lyrics in the verses with an even more unforgettable melody to help it stumble along. The chorus features Dylan not only making a fool of himself as a vocalist, but also taking the piss out of himself, at least that's the way it sounds. Great title though.

This Is How It Goes

Lots of activities now. Lots of different things, some really interesting, making my weeks somewhat stressful.

We are looking at doing IB Expo 2006 later this year. Mats suggested an interesting musician I have never heard, but via a sound file on the Internet, I now have. I agree with him, this person could fit very well. So I contacted PK and am now awaiting an answer. My good friend Luis may be a link to another possible participant for IB Expo 2006. We will see. Speaking of IB Expo, I visited Mick Karn's website and saw that he will go on tour. Great! You should go see him! He plays great, writes interesting music and is a really nice guy.

I am also in the throws of signing a licensing deal with Russia for IB. Starting with Cheval, we are looking at licensing the whole IB back catalogue in Russia. There are still some things to be discussed and I will make a few changes in the contract, but all in all, I think our music being distributed in any foreign country is a good thing.

At the department, last week was spent teaching, providing colleagues with statistics and working with the Bologna process (or the Bologna express, as some people call it because it moves along very quickly). My course in Jazz was wrapped up, and generally I thought this group of students was a good bunch. They did the test on Friday, but since I was in Stockholm at a meeting with the board of the Swedish Society of Musicology, I haven't seen the results yet. Tomorrow will be spent correcting exams. At least I hope to get through some of the answers. Unfortunately, the active students are all males with the females sitting passively but - I am sure - having lots of things to say. Why don't they? I will have to try harder to get them to say something on the next course (Rock), which starts on Tuesday.

It's been a busy week at Jazz i Malmo. Jon Balke played with his percussion-based group Batagraf on Tuesday and believe me, they blew people's minds! Ultra tight, groovy, imaginative playing focusing on rhythmic themes, counter-rhythms and general enjoyment both on and off stage. I heard one man say "I will never forget this as long as I live". He's right.

A less memorable concert was Linda Pettersson's Up From the Skies on Thursday. Great singing, great playing, most of the songs were great too, but I couldn't help being bored and lost interest after a couple of songs. With two sets brimful with standards played in a very traditional manner, it wasn't my cup of jazz. Next week Thursday, US piano trio The Bad Plus take the stage at Jeriko. I am really looking forward to hearing this trio live. So far, I have only heard good things about them, and the recordings sound great. This will surely be a good evening.

I have had several responses to my blog, and I encourage you to use the comment function to interact. Only the other day Gicken, bassist with IB and Sounds of Eternity, wrote to me to ask me to take a demo of the forthcoming Sounds of Eternity album to Luis and Nuno in Portugal, since he read in my blog that I will go to the Gouveia festival in early April. Before that, Leif contacted me regarding a recommendation I gave a few months ago in IB's newsletter. I had completely forgotten about a wonderful record called De Opblasbaare Vis, which was very kindly given to me by Ruggero, one of my Italian friends. I will absolutely have to listen to it again very soon!

Back at the house, the bed room is now insulated and the wall is reconstructed after last weeks' temporary destruction. What we need now is some paint and some help painting, and then we can start sleeping in our bedroom again.

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Aimee Mann is one of my favourite songwriters, period. Even though I really like most of her albums, her solo debut, Whatever, remains my favourite. Lost in Space is excellent too, but "This Is How It Goes" isn't one of the highlights of this otherwise fine album. A fairly ordinary pop song with a couple of quirky sounds and some strong melodic hooks courtesy of Aimee Mann. But she can - and really has - done a lot better than this.

NP: Aimee Mann - Lost in Space