musician questionnaire: 3/4 of take the duck

Took place after this Take The Duck concert. I conducted it from memory, which explains the order of the questions and that a few are missing. I also added a couple of questions.

Taking part were: Daniel Nösig (DN), Robert Jukic (RJ) and Karl Jannuska (KJ), who, coincidentally, once had Ethan Iverson as housemate. Toine Thys initially resisted doing it in person, preferring the safety of email. When he saw how much fun the others were having, he attempted to join in, but I cruelly made him lie in the bed he had made for himself.

GIVE US AN EXAMPLE OR TWO OF AN ESPECIALLY GOOD OR INTERESTING:

Jazz album:
KJ: Miles Davis Kind of Blue;
DN: John Coltrane A Love Supreme;
RJ: Wayne Shorter Juju

Classical piece:
KJ: Bach "Goldberg Variations";
RJ: Scriabin "Sonaten";
DN: Mozart "Eine Kleine Nachtmuzik"

Melody:
KJ: "Happy Birthday," "O Canada" [sings it, conversation ensues about the knowledge of one's national anthem];
DN: "All Or Nothing At All";
RJ: "Four"

Underrated practitioner of your instrument:
RJ: Neal Caine [Backstabber's Ball, on Smalls Records, is excellent];
KJ: Dave Laing, Bob Moses;
DN: Thad Jones ("He's well-known as an arranger, but not as a trumpeter")

Smash hit:
KJ: Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit";
RJ: Guns 'n' Roses "Paradise City";
DN: Guns 'n' Roses "Knocking On Heaven's Door"

Should have been a hit:
RJ: Meshell Ndegeocello Peace Beyond Passion, Radiohead ("They should have sold even more than they did");
DN: James Brown Soul On Top;
KJ: Beck Sea Change and Mutations

Harmonic language:
RJ: Monk, Shorter;
DN: Coltrane;
KJ: Cecil Taylor

Rhythmic feel:
KJ & DN simultaneously: Elvin Jones;
DN: Dave Holland, Ray Charles;
RJ: Clarence Penn, Sam Jones, Art Blakey

Favourite drummer and album:
RJ: Art Blakey, Live at the Village Vanguard;
KJ: Frankie Dunlop on Monk's Live In Tokyo;
DN: Brian Blade, Fellowship, Tony Williams on Miles Davis Four And More, My Funny Valentine

Voice:
RJ: Betty Carter;
KJ: k.d. lang, Groucho Marx;
DN: Sarah Vaughan

Track that you can't help but dance to:
[this question caused a lot of singing of Michael Jackson basslines and horn parts by Toine and even some spontaneous dancing by Karl]
RJ: Prince "Get Off", James Brown "Get Up";
KJ: Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love", Tower of Power "Knock Yourself Out";
DN: Peter Gabriel "Sledgehammer"

Folkloric group:
RJ: Troitsa;
KJ: Doc Watson;
DN: Totó [Columbian singer, not the rock band]

A pop tune:
RJ: Aerosmith/Run DMC "Walk This Way", the whole of Sting's Ten Summoner's Tales;
DN: Falco "Amadeus";
KJ: "Live To Tell" Madonna

Hidden early influence:
RJ: Jimi Hendrix ("In 7th grade, I dressed like a hippie and was an outcast");
KJ: Starship's "We Built This City On Rock 'n' Roll", Genesis Invisible Touch;
DN: Duran Duran Irina

Take The Duck - 17/02/2007@Jazz Station, Bruxelles

Toine Thys - ts
Daniel Nösig - tp
Robert Jukic - b
Karl Jannuska - d

See previous concert and Jazzques review. The setlist was fairly similar, but there were a few welcome newcomers.



"Kalkilya" was a slow, slightly sad two-horn dialogue in 7/4. It superbly demonstrated the results of Nösig's and Thys's 9-year partnership, with all the knowing repartie of an old - but still lively - couple. Afterwards, Toine announced that it was about a Palestinian town of the same name that was encircled by the Israeli wall. I thought having that instrumental dialogue to represent a situation where dialogue has been literally cut off was interesting.



Robert Jukic's "Alter Swede" was a boogaloo with a slowed-down bridge that drifted on just long enough for you to be happy when the beat returned. "Duck's Food"'s contrapuntal theme led to a lighter, low-key key mood that Thys took advantage of to introduce a new softness to his tone. Nösig then built up a more a more forceful, lilting groove that carried over into the theme reprise.



Even though it was Karl Jannuska's first tour with the band, you wouldn't have known it from his hook-ups with Robert Jukic, especially when the horns dropped out: some of the concert's most intense moments came when Jukic and Jannuska paired off for a duet, as they did during the drummer's "Third." Because each member lives in a different country, the band only gets together when one of them manages to put together a tour. Let's hope that Jannuska sticks around for the next one.

Take The Duck - 15/02/2007@Le comptoir des étoiles, Bruxelles

I guess the "Robert Jukic International Quartet" was a Charlie Chan-style contractual dodge, since Take The Duck (website | myspace) is playing at the Jazz Station today. Toine Thys (myspace) has been mostly equated with Rackham lately, but this is actually his longest-running group, a jazz-jazz band co-led with the Austrian trumpeter Daniel Noesig (myspace) since 1998. The personnel has shifted recently: it was only Paris-based Canadian drummer Karl Jannuska's second gig with the band.



They came out guns blazing with a rambunctious bounce. Right away, the difference between Jannuska and whoever it was that I had seen previously was evident: Jannuska is an excellent drummer, upfront but responsive and tight. There's something a little frantic in his body language, but not in his sound. The composition of his that ended the first set underlined that distinction, as a more-or-less unison line played over an intricately arranged, shifting rhythm part that started, stopped, raced ahead and then stuttered. During his solo, Noesig progressively loosed himself from the form, bringing a satisfying unity and forward motion to its strict cycles.

Bobby Timmons's "Dat Dere" provided a slice of classic 32-bar bluesy hard bop that the trumpeter bit into with delight. Sitting just out of arm's reach of his bell, his clean, precise playing and fat sound were a joy. On "Emergency Staircase," Jannuska was highlighted again, as his mobile, Latin-ish straight-eight was killer, and took the energy to a peak when he made this drumset sound something like timbales.



The front line plays on the classic trumpet/saxophone division of labour, the former more lyrical, the latter more muscular. "Juanita Kligopoulou" (which you can hear on its MySpace page) is a great, Calexico-like dusty Mexican border-town of a song that, among other things, relies heavily on that front-line collaboration. Song is the key word here, which makes it unsurprising that it is also a part of Rackham's repertoire. Noesig lyrically intoned the melody, while Thys obbligatoed, reinforced and dialogued, roles switching freely without ever losing the song-feel. There were no clear breaks for solos, but rather a complete song with sections of more loosely improvised melody. Another thing shared with Rackham is Thys's signature sound: a way of occasionally emphasising longer notes with an attack that's halfway between a growl and a Spanish rolled r.