Hosting Changes

Chronique

One might surmise that in the jazz, rock, and R&B worlds the Fender Rhodes would beat the Wurlitzer in an electric piano popularity contest, although songs like Cannonball Adderley's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" (with composer Joe Zawinul at the keyboard), Ray Charles' "What'd I Say," and Steely Dan's "Do It Again," among many others, would have lost a good deal of their character had they featured the Rhodes instead of the Wurli. Dutch pianist, composer, and bandleader Michiel Braam happens to be a Wurlitzer fan, and according to his website even sold his Rhodes (not that he was playing it much) in favor of a Wurlitzer 200A when one became available. The fact that Braam plays any sort of electric keyboard might come as a surprise, since jazz pianists with his level of mastery often tend to berate instruments that must be plugged into a wall socket to make an audible sound. But Braam, despite Dutch jazz credentials comparable to those of Misha Mengelberg, has a rather pop-friendly streak and, as Hosting Changes proves, doesn't shrink from the pleasures of an electrified groove, either. Hosting Changes is an intriguing release not only because of this atypical setting for the leader of the Bik Bent Braam big band, the Bentje Braam quartet, and Trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher -- but also because it is a companion piece to the latter trio's Change This Song CD, and in fact includes many of the same tunes, with names that are all anagrams of the Change This Song album title (and in fact, "Hosting Changes" is an anagram of "Change This Song" as well). With these tunes and this instrumentation it would seem nearly impossible for Braam, "semi-acoustic" bassist Pieter Douma, and drummer/percussionist Dirk-Peter Kölsch to resist a jazz-rock-funk feeling, and so the band slips into a groove and joyfully rolls with it through a good portion of the disc. The album is not groove-happy from start to finish, however, as the Wurlitzer is capable of producing a wide range of timbres and textures, evoking far more than a get-funky vibe, and Braam is just the man to coax a plethora of sounds from the instrument with Douma and Kölsch in able support. On "Can Ghosts Neigh?," Braam pounds the keys into submission with an overdriven attack but then segues into a middle section that dissolves with a shimmering wash of vibrato while somehow never losing track of the lovely melody. And the bonus track of "Nightsong Aches" is a vehicle not only for Braam but also Kölsch and especially a reverb-heavy Douma to conjure forth some spacy and ethereal aural imagery. When the trio members do lock in together, as on "Congesting Hash," the contrast to the acoustic Change This Song strongly asserts itself -- on the acoustic trio disc Braam, bassist Wilbert de Joode, and drummer Michael Vatcher are telepathic in their collective explorations and the improvisations are logical extensions of Braam's melodies, but rather than nail the groove, Trio BraamDeJoodeVatcher delight in more free-form dialogues. And yet there is considerable appeal to the Wurli Trio's approach on Hosting Changes -- as well as some presumed accessibility for ears more accustomed to electrified jazz, rock, and funk than the acoustic avant-garde -- proving most of all that Michiel Braam's classic-sounding tunes are wonderful jazz vehicles whether powered by electrical current or played on instruments with no need for an AC outlet.
© Dave Lynch /TiVo