FINALLY, SOME FREE-JAZZ DIPLOMATS

I can’t say that I pay much attention to the Mercury Prize, a gong for the best British or Irish album, awarded every year by a panel of critics and DJs. This year’s finalists were announced in July; the winner was named at a ceremony on September 8th. The honour went to Speech Debelle, a hip-hop artist.

News of this reached me late and via an unlikely route: jazz blogs. This is because the finalists included Led Bib, an east London free-jazz quintet. The group cut an unlikely figure among the others, all of whom had a chance to perform at the ceremony. The event saw Led Bib unleash its dual-sax assault on unsuspecting BBC viewers in a performance that veered from heavy rock riffage to anarchic improvisation. Fans of free jazz—or “squealy saxophones,” as my girlfriend calls it—rejoiced.

Led Bib seemed genuinely thrilled to be there. These are not rock stars. Indeed, they were treated with bemusement by the presenters. One member blogged about how his mother had “gone into overdrive” on a scrapbook of news clippings following the Mercury Prize announcement. Another tweeted in delight when the group’s CD finally appeared at his local record store.

That such nice chaps can create such off-kilter cacophony could make them good ambassadors for a beleaguered genre. Few stumble upon free jazz casually. It’s hard to keep track of the many loose collectives and one-off groups, and seminal recordings are often daunting at first (or forever). Years ago I gave up on escorting the uninitiated to free-jazz shows. Now if someone expresses an interest, I give them a few listening suggestions—maybe even burn a CD—and see if they ever speak to me again.

But the lads in Led Bib have a number of factors going for them: until the saxophones come out, they appear to be a standard-issue indie-rock outfit, complete with keyboards and electric bass. They are a stable group with a somewhat catchy name. They lay down enough of a groove, now and then, to appeal to rock fans.

In many ways the band’s aesthetic is similar to the group that first opened my ears to the joys of free jazz. The Vandermark 5’s debut, Single Piece Flow, was a genre-bending revelation. Released amid a renaissance in the Chicago scene while I was at university, the album had me smitten. I sought out shows in bars and basements, and delved deep into the stacks at the campus radio station’s daunting library. Here’s hoping that enough listeners took notice of Led Bib’s Mercury performance for similar scenes to play out across Britain.

Led Bib plays Ronnie Scott’s in London on September 29^th.

~ JASON KARAIAN

Picture credit: andynew (via Flickr)