Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Jim Blacks rocking jazz

Accidentally picking up a cd illustrated by one of my favorite japanese artists, Yoshitomo Nara, at the great recordshop Jazzkælderen, made me do one of those weird things I do now and again (with great success): I bought Jim Blacks Splay (2002) because I liked the illustrations on the record. And yet again I did it with success.

Yoshimoto Naras drawings seems innocent at first glance, but after looking at them for a while you´ll recognize that they are nowhere near innocent. On the contrary, they are in their own sarcastic, funny way mad and wild, satanic and sad. The same can be said about drum-madman Jim Black and his fellow musicians, when they play their drum and bass driven, sax and clarinet spiced, improvised jazz on a scale between some hard rocking beats and some slow, dreamy compositions (some would call it post-rock), that eventually will cling on to you like glue on a stick.

While I am madly searching for even better examples of Jim Blacks mad drumming, you can have a taste at Jim Blacks My space or take the one minut music lesson by Mr. Black himself.

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