The only thing I can glean at a glance from the word “Jazzanova” is that somehow, Jazz is involved with a “cataclysmic nuclear explosion caused by the accretion of hydrogen” (Wikipedia). It is when I finally get to listen to the latest album The Remixes 2002 – 2005, that I finally understand. The music itself isnt necessarily explosive. Jazz is, afterall, the founding element and the Jazzanova crew ensures the album retains the usual simmering energy particular to Jazz. It is, in fact, the process and the result of the combined elements fused together that marks the music of Jazzanova as cataclysmic. So who are or what is Jazzanova? And what associates them and Jazz with dance? As a classical/jazz musician and therefore part of a very select group that simultaneously enjoys both Jazz and dance music, the question intrigued me. I got the lowdown from Jürgen von Knoblauch at Sonar Kollective Headquarters in Germany, the center of operations housing a number of record labels, including the Jazzanova label.
“Where are calling you from?” Jurgen’s polite and dulcet tones ask me. “I’m not sure you may know,” I reply, slightly embarrassed, thinking of him sitting in the SK office in Berlin. “A rather small city called Brisbane, in Queensland.” “Oh yes!” he responds, rather enthusiastically. “I bought a few records from a store on Queen Street in February.” I smile to think that Jurgen travels around Europe with a few Brisbane records in his bag, my pride in my hometown restored. After the exchange of a few pleasantries and laughing that it is 10.30 in the morning there and 8.30 at night here (always a great ice breaker), I finally manage to ask: “What is it about Jazz that captures you?” “Jazz is a very important part of our lives,” he replied. “It’s extremely spiritual. None of us have a jazz background,” he inserts, pre-empting my next question. “We grew up with pop, found reggae along the way, have always enjoyed the soulful stuff. And then a friend from Compost Records, a fellow DJ and music lover sent me a tape of music (this was very late 1980s). I started looking into a bit more of this music: Art Blakey, Dexter Gordan, Horace Silver, Eddie Gailes and others. It’s the improv; the solo part of Jazz we especially love.”
Jurgen’s mention of ‘We’ no doubt refers to the Jazzanova ‘kollective’, Alexander Barck, Claas Brieler, Roskow Kretschmann, Stefan Leisering and Axel Reinemer. The 6 piece DJ/Production unit are marked as global advocators of the European-propelled nujazz movement. In my musings, I think how exciting it is to be speaking to someone who is actually a part of history; one to be labeled alongside the revolutionary cats from a hundred years ago when Jazz was merely an idea in the works and not yet established but ready to burst forth as the newest music for the century. Whilst nujazz is not exactly on par or quite as significant, when listening to any of Jazzanova’s albums you can feel the impetus that something new, innovative and fresh is in the air. Jazz indeed has a future.
The humble beginnings of Jazzanova started in the mid 90s in the club arena at Delicious Doughnuts Research – or DDR; the initials for the now defunct former country of East Germany formerly known as The German Democractic Republic (we must recall the mid 90s as a particularly exciting time in Gemany, what with the fall of the Berlin Wall allowing previously isolated and insular Eastern European regions access to the music and culture of the West – and vice versa). When DDR asked a few of their DJs to produce a few tracks for the club, Alexander, Claas and Jurgen sat down and had a very good think about the sort of music they wanted to produce. They then approached Stefan, Axel and Roskow, DJ colleagues from the hip hop arena, for the project. While the three tracks they put together did not result in a finished album for the DDR Club, the positive vibes remained as a solid motivation. In 1997, BBC’s Gilles Peterson gave Jazzanova their first break, playing one of the tracks “Fedime’s Flight” on his radio program, igniting a run of remix projects and EPs and finally culminating in their debut album, In Between. The Jazzanova Compost Record label then began to embrace other sources of material, looking at artists Incognito, 4 Hero, Koop and Victor Davies among others; while also returning to the past of instrumental and vocal Jazz, (focussing particularly on Polish Jazz). With the prevalent influences of hip hop, house and jazz, Jazzanova are certainly conspicuous in their diversity.
Whilst the standard 4/4 beats (being 4 crotchet beats to a bar) of dance remain a construct to their music, Jurgen says it’s the Latin (semiquaveral) subdivisions “that make our music relevant. Our processes involve a synthesis of musical concepts. We use Protools,” he states, pre-empting my next question again. “And we always approach our music from the perspective for a musician. We especially have a deep respect for the jazz music we sample. We try to forge a relationship between us and the musician we sample, and then try to relay that connection to the audience.” The selection of the sampled jazz improvs (jazz slang for ’ improvisational solos’) are certainly quality – solos that pro jazz musos are fond in mulling over and then maul to death in their analyses. “How do you put your tunes together?” I ask. “The beat is created from grooves we’ve put aside and listened to,” Jurgen explains to me. “Perhaps we look at a latin groove in the percussion, a boogie flavour in the drums and then we add funk basslines. Basslines are essential. Then we look for some great [jazz] instrumental solos to sample and incorporate into the tunes.”
The jazz genre and Latin rhythms have always had a successful and intimate relationship, their union globally consumed thanks to the 1959 Miles Davis album, Sketches of Spain. Since the release of the 1949 Dizzy Gillespie/Charlie Parker album by the band Machito (featuring Diz and Bird with other monster jazz musos) Latin jazz has enjoyed its continued popularity thanks to other artists like Tito Puente, Eddie Loco, Stan Getz and Chick Corea (just to name a few). Likewise, Latin rhythms are also a common treatment to ‘beef’ up jazz ballads, providing more movement to what would otherwise be a slow and perhaps lacklustre tune . The Latin ‘flavour’ of subdivided percussion rhythms adds more movement to a tune’s cadence, placing accents in seemingly unexpected areas (eg 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 1 2), and thus goes so far as to enhance the 4/4 common time – even with the strong prescence of ‘Swung’ subdivisions (‘swung’ is an idiom referring to the triplet oriented ‘feel’ and rhythms prevalent to Jazz). The resulting minor clash of semiquaveral triplets set against straight semiquaver subdivisions and strung across a 4/4 meter in fact serves to energise the rhythmic force.
Latin percussion rhythms, however, are not a new or innovative feature on the dancefloor. 1970s disco ubiquitously exploited percussion subdivisions set against 4/4 time, signifying a refreshing shift in the genre of popular music. In my opinion, the amalgamation of Latin influences with popular music was the impetus towards dance music as we know it today. It therefore seems only logical that dance would look back to its early development from the 1960s and 1970s for inspiration – remarkably, the same period when Latin and jazz were also successfully infiltrating the popular music market. Jurgen states that “Yes, we tried to get Latin with jazz and fuse it to make a new experience. And that is essentially what we hope to achieve with the people on the dance floor. If we play what they expect to hear, we’re simply preaching to the converted. We want people to come to the club; people who don’t know us, and maybe, we help expose them to something new. If they walk away wanting to hear more jazz or more Latin tunes, we have achieved something. Our music is not necessarily fusion. It is a way of fusion. It is jazz for the floor.”
“But,” I ask, “how do you manage to incorporate the jazz subdivisions with Latin rhythms and set them against house beats? Do you have to reprogram any of the beats at all?” I can almost hear Jurgen shake his head. “The format for dance, Latin and jazz is there – but you can’t hear it. It is imperceptible. We look for the groove that will work best on the floor. What makes a good groove so good?” Jurgen suddenly asks rhetorically. “Even after 15, 16 years, we are still looking for the answer to that question. It could be a soul record. It could be a jazz record. We get behind it, look into the elements of the beats; really look and see what groove will work best. It’s really all about grooves.” I believe him. When I look into a few past tunes, I note the unusual meters Jazzanova likes to utilise. One example is “Hanazono” from the album In Between (2002) and featuring renowned jazz pianist Hajime Yoshizawa. With 11/8 as the time signature, the accents appear as: 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3. This is a meter usually restricted to the avant garde composers of the late 1960s; extremely unusual in the arena of classical, let alone that of dance!
With the release of the new album Jazzanova: The Remixes 2002 – 2005, Jurgen says “we wanted to write an album specifically for the dance floor. We wanted a form of presenting our music; an album has to feature the whole range of the artist in order for the listener to understand the full story behind the artist and the album.” There certainly is a story! There are so many different musical elements crossing the board, one almost wonders how it is possible to integrate them! From afro to acapella, lush orchestral treatments to dub elements with the eternal presence of latin inspired rhythms set against house beats, the new album outlines the brilliant musical minds of this 6 piece outfit. With great gusto, Jazzanova are pioneers paving the way for a bright though as-yet-unknown path, ensuring jazz a future beyond the 20th century and thus securing its continued relevance in todays music.
Jazzanova’s latest album ‘The Remixes 2002-2005’ is out now through Sonar Kollectiv/Creative Vibes.
