INDIE LIFE BARRETT MARTIN Barrett Martin’s recent creative endeavors include a book and a related album. Drummer’s DIY Journey Continues to EVolve any musicians who thrived during known in the rock world for his drumming taught music and theory classes at Antioch Mthe alternative-rock gold rush of on the last two studio albums by Screaming University Seattle. In addition to writing a the 1990s have, by now, hopped Trees and post-grunge supergroup Mad blog for The Huffington Post, he has penned onto the nostalgia circuit to cash in on their Season, the 52-year-old has spent the major- two books—The Singing Earth: Adventures past glories. Others, however, have sought out ity of his life traveling the world, seeking from a World of Music (2017) and the recently new lands and new interests. Henry Bogdan, enlightenment and new musical terrain to released The Way of the Zen Cowboy: Fireside former bassist for neo-metal quartet Helmet, cultivate. Those journeys have included gov- Stories from a Globetrotting Rhythmatist. has carved out a comfortable niche as a gui- ernment-sponsored jaunts to Cuba, explora- (The latter book includes a free download of tarist for traditional Hawaiian music ensem- tions of the Peruvian rainforest and record- the Barrett Martin Group’s new album, Songs bles and old-time jazz groups. And John ings with Brazilian singer Nando Reis and Of The Firebird.) Martin has filtered his ongo- Frusciante, ex-guitarist for Red Hot Chili with tribes in the Arctic National Wildlife ing interest in ethnomusicology, his own per- Peppers, now tests the outer limits of elec- Refuge in Alaska. sonal studies and his many stories from the tronic music as a solo artist. Martin’s travels and studies have led to field into smart, edifying prose meant to Few, though, have ventured as far, physi- two professional titles on his resume: educa- open up fellow curiosity-seekers to the possi- cally and musically, as Barrett Martin. Best tor and author. For the past seven years, he’s bilities of sound and culture. 46 DOWNBEAT SEPTEMBER 2019 “At the end of the day, it’s just one person cized post-rock tune “Requiem,” features an telling a story to other people,” Martin electric guitar line played by Soundgarden’s said during a phone call from his home in Kim Thayil and a steady acoustic strum from Port Townsend, Washington, situated on R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, with whom the Olympic Peninsula just west of Seattle. Martin has collaborated in the band Tuatara. “Music’s the same thing. I studied a lot of Also joining the festivities is jazz key- linguistics, because within music is a lan- boardist Wayne Horvitz, who adds squelch- guage. And what a lot of people don’t realize ing solos to two Firebird tracks. (Horvitz is that music itself is a language. We hear it and Buck also played on the Barrett Martin in European classical music and we hear it in Group’s 2018 album, Transcendence.) jazz. There’s a lot of very old, world instru- “Barrett fits in this tradition of artists mental music and it’s all a form of dialogue. who were well known in the rock scene and It’s a form of communication.” who have gone on to do great things and been The most direct route into what Martin really supportive figures,” said Horvitz, one seeks to express is through any of the seven of the founders of the jazz-centric Seattle studio albums he’s written and recorded with music venue the Royal Room. “So many his namesake ensemble. The free-flowing [musicians from] other cities with a scene band is a perfect outlet for its leader’s grow- like they had in the ’90s would have taken off ing interests, eschewing the heavy attack to New York or L.A. [But] all the big bands of former projects—such as the Screaming from the Seattle scene have stayed true to Trees and his early ’90s stint in the noise-rock Seattle and invested in it. I see this project as band Skin Yard—and focusing instead on being part of that vibe.” club-ready rhythms, jazz fusion and fearless Nowadays, Martin is fully committed to a world-beat jams. Sonically, things get partic- DIY approach. His albums and books are ularly interesting when Martin and his cohort released through his imprints, Sunyata start blending those genres together, creating Records and Sunyata Books. For the Barrett a vibe that works like small electrodes firing Martin Group albums, he handles every- into joints and muscles. Listeners can’t help thing: paying for studio time and paying his but move to them. musicians, as well as designing the packaging The Barrett Martin Group has honed that and filling orders for distribution. He does aesthetic on the ambitious Songs Of The the same for his books, overseeing the design Firebird, a double album with 20 tracks that and printing, and then distributing the titles were crafted to reflect some of the themes of via companies like Amazon and Barnes & The Way of the Zen Cowboy. Noble, or even shipping out copies himself. “At the same time as I was developing Martin’s need to control the means of these songs,” Martin recalled, “I was also production is, in part, a result of his uneasy writing these stories. I realized that they’re experiences working with record labels as a coming from the same being, and they’re member of Screaming Trees, Mad Season really two sides of the same coin: a body and Tuatara. of music and a body of stories. [The music] “The Trees toured all over the world and sounded like a soundtrack to the stories, and didn’t make any money,” Martin said. “Then the stories gave me inspiration to come up Tuatara did our first record [1997’s Breaking with the song titles. As I was completing the The Ethers], and the president of Epic at the two, I would embed the song titles within the time loved it. That president got immediate- story as little secret clues.” ly fired and Tuatara got dropped in 1998. We While the two releases complement each were just abandoned. So, I thought, ‘All right, other well, the book and the album each can I’m going to start my own label.’” stand on their own as accomplished works In the years since that decision, Martin of art. Firebird, especially, feels like a per- has endured some bumps in the road—like fectly singular statement, driven by Martin’s losing all of his physical product held by a fluid, splashy playing—augmented through- distributor in the early ’00s. But today, his out by percussionists Lisette Garcia and small machine runs smoothly with the help Thione Diop—and a compositional style that of a dedicated group of folks who handle the flows between genres with ease. The versa- business activities that he doesn’t do himself, tile, 10-member ensemble can mesh the jerk- such as publicity and radio promotion. ing beats of drum ’n’ bass with post-bop horn “They’re all old-school professionals who figures or generate a Steve Reich-like pat- have adapted to the new business models tern played on marimba and kalimba to fuel and refined their approach,” Martin said of a gentle samba. his business collaborators. “We’re all these Firebird also stands out because Martin old veterans who keep going because we love recruited a few high-profile guests who hap- music. I mean, some part of us must love the pen to be his pals from the Northwest music music business or we wouldn’t keep doing it.” scene. One memorable track, the psychedeli- —Robert Ham SEPTEMBER 2019 DOWNBEAT 47 INDIE LIFE CÉLINE RUDOLPH Loueke wrote in an email while on tour in Europe. “We are connected when we play, and our vision of music is very similar.” JOACHIM GERN That vision is, in a word, global—and according to Rudolph, this global vision is not one that many recording companies share. “I started the label to be independent and to make my music heard internationally,” she said. “A lot of labels—especially European labels— don’t think that way. So, you can record a lot of albums and stay in your country, but it’s hard to get heard outside of that. This is a step toward promoting [my music] outside of Germany— in other European countries and in the U.S.—I have this freedom now.” It’s hard to doubt Rudolph’s expertise in the matter, given her years of experience working with some of Europe’s best labels. She released Salvador—in both French and German versions—in 2011 on Verve/ Universal Music; Metamorflores in 2009 and Brazaventure in 2007 on Enja Records; and Book Of Travels in 1996 and Paintings in 1994 on Nabel Records. And on the Swiss imprint Céline Rudolph, shown here with collaborator Lionel Loueke, ZeroZero, she released Berlin, 1999 and says her upbringing readied her to embrace a global vision of music. Segredo, both in 1999. Loueke concurs with Rudolph’s assessment A Passion for of the challenges that polyglot, polymath musi- cians face in their efforts to reach an interna- tional audience. “The major labels are in cri- Borderless Music sis these days, as we all know,” he asserted. “I truly believe that it’s time for us musicians to erlin-based singer-songwriter Céline Brooklyn with an impressive assemblage of own our music, and I think that Céline is doing BRudolph grew up immersed in mul- protean musicians—guitarist/singer Lionel the right things for her career.