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Jonesing for jazz

Two top-shelf shows end the long winter drought
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By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
February 27th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Doky, a longtime sideman to the late Michael Brecker, has moved into electronica.
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Photo by W.Grossebner
Gemini twins: Puschnig, left, and Tacuma.
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Chris Minh Doky

When: Tuesday, March 4, at 9
Where: Lucerna Music Bar
Tickets: 350 Kč, available through Ticketpro and at the venue

Wolfgang Puschnig & Jamaaladeen Tacuma

When: Tuesday, March 4, at 9:30
Where: Reduta
Tickets: 300 Kč,
available through Ticketpro and at the venue

Entertainment in Prague seems to run in spurts, with long barren stretches and then everything happening at once. Next week is no exception, with two first-rate jazz shows in town on the same night. But the venues are within walking distance of each other, so it’s not impossible to catch both — and neither should be missed.
New York-based Chris Minh Doky, best known for playing bass with the Michael Brecker Band, is touring with his newest album on Blue Note, The Nomad Diaries, and the Nomad All-Stars band, which features Hiram Bullock (on guitar and vocals), Ricky Peterson (keyboards) and Keith Carlock (drums).
In a recent interview with Jazzwise, Doky explains that everything on Diaries was written and recorded on the road. To give a picture of what it’s like being a touring musician these days, the cuts were all recorded backstage, in hotels and on planes. The result is a nu-jazz sound that glides across space with elegance and drive, as Doky brings together contributions by Brecker, Mike Stern and other mostly mainstream players with an electro-pulse.
Doky (born in 1969) grew up in Denmark, with a Vietnamese father and a Danish mother who is a popular singer. He grew up listening to and studying Danish jazz, where bass is often the lead instrument. He moved to New York City when he was 18, and after a few years began playing with Mike Stern, then Randy Brecker, then just with Michael Brecker’s Quartet.
Doky played with Michael Brecker from 2000 up until he died last year. Brecker was a mentor and, after his death, Doky felt he would never again be able to play “straight-ahead jazz” as well with anyone else. So he has integrated electronica as a way of moving forward. Nomad Diaries is also his first recording with the bass up front. “I almost don’t play rhythm on this album, I only play lead,” he says.
Another leader on bass, the legendary Jamaaladeen Tacuma from Philadelphia, along with one of Europe’s most active jazz impresarios, saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig from Vienna, will perform as a duo at Reduta jazz club on the same evening.
Tacuma played with Ornette Coleman’s electric band Prime Time in the mid-1970s. His most recent release, The Flavors of Thelonious Monk, is a celebration of one of jazz’s greatest pianists and composers. But it was recorded with funky jazz players, and Philly’s best-known DJ, King Britt, injecting ambient soundscapes and beats.
Puschnig was a co-founder of the Vienna Art Orchestra back in 1977. He has released brilliant recordings over the years with noted musician friends that include Carla Bley and Linda Sharrock. This project with Tacuma is a continuation of such efforts.
“Wolfgang and I played together for the first time in Philadelphia at my recording studio in the late ’80s,” Tacuma recalls. “He was there recording his solo album, and asked me to play on a few songs as a duet. After that we began a long musical relationship, touring worldwide and performing with master traditional musicians from all parts of the world. We constantly play together.”
On an unreleased 2007 promo disc, the two veterans merge and swirl around each other like rising cigarette smoke. Puschnig is melodic and complex, while Tacuma is a one-man rhythm machine rooted in space-funk. Together they burn it up.
And they play Monk. Referring to the duo in the third person as “Gemini Gemini,” Tacuma says, “Gemini Gemini will be performing a few Monk compositions, because Gemini Gemini originally recorded Monk compositions on one of their releases on ITM records. Along with Monk, we’ll be performing our own music, previously recorded, and newer compositions that have never been heard before.”
With these first-rate players, the one night constitutes an international jazz festival of sorts in Prague. It’s unfortunate that they’re not all playing under the same roof. But jazz devotees will find either or both shows well worth their time.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (27/02/2008):

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