Su-Ling (Babel Label)
Finn Peters
Released September 19, 2006
Jazzwise Top 10 Releases of 2006
YouTube:
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Spotify:
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About:
Su-ling is the innovative album from
the eclectic musician Finn Peters. Finn, who’s equally at ease playing anything
from hip-hop, dance, classical, or jazz, has become one of the finest flautists
and alto sax players in the UK today.
The evocative melodies of Su-Ling transport you
across the travelled paths that this musician has taken over the past decade
since bursting onto the scene at the age of 21. With a wealth of musical
knowledge already under his belt and exciting past collaborations, it is no
surprise that this album sounds so refreshing and provocative with its rich
rhythms and dynamic sounds. The band is comprised of the leading lights on
today’s UK jazz scene. Dave
Okumu (guitar, Tom Skinner (drums), Tom Herbert
(bass) and Nick Ramm (keys) have been working together with Finn as a steadily
evolving unit under various guises over the past 10 years.
Su-Ling is about beauty, majesty and grace
-sentiments that we seem to have forgotten about in 21st century England. The
music travels from East Africa back to today’s London with stops in West
Africa, Brazil, New Orleans and Java on the way. The album embraces and
reflects the textures gathered from the diverse nature of Finn’s musical experiences.
In 1991, Finn studied with the court musicians to
the Ugandan royal family in Kampala. “Al- Dargazelli” has
a magisterial, almost royal feel and is influenced
by patterns derived from Ugandan xylophone (Amadinda)
music. “Gato” is a Latin tune named after the great
Argentine tenor player Gato Barbieri. The piano breakdown is a cheeky quote
from Nas’s “N.Y. state of mind” who in turn sampled the original piano line
from Joe Chambers “Mind Rain”. “Red Fish” comes from Finn’s love of New Orleans
second-line music, traditional Mardi Gras funk. The hand-clapping patterns are
reminiscent of bayou swamp funk legends “the Meters”. “Ballad Boy” is the sole
composition on the album which is not written by Finn Peters. Outstanding
pianist Nick Ramm gives us
this beautiful, wistful and otherworldly journey
into the subconscious.
The title track, “Su-Ling” is named after the bamboo
flute used in the Javanese Gamelan orchestra. Directly
influenced by Javanese folk melodies and modes it
uses devices such as the where the introduction or (buka) sometimes starts
quickly then slows down until the beginning of the first cycle. “N.R.
Shackleton” is written for the aforementioned Ramm. Nick ran away to join the circus
a few years back. “His nickname used to be “Ramshackle” but I changed it to
“Shackleton” as he reminded me of another great adventurer”. “Nelson’s blood”
is so titled because Finn has spent the last 11 years living in Greenwich,
where nautical themes abound, tying in nicely with the next piece, “Fast Fish,
Loose Fish.” This comes from a phrase from Herman Melville’s epic, “Moby Dick.”
The music tracks Captain Ahab’s desperate chase after the great White Fish.
The last piece, “Machine Gun” is an anti-war
statement after feeling increasingly hopeless about the war in Iraq. Machine
gun fire becomes transmuted into rapid-fire flute melodies and the whole thing
descends into one bloody battle. In the first performance of Machine Gun, the
musicians played in the dark whilst sound-sensitive lights were triggered by
the Kalashnikov samples.
“I’ve been lucky to have had several of the tracks
on this brilliant debut upfront and have loved playing
them on the radio – now it’s your turn!”
Gilles Peterson
Track Listing:
1. Al Dar Gazelli 8:41
2. Gato 4:15
3, Red Fish 6:26
4. Ballad Boy 5:54
5. Su-Ling 5:20
6. N.R. Shackleton Goes to the Circus 6:00
7. Nelson’s Blood 6:41
8. Fast Fish, Loose Fish 8:00
Personnel:
Finn Peters: flute, saxophone, percussion
Dave Okumu: guitar
Tom Skinner: drums, percussion
Tom Herbert: bass
Nick Ramm: piano, synthesiser
Recorded at Vagabond Studios, London
Producer: Finn Peters
Recorded by Antonio Feola
Mastered by Mandy Parnell
Artwork by iwantdesign.co.uk
Review:
Finn
Peters, the 31-year-old British saxophonist and flautist, has always sounded
like a player who didn’t need much acquaintance with an unfamiliar context to
be able to make a difference to it. But house music, contemporary classical
music (with the group Nosferatu) and production have occupied much of his time
– so this is a belated jazz album from him, with the formidable F-ire
Collective partnership of guitarist Dave Okumu, pianist Nick Ramm, bassist Tom
Herbert and drummer Tom Skinner.
Peters adopts a Wayne Shorter-like mix of
muttered, insinuating lines and hollow, dolorous long notes in the opening
Latin section of Al Dar Gazelli before it opens out into free swing. The
handclapping/bass-riffing Red Fish is catchy but gets muscular as its squirming
melody develops. And the title track (the name of an Indonesian flute) has
Peters breathing wisps of sound over delicately stepping treble piano and deep
bowed bass. Nelson’s Blood mixes a contemporary-classical intro with devious
flute improv and accordion sounds from Ramm’s synths, and Machine Gun has the
kind of playfully wayward melodies, collective tussles, electronics-broadsides
and rhythmic unpredictability that could have muscled in on some of the
slighter Latin groovers more. But it’s a welcome return to full-on jazz for a
gifted exponent.
John Fordham (The Guardian)
