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ART MATTERS
ALL THAT JAZZ
) This month I will continue to explore approaches and artworks of local artists who actively employ their days in creativity, and who are hopefully still finding comfort in their needed obsessions in these dark days. The ability for the drawn and painted act to allow us to see what is truly important in our usually hectic lives, a wordless communication that is even more important now that it has been denied to us.
REVIEWS
BY ENZO MARRA
I’m very happy to introduce you to another Brighton-based artist, Dawei Zhang, who explores the human condition via painted and drawn figurative imagery, all executed from his studio based at Phoenix Brighton. His imagery intrinsically connected with themes of friendship, love, seduction, fragility. His friends and family visible in touching evocations, which slowly unfurl as their cautious journey progresses from initial idea to finished set aside image. The emotive ties that bind us together, keep us close, draw us together, remind us of what is important to us, are only too visible in his works and remind us of the relationships which we are missing, we are hoping to again be able to properly take part in, the lives we used to live, would dearly love to be able to live again. Having first seen his works too many years ago during an Open House exhibition, and having been genuinely impressed, I have had the luxury of seeing them develop from an acutely textural all prima imagery with a genuinely gestural feel through to their more subtle and more washily applied contemporary works. His use of charcoal in his drawn evocations equally as powerful in their renditions of portraiture and part and full figures, each graduated in all scales of grey to achieve their photographic inspired yet equally distinctive hard fought effects. Having previously been drawn by him a number of times, I have seen how he can capture an individual’s personality, the glint in their eye, the almost invisible things that make them into a true likeness, that can make you recognise things about yourself you hadn’t noticed previously. The way he can sometimes use pigment in his paintings can be much more vivid, yet this potent palette doesn’t take away from the subject matter that it is utilised towards. His works have been exhibited at the National Open Art Competition; I hope you will be able to see more of them locally and nationally once a new normality returns. The opportunity to be able to see such artworks face to face in a real space, allowing us a truer connection with them, a form of communication that a screen can never mimic or adequately convey. The need to see and be affected by imagery is a luxury I truly miss, an experience I will relish when gallery doors open wide and allow me back in.
BY SIMON ADAMS
) ROB MAZUREK & EXPLODING STAR ORCHESTRA Dimensional Stardust (International Anthem/Firestone). Chicago-based trumpet, composer and arranger Rob Mazurek is both prolific and endlessly fascinating. Employing his 13-piece Exploding Star Orchestra – one of his many outfits, and his most adventurous – he delivers a suite of songs that uses modernist compositional structures while looking back in reverence at Chicago’s substantial avant-garde riches. Lead trumpets and traditional solos might suggest jazz, but the entire orchestra is on another level altogether. The dominant voices are vibes and flute, the vibes locking in with the rhythm section to deliver repetitive pulses worthy of Philip Glass at his best. To add the rich mix are the spoken vocals of Damon Lock, tackling themes of inclusion and oppression as well as some otherworldly oddities. Holding everything together are startling arrangements of complexity and wonder. It all adds up to a remarkable brew that bears repeated listening. ) MARY HALVORSON’S CODE GIRL Artlessly Falling (Firestone). American guitarist Mary Halvorson looks like a retiring librarian, but don’t let looks fool you, for she is one the most innovatory of guitarists around at the moment. Her use of distortion and delay pedal, and her double micing of both amp and strings, make her sound quite unique. On this second set from her Code Girl sextet, she is joined on three tracks by the wondrous British singer Robert Wyatt. His tremulous, interrogative vocals contrast sharply with the often-Brechtian approach of Amirtha Kidami, heard on the other five tracks. All the music is by Halvorson, whose guitar accompaniment is sometimes merely supportive but whose presence is formidable throughout. A set of songs like you haven’t heard in ages. ) JAKOB BRO, ARVE HENRIKSEN & JORGE ROSSY Uma Elmo (ECM). Now on his fifth ECM album as leader, Danish guitarist Jakob Bro has teamed up this time with famed Norwegian ambient trumpeter Arve Henriksen and Spanish drummer Jorge Rossy, who is renowned for his work with, among others, pianist Brad Mehldau. Amazingly, this was the first time the trio had ever played together; indeed, the first time ever Bro met Henriksen was on the day of recording! Despite, that, the trio mesh together perfectly, their often hushed lines and quiet delivery ideal for the measured material they play. Leader Bro’s guitar can be ominous in its haunting lines and enhanced electronic delays and reverbs, Henriksen’s trumpet is as ethereal and windswept as ever, while Rossy’s drumming is consistently supple and inventive. Luminous, unhurried, intriguing music that is perfect for our troubled times.
