jazzwise the UK's leading jazz monthly October 2002 MOVER AND SHAKER Bassist Ben Allison has be making waves increasingly on the New York scene and, at last, British audiences have a chance to find out what the fuss is all about, as Kenny Matheison reports. Anyone watching developments in the scenes, so the JCC was partly a way of cre- 'We found a bunch of stuff in the Library New York jazz scene over the past decade ating our own identity, and it ties in with our of Congress. A lot of them were just sketch- will already be well aware of bassist and attitudes toward composition and getting es rather than charts. None of them were composer Ben Allison. He was one of the together to make things happen, rather than scored out . My guess is that for copyright founder members of the influential Jazz sitting around and bitching, which is pretty purposes he just sketched the melody with Composers Collective in 1992, a group of much what we had been doing.' the harmony, which is all you can really frustrated musicians who decided to take Allison is the JCC's artistic director, and copyright, and would have added voicings the self-help option and promote their own is also a member of the excellent Herbie and so forth later, when it was needed. We concert series, which is now into its 11th Nichols Project, a band dedicated to prom- had to fill in a lot of the details, which is a season. ulgating the neglected music of the great fascinating process in itself. 'At the time we formed the JCC,' Allison pianist and composer. The band features 'We haven't been too reverential - our atti- explains, 'there was that whole uptown- fellow JCC movers and shakers such as tude is that he made the best versions any- downtown scene in New York. I had played Frank Kimbrough, Ron Horton, and Michael body is going to make, so why do it that way a lot in both these scenes, and I could feel Blake, and they have released three over again. We have tried to be respectful, the polarity there. If you went uptown and albums, the most recent being Strange City but we have also taken a bit of license in played something a little out of the tradition, (Palmetto). what we do with it. The bottom line is that you were frowned upon for taking it outside 'It was really Frank who spearheaded it,' it's fun to do.' of their lexicon of what jazz was supposed Ben' recalls. 'He heard a birthday broadcast As well as these commitments and many to be. one time in New York where the station calls for his bass playing, Allison also leads 'Conversely, if you went downtown and played what they had by Herbie, which was- his own bands. His latest disc, Peace Pipe played a C major scale, everyone would n't that much. He started searching out this (Palmetto), features an unconventional laugh at you, and put you down for not stuff and bringing it into the JCC sessions. quintet with Mamadou Diabate's kora fea- being adventurous. But you know, I like C We transcribed everything Herbie had tured alongside Blake, Kimbrough and major scales. I didn't want to associate recorded himself, and then started drummer Michael Sarin. He has decided to myself exclusively with either one of those researching things he had never recorded. name the band (which visits the UK this month) after the album, just as he did with necessarily thinking of the melody or the his septet, Medicine Wheel. harmonies, I'm starting with the timbre of ‘It kinda happened by default with both the instruments. I'll think, OK, what will this bands, but the names seem to fit. I've been sound be like if I put this one against it, and developing my writing style for many years, out of that process eventually comes the and Peace Pipe is an extension of that con- melody and the harmony and the form. It's cept. The main difference is the addition of a way to jump start my brain and push me the kora, which really changed my in new direction.' approach quite a lot. The kora is limited in It would seem that a necessary conse- some ways - it's pretty much stuck in a key quence of such a method is that he would because of the way it is tuned, and it obvi- write any given piece for very specific ously hasn't figured largely in the history of instruments and instrumental sounds. jazz. 'Not only that, but really mostly for spe- 'It's a little bit of a stretch for me harmon- cific musicians, which can be problematic ically, in the sense of trying to keep the when everybody's schedule starts to get interest and the variation happening without busy. The flip side that is that many of my having a lot of harmonic freedom. What I favorite composers in the jazz tradition, rely on instead is all the textural possibilities such as Ellington, Strayhorn, Ornette, and of the kora. It's such a beautiful instrument Mingus, were always very concerned with in itself, and it has such a different sound, writing for specific people. I can’t imagine and I'm really trying to play off of that.' "Blood Count" existing without Johnny Working with the sounds and textures of Hodges, for example, or many of Ornette's the instruments rather than more conven- tunes without Don Cherry. tional jazz strategies did not seriously dis- 'There is something very special advantage the bassist. His whole approach about that, and I think it helps to give a to composition is built around that concept band a really unique sound. One of the in any case. lessons I took from those guys was idea 'The thing I've been interested in for of writing music that takes advantage of years as a composer is that whole idea of the special things the musicians in the starting from the vantage point of texture. band can do. As a composer, I'm When I start to write a new tune, I'm not always trying to highlight those things.'