Scorch Trio

at An Die Musik (Baltimore), 12/3/2005

(This photo is not from the show at An Die Musik... it's from the Nattjazz Festival 2004 in Bergen, Norway)

I was lucky enough to hear the Norwegian free jazz trio The Thing along with Joe McPhee at Sangha a few weeks ago. The rhythm section is also the core of the Scorch Trio - just swap saxophonist Mats Gustafsson for guitarist Raoul Björkenheim, switch from double bass to electric bass guitar, and there you go...Welll, almost.

Both groups play free jazz. Both groups are equally "influenced" by rock and jazz and whatever other music might enter their ears. Scorch Trio is definitely more of a "rock" project, I think.

Music was hot. As expected, these guys burned the place up from the start (well, after they got warmed up...Which took a few minutes, I guess). Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass) and and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) quite simply kick ass. I haven't heard such a ferocious improviser on bass guitar before. His double bass playing in The Thing was excellent, but not unheard of -- certainly similar to many free jazz bassists. On electric, however, this was something new to me. Drummer is also excellent. I hope this isn't sacrilegious, or heretical, or whatever, but he reminded me of Tony Williams - sort of a post-modern Tony Williams. Is there a term for this school of free jazz drumming with little bells, cymbals, woodblocks, and nick-nacks placed on the drums, and constantly juggling all of these little things in addition to the rest of the drum kit? If so, let me know in the comments. If not, coin the term and leave a comment. Nilssen-Love is certainly a master of this approach. He's also remarkably fast. This show featured a lot of very busy playing - most of the music was very high energy -- the show with The Thing gave him more room to explore softer textures, which he did incredibly well, using scraps of felt and fabric to mute the drums, creating an extensive palette of timbres even at low volume.

At times, the group seemed like a sort of post-modern Tony Williams Lifetime -- lots of rock energy merged quite successfully with free jazz aesthetics. And, to their credit, I think they managed to avoid all of the power-trio pitfalls that a rock/jazz hybrid could easily lapse into.

And as for Björkenheim, his playing is excellent. There's plenty written about him online, so I won't get into this much. Clearly very influenced by Hendrix (what electric guitarist isn't?), I thought I heard lots of early John McLaughlin in the show. But I don't want to get caught up in the "spot the influences" game. He did a fair amount of fast, flashy, playing - including some two handed tapping a la Eddie Van Halen, but also had lots more up his metaphorical sleeve, if you will.

The show got me thinking about performance practice. All of these guys subscribe to the aesthetic of the furrowed brow -- grimacing, sweating, and otherwise letting the audience know quite clearly that they are working very hard. I don't mean to suggest that they were putting that on - I think it was genuine and authentic, but it got me thinking. Are there "signifiers" that guitarists use to show that they have virtuoso technique, and therefore all the "outside" stuff is to be taken seriously? I think some of the flashy runs served that purpose.

In this case, these questions were somewhat exaggerated by Björkenheim's on-stage histrionics. He may or may not be a rockstar - but he certainly thinks of himself as such, complete with: scarf (not for warmth), slack-jawed guitar face, knees bent just so (see photo), some slight head banging, and even a little jumping up and down. And if that wasn't enough, he had a different guitar for each piece: Parker Fly, some kind of electric viola da gamba, a strat, and then to really put it over the top, an electric 12 string. The 12 string seemed kind of unnecessary, I didn't hear any new material, or musical ideas that needed it, so I felt like it was really overkill.

Keep in mind, all of this criticism is within the context of: Scorch Trio was awesome. They totally rocked - RAWKED, even. Show was great, this nitpicky stuff is really secondary. Maybe sour grapes because I'll never have chops like that?