Tuesday February 10, 2009
BassGroove 100 sways to the beat
By N. RAMA LOHAN
There is no short cut to getting your music heard. It all boils down to hard work and perseverance ... the way nu-jazz outfit BassGroove 100 is doing it.
It's difficult to discount the impact of the fusion movement of the 1970s ... when Herbie Hancock funked things up with his Head Hunters or when John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra teetered on the edge of dissonance with Birds of Fire. The listening audience was caught in a rapture too as Joe Zawinul and his Weather Report pack endured a sonic storm during Heavy Weather, likewise Chic Corea’s escapades with Return To Forever on Romantic Warriors.
Many of the elder statesman of the Malaysian (and global, surely) jazz scene have travelled a similar path. While getting their music out to a thirsty audience has been a task (to say the least) before, the DIY philosophy proliferating the music industry now has provided greater hope.
Very recently, bass maestro Andy Peterson kicked API (Andy Peterson Inc) into motion, and now, bass ace Albert Yap is gunning the engine of BassGroove 100, an initiative of fusion traditions.
Attack of the bass players? Hardly, unless the main artillery here is great jazz, funk and ethnic flavours.
BassGroove 100 the name sounds sinisterly like some overt attempt at spurring left-brain creativity, but Yap concedes its nothing more than his Yahoo e-mail address, truth be told. While the number 100 has no particular significance, BassGroove does: “The rhythms formed by modern music is propelled by the drums and bass ... these together form a groove – the backbone of music.”
Musically however, the band’s debut ... Blend to Groove!! certainly has judicious amounts of cranial-stimulating moments.
“I guess the album is a statement for freedom of musical expression. This is about a group of people getting together and writing their own songs ... and we hope we get to record as many albums as possible to share with the world,” concedes Yap, who apart from being a bass player, is an audio engineer by trade.
The quintet rose from the ashes of a previous outfit Yap helmed called Eye to Eye Jazz Mix. “There were many line-up changes ... naturally this was in part due to commitment from the members ... and that’s really how the band came about.”
Once the revolving door had stopped spinning, keyboardist Leonard Yeap, guitarist Ihzwan Omar, drummer Tom Anuar and alto saxophonist Eddie Kismilardy (who was there through every incarnation of the band) all found themselves in the fray.
We’re gonna groove: BassGroove 100, (from left) Tom Anuar, Leonard Yeap, Ihzwan Omar, Eddie Kismilardy and Albert Yap, raised the roof at No Black Tie during its recent album launch. And the proverbial tale is spun once again, BassGroove 100-style. “This band exists because, individually, we all couldn’t find satisfaction with our other musical pursuits ... there just never was any consistency. This is all a culmination of desire, perseverance, patience and consistently applying this concept. Honestly, we still have so much to learn and the beauty is, this learning process never ends,” Yap shares with a broad smile.
The music-first ethos is deeply entrenched in the five-song album that is ... Blend to Groove!! The opening track, Wise is Nice, boasts of Javanese-type melodies, which Yap informs is derived from a music scale called Sunda. High Five Funk, is precisely like its title suggests, with Tower of Power bass lines a la Rocco Prestia.
Kelam Kabut cheekily infuses the main melody from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee. Ronggeng for Mother is perhaps the piece that will have even the most casual jazz fan humming along to its lovely melodies.
“I’d describe our music as nu jazz. If Miles (Davis) were alive, I think he’d be doing something like this. The music has a groove and colour ... and an Eastern, ethnic feel to it ... dare I say, joget, even,” Yap says with a laugh.
“There is no chief songwriter in the band. We worked on everything together. There is no such thing as a bad melody ... everything has its place. So, the trick to make this work is for us to collectively decide what works and what goes where in the music,” Yap reveals.
BassGroove 100 is rooted in reality where the commercial success of this project is concerned, though. Yap may not be expecting to turn into a millionaire from album sale revenue, but he hangs on to a firm belief that with hard work, the band should move forward.
“We come from very different musical backgrounds and religions even, but the music binds us together.”
If everything in life was gauged on merit, ... Blend to Groove!! should find its way into the CD players of even the most novice of music fans.
... Blend to Groove!! is available online from bassgroove.com. For enquiries, e-mail bassgroove100@yahoo.com.
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