The Ripple Effect
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The Ripple Effect

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The best kept secret in music

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"The Ripple Effect"

The Ripple Effect is a project that takes the work of jazz drummer/bandleader Jack DeJohnette and collaborators like Gambian kora master Foday Musa Suso and embellishes it with raver-friendly flourishes like devastating breakbeats, skittering hi-hats, and disembodied vocals (in this case by Marlui Miranda, an expert in the music of Brazilian Indians). The source material is already phenomenal--half of the tracks come from DeJohnette and Suso's Music From the Hearts of the Masters album---so it's not hard to love Hybrids, too. Tracks aren't afraid to go on long journeys to some full-moon paradise: "Ancient Techno" gurgles with the kinetic effects of a musical face-off between past and future, while "Ocean Wave" cascades with the exuberant sounds of children, cats and earth-moving bass...Hybrids represents the best in cross-cultural pollination, and it's something teh mainstream can't afford to miss. - Relix Magazine


"Drumming Up Business His Own Way"

Drumming Up Business His Own Way

Starting a label gives Jack DeJohnette another outlet for his musically venturesome ways.

By Don Heckman, Special to The Times

"RENAISSANCE man" may be an overused term, but it's the first thought that comes to mind while talking with drummer Jack DeJohnette, a musician whose skills and interests stretch easily across the gamut of contemporary music.

You may have seen him with Keith Jarrett and Gary Peacock, adding buoyant layers of percussive sound to their inventive cruises across the Great American Songbook. If you've listened to Miles Davis' classic "Bitches Brew," you've heard his drumming actively contributing to a set of performances that changed the face of contemporary jazz. Or you may have been fortunate enough to experience his transformative work with his own groups, Directions, New Directions and Special Edition.

The ever-adventurous DeJohnette, 63, embarked on yet another creative journey earlier this year when he launched his own independent record company — named Golden Beams after a composition he wrote for his 1992 album "Earthwalk." Although he is following a path blazed by numerous jazz musicians, DeJohnette is characteristically doing so in his own fashion, with an initial release of three albums that might best be described as genre-resistant.

The first was "Music in the Key of Om," a transcendent tapestry of meditative sound using resonating bell tones and a flowing, vocal-like melody produced on an acoustic-sounding synthesizer.

It came about, says DeJohnette, because his wife, Lydia, wanted a tape that was grounded in relaxing sounds.

"So I went into a meditative stage, went to my studio here at the house and made the CD, using these acoustic resonating bells," says the drummer by phone from his home near Woodstock, N.Y.

"I played it for Lydia, she liked it, my family liked it, other people did and so we decided to put it out. Funny thing is it works for me too. When I'm on the road I put it on and fall asleep with it. It just puts me right out."

The second release from Golden Beams, "Music From the Hearts of the Masters," takes a very different tack. An intimate set of spontaneous duets by DeJohnette and Gambia's Foday Musa Suso, who plays the lyre-like kora, it combines cruise-control jazz rhythms with hypnotic African melodies to create an irresistible momentum.

"There are quite a few African kora players out there," says DeJohnette, "but Foday uses the instrument in a unique way, and he's not afraid to move it into more contemporary areas. We spent four days in the studio knocking grooves around, just drums and kora, and it came out pretty full, since Foday didn't hesitate to use electronic effects to fill things out. Funny thing is some of the reviews refer to him as a 'jazz kora' player — which was a very pleasant surprise to him."

The just-released third album, "The Ripple Effect: Hybrids," takes DeJohnette's music into even more intriguing territory. Four of the tracks are enhanced and remixed versions of pieces from "Music From the Hearts of the Masters." Three feature eerie, atmospheric vocals from Brazilian singer Marlui Miranda, with multi-instrumentalist and frequent musical companion John Surman adding woodwind textures. Remixer Ben Surman (John's son and DeJohnette's son-in-law) pulls everything together in colorfully layered musical fashion.

"We called the CD 'Hybrid' to reflect the balance of acoustic and electronic elements," says DeJohnette. "I like to think of it as being accessible while also being creative in the way that jazz improvisation is. The loops keep going on while different surprises grab your ear as the atmosphere keeps shifting — almost like cinematography."

A creative overview

THE sense of musical shifting is equally applicable to DeJohnette's future plans, both with and beyond his new record label. What he describes as his "Art of the Duo" series — which began with the Foday Musa Suso CD — will continue with recorded duets with Don Alias and Bill Frisell, and another "Music in the Key of Om" is already in the works.

Asked if that's not an ambitious program for a small label, DeJohnette simply laughs.

"Well, it's all my money, and we just try to get the most out of what we put into it," he says. "With the record business being what it is today, the idea of having my own creative control over the music that I put out feels like a pretty good idea."

And one that's consistent with DeJohnette's creative overview, an all-embracing perspective that has been a driving force in his career.

"I believe that jazz has always been a world music," he says. "But that's what music in general is. I've heard reggae in country music. There's a potpourri of the rich diversity of cultures that are available for musicians, if they take the time to listen to it.

"Even given that perspective, though, it's ultimately up to the creativity and the ability of the artist to tell a - LA Times


Discography

1968 The DeJohnette Complex (Milestone)
1970 Have You Heard? (Epic)
1972 Compost (Columbia)
1973 Jackeyboard (Trio)
1974 Sorcery (Original Jazz Classics)
1975 Works (ECM)
1975 Cosmic Chicken (Prestige)
1976 Pictures (ECM)
1976 Untitled (ECM)
1977 New Rags (ECM)
1977 Tales of Another (ECM)
1978 New Directions (ECM)
1979 Special Edition (ECM)
1979 New Directions in Europe (ECM)
1980 Tin Can Alley (ECM)
1982 Inflation Blues (ECM)
1983 With Werner Pirchner and Harry Peppi (ECM)
1984 Album, Album (ECM)
1985 The Jack DeJohnette Piano Album (Landmark)
1985 Zebra (MCA)
1987 Irresistible Forces (MCA)
1988 Audio-Visualscapes (MCA)
1990 Parallel Realities (MCA)
1991 Earthwalk (Blue Note)
1992 Music for the Fifth World (Manhattan)
1994 Extra Special Edition (Blue Note)
1995 Dancing with Nature Spirits (ECM)
1996 Oneness (ECM)
2002 Invisible Nature (ECM)
2005 Music in the Key of Om (Golden Beams/Kindred Rhythm)
2005 Music from the Hearts of the Masters (Golden Beams/Kindred Rhythm)
2005 Hybrids (Golden Beams/Kindred Rhythm)
2006 The Elephant Sleeps But Still Remembers (Golden Beams/Kindred Rhythm)
2006 Saudades (ECM)

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Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

“Hybrids represents the best in cross-cultural pollination, and it’s something the mainstream can’t afford to miss.” – RELIX Magazine

With 50 years of drumming behind him, innovative jazz pioneer Jack DeJohnette introduces Hybrids, the debut album by The Ripple Effect, his collaborative project released on his own Golden Beams Productions on October 4, 2005. Featuring seven interpretations of previously recorded material (three of which have never been released) and one brand new track, Hybrids is a continuation of what DeJohnette has been accomplishing for a half-century: inspiring and creating music without boundaries. Produced and remixed by sound engineer Ben Surman, with guidance by DeJohnette himself, Hybrids launches jazz into the 21st century.

Blending shades of African jazz, reggae and dance music into DeJohnette’s already groove-heavy rhythmic patterns, The Ripple Effect’s Hybrids is an eclectic foray into numerous disciplines that works as a whole. Borrowing heavily from Music from the Hearts of the Masters, his 2005 release alongside Gambian kora master Foday Musa Suso, the African influence is tempered by the gorgeous vocals of Marlui Miranda, the most acclaimed and recognized performer and researcher of Brazilian Indian music. Multi-instrumentalist John Surman adds lilting strains of clarinet, saxophone and recorder, while Big Al polishes the project with effervescent guitar riffs. The ingenuity of each song lends itself to a broad audience.

“It can fit into a lot of different programs,” says DeJohnette, “from college radio to commercial jazz stations, and more esoteric channels. I think it will allow programmers to stretch a little bit.” This is an understatement for the drummer, whose classic work on Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew (as well as performing alongside John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans and countless others) have solidified him as “one of the most important musicians in the last 40 years of jazz” (Ben Ratliff, The New York Times). His entire career has been about stretching what fits within jazz constraints. With one of the most impressive resumes in the genre, he has proven time and again that no boundaries exist. With the opening “Ancient Techno,” from his collaboration with Suso, the mere song title hints at a connective tissue between past and future. Originally an acoustic display of astute showmanship, Suso’s intricate kora patterns swerved fluidly between DeJohnette’s perfect cadence. The result was a trance-inducing masterpiece of an exchange of human energy – the very root of ceremonial African music. With Surman’s digital texturing, the prevalent hi-hat stays while a tasteful breakbeat adds extra octane to the groove. Synthesizers only add to the mix, with nothing distracting from the fact that this is ritual music.

“I was trying to stay true to the originals,” says Surman. “I wanted to extract some of the grooves and melodies that I was drawn to and use them in a different context, retaining the groove and feel but placing it in a different musical setting. I wanted to move outside of the more traditional acoustic approach and add elements you wouldn’t normally find in jazz.”

Staying true to much of the African-inspired work DeJohnette is cultivating, Surman reworked four of Music from the Hearts of the Masters originals: “Ancient Techno,” “Worldwide Funk,” “Rose Garden” and “Ocean Wave.” Each is an example of Surman’s forward-thinking perspective of DeJohnette’s work, whom he has known since birth (Ben is the son of longtime DeJohnette collaborator John Surman). Ben adds a youthful dynamic, be it dub-heavy bass lines or speeded up drumbeats, spanning generations of sound.

“Ben is a very sensitive and highly creative sound engineer,” says DeJohnette. “He asked me if he could play around with some of the main tracks, and that was something I wanted to do—get into electronica and remixes. Ben recreates musical soundscapes that are always changing. Sometimes he draws you in and just when you think it has settled, he moves you, sometimes abruptly, sometimes very subtly. It enhances the creative aspect of improvisation that I do when I play. Most people listen to it and their faces light up and they start smiling.”

Smiles continue with the heavy reggae influence on “Dubwise,” featuring Miranda’s sailing vocals. As in 1970s Jamaica, nothing is straightforward: Surman splices and dices her voice, making lyrics more layered than upfront, relying on the slow rhythm to seduce and penetrate the listener. The two other songs featuring Miranda – “Na Na Nai” and “Corn Song” – also make her voice larger than life (even if studio tampering wasn’t needed). The final song, “The Just-Us Department,” is a new track specially made for Hybrids by DeJohnette and Surman. In many ways, it is the most club-friendly track, turning up the bass and letting the rhythm drift into blatant dance territory.

“It’s not specifically aimed at a club vi