RVANews

Patois – Patois

Aaron Williams — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:00:40 +0000

If you haven’t heard Patois’ remix of No BS! Brass Band’s song Khan, go here immediately and download it for free. While you are listening, download their new album free on the same page! Some things are worth paying for and some things worth paying for are free. On Tuesday, July 5th Patois released its debut record Patois.

Recorded during the summer of 2010 in Charlottesville, Virginia, guitarist Karl Morse and drummer Grant Bauley spent hours writing, recording and mixing a collection of tunes that combine quite a few influences. In addition to the unique combination of styles, the record combines a host of musicians, many recording techniques and even a few interesting cities.

Patois has a lot of intricate grooves. Its thick sounds required the help of fifteen different collaborators. Musicians include guitarist Jamal Millner, saxophonist Jason Arce, multi-instrumentalist Marcus Tenney, saxophonist David Hood, multi-instrumentalist Devonne Harris, bassist Andrew Randazzo, saxophonist Jonathan Gibson, keyboardist Gabe Churray, guitarist Rob Dobson and keyboardist Joey Ciucci.

Self-labeled surf pop, this record sounds like the Medeski, Martin and Wood tune “Chantes Des Femmes” off of Radiolarians III only with a whole new layer of recording tricks on top of the sound. The delays and reverbs add an entire new dimension that helps to bridge the gap between 70’s dub, Jamaican reggae and the modern ideas used by Bauley and Morse.

Listen to "Observer":
[audio:http://media.rvanews.com/06 Observer.mp3|artists=Patois]

Some of the tunes venture away from simple island sounds of surf pop. "Pastime," features several different sections including an alto saxophone solo drenched in delay. Its multi metered form is far more complex than the simple grooves of the rest of the album. It is a hidden gem that appears next to last on the record.

Listen to "Pastime":
[audio:http://media.rvanews.com/09 Pastime.mp3|artists=Patois]

Bauley and Morse are products of the Richmond music scene, but both have experienced a lot in their brief time away from the 804. After travelling to Doha, Qatar with a small combo from Virginia Commonwealth University, Karl Morse signed a ten-month teaching/ performance contract to return to Doha. (Morse Interview) Now only a few years separated from college, Morse live in Chicago and Bauley in New York City. Fortunately that didn’t stop either of them from using mostly musicians from central Virginia to record Patois.

This record isn’t jazz, but it is a quality record. It is a fantastic gateway into the lesser known sounds and styles of dub and not-Bob-Marley-reggae and it is a free opportunity to hear Richmond jazz musicians showcase their flexibility.

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Karl Morse: Jazz in the Middle East

Dean Christesen — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:00:20 +0000

Out of sight and very much out of mind for most Americans, western knowledge of the Middle Eastern peninsular country Qatar is proportionate to the country's size -- it’s smaller than Connecticut. Like its bigger Arabian neighbors, Qatar is known for its oil production and its hot desert climate, which nears an average of 130 degrees Fahrenheit in the hottest two months of the year. That’s so hot, most of the country’s large expatriate population flees in the summer to escape the hellish heat.

For the remaining ten months this year and next -- while it's not as hot -- guitarist Karl Morse will be living there on a teaching and performing contract. The 23-year-old Ashland native and Virginia Commonwealth University alumnus will become one of only a handful of musicians that play the majority of music gigs private and public in the city of Doha.

The capital of Qatar, Doha houses Education City -- a complex of campuses for several American schools including VCU -- and, up until recently, was a musical and cultural desert. Around the time that the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani brought forward his vision of molding Qatar into a cultural capital with a Museum of Islamic Art, British trumpeter Chris Coull made his way to Doha to bring change to the city’s music scene, laying the groundwork for real live music to replace the norm: canned music accompanying solo singers. Artificial cheese product was out, Gruyère was in.

Coull’s foundation now provides careers for musicians who are in demand for both teaching and entertainment purposes, which Morse and I got to see during a short trip to Doha in November 2008 with a small jazz ensemble from VCU. In less than three weeks and nearly two years since our visit, Morse will return.

What was your experience like culturally when we went to Qatar, and what do you expect to find when you go back?

It’s wild. It’s a weird contrast, because you feel like you’re very far away from America in a very exotic place. At the same time, you feel some strange similarities too, because it’s become so modernized. Traffic, skyscrapers, mobile phones, SUVs. It’s very much an Arabian desert Islamic country. I knew there was the oil wealth that’s funding this rapid growth. It’s just a weird mix.

I feel like there aren’t as many lifestyle changes that I personally will have to make, [compared to when] we went over, although we were only there for a week. I think I can pretty much live the life I do. I’m not a rowdy type. I’m not a religious type. So obviously there will be changes out of respect for the culture. Everybody seemed really friendly when we there, which is a good sign.

I’ve been talking to Hallvard, the guitarist over there right now whose place I’ll pretty much be taking. He’s saying everyone is friendly and we’ll be staying busy but it’s a pretty easy life. People come up and greet you on gigs and seem appreciative. He fishes a lot in his spare time, which I was kind of surprised to hear.

I’m kind of a food nerd, so I’m excited to try and sample... I know there’s a bunch of different cuisines catering to the Southern Asian laborers, Indian and Filipino residents.

I’m also really worried about driving.

You’ll have to drive?

Not initially. Hallvard will be there for the first two months that I’m there. I’ll have a private driver to and from the school. But I’m responsible for my transportation for gigs in the evenings. Hallvard’s helping out and I’ll have taxis when I first get there. But I’ll have to buy a car once he leaves, and then I’ll be responsible for driving to gigs. But all the traffic roundabouts, and everyone bringing their own customs. That’s a little intimidating, but I’ll be forced to get the hang of it. It’s just a little scary. As a foreigner, if you get in a wreck with a Qatari, it’s your fault. Apparently they have really strict laws -- not that anyone follows them -- to try and curb the high accident rate. I read they’re trying to replace roundabouts with stoplights, but I expect a lot of them to still be there when I get there.

How about musical expectations? When we were there, we heard that the jazz scene before Chris Coull was pretty much karaoke, or playing to tracks. Then Chris came on and created this scene.

I guess he did make it. How he got these contacts to get people over there is beyond me. I don’t know his history or start up, but it’s very interesting. From what I gather, the pool of musicians is very small.

And so is the pool of people who appreciate live music, wouldn't you say?

Yeah, probably. From what I gather, it’s not like the audience will be a lot of natives or locals. It’s going to be people in hotels, hotel bars, the occasional private event. But it will be a pretty international crowd. I’m sure there will be some more concert vibe nights, but it’s definitely kind of a background gig.

How about the teaching part? Is that the majority of your contract?

By sheer number of hours, yeah. I’m teaching five days a week and I’ll have about 40 students a week. From what I gather, it’s an after school type thing, I guess for a lot of the western and expat schools, whoever speaks English. That’s at the International Center for Music, which is just a villa with a bunch of private studios, so I think there’s an international bunch of teachers. The guy who’s hiring me for that has been pretty non-communicative. I’ve gone through Chris for everything.

I was going to say, it sounds like a lot is still up in the air, and you’ll find out the rest when you get there.

It kind of is. I’ve pushed for more details. It really has been a push. Chris tells me that’s reflective of the culture: very laid back, and deadlines and appointments are lax. I basically harassed them to get a written contract, which they didn’t care if I signed or not. The visa stuff is still not completely squared away. I think they do visas upon arrival, but I’ve heard conflicting things. We’ll see! I’ve had two emails with the head of the school the entire time. Two emails. Probably a hundred with Chris. He’s been helpful and patient as I badger him with questions. Chris has been very specific, so that’s been good, but there will still definitely be a degree of, “Oh, this is how it will work, I wish I had known about this.”

The teaching thing should be cool. I suspect it’s a mix of some talented kids who are actually trying to do something and run of the mill kids.

Like anywhere.

Yeah. I have so many students that I don’t know if it’s tied into their school or if it’s all voluntary. That might have an effect on the level of interest. It is what it is. I’m used to teaching kids who don’t really know why they’re there. That will be on a western school schedule with western holidays. With three or four gigs a week, I’ll be staying pretty busy.

Hallvard has said that since we were there, the pool of musicians has gotten better and they’re playing at a higher level, which is good. No backing tracks. Chris sent me a packet of spiral bound notebooks of music just to check out. A lot is going to be standards, jazz originals, and also the same crop of backing vocalists. There’s also a salsa folder, a Blues Brothers show, and then a funk-fusion band. The amount of the music they’re playing and the genres are increasing. Maybe that’s a reflection of some audience actually wanting to hear a specific type of music instead of just throwing an ornate Middle Eastern party and needing it to look good with a band.

I’m going to be playing bass on some gigs, which is also a reflection of the small pool of musicians.

You just started playing mandolin. Are you bringing that?

I just bought my new mandolin to shed over there. Hopefully I won’t be living next to sensitive neighbors, but I’ll be in an apartment complex with other workers and people my age.

While I have a girlfriend and friends over here who I love spending time with, I’m kind of looking forward to some degree of isolation and time to myself. I’m living in an apartment by myself, so I’m looking forward to some time to really dig into stuff musically in my off time, even though that won’t be as much as it could be.

I’ve also always wanted to travel. [Doha is] not the most happening city, and it’s not my first pick of destinations. But I didn’t dislike it there.

It’s central to what seems like tons of travel destinations. Will you have the opportunity to travel?

That’s up in the air. That was another thing that was not really laid out in stone. I know I have four weeks of vacation time spread out through the contract. I really want to take that time if I can to travel. I’d love to get to Turkey while Skip is there and have him show me around and to try and play with those cats.

Where else would you go?

That’s a good question. Dubai is a 45 minute plane ride, but I don’t know how much I want to go there. Right now, it seems to me to be like a more beefed up version of Doha. I’d love to go to Cairo if I could to do the whole pyramid thing. Athens isn’t too far away. I don’t think it’s going to happen, and I don’t know if I’m the seasoned traveler to make it happen the right away, but I’d love to get to India. I’m really into Indian culture and their food. That might be unrealistic, but it would be a pretty crazy experience. I don’t know I’m ready to make that trip solo.

Hopefully this will lead at least to friendships, but some kind of connections with some European cats. There are some Americans over there playing music, but Chris is British, Hallvard is Norweigan, there’s a Czech guy. And I’ve always wanted to go to Europe.

I’m also interested in seeing if there’s any kind of native music.

We did a little bit of searching when we were there.

Yeah, in the sukh [market]. Whether it’s native to Qatar, I don’t know. I didn’t get the sense that it’s very prominent. There might be some ritualistic uses for special occasions. I’m excited to see if I can’t find a native music.

I’ve always found you to be a really fluid player who can shake things up. So how would you characterize your own playing, and how do you feel that your style has been shaped?

I appreciate that. That’s not something conscious that I think to myself. But I definitely think it’s due to the fact that I listen to so much different music that has different appeals and not just kind of a more standard, “I just gotta listen to this jazz vocab” approach. I definitely like to pull from certain things, like some drama from rock music. I’m not much of a classical player, but I really admire some harmonic elements from that. The dynamics. I try to pick up from that a little bit. Also, [guitarist Adam] Larrabee helped me lately with some stylistic points kind of related to that as well, just drawing from different inspirations.

Listening to different musicians, or listening differently to music you already know?

It could be as simple as a Joe Pass thing that I’ve been listening to for five years. Phrasing was a big thing that I worked on a little bit consciously, but then I developed my own sense of it. Fluid phrasing, logical phrasing with a direction, a discernible beginning and end. That was one of my problems. I feel like it is for a lot of guitar players: just spitting off stuff, not connecting the dots and not finishing an idea.

For me, I’m not someone who has some crazy natural ear or ability on the instrument, so it’s easy to fall into traps that the guitar presents for you whether they are licks or positions or ways of constructing chords. Definitely music school in general helped, but Adam and Skip [Gailes] helped me with that, too. Playing with Skip almost every weekend for a while at the Jefferson [Hotel] helped, too, because he was definitely candid about what he liked and what he didn’t like.

That gig was always very friendly and low key. Not everything I played worked obviously, but that helped open my ears up. [Skip] would test my limits and easily found out what I was capable of hearing and responding to. Even though he probably dumbed down some stuff, he still challenged me.

And lately I’ve been playing a lot of mandolin.

Which probably requires you to think a little differently.

Yeah. I’m trying to make it a return to more innocent days of following your ear and not really knowing much about the instrument, coming up with ways of doing it instead of having this ingrained set of tools that you know you can use. That’s slow going because I’m not gigging on it and don’t have a lot of outlets for it yet, but it’s been fun.

To keep in touch with Karl, email karlkmorse AT gmail.com.

All photos by Dean Christesen, except the last by David Ashby.

Richmond Jazz Collective: Anticipated premiere

Dean Christesen — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Two months later, it's happening: the premiere of the big band that was to rival any other like it in Richmond. This band is actually way more than two months in the making, though. The Richmond Jazz Collective started out as an idea by VCU students Ben Heemstra and Lucas Fritz that turned into rehearsals of a workshop-type band in the fall. I sat in on one of those rehearsals in November as they prepared for their big debut, which was originally to take place on February 1.

So why, after two months, have their sounds been contained to Muse Creative Workspace -- their rehearsal space in Shockoe Bottom -- and the occasional member's recital?

The fellas raised some eyebrows when their methods of acquiring the charts that they would be performing in February came into question. Narrowly avoiding legal ramifications concerning copyright law, they learned their lesson and they now own their charts fair and square.

Some other things have changed since those first several meetings. For one, the band's line-up saw some changes including the vacancy of the artistic director position left by Taylor Barnett as well as a trombone chair by Bryan Hooten, both VCU faculty.

The band has pressed forward regardless. Sitting in on another rehearsal on Monday, this one their last before their big premiere, I see that despite these obstacles, they really do sound good.

Guys trickle in around 10pm to the rehearsal on North 19th Street on Monday night. There are a couple latecomers, but it's no big deal. They set up in formation -- which extends nearly halfway into audience seating, so luckily it's just me there -- and get their tunes in order to run the set. There's a little bit of the expected fare for big band in there: two Thad Jones charts, a Frank Foster tune made famous by Count Basie, and a couple Sammy Nestico pieces.

But of the eight tunes that will make up Monday's set, three stand out from the rest. There's the Björk song "Unison," arranged for big band by Fritz, who also plays the Dave Douglas-inspired tune with his octet Compass Rose Orchestra. Guitarist Karl Morse arranged the St. Vincent song "The Party," a downtempo jam that better accompanies the after-party complexities than the during-party carefree vibe. The third is "Easy Gentle," an original flowing waltz by band member and trombonist Ballard Midyette that will feature David Hood on soprano saxophone and Mark Ingraham on cornet.

The standard literature for the sacred institution that is the big band isn't as up to date as these three are, but they can still pack a punch. The set opener, Thad Jones's "Back Bone," is a heavily driving feature for the trombones. Even Frank Foster's "Shiny Stockings" and Sammy Nestico's "Rachel" -- a beautiful feature for trumpeter Rob Quallich -- result in peaks in intensity and decibels despite calmer beginnings.

Opening up the set will be a smaller ensemble under the direction of Doug Richards performing works from Duke Ellington's "Unknown Sessions" for small group and Miles Davis's legendary "Birth of the Cool" nonet. The ensemble is essentially a class for the eight VCU students plus one alumnus that make up the group. They meet several times a week to work on the repertoire under the guidance of Richards, who has either strong emotional or personal connections to the work of Duke Ellington and the Miles Davis Nonet.

Better late than never, the Richmond Jazz Collective begins their monthly adventure at The Camel on Monday night. A promising group that has the potential to become part of the realm of modern and unique big bands, they're taking it one step at a time. Patience, after all, is one quality they've proven to attain.

View event details

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Richmond Jazz Collective is: David Hood, Suzi Fischer, John Lilley, Marcus Tenney, Jonathan Gibson: saxophones; Stefan Demetriadis, Alex Powers, Ballard Midyette, Reginald Chapman: trombones; Rob Quallich, Mark Ingraham, Ben Heemstra, Lucas Fritz: trumpets; Devonne Harris: drums; Andrew Randazzo: bass; Karl Morse: guitar; David Tennenholtz: piano.

Small group is: Lucas Fritz: trumpet; Suzi Fischer: alto saxophone; Jonathan Gibson: baritone saxophone; David Hood: tenor saxophone; Nate Lee: trombone; Ben White: piano; Andrew Randazzo: bass; Sam Sherman: drums; Stephanie Fairbairn Ycaz: tuba.

Guitar summit (but everyone’s invited)

Dean Christesen — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:42:34 +0000

Looking into an audience of mostly musicians between tunes on a Monday night in December, guitarist Alan Parker quipped something to the effect of "Welcome to the RVA jazz musician's summit." It was a pretty accurate assessment: like that one, some shows just turn out to be musician hangs with nary a casual non-musician observer in the house.

On Tuesday night at The Camel, Alan will hold a "guitar summit," and it's happening on the stage this time instead of among the audience.

In addition to his own group, Alan has invited two other guitarists -- Karl Morse and Adam Larrabee -- to lead their bands. The jazz diplomacy begins around 8:30 with Karl Morse Quartet, featuring saxophonist Jonathan Gibson, bassist Andrew Randazzo, and drummer Devonne Harris. Alan's AP Connection, which includes bassist Cameron Ralston and drummer Billy Williams, hits next. Adam Larrabee Trio featuring bassist Randall Pharr and drummer Brian Jones (the same group that was originally slated to perform at RVAJazzfest before the snow kicked in) will close the night out, beginning around 11. That group recently put out their album Money Jungle (a re-imagining of the Ellington/Mingus/Roach classic), so we might expect to hear some of those cuts.

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