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Interviews
Terje Rypdal: In A Miles Mood
R.J. DeLuke
R.J. DeLuke is an indefatigable jazz fan and arbiter elegantiarum who aspires to ultimate hipness; also an upstate NY freelance writer for various media.“ Somewhere along the way I got 'Meditations' by John Coltrane. In the beginning, I didnt understand it, but its been very important for me because it has the openness in the music that relates to the best in rock. ”
Norwegian guitar icon Terje Rypdal surfaced more than three decades ago as a new guitar voice, but he strode out of the fields of rock music, not jazz. He was influenced a great deal by the electronic jazz/fusion of the late 1960s and early 1970s and his early work with the likes of saxophonist Jan Garbarek and renowned composer George Russell brought him to the eye of American listeners, through the ECM label with which he has been affiliated since 1970.
Since coming onto the scene and recording extensively, he has influenced guitarists in the U.S. with his style that often seems to depend more on soaring sounds than the note-filled solos of Charlie Christian-influenced American guitarists. His searing forays glide over heavy rock-influenced synthesizers, or over backgrounds with classical voicings.
Rypdal, now 58, was well-known in Norway in the '60s, though still forming his style and learning. While most of the U.S. was unaware, there was apparently at least one U.S. listener to the rock and bluesy licks Rypdal was laying down at that time with a band called Dream. The young guitarist was a big Hendrix fan, and did an imitation of the legend's playing—and even his voice—on gigs. In the studio, the band cut an album in the late 60s called Get Dreamy, which featured a lot of the Hendrix music.
It seems Rypdal had a girlfriend at the time, "and she was going to meet a girlfriend in Sweden who was one of Hendrix's numerous girlfriends. So I sent a copy of the Dream album in hopes that it might get to Jimi, says Rypdal. All these years, he must have assumed it didn't make an impression—maybe never even reached his ears. But in June of 2005, Rypdal received a letter from a record collector in the Los Angeles area who had purchased Hendrix's private record collection the guitarist owned that was found in Great Britain, where Hendrix had spent time playing music. The Dream album was among the collected works, the collector said.
The collector "sent me a facsimile of what I wrote. So I followed up and called. Not only did [Hendrix] get it—we didn't know if he'd thrown it away—but he brought it with him to London. And this guy writes: 'It's been well played.' That's nice to know about.
"I actually knew about [Jimi's] death before it was official, Rypdal adds. "Freddie Hubbard came [to Norway] from London and somebody asked me to pick him up at the airport. He had just heard that he was dead. That was two days before it was official.
U.S. listeners have another chance to hear Rypdal with his latest ECM release, Vossabrygg, recorded in 2003 from a work commissioned by Norway's Vossa Jazz Festival.
In part, the music is an homage to Miles Davis and his seminal Bitches Brew album that shook up the musical world in 1969. The Norwegian title translates to "Vossa Brew, and apparently the title prompted beer brewers in that area to assume at first that they were being lauded. They weren't.
The electric music of Miles Davis is important to Rypdal and his longtime friend and associate, trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg. It was Mikkelborg who recorded the album Aura (Columbia, 1989) with Miles. Mikkelborg is the trumpeter on Rypdal's new disc. But the album overall "is a mix of many things, says Rypdal, and not just a Miles tribute.
He says at the end of 2002, before he got the commission, his agent Pål Gjersum gave him, as a Christmas gift, The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (Legacy Recordings, 2000). "I almost didn't sleep that Christmas, listening to it, he says with a laugh. "When it came out (1969), it was also very important for me.
Some of the bass figures and things on Vossabrygg are very reminiscent of Bitches Brew, particularly the opening cut "Ghostdancing in which snippets of "Pharaoh's Dance from Brew come to the surface. "Even some quotations (are the same). That happened during the rehearsal. So it's more clearer [the connection] than it should have been, Rypdal says.
But, he notes with a chuckle, "I'm not trying to make Bitches Brew again.
The guitarist says both he and Mikkelborg are happy with the project. "I don't think Palle wants to play like Miles. In fact, they got to be friends. Miles has been an idol of his. I think Palle has changed in maybe five or six years, especially in the use of all the pedals and things. His sound is different. This is a time to be respectful [not imitative], but that's more or less it.
"I played a concert with John McLaughlin (guitarist on Bitches Brew) in Switzerland a couple years ago, Rypdal continues. "I didn't know him, but I met him. He was very important to Bitches Brew.. It's an homage to Miles and that special period. McLaughlin had a lot to say to me as a guitarist. Since then, I met him several times. There are all these connections—apart from Coltrane, it's been maybe the most influential period, I think. So that's why I wanted to say something about that.
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