LEEF-tastic

Matt Miller has a new review of LEEF in October's All About Jazz-NY. It is conveniently coordinated with our October 19 show at the Bell House (with Darcy James Argue's Secret Society and Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra).

It’s hard to take anything about the Industrial Jazz Group for granted. Even the LA-based ensemble’s name is misleading to the point that its leader, Andrew Durkin, feels the need to address it in the header of the group’s website. “So we’re not really industrial. Were the Beatles really insects?” As explanations go - humorous as they might be - it rings a little hollow. It does, however, speak volumes about IJG and its singular approach to music-making. Just when you think you’ve got it, when the form becomes clear, the beat insatiable, a song implodes and you’re left to sift through the wreckage or a freely improvised saxophone solo is followed by a foray into ‘70s lounge rock. The result is rarely anything less than thrilling.

Recorded at a series of live concerts from 2004-07 and interspersed liberally with studio material, Leef is an unrelenting amalgam of shtick, pop, cabaret and classical that comes off equal parts Bernstein, Zappa and Mingus. Durkin has a hand in every aspect of Leef, including the live, often improvised performances that make up the album’s core. The result is a so-called “hybrid approach”, where live sections are touched up with studio material and entire passages from studio sessions are inserted into live material. Durkin attempts to tally the ratios in the album’s notes and comes to a rough average 90% live material/10% studio, disregarding the entirely live “Don’t Let ‘em Getcha” and the studio recording of “Fuck The Muck (part one)”. Thus Leef has the spontaneity of live performance along with the lightning transitions and rounded edges of a studio work. Add to that a beguiling uniqueness, humor and beauty and you have a great record by an incredible ensemble.

Our work and why we do it

Honestly, sometimes I get a bigger kick out of reading student reviews of the IJG than I do the sort of (often) self-important prose that passes for music criticism these days. Not that I have any lasting grudge against self-important prose -- I spew enough of it into the world myself. But, from the point of view of a bandleader who is tryin' to do somethin' different, it's refreshing every once in a while (or even more frequently than that!) to step out of the high-minded discourse community of music critics, and see what kind of impression you're making on the youth of the world.

(Of course I'm not the only one who feels this way.)

Witness this nice piece written by Manny Beltran, one of the attendees at our Bakersfield show back in April (pictured above with Jill Knapp and Tany Ling):

"Oh crap here we go!" these are the opening words sung by Jill Knapp, one of the two singers of The Industrial Jazz Group. And "here we go" is right: the 11-piece horn section is adorned with random hats that range from a wizard's hat to a lobster head. The trombonist, Mike Richardson, did not wear a hat; instead he appears on stage wearing nothing but a nude color speedo.

But don't let the Josie and the Pussycat ears, the metallic alien outfit or any of the of-the-wall hats fool you. Underneath the geeky and funky hats are musicians, skilled musician with tons of energy ready to be unleashed into the crowd.

The Industrial Jazz Group is the brain child of Andrew Durkin. He formed the band in the spring of 2000 as a straight forward jazz quintet that over the years evolved to what he calls the "big band monstrosity."

Durkin's influences early on were Frank Zappa, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Raymond Scott just to name a few. He played the classical piano as a kid and turned to rock as teen, then as he became older and wiser began listening to more jazz.

The 17 piece eccentric ensemble plays Durkin's loose form of jazz. His arrangements change tempos and styles going from swing to waltz to sultry latin flavors all in the same song. An entertaining style of jazz that Jill feels is more accessible to audiences that don't normally listen to the genre. "Jazz isn't scary," she exclaims.

The two vocalists, Knapp and Tany Ling would prefer to be known as part of the band as opposed to lead singers. Durkin's songs have few "true" lyrics, instead the vocalists use their voices as instruments, humming or making sound effects or repeating phrases such as "why I oughta!", "jazz pop jerk offs!" or "diarrhea!". And while the brass section goes in and out of short solos or whirlwind arrangements, you will find Knapp and Ling in funny quasi-synchronized dances. But the ladies can't have all the fun dancing the night away, so occasionally the horn section will do their own renditions of what can only be assumed is dancing. And as the saying goes they "dance like nobody is watching."

All these antics are to connect with the audience and get them dancing and the resulting effect is a reciprocal one. The more the crowd gets into the show and dances, the more energy the band gives back. Knapp admits that playing in the Dore Theatre is a challenge considering the audience is seated and had no room to dance. But it isn't hard to see heads and shoulders swaying rhythmically to the music along with the faint sound of tapping feet. During one song, Ling ran off the stage and began to dance and clap having the audience clap along with her.

Bassist Oliver Newell describes his experience with the band as "quite different from any other band" he's been in. He adds, "it's wonderfully excessive post-modernism."

The band also has a local resident of Bakersfield, Kris Tiner. He has been with the band for seven years and he teaches music part-time at Bakersfield College and Cal State Bakersfield. He says of Durkin, called by some band members the evil genius, concerning the loose environment, "He lets people do what you want to do." This atmosphere seems to breed love amongst the musicians. Knapp can attest to this, "I have a crush on the band (as a whole). It's a love."

When asked if they wanted to add anything else Mike Richardson said, "Oliver trains albino rats" and Knapp adds, "Richardson has his way with watermelons." Can't you feel the love?

Described by its members as a big party, The Industrial Jazz Group had a big party on Friday night and everyone in attendance danced, laughed and had a great time.

Who could ask for anything more? Thanks, Manny!

So Last Year

[El Intruso requested this list of my 10 favorite albums from last year for their 2008 musician's poll. It will be published in February.]

I didn't hear everything I wanted to in 2008, but here are some records I really enjoyed: randomly selected, in no particular order, and accompanied by the briefest of commentary. (I love calling them "records," by the way, even though they aren't.)

I probably left many things out; I'm not good at keeping track of this stuff.

* * * * *

Empty Cage Quartet: Stratostrophic (Clean Feed)
More than any other artist I keep close tabs on, these guys inspire to me listen through their music's surface-level qualities (e.g., timbre, aspects of ensemble interaction) in order to try and understand the compositional techniques and philosophies that are, well, "behind the music." In other words: the exact cure-for-a-short-attention-span that I've been looking for.

Lesley Kernochan: The Pickle Jar
"Do it because you love it and for no other reason." That there is some of the best advice I got all year; it's from the album's second track. Imbued with that old-timey jazz vibe that Portland musicians (or, in Kernochan's case, ex-Portland musicians) are so obsessed with, plus a little Laura Nyro-ishness on the side.

PLOTZ!: Live 2008 (PMPCD)
All the subtlety of jazz mashed up with the aggression of metal and the rhythmic prestidigitation of Balkan music. A (live!) CD that was, as you might imagine from a band with a built-in exclamation point, one of the two most intense, driving things I heard all year.

The Mars Volta: The Bedlam in Goliath (Universal)
The other of the two most intense, driving things I heard all year. I find myself laughing at various points whenever I listen to this -- probably for the wrong reasons (the same reasons I used to laugh at Yes albums, in fact). But at the same time I find this stuff musically gratifying (though I need a nap afterward).

Deerhoof: Offend Maggie (Kill Rock Stars)
The quirk knob on this group goes to eleven, so of course I am all over it. Thankfully, there is no accompanying "cute knob" to cancel out the quirk. That's a very hard thing to pull off when you have a heavily-accented chick singer.

Erykah Badu: New Amerykah, Pt. 1 (Universal)
Honestly, I think Badu deserves most of the love that Beyonce is currently getting.

Graham Reynolds and the Golden Arm Trio: Cult of Color (Rickety Fence)
My favorite contemporary composer, probably. Everything he does is ambitious.

My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges (ATO)
Pitchfork called this album "incongruous and awkward." Exactly why I like it, you bastards.

Reptet: Chicken or Beef? (Monktail)
I'll have the chicken, I guess. But look! It's Reptet. We in the IJG like to think of them as our more lithe, slightly jazzier, more extravagantly costumed northern cousins.

Veda Hille: This Riot Life (Ape Hill)
"The killer of god stays up all night long." That was me in college. Anyway, this is some of the most creative music-that-errs-on-the-side-of-pop that I've heard in a long time. The production is a little delicate for my taste, but the great compositions burst through anyway.

Boy, do I hate year-end lists. Bye!

I wish I spoke Spanish

That way I could have a better understanding of this review of LEEF, just published in the Argentine jazz webzine El Intruso.

Still and all, the google translator turned up this paragraph, which will have to go into my personal hall of fame:

Andrew Durkin, who despite having a doctorate in English literature are self pseudo-intellectual, not designed this maze called the Industrial Jazz Group for ridicule or leave us hanging from a branch like a chimp or for us to eat the boogers in the fetal position while we admire his and spark insight. On the contrary, it invites us to immerse ourselves in this sea of complications in the spirit of that sharpens the wit from a playful perspective. And I see no evil.

Awesome.

Anyway, big thanks to Sergio Piccirilli for giving this poor bastard of a record some attention and love.