A few years in New York changed Tananas’s drummer Ian Herman. GWEN ANSELL finds out how much
THE club is crowded. So crowded, in fact, that the punters can’t get to the toilets and the musicians can’t get to the stage. The bar staff are sprouting extra arms, and the waiters have started a human chain to pass plates overhead to the tables. Outside, the queue is whingeing: “There are only two/five/16 of us. Are you sure you don’t have room?”
None of this is usual for a Johannesburg jazz gig on a cold, wet, Thursday night. But then, neither, these days, are gigs from Tananas.
Myself, I’d never entirely understood the Tananas magic. The musicianship of this eight-year-old ensemble was always impeccable; guitarist Steve Newman’s fingering was often astounding – but a diet of minimalist folk tunes is bland fare. I preferred my music rougher and riskier. It was the new album, Unamunacua, rougher and riskier, that converted me.
Drummer Ian Herman puts it differently over sushi and decaf the following Sunday. “When we were a trio, the music was about space. People could fill in the spaces for themselves. And a lot of critics would say, like maybe you were saying: why not put a flute here, or a sax there? Well, now we’ve found the right colours and textures in our instrumentalists, and on this album the canvas is full.”
That word “texture” keeps coming up as Herman discusses the album. He feels there is, definitely, a thematic thread running through “but it’s not about concepts you can verbalise; words, the titles of songs. I think it’s a concept about how the music sounds. It’s texture, maybe – developing, changing, weaving around.”
Talking about music in this way is new for Herman, and is part of his own development during the past couple of years in New York. Over these years, he has added composition to his previous interest in playing and producing. “It’s still very new for me, but I’m liking it. And I take a player’s approach to writing; it’s the sounds and rhythms that provide my inspiration, rather than writing a song `about’.”
Unamunacua brought together tunes Herman had penned and pre-produced in New York with Newman’s ideas developed in South Africa. “There was no advance exchange of tapes. When I came back, we spent two weeks writing, throwing stuff at one another, developing colours, textures and the dynamics of the pieces. We knew the album marked a big change for Tananas, although we didn’t formulate precisely what that change was.
“Some of it happened in the studio. Although some of the arrangements were very tight, we tried to leave as much freedom as possible for the soloists. But even with artists you’ve worked with before, you’re never sure whether people will be able to bring their inspirations together. On these sessions, there was great, unforced energy around the recording. Robbie Jansen’s interpretations blew me away. And Noise Khanyile (Zulu folk violinist) – on a number like Seven, which is a very contemporary vibe, just effortlessly found the right counter-lines.”
Seven, with its rapid seven-time signature and club feel, is probably the most obvious recorded product of Herman’s time in New York. Listening to him live, you can hear a whole new range of references in the playing. “The city is so culturally varied. I picked up on Afro-Cuban beats, on bebop, and from my young son who’s staying with me, on hip-hop too. But hip-hop so clearly descends from bebop that taking that vibe back into jazz isn’t at all a forced mix. It flows easily.”
Herman doesn’t want to predict when Tananas will record again, or what the next recorded product will sound like. Certainly, if the core remains his drums and Newman’s guitar, the development of their two approaches will be decisive. “I’m still changing. I think if I went to Alaska, or anywhere, I’d change and bring new things back to the music. But for the present one goal would be to tour with the big band that made the album, and see where the music goes when it’s regularly playing live. And for that, you’re back to business, and budget.”
Unamunacua will be available in music stores from next week