GREENWOMAN - Malcolm Braff’s new band from Switzerland

ECLECTIC, ROCKING, ROLLING, SWINGING, POUNDING, GROOVE-ORIENTED, FUNKY, DRIVING, INTENSE AND STILL MUSICAL

     Greenwoman, Malcolm Braff’s new band from Switzerland that is touring Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkatta and at the Goa International Jazz Festival, played last evening, the 27^th of November 2014, at Vidyaranya School, Hyderabad. 

     Malcolm Braff the grizzly, bearded, big, bear of a man, is a keyboard legend; brilliant and inspired, he plays his keyboards with a rhythmic intensity that makes him sound like a rock artist. I don’t think anyone would vehemently object if I called him a keyboard virtuoso. His music is loud, rocking, rolling, swinging, pounding, intense and yet always very musical, sometimes very lyrical and always very interesting. His innovative music complements his creativity in improvising. He makes every note count; and though he cannot be accused of being gregarious, his short piano improvisations and solo’s are sometimes so blue, and so within the jazz idiom, that he sounds like a post-bop, beat poet.

     Greenwoman comprised of, besides Malcolm Braff, Singer Claire Huguenin, Bjorn Meyer on Electric Bass, Lukas Koenig on Drums and Alexandre Gaeng – video. What good band it was. All the musicians in Greenwoman are extraordinarily gifted!  

     All but one of the compositions that Greenwoman did were composed by Malcolm Braff. The evenings’ music began with ‘Good Morning Sin City’, and then, the only cover they did, was, ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ by ‘Tears For Fears’, and this was interpreted in such a way, that I’m sure, Tears for Fears would have loved it, and wished they could have done it this way. The other tunes were ‘Trisometric’, ‘Crimson Waves’,  ‘A Tick of Time’, ‘Metric’, ‘Standard After’, And the encore was called ‘Otis’.

     The music by Greenwoman was not Soul, it was not Rock, it was not Jazz, it was not Pop, it was not Electro, it was not Trance! But it was music that was eclectic, rocking, rolling, swinging, pounding, groove-oriented, funky, driving, intense and very musical, and very interesting. Listening to Greenwoman was a musical and visual experience!

     Every tune sounded ‘free’, free of the shackles of convention. Yet each tune was carefully structured, carefully arranged and carefully composed to give the idea that it was ‘free’ music. And when I tried to count the beat and figure out the time signatures of the music, I was foxed, just like I get foxed when I try to figure out the rhythm cycle when I listen to Hindustani or Carnatic music; I just couldn’t figure out the rhythm and meter of any of the pieces, though the band was in perfect time, and in perfect synchronicity, yet in every composition, the syncopated rhythms were out of sync, but yet, the band was perfectly in sync! ‘Time’ and ‘meter’ was the key to Greenwoman, the music was being played with a different concept of time and metrics, and in some pieces rhythm patterns changed every few bars. It was indeed a marvellous display of musicianship by every member of the band, to play this out-of-sync, yet in-sync, music. The performance was enhanced by imaginative visual effects.   

     The vocalist, Claire Huguenin, had a soaring, clear, bright, vibrato-less, powerful voice, and her vocal styling reminded me at times of Björk, the innovative Icelandic singer, and sometimes of Grace Slick, of Jefferson Airplane, but, Claire was quite the original, she perfectly matched Malcolm Braffs compositions. Claire had also written the lyrics to some of the compositions. And, to add to her performance, and to Greenwomans personality, was her quirky dancing; her completely, and refreshingly simple and unaffected steps and body movements which were so communicative that they complemented the extraordinary, yet joyful music of Greenwoman.

     Björn Meyer played six-string-electric-bass, and his bass playing was empathetic, expert and expressive, he had to manage to keep the pulse of the music with its strange rhythmic meters and syncopation, and he had to keep his tone true-to-the-band, yet, he too made his playing sound simple and appropriate, though it was music that was not at all simple to play.

     Lukas Koenig on Drums, maintained a percussive barrage of rhythms, sounding much too adroit to be a rock drummer. He was surely a jazz drummer who experiments with poly-rhythm, especially on these Malcolm Braff compositions that ‘play’ with rhythm and meters. Though the rhythms were hard and rhythmically complex, the drummer was totally in the zone, using the whole drum kit well, playing with intensity, keeping the groove, driving the rhythm and yet being subtle or forceful as the composition required.

     The visual effects which were an integral part of the performance was managed by the last member of the band, Alexandre Gaeng.  

     Greenwomans performance was nothing short of electrifying. I for one was riveted. And the audience were more than satisfied with the music and the band, not wanting to leave when the performance ended. Yes it was a fabulous evening of music! 

     This was the concluding event of the Concert-Series that celebrates the 5 Years of Hyderabad Western Music Foundation, a registered non-profit set up in 2009 as a forum for musicians and lovers of Western Music in Hyderabad to meet, interact, understand and appreciate different genres of Western Music - Classical Music, Jazz, Cross-cultural and Interdisciplinary music - and make this music accessible to a larger audience. Creating a forum for intercultural musical exchange in the belief that music has the power to unite people, propagate pluralism and create Harmony.    

 For hydmusic.com November 2014