Wednesday, August 22, 2012

jaywalkin - NoReduce (nwog-records 2012)



Magic, Not Math

New York remains the Mecca of Jazz. The magnetism emanating towards curious and reckless jazz musicians throughout the rest of the world is accordingly potent. The helvetic representatives of young Swiss Jazz Christoph Irniger, Raffaele Bossard and Dave Gisler did not lean back after their first pilgrimage to New York, but brought into life a band with exceptional drum talent Nasheet Waits.Their music portrays a mixture of skyscraper euphoria and the existentialism of pavement gorges. Dave Gisler describes the band as follows: “We wanted to form an explosive band, that would let us realise our musical visions while entrancing an audience. Although we have hardly rehearsed, we sound surprisingly homogenous, like a well attuned band. Very fresh and playful.”
When Christoph Irniger thinks about music in general, he finds: “As a musician, you don’t need to constantly try to reinvent yourself. If things are right, the music will reinvent the musician.” This idiom is strongly reflected in each of the present compositions. All the pieces on the debut record of No Reduce came into being during spring of 2011 in New York. Tunes like “The Slope” (Park Slope, the neighbourhood in Brooklyn Irniger lived in) and “Morningside Road” (Bossard lived in this street) may be understood as an homage to certain city regions.
“Morningside Road was my area of retreat and my place of work. That road was witness to many a nightly hour of my creating, and equipped me with the necessary inspiration." Irniger also speaks contentedly about his address in New York: “I felt good and at ease. And I felt like the people that lived there felt good. Simply a great vibe.”
“Playground” is dedicated to the playgrounds of New York, as the melody reflects the peaceful mood of these places and the drums capture the kid’s sense of liberty. “Dope Factory” was inspired by Gisler’s roommate, and attempts to re-enact the state of being blastedly stoned. The album’s title piece, “Jaywalkin’” reminds of the fact that New York’s pedestrians prefer to cross by red, if given choice... No risk, no fun. “With a solid helping of confidence and a touch of naiveté is how we jumped into this project!” Irniger reflects.
“This risk and the accompanying thirst for adventure were repaid in full by a strong and expressive recording!” ponders Bossard. “To live in New York for some time was inspiring to me in the sense that this city is one of those places in the world where people are creative and innovative, and harbor a good portion of idealism and naiveté is their creativity”, adds Irniger.
The outstanding feature of this band is the successful combination of team spirit and individualism, whereby Nasheet Waits catapults the forward passes received by his helvetic companions by ways of his furious, multi-dimensional play. It is important to him, says Irniger, to work with musicians to whom all is possible and everything permitted. Co-musicians who are open for experiments and who do not fear playing themselves into undiscovered territories. With certainty, he has found this in his co-musicians of No-Reduce.
Gilgamesh was one part human and two parts godly. NoReduce is one part American, and three parts Swiss. As with Gilgamesh, the individual components allow themselves to be quantized exactly, but the end result has more to do with magic than math. That is to say: the quartet NoReduce plays a jazz that transcends the barriers between musicians – and so each member becomes part of a whole that is larger than the sum of its components.nwog-records  /  http://www.noreduce.com / http://noreduce.bandcamp.com/album/jaywalkin