“WHY SHOULDN’T JAZZ BE PLAYED IN THE FOREST?”
My name is Peter Kemp and I attend The Gate in Shepherds Bush. The Gate is a resource centre for people with learning disabilities – we go there to do music appreciation (it used to be called Elvis Club but now we listen to all different kinds of music) and singing, art, drama, writing and other creative things. I like coming to the gate because I find it very interesting and we learn about all different kinds of things.
Recently we were invited by the ICA to learn about contemporary arts and to do some work ourselves based around the exhibition of art by Nathaniel Mellors. I went along as part of The Gates literacy project to write about what we did there. While there we saw the three films by Nathaniel called Ourhouse 1, 2 and 4 and the two moving models with long hair that talked to one another. The films were very good, they were very funny and I liked the bit where the woman made the man eat a potato. There was also other artworks by other artists chosen by Nathaniel in the corridor, I liked them all but my favourite was a poster for the film The Stuff. Also while I was at the ICA I listened to the records in the reading room from Nathaniel’s record label, they were good records to listen to. I like music very much, my favourite music is sixties music like The Rolling Stones, The Hollies and The Who. In one of the Ourhouse films one of the characters liked music too but he liked jazz which I haven’t listened to too much. When we got back to the gate I listened to the records that could be seen in the film and some records put out on Nathaniel’s label that we bought from the ICA shop when we were there. Here is what I thought of them:
Schwarzwaldfahrt means “A walk through the Black Forest” in German. It’s a record from the early seventies by saxophone player Peter Brötzmann and Drummer and percussionist Han Bennink, they are playing their instruments in the forest.
Next up is a short track with saxophone which sounds like a girl screaming and a noise like when you break into somebody’s car and after that the next one is more bird sounds, some of the sounds seem natural and some sound like they are made by the men whistling, there is also the sound of running water. There is more water noise in track 7 and more saxophones, the saxophone sounds like there is water in it and it sounds like he is blowing on it hard to get the water out. After this, on track 8 there is what sounds like a banjo and birds noises, it is another short one and it reminded me of African music again.
Track 9 sounds a bit like a gong calling people for dinner and here Brötzmann plays what sounds like a clarinet, it’s not as noisy as his saxophone playing but the gong is very noisy. It gets quieter near the end and you can hear the water again. The last track has more water sounds and it sounds like the men are in the water washing themselves.
Overall I thought this was a good record to listen to and very pleasant even though it is very noisy in parts. I think people would enjoy listening to it because it is a bit different to other records. I would give this record 10 out of 10.
This record is called The Incredible Hulk and is on Junior Aspirin Records which is a record label run by the artist Nathaniel Mellors. It is by The Rebel. The Rebel is Ben Wallers who is also in a band called The Country Teasers. The first song on the record is called Ambient Pasteman, it is funny keyboard music and has lots of screaming and clapping noises in it like you would hear at a concert. Later on in the song there is the sound of burping and some drunken singing which sounds like the Postman Pat song but isn’t, after this the song seems to start playing backwards. This is a very good song to listen to. Next song is called Cherish and sounds a bit like a rap tune but with guitars. You can’t really make out what he is singing about but it sounds good anyway. The next song seems to be about drugs because it is called Aiming Low, Getting High. Taking drugs is dangerous and you can die from them, I have never taken any drugs. The last song on side one of this record sounds a bit like Ian Dury reading a poem about a mother who leaves her baby crying.
The first song on side two is called Christmas Every Day and has a man talking about how much money it costs to have Christmas every day - I think Christmas every day would get a bit boring. Next song has two people singing together about Dracula the world famous vampire. Track 3 on this side is a bit weird because it is somebody else’s song; it is a song by The Cure called The Forest, the song starts skipping and repeating the same line “again and again” over and over, I think this is supposed to be a joke. Next up is another song that sounds like the person singing is drunk and then after this there is the last song on the record, which is called The Song at the End of the Album, it is a slow song without words but I quite like it. Overall I thought this was a very good record to listen to and I would listen to it again. I would give it 10 out of 10.
This record starts off with the rebel playing the piano there is other stuff going in the background, it reminds me a bit of music from a murder film where a woman walks the street at night time and a man follows her to murder her. The next song sounds the same as the first one. The song after this sounds a bit like a trumpet playing but it’s really a keyboard; I like this song it sounds like a little boy of about six years old playing music. Track 4 is a short one it begins with drums and then some other noises (maybe a bugle) and then someone sings about going through changes, it is very good. The next song is called War, Politics and has The Rebel talking about how he doesn’t write love songs because he thinks they are rubbish after that he just repeats the word politics over and over and then I think he talks about writing songs in the pub but it is hard to tell what he is saying.
Next up is a song called Mental Shandy – I like the title because it is funny. This song has piano on it and a noise in the background like a broken television. After this song is a song which starts of with disco drums but then goes quiet and the drums come in again with some singing but I can’t tell what he’s saying again because the voice isn’t very clear – I like it though. The next song is about the singer going to Boarding school and how it made him cry a lot, I never used to cry at school as I didn’t really mind school. The next song is a cover of the Beatles song Tomorrow Never Knows, I like the Beatles but I prefer their earlier hits like Please, Please Me. Next song is a bit weird and has a very deep voice in it and some very peculiar noises. The last song has talking in it about writing lyrics and making music but then starts talking about Kung Fu Zulu’s which is the name of the song. Overall I think this record is as good as the other record I listened to by the Rebel and I would like to listen to more of his records. I would give it 10 out of 10.
This is another record that was in the Ourhouse film by Nathaniel Mellors, it is a Jazz record by Peter Brötzmann but this time with Sonny Sharrock who plays electric guitar. It is a recording of a concert at The Elbo Room on December 2nd 1989, which is nearly Christmas time. The record starts off quite slow but soon picks up speed and gets much louder as if the instruments are shouting at each other– I like it both when it is fast and when it is slow. For some of it the guitar and saxophone play together and for some of it they play solos, sometimes you can hear people talking in the background but there is no singing.
In this type of music, which is improvised, they play together and make it up as they go along, I think this is a good way to make music because they are helping each other out and it sounds very good and a bit weird. I would have liked to have been at this concert because I would have found it very nice to see and listen to. I would give this record 10 out of 10.
