Voices of Bishara (Brownswood Recordings/International Anthem/Nonesuch)
Tom Skinner
Released November 4, 2022
AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2022
All About Jazz Best Jazz Albums of 2022
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n44J5hE_m_4h_8pv4Yo9A8XxkU6IsLrzo
Spotify:
About:
The title of Tom Skinner’s first release under his own name is a reference to cellist Abdul Wadud’s ultra-rare 1978 solo album ‘By Myself’, which Skinner listened to repeatedly during lockdown. Wadud’s album was privately pressed on his own label, Bisharra, and whilst Skinner’s title uses the more conventional spelling of this common Arabic name, they both have the same intention or meaning: it translates as ‘good news’, or ‘the bringer of good news’.
This is a classic-sounding record that connects backwards to Skinner’s 2017 Hello Skinny collaboration with American composer and Arthur Russell-collaborator Peter Zummo on ‘Watermelon Sun’. It links sideways to Makaya McCraven’s beat maker-inspired treatments of jazz sessions, and it offers a musical bridge to Sons of Kemet’s most meditative moments.
‘Voices of Bishara’ began life when Tom Skinner asked some musician friends to join him for a Played Twice session at London’s Brilliant Corners. The regular event had a simple format: play a classic album in full through their audiophile system and then have an elite ensemble improvise their response. The night in question focused on drummer Tony Williams’ 1964 Blue Note album ‘Life Time’ and the music he and his friends conjured up was so special that it inspired Skinner to write an albums-worth of phenomenal new music.
Skinner, a cellist, a bass player and two saxophonists recorded the results classic album-style, with everyone in the same room. He took the music home and it was put to the side, occasionally coming out for some attention in between Tom’s many other creative projects. This was a slow burn creation, and gradually, a new album began appearing as he embraced the studio recordings and accentuated their sublime idiosyncrasies.
“I took a very liberal approach with the scissors and started going really hard into the edits between instruments. It breathed new life into the music. I was taking my cue from the great disco re-edits, people like Theo Parrish chopping up tunes and looping sections. I’m not a purist. I don’t want to get hung up on the past. It was really empowering to fuck it up a bit, to mess around with the music and see what happened. It felt right”
The result is a tight, hypnotic and unique 31-minutes of music. ‘Voices of Bishara’ is sculpted around timeless and deeply emotional music that contains masses of movement and exceptional harmonic depth and texture. It sweeps and soars through soundworlds, rich in musicality and always anchored by the deep doubling of cello and bass. It also, of course, contains Skinner’s percussive magic – drumming skills that have brought artists from Grace Jones to Jonny Greenwood to request him on their records and tours.
“We’re individual voices, coming together collectively. The idea was that we could collectively bring something more positive to the table. It’s the start of something.”
Tom Skinner and ‘Voices of Bishara’: bringers of good news.
Track Listing:
1. Bishara 05:37
2. Red 2 02:57
3. The Journey 05:01
4. The Day After Tomorrow 04:59
5. Voices (of the Past) 04:50
6. Quiet as it’s Kept 04:03
Music by Tom Skinner
Personnel:
Tom Skinner: drums
Kareem Dayes: cello
Tom Herbert: acoustic bass
Nubya Garcia: tenor saxophone, flute
Shabaka Hutchings: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
Recorded by Blue May and assisted by Scott Knapper at Konk
Mixed by Dilip Harris
Mastered by Guy Davie at Electric Mastering
Produced by Tom Skinner
Sleeve design and artwork by Paul Camo for Studio Camo
Layout for US release by Craig Hansen
Review:
Voices Of Bishara is one of the top three jazz albums of 2022 so far and it would take the second comings of John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Horace Silver and Lee Morgan to threaten to dislodge it. Before going into the particulars, the backstory….
An epically cross-genre drummer, Skinner has lit up avantist British jazz and related musics for around twenty years. He emerged among the cohort of musicians loosely grouped around the self-help collective F-IRE (Fellowship for Integrated Rhythmic Expression) which energised the London jazz scene in the early 2000s. Notable early sightings included Skinner’s involvement in the now Brooklyn-based tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock’s calling card, Some Times (Candid, 2001), and her breakthrough album, Forensic (F-IRE, 2004).
Since then, Skinner’s several c.v. landmarks include, in 2011, co-founding Sons of Kemet with Shabaka Hutchings and, in 2021, co-founding the Smile with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood. A less widely celebrated but equally groundbreaking project was the left of centre London/Nairobi dance band Owiny Sigoma Band during the 2010s.
The Voices Of Bishara band spans the F-IRE generation and the standard bearers of London’s post-2016 alternative jazz scene. Bassist Tom Herbert is Skinner’s near contemporary and in the 2000s was a member of the influential Polar Bear and Acoustic Ladyland, both intricately intertwined with Laubrock’s lineups. From the school of 2016 come tenor saxophonists Shabaka Hutchings and Nubya Garcia and cellist Kareem Dayes. As jazz supergroups go, this is the coyote’s cojones.
Voices Of Bishara grew out of a Played Twice session the quintet performed at London’s Brilliant Corners. The regular event had a winning format: a classic album was played in full through the bar’s audiophile sound system, after which an elite ensemble improvised their response. The night in question focused on drummer Tony Williams’ Life Time (Blue Note, 1965) and the results were so good that Skinner decided to write the material which became Voices Of Bishara.
The album was recorded live in the studio and then Skinner got busy with the editing scissors. He applied them with gusto, rather in the manner of disco auteurs such as Theo Parrish, who in the late 1990s began creating tracks in a process which was as radical as William Burroughs’ literary cut-up technique, though without the element of random chance. “It was really empowering to fuck it up a bit,” says Skinner. “To mess around with the music and see what happened.”
What happened is just over thirty minutes of exalted jazz. It is by turns tumultuous, when Hutchings and Garcia unleash their broken-note strewn tenors, and meditative, when Hutchings switches to bass clarinet, Garcia to flute, and Dayes’ sonorous cello steps forward. Skinner and Herbert have been playing together for over twenty years, and they lift, propel and anchor things in immaculate close-formation.
The album title was inspired by the American cellist Abdul Wadud’s solo album By Myself, which he released on his own Bisharra label in 1978 and which Skinner listened to repeatedly during 2020. Although Skinner’s title uses the more conventional spelling of the Arabic word, they both translate as “good news.” Sadly, Wadud passed in 2022. One hopes and guesses he would have been tickled pink by Skinner’s salute, for the news on Voices Of Bishara is as good as it gets. Check the YouTube clip below for a taste.
Trainspotter Note 1: This is the first time that boss tenors Shabaka Hutchings and Nubya Garcia have been heard playing together on record.
Trainspotter Note 2: Cellists are still uncommon in jazz. Another album which includes one is Ingrid Laubrock’s aforementioned Forensic. Unbroken the circle is.
Chris May (All About Jazz)
