Topic: Jazz - Modern
Often, with the serial solo jazz form described by John Wesley Work in the post for 26 February 2018, the melody was only a pretext for what followed. Partly this was inherent in the form, and partly it was a reaction to the restrictions imposed by copyright laws. The Thelonious Monk Institute said improvisation became important to Bebop musicians during ASCAP’s ban on the use of its music while the organization negotiated a new contract with the radio networks in 1941. [1]
The olio format was ideal for a French concert in 2017 that brought together two accomplished musicians from Madagascar [2] and students from a local conservatory. The Association la Feuille Noire sponsored master classes by the older men in the morning, some workshops with students, and then the concert. The ensemble’s practice time together was limited, and their performance depended on shared conventions. [3]
Nicolas Vatomanga played the melody for "Kumbaya" through once on tenor saxophone, and didn’t vary the tune thereafter so the student alto saxophone player could play with him. He syncopated it by making the "my" very short. He extended the second "yah" in the second line with melisma, and simplified the last line by playing "Lord" on one tone and giving "kumbaya" only two beats on the same note.
After the repetition with the alto saxophone, each of the musicians played a solo that made no reference to the melody. The keyboard player, Edison Knight, played chords that provided continuity along with the drums and electric stringed instruments.
After the last solo, Vatomanga played the "Kumbaya" melody again. After he and the group repeated the last line two times, he played one final solo that exploited the lowest register of his instrument as John Coltrane had done in "Alabama." [4]
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: Nicolas Vatomanga, tenor saxophone; Edison Knight, keyboard; Robin Nitram, electric guitar; Maxime Degeuser, alto saxophone [5]
Rhythm Accompaniment: Tony Rabeson, drums; Grégoire Vo, electric bass [6]
Credits
None given
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: medley in the form of a theme and improvisations
Notes on Performance
Occasion: concert following master classes, 27 May 2017; sponsored by Association la Feuille Noire
Location: auditorium, Conservatoire de Musique, Lagny-sur-Marne, France
Microphones: floor mikes for saxophones; the other instruments were directly connected to amplifiers.
Clothing: jeans and shirts
Notes on Movement
Vatomanga kept time with his right leg; all one could see behind the amplifier at the front of the stage was his right knee move up and down. He occasionally bent backwards when he was playing. The French musicians did not mark time, but the saxophone player bent his body backward and forward, while the electric guitar player moved his head in an arc.
Notes on Audience
Audience was seated on plastic chairs; it applauded each solo and at end.
Notes on Performers
Vatomanga started learning to play flute in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, when he was four. He discovered jazz when he attended a concert by Talib Kibwe. The fourteen-year-old first reproduced everything he had heard on flute, and then started to learn the sax. At this point, he started listening to the important modern American jazz players, including Charley Parker, Sonny Rollins, and Stan Getz. John Coltrane had the greatest influence, according to Wikipedia. [7]
After graduating from college, he moved to France to study mathematics at Aix-Marseille Université in 1993. The next year, he entered the Conservatoire Darius-Milhaud d’Aix-en-Provence and soon after began working with a cousin of Tony Rabeson. [8]
Rabeson’s father was a Madagascar jazz pianist, Jeanot Rabeson; he learned the fundamentals at his father’s knee. He moved to France when he was 20 and began working as a sideman. Around 2001 he played in Eric Le Lann’s trio that included Vatomanga. [9]
Vatomanga returned to Madagascar in 2004, where he formed his own groups. [10] His MadaJazz group played much more dynamic music than the Langy-sur-Marne concert. He had two drummers, one with a drum set and one with a group of African drums. "Soimanga" featured the latter with keyboards. He played duets with the trumpet player. [11]
In the French concert, neither he nor Rabeson showed all their skills. Both recognized they were there as mentors, and did what they could to make the students sound good, and play the kind of jazz the predominately white audience was expecting. Lagny-sur-Marne was in the region of the Disneyland Paris park. [12]
Availability
YouTube: uploaded by jazzakely on 27 May 2017
End Notes
1. Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Style Sheet. "Bebop." Jazz in America website.
2. Madagascar lies off the coast of east Africa in the Indian ocean. The French invaded in 1883, and held it as a colony until 1960. The population was a mix of Malagasy who came from Borneo centuries before, and later migrants from China, India and Comoros island to the north. The Malagasy had intermarried with local Africans, and, in 2010, were divided into 18 subgroups. (Wikipedia. "Madagascar.")
3. Association la feuille noire. Facebook post for 3 May 2017.
4. Coltrane’s version of "Alabama" was discussed in the post for 2 March 2018.
5. Association la feuille noire.
6. Association la feuille noire.
7. Wikipedia. "Nicolas Vatomanga."
8. Wikipedia, Vatomanga.
9. French Wikipedia. "Tony Rabeson."
10. Wikipedia, Vatomanga.
11. "Le groupe MadaJazz (Mad a Jazz) Soimanga - Madagascar." Uploaded to YouTube by madajazz on 22 September 2012. The performance was from February 2012.
12. Wikipedia. "Marne-la-Vallée."
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