Post Trip Catch Up.

Waaju featuring Majid Bekkas + Andrew Tuttle pays tribute to Michael Chapman

I’m finally camped in front of my big computer screen, sat in the sweet spot of my studio monitors and enjoying a larger choice of clothes again after a week away. My daughter hit the three month mark so we thought it was high time we introduced her to her grandparents, uncle and aunt. It was a moving time, especially as she met my 91 year old father who is frailer and poorlier every time I visit. It brought a tear to my eye seeing him doting on the grandchild he always wanted, the human life cycle laid bare in front of me.

Despite the fact the rascal had already shown good form in cars, on buses and trains, and usually dozes off at the first hint of vehicular movement we were a touch nervous about the logistics. Luckily airports, especially Porto, roll out the red carpet for parents, easing some of the stress. Then in both directions and true to form, as the plane accelerated on the runway her eyes started to close. Worryingly - perhaps more so for the passengers around us, she then woke up after twenty minutes, but proceeded to charm rather than annoy her travel companions with her wide eyed wonder and big cheesy smiles before nodding off again during the descent - relief all round. It got me wondering at what age unprovoked smiles start to get treated with suspicion rather than approval? Early 20s I reckon.

So, with the effects of Friday’s 2.15am start now mitigated, it’s time for a quick catch up on a couple of notable and brand new releases from my diary rather than fresh digs.

Waaju - Featuring Majid Bekkas (BBE Records)

With the notable exception of my treasured Donny Hathaway and Dance Craze vinyl, which whilst researching this post I was overjoyed to see now has a DVD version (you NEED to see this trailer), I’ve never been a fan of live LPs. The recordings were often poor and the live magic - if there really was any, rarely transmits though the speakers and seems oddly lost washed down with a cup of tea whilst glued to the sofa. I mean at least jump on the running machine so you’ve got a sweat on and shotgun a can of strong lager before listening.

Funnily enough I also don’t think that this LP really captures the live experience that well. Either the crowd were a bit too sober or their sounds during the songs have been overly edited, but it is certainly well recorded so consider it an open to the public, one take studio album. More importantly it synergistically unites Waaju - newish kids on the London nu-jazz block with a couple of solid LPs to their name and Majid Bekkas, a Moroccan legend with plenty of jazz form, on vocals and various string instruments.

Bekkas is a keen collaborator and provides the real magic here, he also brings out the best in Waaju who are forced to leave their jazz continuum comfort zone, lay down some North African rhythms and look further south than Croydon for inspiration. They also do a great job of hosting their guest, wisely and selflessly eschewing ego, content to help elevate the main man’s evocative North Africa got soul vocals with some great dubbed out, jazz laced atmospheric work & rhythmic propulsion.

Don’t get too hung up on the live tag, just come here for some serious north meets south fusion vibes. You can also find them tucked away in the Slow World Playlist if you fancy some more far flung sounds.

Andrew Tuttle, Michael Chapman - Another Tide, Another Fish (Basin Rock)

Michael Chapman was a prolific guitarist’s guitarist from Yorkshire who covered the whole spectrum - blues, jazz, sensual ballads and Eastern ragas right through to experimental noise. Thurston Moore even name checked him as one of the inspirations for Sonic Youth which doesn’t happen to everyone. He was also a prolific, energetic artist, squeezing in 58 LP during his career and gigging until he passed to the great stage in the sky in 2021.

Apparently there were a couple of late career reappraisals, both of which failed to cross my radar, but since his passing his name has been kept alive by various acolytes which is where our paths crossed. The ever great Andrew Tuttle (who contributed a track to TSMM’s folk compilation Future Folk: Friendly Faces; Different Spaces) is the latest to pay tribute.

Another Fish was an unfinished instrumental LP from Chapman that showed the old timer still dabbling and exploring the possibilities of his instrument. Some of it look backs sentimentally to the traditional barnyard swingers and backyard blues of his youth. Most are dreamier and drift through the speakers on cushions of reverb and effected notes, urging you to get comfortable, whilst some are a bit loopier, low key lysergic and insistent, urging you come along for the ride. It’s a solid, if not quite end of year list gracing archival dig, into what I imagine is quite a collection of dusty tapes and hard drives.

What is remarkable though are Tuttle’s re-workings and improvisations. Armed with his banjo and studio gear he has really gone to town on the source material and inspiration. If you know Tuttle then you’re already aware of his eminently listenable banjotronic experimentalism and ambient folk boundary nudging, his recordings are always ear and mind opening, and this is particularly special.

Here he Makes Americana Great Again by ditching the bombast, focussing instead on succinct finger picking, mantric technology enabled repetition and hypnotic minimalism which he precision places over some accomplished ambient constructs and kosmische daydreamery, quite possibly uniting the purists and the progressives in the process. It’s a thing of hazy ambient Americana wonder and I wholeheartedly recommend you sink into it.

Playlist Companion

You can check a track from the LP alongside rather less tripped out, eclectic folk sounds in the Slow Folk Playlist.