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Jonathan Taylor Group
Being and Becoming
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Jonathan is fast acquiring a reputation as an extremely talented, creative improviser and composer on the UK jazz scene, having worked with many leading British jazz musicians, appeared at major festivals and had music commissioned by Birmingham Jazz, South West Arts and 'Live Music Now!'. He has recently completed an MA in music and composition, studying with ex-Loose Tubes flautist/composer Eddie Parker, who also appears on this album alongside some of the most exciting young talents of the London jazz scene: guitarist Jez Franks, bass player Dave Mannington and drummer Ben Reynolds. This is Jonathan's first CD under his own name.
The title 'Being and Becoming' refers to the interaction of cyclical
(being) and linear (becoming) musical structures that characterises
each of the nine original compositions. Looping poly-rhythmic patterns
derived from African tribal drumming, M-Base funk grooves and freer,
more open explorations of time exist in a rich, harmonic soundworld
that takes in everything from modal jazz and blues to the raw dissonance
of Arnold Schoenberg and twentieth-century classical influences.
The music combines different strands of the jazz tradition - the
groove-based, African-influenced jazz of Dave Holland and Steve
Coleman with a harmonically driven, contemporary European sound
- to create a vibrant musical fusion of styles, eliciting powerful
improvised performances from the musicians in the group.
Baka - opens with a piano figure derived from
music of the Baka Forest People of South East Cameroon, and develops
by layering different rhythmic patterns on top of each other to
create poly-rhythmic textures.
Five Elements - a tune in 5/4 based on the chord
progression of 'All The Things You Are' by Jerome Kern.
Counterpoint - consists of written and improvised
dialogue between flute and guitar, and later between 2 trios: flute+guitar+drums
and piano+bass+drums.
Hominids - a busy melodic line over a cycling
9 beat bass line and funk groove.
Schoenberg - atonal melodic and harmonic ideas
derived from Arnold Schoenberg in the context of a rhythmically
fragmented bass and drum pattern.
Mbira - inspired by the complex melodic layers
of Zimbabwean thumb piano music, this piece layers patterns
in 5/4, 5/8 and 3/8 on top of each other. Listen out for Ben's
drumming that combines all three.
Tower of Silence - the title refers to a rather
gruesome newspaper article about the practice, in certain religious
sects, of putting dead bodies on the rooftops of towers to
be devoured by vultures....this is a dark, dark piece!
Mahavishnu - based on a compositional device
used in several of John McLaughlin's tunes, where an A section (in
one time signature) is followed by a contrasting B section (in another)
and then the two sections are played simultaneously (A over B).
Enduring Love - something like a 6-bar blues
in 5/4 (swing)!
Release date: December 2002
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