| Electric Bugaboo : Albert Beger and the Electroacoustic Band (2010) Ozen Bar, Tel Aviv April 24th, 2010 Review by: Ben Shalev A few weeks ago Albert Beger took his saxophone and drove to the Fureidis Junction (or maybe he walked there – he lives in nearby Mosahv Dor), stood at the intersection and began to play. Even without having been there, one can say for certain that the sounds emerging from the saxophone where overflowing and emotional. This was Beger’s protest against the intention to build a gas refining plant covering hundreds of dunams at Dor Beach. Beger is an artist with a developed environmental consciousness: The jacket of his latest album is adorned with an apocalyptic picture of a woman and a child gazing at mountains of garbage. Yet it is unlikely Beger had imagined that bulldozers would be showing up so soon in his neck of the woods. In a computerized image he has been sending around recently he seems to be standing on top of the planned gas farm shooting fire and brimstone on it out of his saxophone. Naive? Definitely. But in a world where fewer and fewer artists are involved in political activity of any sort, and in an artistic area (Israeli jazz) where there is hardly any history in environmentalism, it is impossible not to admire Beger for the unflagging connection between his music and the reality in which he lives. This is a connection he learned from his admired teachers: Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders and the other black free jazz greats of the 1960s. The connection between the music and the reality in which it is created could also be heard at Beger’s performance on Saturday, especially when he sang into his saxophone (insofar as it was possible to understand) the prayer “He who makes peace in his heavens.” “Makes Peace” (“Oseh Shalom”) is the title of an album Beger will soon be recording with his new ensemble (Ido Bukelman, guitars; Assaf Hakimi, bass; Danny Benedict, drums and Avi Elbaz, electronics). The performance on Saturday at the Ozen Bar, with the same ensemble, was devoted entirely to that music. Not a single old number slipped through, even though Beger has a splendid past catalog – eight albums, most of them excellent. This was a good performance, which aroused admiration but also some reservations. Beger is the embodiment of the searching artist. In every album he changes his ensemble and his sound. In his latest album he played with an acoustic quartet based on the piano and now he is cutting toward an especially electrified sound: both an electric guitar and electronics, along with regular drums and contrabass. The opening number, quiet and contemplative, was wonderful: a measured and precise composition with creative electronic touches, a simple and repetitive progression on the guitar and excellent support form the bass and drums. The ambitious new ensemble sounded excellent. However, in the next two numbers, when the music became more intense and rhythmic (sort of free punk), some creaks became obvious. The combination between the traditional provider of rhythm (the drums) and the innovative provider of rhythm (the electronics) was not entirely organic, even though the “adhesive” provided by the contrabass was excellent. Nor were the numbers themselves impressive: The melodies sounded too dismantled, each not on its own, without the added value sometimes afforded by this aesthetic. In the fourth number, when Beger and his partners galloped on the ground of a good melody (pre-punk spiced with progressive rock and touches of Arabic), the music again sounded coherent and focused, as it did in the next number, “Makes Peace,” which went on for about a quarter of an hour. It was interesting to follow its many turns, including the saxo-vocal prayer and a piece of melody possibly reminiscent of Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman.” After that Beger went back to the lovely opening number, this time with guest vocalist Michal Cohen, and the performance ended. It will be fascinating to listen to the recorded version of this music, but it is to be hoped that the shortcomings revealed in the performance (especially the combination of the drums and the electronics) will be rectified in the studio. Beger is coming out with “Makes Peace” under his new label, Anova, to which he moved after a number of years of extensive activity at Earsay’s Jazz, the Third Ear’s jazz label. On May 8, at the Ozen Bar in Tel Aviv, Earsay’s Jazz will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in a performance with many participants. Beger will be one of them, and alongside him will be Daniel Sarid and Haggai Fershtman and saxophonist Yoni Kretzmer’s ensemble. This is looking like it will be a celebration of Israeli jazz at its best.
Slava Ganelin and Albert Beger |
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The first musical meeting ever of pianist Vyacheslav (Slava) Ganelin and sax player Albert Beger was conceived by the new Israeli label, Auris Media, as part of the label’s celebration of its launching. Ganelin, who resides in Israel but rarely performs here, has gained his reputation as the leader of the remarkable Ganelin Trio (with sax player Vladimir Chekasin and drummer Vladimir Tarasov), while still living in the former Soviet Union.
The Ganelin Trio recorded a series of powerful live statements for Leo label two decades ago. Beger, who was brought up on the legacy of the American free jazz, is still an underrated sax player, but his recent collaboration with bass player William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake (Evolving Silence, Vol. 1, Earsay), should bring him his due recognition as an original and promising player. Ganelin opened the evening with a brilliant solo recital on the piano and synthesizer. By now his music is much more pacified than the turbulent and dense improvisations of him while playing with the trio, but still carries the same theatrical and dramatic characteristics, and immediately identifiable. His musical language is always reflective and suggests references to Elingtonian style of composing, atonal modernism, a bit of Baroque and even folkish child songs.
Ganelin keeps his left hand on the piano and reflects and comments on his abundant stream of ideas with his right hand that plays the synthesizer. Quite often he toys with a metronome and taps the piano strings, adding a nuances of irony to the mostly dark soundscapes. Beger followed with a short set that featured his new trio with electric vertical bass player Gabriel Meir, who has accompanied Beger since his first recording ten years ago, and new drummer Israel Zohar. The trio sounded as if they have been playing together for years, tight, muscular and leaves solid base for Beger to develop his themes. Beger draws clear circular lines and than pushes and intensifies them, and with the exact dexterity of Meir and Zohar’s heavy polyrhythms, the music felt assured, swinging and flowing.
The set concluded with an inspired performance of one of the most beautiful songs that Beger penned, the meditative “Rain is Coming,” first recorded by his quartet (Art of the Moment, NMC, 2000), and last year as an African suite with Parker and Drake. It was clear that neither Ganelin or Beger knew much about the other’s work, but that was the essence of this meeting. The duo set was led by Ganelin, who quickly encompassed Beger with a dense, multi-layered, stream of heavy clusters of chords. Beger sounded at first hesitant, even lost, but, I guess that Ganelin, as a shrewd and more experienced improviser, wanted to catch Beger off-balance. Once Beger realized that this is the name of the game, the two engaged in an intense, playful and rapid conversation, still led by Ganelin, that offered a glimpse to the great potential of this duo. Beger proved his competence as a free improv player, and Ganelin may finally have found a real musical partner in Israel, worthy of his partners from his trio’s heyday.
