[Dixielandjazz] A New Spin On Jazz - Kid Koala

[David Richoux]

Steve,

I posted a link to that video to DJML maybe a year ago (I am not on  
my "main computer" so I cannot find the actual date ;-)
Glad to see other people finally noticed it and made some  
interesting  connections!

Speaking of "new connections,"  there will be a festival of brass  
driven bands (jazz and otherwise) in San Francisco Sept 4th thru the  
14th in various locations. More info at:
http://www.hornucopiafestival.org

I am scheduled to do a 2 hour festival preview show on KFJC 89.7 FM  
( www.kfjc.org ) on Thursday, Sept 4th, 10AM to Noon PDT and you all  
can listen on line (sorry, still no archives available - but we are  
working on it!)

Dave Richoux


On Aug 28, 2008, at 8:00 AM, Stephen G Barbone wrote:

> Amazing what one finds on the internet. Check out this version of  
> Basin Street Blues done by a DJ with turntables and record clips.  
> Damn!!  The possibilities are endless and the DJs are on the  
> cutting edge. <grin>.
>
> The video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItYp6ctPGI8, the  
> story below.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
> www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband
>
> A new spin on jazz - Colin Hunter - The Record.com
> Jazz lovers at Guelph's festival might be surprised to hear old- 
> time influences in pioneer turntablist Kid Koala's music
>
>
> Pop quiz: which of the following statements is true?
> Kid Koala is a jazz musician.
>
> Kid Koala is not a jazz musician.
>
> Answer: Maybe both. Maybe neither.
>
> Depending on your definition of jazz -- an especially tricky thing  
> to define, like "art" or "zymurgy" -- Kid Koala either is or is not  
> a jazz musician.
>
> This much is certain: Kid Koala, a.k.a. Eric San of Montreal, is a  
> turntablist.
>
> He creates sounds by manipulating vinyl records on turntables -- a  
> method of music-making usually associated with hip hop.
>
> But Kid Koala is a pioneer among a new breed of turntablists who  
> have moved beyond the mere rhythmic scratching of samples over bass- 
> laden beats.
>
> He is a musician using a relatively new instrument -- the dual  
> turntables and a mixer -- to create wildly inventive compositions.  
> That's part of why he is booked to play the Guelph Jazz Festival on  
> Sept. 14, along with such other avant-garde heavyweights as John  
> Zorn, Francois Houle and Tortoise. His music is wonky,  
> unpredictable and unmistakably his own.
>
> To old-timey jazz-lovers -- the kind of traditionalists whose  
> tastes are rooted in Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong -- Kid  
> Koala might sound a tad too out there at first listen.
>
> But if such people listened a bit closer, they might be surprised  
> by what they hear.
>
> See, Kid Koala himself is an old-timey jazz traditionalist.
>
> "I grew up listening to old jazz," he says over the phone from  
> Montreal, enjoying a rare moment of calm while his newborn daughter  
> is asleep.
>
> "Early jazz like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday was always  
> truly inspiring to me. Even as I grew up, went to college and got  
> into hip hop, I always had one ear to the jazz world."
>
> So he was thrilled when he got booked to play a concert a decade  
> ago in New Orleans, the de facto home of jazz. At the time, he  
> gaining notoriety as a turntablist after the release of his major  
> label debut CD, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
>
> Though he only played one concert, he vacationed in the city for a  
> week, visiting all the old jazz haunts he never dreamed he'd get a  
> chance to see. At every live jazz show he attended, the band played  
> the classic Dixieland ditty Basin Street Blues.
>
> "I was so captivated by the whole experience. I remember sitting on  
> the plane on the way home with that song stuck in my head, and I  
> knew my next record would start with a version of Basin Street Blues."
>
> Sure enough, his second album, 2003's Some of My Best Friends are  
> DJs, opens with a melancholic, mind-altering interpretation of the  
> 1926 classic. By manipulating a variety of records, Kid Koala  
> creates unique trumpet solos, basslines and piano parts, while  
> staying faithful to the original.
>
> Recently, in a stroke of serendipity, Kid Koala's animated video  
> for the song caught the attention of the Preservation Hall Jazz  
> Band in New Orleans -- one of the world's oldest and most respected  
> Dixieland ensembles -- who loved it. The band invited Kid Koala to  
> jam with them at Preservation Hall (which had been closed down for  
> months after hurricane Katrina), and a few weeks ago he happily  
> accepted the gig.
>
> "It was the ultimate scariest thing I could possibly do," recalls  
> 34-year-old Koala.
>
> "I mean, Preservation Hall -- that's my Carnegie Hall, my musical  
> mecca. Just to be playing that room with those cats, it was  
> definitely a dream come true."
>
> So is Kid Koala a jazz musician? Well, not only does he compose  
> daring, adventurous new music, but he has also played with one of  
> the most established classic jazz bands in the world.
>
> So only the narrowest definition of jazz would exclude Kid Koala  
> from its ranks. And Kid Koala is all about expanding boundaries.
>
> "The range of the turntable as an instrument is limitless," he says.
>
> "The range of this instrument is something I've always pushed  
> myself to explore and expand. The deeper you go with it, the more  
> you realize the possibilities."
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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