Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Some Connections Between Miles and Bjork



When I bought my tickets to see Bjork more than a month ago, I had to settle for a “side view”; the closest center seats were sold out, and I wasn`t going to take a risk buying center seats that could for all I know be at the far back of the arena. Although I had never been to the Nippon Budokan before, I had definitely heard about the many large tours that had passed through and the slew of albums named “Live at Budokan” or simply “at Budokan”. This was going to be vastly different from any club experience I had, so after mulling it over, I decided a side view was better than no view - the fact the person seated next to me was using binoculars not withstanding. But the side view turned out to be not such a bad choice after all. It provided a clear view of her band and the rest of the stage including the percussion and assorted electronics.

Not surprisingly though this perspective of the stage shifted a lot of my focus away from Bjork and directed it to the rest of her group. And with this redirected perspective, I had an epiphany. With so much of her focus in the past few years on gathering such a wide array of talented musicians and using their ideas to support her music, she`s beginning to come off like Miles Davis. For so much of his career, Miles would gather and work with some of the best jazz musicians such as Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, John Coltrane, Dave Holland, and Wayne Shorter, uniting them under his well-established and respected name. In fact, for many of Shorter`s original tunes, the recordings that are most celebrated are those with Miles Davis. With many of these musicians, Miles claimed in the '70s that he created the best rock band in existence. His statement not only reflects the talent of his group, but also the variety of new electric instruments his band was playing that were still taboo in jazz circles. In a similar vein, Bjork has gathered her own cast of talent including Matmos, Konono No.1, Timbaland, Rahzel, Mike Patton, and Mark Bell. In addition to a creative combination of musicians, Bjork always manages to assemble a surprising if not impressive orchestration ranging from the strings and beats of the Homogenic era to her current use of some cutting-edge electronic instruments including the Reactable, which isn't even in commercial production yet.

Another link between Bjork and Miles Davis is how they treat their own melodies in live performances. One thing I`m always astounded by when I listen to The Complete Concert 1964: My Funny Valentine & Four More is that the melodies of what should be instantly recognizable songs are carefully obscured by a very free interpretation of the melody`s original shape. The band provides an incredibly solid foundation, making something like “All Blues” unmistakable, but when the melody is the defining feature on “My Funny Valentine” or “Stella by Starlight” Miles twists it around to create something almost entirely different. Bjork`s band too was solid, providing her with the platform necessary to do something similar. On Friday, Bjork constantly pushed the tempo, staying ahead of the beat or not holding out a note and skipping a beat or two. This rendered her singing style more speech-like and turned lyrical melodies from Hyperballad into something she spoke almost directly to the audience seated in folding chairs on the floor in front of her. Lately I've been interested in how vocals are bent rhythmically or placed slightly off of the beat to create tension or the directness of speech. Basically I like it when singers emote by manipulating rhythms and tempos.

Though it doesn't really demonstrate the singing style I was talking about, this clip of All is Full of Love gives you an impression of what the show was like.



And here's that recording of All Blues I was talking about. With Miles playing the head solo, he's free to interpret the melody without risking unexpected harmonic clashes.

1 comment:

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Kiryu-shi, Gunma-ken, Japan
I'm currently living in a small Japanese city at the foothills of mountains about 75 miles northwest of Tokyo. A lot of time is spent absorbing the culture in large doses; and when that gets old, I turn to the Internet.