Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Charged: Charged Live

155

Charged: Charged Live

By

View read count
Charged: Charged Live
Have you ever caught sight of people frozen in time zones of fashion? Like the eternal prep school dresser or the guy who will forever wear the Elvis pompadour and sideburns. Their fashion zone might be a case of cultural archeology—or are they wearing a disguise?

The same feelings arise with Bill Laswell's live recordings. His music has always had direct connections to the early jazz fusion of Miles Davis. You can hear it in Material, Praxis, and Last Exit. The producer/bassist/engineer even translated and reconstructed the electric Miles from the original recordings on Panthalassa (Columbia 1998).

Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not.

You can hear the Miles jam concept updated with Indian music and DJs on the wonderful Tabla Beat Science records; this band, unofficially called Charged, bears the same electric vitality.

Taken from live dates in Japan, Germany, and Holland (1999-2001), Laswell pairs his thunderous bass with Italian guitarist Eraldo Bernocchi and electric trumpeter Toshinori Kondo. To complete the live concerts he adds percussionists Hamid Drake and Aiyb Dieng, along with turntablist DJ Disk.

This clash of cultures produces a meeting of electric modernity and unplugged rhythms. The opening track, “Shintotech,” is a processional advance of dub inflections. Likewise, “Dueling Sufis” matches up hand drumming with electronic manipulations in a cutting contest turned toward street beats. Like with Tabla Beat Science, Laswell incorporates turntables as a full partner in the music.

The closing track, a sixteen minute meeting between Charged and the Gnawa Musicians of Morocco represents a now familiar event. This world music intersection with jazz is certainly the love child of all Miles’ dreams.

Track Listing

Shintotech Iridescence; Fathome; Death Tools; Dueling Sufis; Subterranis; Overload Lila.

Personnel

Eraldo Bernocchi - Guitar, Electronics; Toshinori Kondo - Electric Trumpet; Bill laswell - bass; Hamid Drake - Drums; DJ Disk - Turntables, Scratch Attack; Aiyb Dieng - Percussion; Graham Haynes - Cornet, Flugelhorn; Maleem Mahmoud Ghania - Vocals; Gnawa Musicians of Morocco.

Album information

Title: Charged Live | Year Released: 2003 | Record Label: Innerhythmic

Tags

Comments

About Charged

Articles | Concerts | Albums | Photos | Similar

PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.