London thirsty Thursdays
If there is such a thing as Jazz in the neo-traditional tip, then this is it. How about throwing around a few other genre descriptions like “dub electro” or “fusion-esque”? Bottom line is that the story of “133 Thursdays” by Pushmipulyu [Interchill Records – ICHILLD028CD] is more fascinating than trying to pigeon-hole their style of music. In fact the latter can be summed-up thusly: if you are over 35 years old, they sound like a throwback to fusion jazz, and if you are under 35, they’re an education of jazz alchemy. It seems the Brits are in many ways holding American Jazz music truer to their hearts than “we” are in the States these days, I must report with mixed emoticons. “In many ways it belongs in neither camp, and has borrowed elements of all manner of music,” one of the collaborators named Steve told me.
It is the back and forth between this duo of London composer/friends, Michael Sassen and Steve Rowlands, encompassing a period which the title describes as they met on one chosen night of the week to create. Their roots are in the underground music scene in places where people musically experimented with their psychedelic souls. Michael and Steve transported that into a just-for-the-fun-of-it collaboration at first, and then 133 Thursdays later, the delightfully self-deprecating duo has turned out these ten tracks.
On tracks "Mr. Jelly” and “Cushion”, all I need is some Miles Davis-style wailing, whiney trumpet to be totally transfixed back to a simpler time. The keyboard work on this entire LP is Chick Corea-meets-Herbie Hancock. An interesting yet still probing to find themselves tune is “Syzugy”, the music first taking on the feel of a suspense movie scene where the hero detective lurks about an office in the shadows after-hours in search of evidence to crack the case. Then it swings into a second, more uptempo and almost danceable stanza, which is about as close as Rowlands and Sassen come to an actual house or club uptempo party track because of the steady, pulsing beat, keyboards and sax stylings. I like that every cut features rich and full bass tones; a nice round bottom, as it were.
“Hyde Park Fauna” includes some interesting musings and must be what they mean by “ambient”, and also a ballsy 1970s sounding saxophone horn section. It almost sound like one of the jams from Herbie Hancock’s mid-‘80s robot days. You hear “It’s a great life; its living it that’s the problem” at one point, and then at the very end one of the mates utters, “live each day as if it were your last one on Earth, and then one day you’ll be right.” such an obviously brutal truth that it is almost comical. Now totally confused, I get a reply to my quest for their itinerary where Michael told us, “Because most jazz musicians can't dance and hate techno whereas despite having 4 legs, Pushmipulyu dance like John Travolta on speed....just come and see for yourself the next time they go out partying!" Whew! So insofar as this is mostly jazzy, mellow listening background music it is a fine first time together effort, given that one can appreciate the personal sacrifices they made to stick to a schedule of jamming every fifth day of the week. However, in my frame of reference which is mainly for true high energy Dance and club music, it doesn't fit my personal taste so I can only bestow a very thirsty three stars. Perhaps more bounce may happen next time on a different day of the week.
