Without Understanding

A few weeks ago , former England rubgy union scrum half Danny Care described the firing of England coach Eddie Jones as “surreal”. Will Collar recently employed the same term when describing his hat trick for Stockport County in their FA Cup tie with Charlton Athletic. Both these cases suggest that the word “surreal” has moved away from its origins in the world of dreams and the unconscious and has shifted towards being an expression of disbelief or a descriptor of absurdity. In contemporary poetry, the term is still in use and has been applied to the work of poets such as Selima Hill and Caroline Bird. I found that “ The Art of Recklessness” by the late poet Dean Young caused me to think about whether old school surrealism has survived in contemporary poetry. Has it become more of a synonym for “absurd” or is it something else entirely?

Young quotes from “Free Union” by Andre Breton, the seminal figure in the surrealist movement. A couple of lines will serve as examples of the work.

“My wife whose shoulders are champagne” or

(My wife) “whose waist is the waist of an otter caught in the teeth of a tiger”

While lines like these are perhaps absolutely typical of the originators of surrealism, they are also pretty much what a contemporary poet might produce if asked to parody the style. So has surrealism lost the power of its original impact?

Young says “even before the poem ends, a modern reader, rather familiar with eyebrows that are nests of sparrows, grows a bit bored, a bit too clued in to the system…this raunchy, racy poem seems a bit quaint’.

It’s interesting to compare this with Caroline Bird’s “Checkout” a playful and moving description of an end of life scenario. Here, it’s the situation and its consequences which might be described as surreal, as the protagonist is asked to fill in a customer satisfaction questionnaire before exiting life.

The central image in the poem is this -

“Your face like a cartoon treasure chest glowing with gold light”

To me, it’s an image that feels materially different from those of Breton, yet it could certainly have originated in a dream. Are they both surreal in the same way? My instinct is to say no but perhaps I’m wrong! It’s interesting that I can’t currently articulate the difference in a meaningful way! Am I being affected by the word “cartoon” which suggests contemporary animation or is it just that the poets have very different voices?

I’m still thinking about this stuff and if anyone else is, I’d really recommend Young’s “The Art of Recklessness’ as a stimulating read.

Here's a bit more of Martin Chung and myself as Dual Space. The track "Little By Little" also features the excellent Geoff Hewitt on drums. Martin even designed a Blue Note style cover! Hope you enjoy and please buy if you can!

Have a listen here!

Last month I played keyboard with the excellent Ruby Wood at Marsden Jazz Festival, near Huddersfield. On guitar was my very talented Dual Space compadre, Martin Chung. On that particular gig Martin was using his comprehensive pedal board to produce textural and orchestral soundscapes. Sometimes it was hard to believe that a guitar was the source of these incredible sounds.

In contrast, here's Martin and I playing with a more conventional sound on our duet on Stevie Wonder's "I Wish". It's always great to play with Martin who can fit into any musical situation. He's recently been developing his playing in the "Gypsy Jazz" idiom so that's something to watch out for!

I've been a fan of Jim Mullen since his Telecaster years. Back in the day, I listened fairly obsessively to an old live recording of his. I liked the feel, the bluesiness and the warm vibrato on long notes.

Since then I've been fortunate to play organ with Jim a few times and this has given me the opportunity to witness his magical properties at first hand and has really deepened my appreciation of his playing. The most recent of these occasions occurred at the Four on Six festival in June. When a video of Jim's solo on “When Sunny Gets Blue” materialised, I thought that the solo was a gem that crystallised the qualities inherent in Jim's playing. I decided to transcribe it. You can watch the video here.

I'd like to offer a brief commentary. I have not tried to notate any string bending (not that there is a great deal anyway!) or glissandi. The audio will clarify these aspects if you want to play along. Like all transcriptions there's an element of rhythmic approximation. There a couple of times when Jim seems to be implying a triplet feel but I felt that trying to accommodate this would make the transcription harder to read. Hopefully it all makes sense!

One interesting thing about Jim's playing is how much it is rooted in the American tradition, specifically that which was created by African Americans in the 20th century. While contemporary trends in European improvised music continue to evolve away from the source, Jim's music is full of the blues and the bop. You can hear the former in bar 100 (where interestingly, he plays a Bb blues lick over C7!) and the latter all over the solo, for example in bar 116 where he negotiates the C7 by transitioning through all three forms of the ninth. In addition, the intensity generating raised semitone in bar 86 is straight out of the Charlie Parker playbook! One compelling reason for studying this solo is to see the continually developing relationship between melody and chords. Rather like Chet Baker, Jim delineates the chords by hitting key tones at important points in a way that would allow a listener to identify the song purely from the improvised melody. This is particularly interesting in the case of “When Sunny Gets Blue” which offers frequent tonal shifts for the improvisor to negotiate. There's the fairly seismic movement in bar 3 of the head (bar 15 of the transcription) which Jim uses to brilliant effect throughout the solo... there's the movement into C in the first half of the bridge followed by the descent into Bb in the second half. Jim rides these waves on a surfboard of melodic invention!

Another feature worth remarking on and one of which all Jim Mullen aficionados will be aware, is the use of quotes from other tunes. We've all done it but we usually do it in obvious places. It’s straightforward when the chords of the current tune and the quoted one are identical or very similar. You can play “Fly Me To The Moon” over “All The Things You Are” or vice versa and “Weaver Of Dreams” will fit nicely over “There Will Never Be Another You”. Alternatively, just bang the opening phrase of “Summertime” over chord I of any minor key standard or “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” over chord I of a major key counterpart! All this is too easy for Jim who prefers to put his quotations in places where they would not easily be expected to fit! To take two examples from the transcribed solo - in bar 17 the opening of “Bewitched Bothered And Bewildered” turns up. It would usually occur over I , bII dim, IIm7, bIII dim, Ib, III7 (V7 in A minor) etc. Here, it happens over I 6/9, IV13, IIIm7 and is perfect.Even the major 3rd against the G minor chord comes and goes so quickly it’s not a problem! Have a look at “Stranger In Paradise” in bar 141 and enjoy the way Jim chromatically modifies the end of the phrase to fit the Abm7 chord. Ingenious!

The whole beautifully constructed solo is full of this restless imagination and invention. It sounds composed but it's happening in the moment. I'm pretty sure that Jim doesn't quite hit his intended note at the end of bar 117 This is just more evidence that he's going for it all the time, every time he plays. It's the exact opposite of someone just running licks over the changes. It’s Jim Mullen - not just one of the best guitar players in Britain but one of the great risk taking musicians of our time.

(Citation needed but) almost everyone who operates in the field of popular music believes that Stevland Morris is one of the greats. People remember the classic tunes with love and reverence but he’s such a seminal figure that you perhaps begin to take him for granted. A return to a long remembered Stevie Wonder classic after time away has a visceral effect. “Too High” for example. Forget the fact that it’s got an outrageous groove, duelling harmonicas and synth bass which communicates with body and mind and just look at the structure and the harmony. The parallel chords which come in after three, not four, bars, descending over a dominant pedal. The repetitions of “too high” which come after three, not four, beats, the chorus built on 13th chords starting a semitone below the main key of the tune, the unexpected harmonic excursions in the verse. All of these point to a specialist or minority interest music but this is a well known pop song. From where is it coming?

Download (right click)

I recorded this tune "The Enveloping Sky" at the Swing Ting studio in Manchester. It was one of two and I'll post the second one later. I've been playing melodica for a long time. I've found that it gives me freedom to concentrate purely on a melodic line. When playing piano, the left hand advances the harmonic situation and affects where the right is going. On melodica, it's more freeing - at least that's how it feels to me. You can achieve a similar feeling by soloing with right hand only on piano but you still don't have the control over note duration and expression that a wind instrument gives you. I've noticed a small amount of online disapproval for the melodica. For some reason it seems to generate strong feelings. I'm reminded of the time when an audience member came up to me before a gig and asked me if I was going to be playing melodica. I said that I wasn't. "Oh good" he replied "I hate that!"

If you'd still like to listen after that non recommendation, please do. It's not available anywhere else and is downloadable here.