Post performance interview and review by Will Mathieson
The Horizon Venture
Tuesday, December 8, 2009, 01:54 PM
The Robin Howard Theatre was the setting, last Thursday, for the latest project from artistic impresario Daren Vidal Montgomery Taylor. ‘The Horizon Venture’ is Taylor’s live imagining of his latest novel, of the same name.
Taylor, who is Editor of jazzreloaded and a celebrated musician within jazz circles, has timed this live production to coincide with both the London Jazz Festival and African History Month.
His original novel is an Afro-centric examination of humanity and citizenship and the implications these factors will have on our attempts to explore new worlds in the future. Taylor developed the concept to mark the 400th anniversary of the launch of Sea Venture, a ship carrying African slaves from England to colonise the New World. In 2009 it is an African American who is leader of the ‘New World’. This is also a time when the fate of our own planet is in question, leading nations and alliances to bolster their space programmes, aware that, in the future, colonisation of other planets may need to be a consideration. Taylor’s work aims to draw comparisons between these events in history.
The live version of this piece of sci-fi speculation is a multimedia assault on the senses. Taylor’s jazz band performs amidst modern dance, poetry readings and spectacular visuals that verge upon the cinematic. The combination of these artistic forms serves to tell the story of The Horizon Venture.
I met up with Taylor to discuss the theory, the concept and the production…
What is the message that The Horizon Venture trying to purvey?
The main message of The Horizon Venture is that we all have to be involved – or at least more of us – in imagining how the future will be, and what part we will play in it. Like the recent adaptation of Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbon’s ‘Watchmen’, The Horizon Venture draws a picture of a future where the ordinary man accepts the future as already written, and explores some of the consequences of that.
What inspired you to tell the story in this manner?
A lot of things; the central characters include a man searching for his true identity in a post-industrial tapestry, which I think a lot of second and third generation migrants can relate to, and a woman who is searching for a man that can tell her companion who he really is. As clichéd as it sounds, history is exactly that; his story. Very rarely is there a comparable focus on the female perspective. The main thing about turning a book into a live show is that it instantly more participative – you share viewpoints and ideas on the characters and storyline, and people start to develop their own galaxies within your universe, or sometimes outside it!
Do you think you can still purvey a coherent message using surrealism? And by surrealism I’m referring to the plethora of mediums being performed simultaneously.
I think so. We live in a multimedia age and we are seeing the resurgence of the Renaissance man – or woman – Alicia Keys, Jamie Foxx and the Williams sisters are all examples of people who excel in two or more disciplines. So I think it’s important for “multimedia” to be multidisciplinary as well. The Horizon Venture is a combination of my work as an author of video, prose, poetry and music, which I also perform. My aim for the show next year is for film makers, dancers, visual artists and VJs to be able to bring ideas and content to the show, all based around the central themes of the ‘Venture’; a kind of Roots-meets-the animatrix but live.
How would you describe The Horizon Venture sound?
At its core is jazz, and what I mean by that is social discourse through improvised music and African rhythms. In the year 2009, that also includes pedals, synthesisers and weird looking string instruments like Sami Bishai’s six sting violin and my Electric Upright Bass. We live in a ‘global’ society now, and so the social discourse is inevitably about issues that affect us globally: resource management, the environment, migration, serfdom and servitude, and, how certain individuals regard these issues merely as business ventures.
Do you think music is an effective vehicle for telling a story?
Yes. Without John Williams’ work Luke Skywalker, Superman and Indiana Jones would be very different personalities and adventures.
Which guides which: the narrative or the music?
Well the bible says, “In the beginning there was the word…” But words are made of sounds, so…
Is dance a medium that you have worked with before? What made it work here?
Yes. Funnily enough, the first time was in the Place Theatre in 2003, watching the 10th anniversary of JazzXchange, a jazz dance company which was constructed and developed by a fantastic improviser named Sheron Wray, who I have since had the pleasure of working with on a number of occasions. In the last six years, Sheron has been doing things with jazz dance that, to be frank, my shows are just starting to explore.
The thing I like about Nicole Pschetz’s work is that there is a dramatic element to it; it’s not regimented dance routines for the sake of it. Her work moves in and out of the structure of the music, which for me is essential to the work. It’s not about slavishly following a beat; it’s about everyone working hard, preparing well, then doing their own thing and trusting that it will all come together in the end. For me, that is jazz.
Could you tell me a bit about your work prior to this?
Before this, jazzreloaded, which was a bit more populist and mainstream. We did live shows, and a record, but I quickly found that I was missing the social discourse. So jazzreloaded has now become a portal for jazz reportage and as the editor of the online magazine – when I’m not playing (with Courtney Pine, Omar Punete or the Mighty Jeddo) – I’m encouraging young people to learn about their history through jazz.
Are the political themes reflective of the music as well as the story, or is it distinct from your political ideology?
I’m not sure I could ever make a distinction between my music and my politics; if you listen to my music from the jazzreloaded project, it’s far more commercial. For me, that’s the politics of consumerism: ‘urban’ music often has a cultural ambivalence at its core. This in itself is a political ideology, as is the idea that it isn’t. The link between politics and music is intrinsic, which is why we have anthems. If Wagner did not write the way he wrote, he would not have had the gigs he got. When Beethoven started writing crunch chords for strings everyone said he was mad because, politically, people still wanted society to reflect and endorse the ‘purity’ of Haydn’s contapuntalism. Fast forward to 2009 and, with the benefit of hindsight, we can draw a comparison between late Beethoven and early Schoenberg. Some of this was absorbed by Herbie Hancock, who was part of the Miles Davis Quartet, themselves a big influence on my first band – J-Life. This is how it got to me.
Could you explain the pseudonym ‘Vidal Montgomery’?
No I can’t!! They’re my middle names. I think ‘Montgomery’ comes from Field Marshall Montgomery, a famous British WWII soldier. As for Vidal? You’ll have to ask my mum! I’ve never liked my first name so I tend not to use it. See? I’m not even going to use it here.
And finally, what is the link between sci-fi and jazz?!
Well, Buck Rogers had its infamous disco funk scene; Battlestar Galactica had the three-mouthed ladies singing jazz soul; the 2005 reworking of Battlestar… had Jimmy Hendrix’s reworking of ‘All Along the Watchtower’ as the Cylon battle call; Commander Riker has his trombone in Star Trek. And of course, Star Wars has its infamous cantina band.
I think it’s a good time for jazz in sci-fi because our future is being projected by the media as uncertain and discordant. Jazz is all about managing uncertainty and discord, with panache. I have a good friend who says, “A tree that has no roots has no future.” Jazz is a type of music that literally makes its immediate future from its past. Similarly, our visions of the future begin with what we already know. Or think we know at least…
Musically, I found the band and Taylor’s performance enthralling. Although sold as jazz, there elements of funk, bebop and soul pervading through. The production itself reminded me somewhat of a Kraftwerk concert. The visuals are captivating and, combined with the music, draw you into the story that is unfolding before my eyes. Because of the extra terrestrial aspect of the production, and the myriad of artistic element being conceived simultaneously, I found myself hypnotised and somewhat lost in the majesty of space.
You can next catch Taylor and his venture on Thursday 28th January at Rich Mix in Shoreditch.
Original article by William Mathieson http://www.williammathieson.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry091208-135456
