RICHARD RUSSELL
wrote the following in response to the SUBURBIA concert
broadcast
on BBC Radio 3 (Jazz on 3 - 25th March 2000).
_________________
I.
Fast -spinning drive ; a deliberately disposable instant.....
Then another ... so we have like early Herbie on a trip ,
Or do we ? Bit swings round the power drill :
Suave intro into bit-like-Buddy Guy deep slow ;
More than partly irate ... more drill ...
Train song 'bout the semi-detach-ed ,
The merely middle-class, the lower, the lower.
" Imaged in music, the partial dereliction of even
The most newly-bought home improvement. "
Partially desperate kiss of slightly funked saxophone :
Sing 'bout your garden.
Sing 'bout your garden. Weed.
II.
Sounds groove don't need more electric piano,
Sounds groove needn't require disco lights. Theme
Across three generations slides round the horn section
With fake-delicate touch, over-mastery mystery,
Sounds groove like latin lift took vehicle for intimate
Adorned display of alto-emotion effortless.
Slides round the horn section together segue changes
Round to an about English jazz alternative : "this
Indeed improvisation even if they played like that
Before the tune was written."
English jazz alternative played out too
Segue to a violin ;
Segue from a violin.
III.
Play above below frequency. Free round that
Metal bird-song, Ellington traffic, tempo rides
Insistently between parked cars, harmony rises
To accommodate the cracks in the tarmac road,
One more times, four more times,
Pizzicato drum fill slight falling melody,
Play above below frequency, nostalgic for a theremin
At the traffic lights, soprano flickers as a "moth
On a street light." Free round that chromium front
Garden, percussive rides out in a sudden dramatic.
IV.
All the notes at once to a christianic parade,
Now they are all playing at playing.
Blandly pompous accordianic marmalade,
"Beware pomposity," I think is what they're saying.
V.
Waltzed into genuine blue-jazz feel through
Talkin'-Stratocaster runs off a wall ;
Slowly built polite riff collides antiphony,
Disconcert the neighbours down the mall ;
Down the shopping precinct to a keyboard solo ...
... talkin' trombone now ... concert hall ...
... canal-bank blue-jazz waters rise and fall.
VI.
Neat psychedelic "head" , rallentando "middle-eight" leads
Instead to dance of any peoples' for a full life, to die safe
At home in bed. "Indian-Afro-Gypsy" little "head",
To rhythm "middle-eight" leads instead to great
Applause.
VII.
Yell out, yell out,
Hendrix with a hangover falls over plugged-in and then
Yell out, yell out : The Blues.
Singer yelling telling even smelling to a Saturday-night
Beer and fags and soccer South-East London Blues :
Twelve-bar guitar rage turns too to two to
Three chorus fiddle throw-back on to
Altophonic saxophone, framed for full effect
Towards and in and on and with The Blues.
VIII. Fin.
Lost-in-the-jungle-since-the-Sixties-bus-driver-surf-music chant.
Would love to mix the words and music better but you can't.