Gig review: Steve Tromans Debop Quartet

Last Words of Victor Jara
Glee Club Studio
11-11-09
Victor Jara was a Chilean singer, songwriter, theatre director and political activist who supported those who did all the work and had none of the power. As a supporter who helped to bring the socialist Salvador Allende to power in 1970, his star was ascendent.

After a military coup was mounted in 1973, his star fell – the day after Allende was executed, he was taken along with countless others to the Chile Stadium, and shortly thereafter, shot by firing squad.

Steve Tromans (piano), Aaron Diaz (trumpet), Miles Levin (drums) and Chris Mapp (bass) are four young jazz musicians who – and I am making an assumption here – have so far led far less dramatic lives in a country of far fewer contrasts and in far greater peace.

But Tromans is clearly an explorer – not just musically but intellectually, and then emotionally, too. In the process of researching the poet Alan Ginsberg, for a piece based on his poem Howl (which turned into a Birmingham Jazz commission a few years ago), he came upon the name of Victor Jara, and inquired further.

The result was this compelling and substantial evening of music. It began with a recording of Jara’s widow, remembering him, and then the band started a quietly building, increasingly churning piece, rather evoking thoughts developing, a movement gaining pace, a blossoming of ideas. This was not the music of Jara but of Tromans, but the lilt and lyricism of South American folk music was there along the seductive rhythm. I remembered the Liberation Music Orchestra of Charlie Haden and its jazz reworking of Spanish liberation songs – a fine tradition to follow.

The first half developed with hope and more musical exploration. Levin is a very interesting player, seeming able to create long almost melodic lines and great washes of percussion on the drums, in contrast to the instrument’s naturally staccato nature. By contrast, Tromans stresses staccato – evoking the plucked guitar or harp of Chilean music. Some of his precise, repeated phrases reminded me of the Necks’ Chris Abrahams.

Mapp turned in some strong, searching solos of his own, and some dramatic arco work in the second half, but his main strength was in support. Diaz is a very interesting player, getting right into the heart of the music with clear open lines or low growls – it’s striking and very refreshing to hear a trumpeter work hard at the lower end of the instrument’s range, and in the intimate setting of the Glee Club Studio he had the right environment.

At the beginning of the second half, we heard the last words of Jara, words smuggled out of the Chile Stadium on scraps of paper and here in an English translation by poet Adrian Mitchell. What followed was an attempt to convey in music the turmoil and tragedy of the military take-over, the shattering of dreams, the tragedy of Jara’s end. And it was very impressively done.

And then they finished with a tune by Jara himself – full of light and hope and love. It was that love that Tromans stressed at the start of the evening as what had drawn him most to Victor Jara’ s story.

And that is why Tromans’ attempt to document and celebrate the life of Victor Jara is, it seems to me, so effective. It was really striking that, throughout this whole concert, there was not one moment when any of the musicians showed off their instrumental skill just for its own sake (and you don’t need me to tell you how rare that is in a jazz gig,  never mind whether the band is young or old). It was all dedicated to, as one friend said, story-telling, and trying to convey the universal emotional empathy that, despite all the contrasts, links a South American revolutionary hero and martyr with four young jazz musicians working hard in a Birmingham nightclub.

Of course, it’s also the reviewer’s job to listen critically, and there are four things I’d suggest: firstly, some editing, especially in the second half, would improve the piece a lot; secondly, the piano sound needs to be improved; thirdly, the Jara song at the end might be even stronger if it was just played straight without improvisation, and finally, if more people are to hear this music, the band needs to rustle up a few more friends, family, distant acquaintances, anyone to improve on the 18-strong audience they had last night.