Stabilized by the Groove in a World Gone Mad
Rudi Mahall, Ty Segall, Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou
Rudi Mahall Makes Peace With His Clarinet
One of my girlfriend’s favorite stories about our relocation to Berlin five years ago involved an earlier visit to the city when we were still living in Rome. We had some time to kill before a concert later in the evening so we decided to grab a drink, and after she spotted a cellist in the window of a Prenzlauer Berg bar setting up to play, we chose what turned out to be Ick koof mir Dave Lombardo wenn ick reich bin, which roughly translated means “When I Am Rich I Will Buy Dave Lombardo.” The Slayer drummer actually turned up there unexpectedly last November while Gard Nilssen’s Acoustic Unity was performing and began serving drinks to the crowd, but that’s another story. On this particular winter’s night in early 2019 the cellist turned out to be Johannes Fink, but the thrilling surprise for me was that the group also included bass clarinetist Rudi Mahall, one of the city’s finest improvisers and a life-time member of the great Die Enttauschung. According to my girlfriend this serendipitous encounter sealed the deal for me moving to the city. If you turn up at a random bar in Berlin, you’re likely to hear Mahall playing. Sign me up.
I haven’t accidentally encountered a Mahall gig like that since we moved here, but I have seen him on purpose plenty of times. In fact, last December we intentionally went to see him perform as a guest with the brilliant trio Oùat with drummer Michael Greiner, bassist Joel Grip, and pianist Simon Seiger, who lives in France. He played one concise set with the group, part of an all-day affair organized by the trio. Soon thereafter Griener told me that a collaboration with Mahall and Oùat was forthcoming on which the reedist would stick exclusively to clarinet rather than the bass clarinet he’d earned his sterling reputation with. The album title and art was a send-up of The Straight Horn of Steve Lacy, the classic 1961 album the soprano saxophonist cut for the Candid imprint. Griener, who wrote the liner note essay for the new album, is long-time colleagues with the reedist, predating the formation of Die Enttaeuschung, which the drummer himself joined in 2016—when its original percussionist Uli Jenneßen left the group—as well as its sister project Monk’s Casino, when the quartet plays the repertoire of Thelolious Monk alongside pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach. In 2022 Mahall and Griender festooned their duo album Jazzpreis (Astral Spirits) with images spanning their entire partnership.
In his liner note essay for The Straight Horn of Rudi Mahall he quotes the clarinetist at length: “Everyone hates the clarinet. It was then, and still is today a pretty much out-of-favor instrument in jazz music. You can’t get anywhere with the clarinet.” But when he and Griener first started playing together before high school, Mahall was still playing that straight horn, before making the switch to bass clarinet, which might possess a slight edge for the traditional clarinet as objects of ambivalence in jazz. But Mahall clearly overcame such prejudices and, apart from Jason Stein, I can’t think of another practitioner that has so brilliantly pushed beyond the bass clarinet’s rheumy limitations to make it swing effortlessly, with a genuinely full-bodied tone. Still, by Griener’s telling, Mahall himself never rejected the clarinet, even if he rarely performed on it. This new album was designed to redress the situation and on this count, as well as others, it succeeds.
The repertoire is built almost completely from classic bebop and cool jazz standards, yet naturally, with this cast of characters, the results are deliciously bent, as the band straddles a deep-seated reverence for the tunes with a devotion to spontaneity, playfulness, and artistic depth. They could play this stuff straight, but what would be the point? They rip through Dizzy Gillespie’s “Bebop,” which you can hear below, with giddy ferocity, particularly the high-flying unison theme voiced by Mahall and Sieger while Grip and Griener pull against the rush of 16th notes with an internal tension that presides over most of the festivities. After the theme is stated Mahall goes off, yanking against but never bringing down the essential form. On a reading of Tadd Dameron’s “Good Bait” Seiger moves to trombone, forging a piano-free quartet vibe a la Gerry Mulligan,” but Mahall unleashes a solo that feels very much of the present. In fact, his clarinet playing always sounds unique here, eschewing any of the usual swing era signifiers for a post-bop sensibility that has no problem taking it out. The closest they get to that old style is in a reading of Sidney Bechet’s “Petite Fleur,” but the stentorian arco lines of Grip and the general sense of drama feel closer to Weimar Cabaret than something from the Left Banke. On “Sechseinhalb Brüder,” (German for “Six-and-Half Brothers) the group staggers into a delightful medley of Jimmy Giuffre’s “Four Brothers” and Mulligan’s “Five Brothers,” along with a bit of the Mahall’s own “Vier Halbe,” which was based on the changes of the Giuffre tune. The whole album is great, but for anyone that knows these musicians there’s nothing novel or gimmicky about the project.
The musicians will celebrate the release of the album on Friday, July 5 at a space called Etwas von Anders that’s hosting ““In its natural habitat,” an exhibition of Grip’s artwork this week, beginning Monday, July 1 when Oùat will perform on its own. Musicians will occupy the space during the day, improvising and rehearsing, while each night at 8 PM, from Monday until Saturday, July 6, a different group of musicians, with Grip joined by a variety of cohorts, will play.
Ty Segall Digs into his Psychedelic Sweet Spot
I got hooked on the music of Ty Segall about 15 years ago, when he began expanding past his garage-punk roots to enfold a deep love and understanding of glam rock. It felt like a big shift, but in the year since his music has grown to reflect all kinds of rock history, albeit filtered through his own grotty sensibility. In a Pitchfork review of his most recent album Three Bells (Drag City) writer Stuart Berman sharply observes a recurring quality of Segall’s music: “He takes something that’s supposed to be a source of comfort and makes it seem kinda disgusting.” I don’t necessarily agree with that he makes this stuff “disgusting,” but he does warp and distort his inspirations in a way that simultaneously blows them up while expressing deep respect and admiration.
Segall began to settle into a sweet spot five or six years ago, and his music hasn’t changed significantly since then, with endless tweaks and adjustments seeping into the formula. There might not be so many surprises now, but the music continues to bring serious enjoyment and I can’t help but salute how he sharpens his attack and alters its focus. The latest record features his usual collaborators—fellow guitarist Emmett Kelly and drummer Charles Moothart, along with cameos from Ben Boye and Mikal Cronin—but most of it featured engineering help from Cooper Crane (Bitchin Bajas), who co-produced the whole album with Segall. The shift is subtle, making little impact on the essential aesthetic but adding serious depth and detail to the proceedings, likely amplifying the sort of touches that were already present in the performances. It’s hard to miss the pervasive influence of vintage David Bowie and Marc Bolan across the album, but the buoyant heft and sizzling crunch of the guitars surround Segall’s sugary falsetto with a precision and bite that could never be a product of mere imitation. Below you can check out the single “Eggman,” which recalls the sickly pallor of David Bowie’s vocal on “Fame,” with the funk groove swapped out for something far more ominous and queasy. Segall headlines Festaal Kreuzberg on Friday, July 5.
Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou Kick Aside Gender Norms
Few sounds are as immediately recognizable and affecting as the trance-inducing grooves of Gnawan music from Morocco. I’ve always found its marriage of soulfully rasped lead vocals, chanted responses, clattery percussion defined by the metallic clap of krakebs and the twangy, bass-like lines of the guembri impossible to resist, but sadly nearly all of my encounters with the music have been through recordings. Back in the US I was able to hear expat Gnawa crossover artist Hassan Hakmoun play his jacked-up take on the tradition, but I can’t recall experiencing the stuff live any other time apart from an unforgettable trip to Fes in 2006. So, the scarcity of opportunities to hear the sounds in person already make the performance of Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou on Wednesday, July 3 at Hau1 notable. (Update: due to visa issues, this concert has been postponed)
The group recently released its second killer album L’bnat (Ajabu!), cementing its rigorous devotion to tradition with a sound that feels profoundly earthy. But when I think about my favorite recordings of Gnawan music they are invariably made by men, which makes the all-female Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou all the more important. I don’t know if this group trumpets its gender, but its activity flies in the face of patriarchal convention. The group doesn’t toy with tradition too much, but why fuck with something that’s maintained its beauty and power for so many centuries. The music thrives on repetitious grooves, which, rather than growing tedious as they cycle endlessly, take on a powerful strain of hypnosis, building from a simmer and intensifying into an irresistible trance, as Hamzaoui’s voice grows more insistent and louder, with her bandmates relentlessly responding and pushing the groove harder. Below you can hear “Lalla Haoua,” a typically driving track from the new album.
Recommended Shows in Berlin This Week
July 3: Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou, 8:30 PM, Hau1, Stresemannstr. 29, 10963 Berlin (Update: concert is postponed)
July 3: Ty Segall, 8 PM, Festaal Kreuzberg, Am Flutgraben 2, 12435 Berlin
July 4: Bonga; Dengue Dengue Dengue; Vhoor, 7 PM, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin
July 5: Quentin Cholet, drums, Jeremy Viner, saxophone, and Felix Henkelhausen, bass, 8 PM, Peppi Guggenheim, Weichselstrasse 7, 12043 Berlin
July 5: Rudi Mahall, clarinet, with Oùat (Simon Sieger, piano, trombone, Joel Grip, double bass, and Michael Greiner, drums), 8 PM, Etwas von Anders, Kurfürstenstraße 14, 10785 Berlin
July 5: Tilo Weber’s Five Fauns (Almut Kühne, vocals, Claudio Puntin, clarinet, Richard Koch, trumpet, James Banner, bass, and Tilo Weber, drums), 8:30 PM, Donau115, Donaustraße 115, 12043 Berlin
July 6: Kim Gordon, Gudrun Gut, 8 PM, Festaal Kreuzberg, Am Flutgraben 2, 12435 Berlin (sold out)
July 7: Ilê Aiyê; Ajate, 7 PM, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin