>>PREVIEW
NEW CALGARY INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL: THE RE-BIRTH OF THE COOL
MANIC THEMATIC
Tuesday, June 20
Beat Niq
The jazz community in Calgary is strong, and growing stronger. That’s what John Hyde thinks – and he should know.
"I’ve been playing jazz – here in Calgary, anyway – since about 1980," he muses.
And if you include his years in Montreal, well, let’s just say the man knows a little something about jazz and jazz communities. He and Ralf Buschmeyer form local duo Manic Thematic, and a joint reading of their credentials would be so lush as to be embarrassing, but let’s just say it ranges from PJ Perry to Rosemary Clooney to kd lang, with many eclectic stops along the way. Hyde is also the artistic director of the Jazz Studies program at Mount Royal College, where Buschmeyer is an instructor as well. Manic Thematic developed organically from their longtime musical connection, inside and outside the school.
"We played some duos together about three years ago, and it became something of a regular thing," Hyde says. "The name? The name is just a joke."
A joke compounded by a mistake. In recording their eponymous album, Hyde was searching for a name for one of his original pieces, an unusual number that refused naming. Eventually and giddily, the two came up with the jokey name of "Manic Thematic," which then became the name of the album. But it was while opening for Pancho Sanchez that the venue concerned decided that the duo’s name was also Manic Thematic. It seems to have stuck. Hyde seems unconcerned with names in any case.
"I’m not too worried about names," he says. "Occasionally names are meaningful, but the notes mean much more to me."
Manic Thematic play a kind of jazz that all of us recognize, but for which there isn’t a clear name in the jazz books.
"We’re not contemporary jazz – we’re not breaking any harmonic rules with what we do. You can’t call what we do traditional jazz, because in Britain that means Dixieland. We have a modern, tonal jazz style and rhythm," Hyde pauses. "I suppose you could call it ‘classical jazz.’ Maybe."
Whatever you call it, critical reception has been warm, referring to the CD’s "dewy, organic freshness." As a guitar and bass duo, Manic Thematic’s influences (Grant Green, Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Pat Metheny) are perhaps self-evident, though seamless and graceful.
Also seamless and graceful are the various ways both Hyde and Buschmeyer have been a part of the Calgary jazz community over the years. It is with an undeniable authority that Hyde speaks of its strength.
"For one thing, the teaching of jazz has improved immensely," he states. "There’s way more high school-aged students exposed to improvisation than ever before. It’s true that a lot of those students aren’t staying here yet."
And Hyde doesn’t deny that the world of the jazz musician has become a lot tougher in the last 25 years.
"When I was growing up, you could work six nights a week," he agrees. "The bars all had live music. There was a lot more work and a lot less knowledge in the audience. Sure, it’s gotten harder. That is, if you expect to sit back and have things come to you, it’s hard. Those who survive go looking for the work. They create the work. I think the young musicians these days don’t even know the difference. For them, this is how it’s always been.
"But I think jazz as an art form is growing in strength," he argues. "It may not be happening in the bars, but it’s happening in the community. Young kids are out there playing in all sorts of combos and they’re influencing their parents. Parents who may have no connection to jazz are being introduced to it by their kids."
And the strength of the local jazz community can certainly be argued by the presence of an organization that was both willing and capable of stepping forward at a moment’s notice to midwife the New Calgary Jazz Festival: The Re-Birth of The Cool. Manic Thematic’s veteran players certainly represent a part of the body’s stalwart strength. |
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