JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
Rating: 
How can I begin to describe Witness without simply vamping about Dave Douglas’ openness to different kinds of music and the extraordinary ability of the musicians to listen to each other in often chaotic circumstances? I could talk about the ongoing political situations and social injustices that inspired this music, but that would be a copout.
Let me start by enumerating the unusual instrumentation for what, in the end, I have to describe as a jazz record: trumpet, AM radio, clarinet, saxophone, violin, cello, tuba, bass, vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, drums, electronic percussion, trombone, sampler, and voice.
Each cut is vastly different from the next.
Ruckus starts off with an almost Eastern European sounding chordal riff before almost immediately being engulfed with simultaneous free improvisation on tuba and trumpet and cross rhythms on drums. It soon becomes apparent that the tune is loosely organized in sections. The next section starts out more quietly and features different instrumentation: violin, saxophone, glockenspiel and so on. It’s very free but never sounds like just noise. There are always through composed elements to anchor the madness.
The next tune, Witness, has an elegiac tone and reminds me a little of the Americana of Randy Newman left out in the sun to turn sour. Curiously, there is electronic persussion in this piece, but like everything else, it works beautifully.
One More News has a bit of that hip hop lilt in the drums that is so familiar these days in jazz, but the rhythms are broken, if that makes any sense.
Woman at Point Zero is a ballad with a melody constructed from an unfamiliar (to me) mode that again sounds vaguely Eastern European.
Kidnapping Kissinger has a lot of fairly overt humor. It’s almost like a performance piece with it’s dueling strings and flashes of AM radio.
Others have heard Middle Eastern and North African music in these selections, but I don’t get that at all.
I give up. I can’t really describe Witness except to say that it’s musically very stimulating, and that for me, at least, it’s very accessible. I never felt like anyone was being willfully obscure. Every note is purposeful.
However, Witness will definitely not be for everyone. I’m not sure if Dave Douglas is using aleatoric techniques in his music, such as those used by the modern classical composer Witold Lutoslawski, but that’s certainly the effect in many of these selections. To enjoy Witness, it would definitely help to have an appreciation for such composers.
In other words, check out the samples below. If they don’t scare you away, you should enjoy Witness.
If you found this post helpful, share it by clicking on one of these icons!
« Romantic Warrior - Return to Forever | Home | Dangerous Vision - Michael Wolff & Impure Thoughts »