ORIGINAL KAISO JAZZ MAN STILL COMPOSING

Trinidad Guardian

January 1, 2000

Page 8

JAZZ REPERTOIRE

The jazz repertoire ranges from the 12-bar blues to 32-bar songs. Jazz groups usually include a rhythm section of piano and/or guitar; string, electric or brass bass; and drum kit, and a frontline of wind instruments - trumpet or saxophone.

Jazz was created by American blacks, influenced by the Protestant church movement, and European quadrilles and marches.

Clive Alexander, architect, better known as Zanda the pianist/composer and pioneer of kaiso jazz hasn't been seen or heard in public since he performed to great acclaim at the 1995 St Lucia Jazz festival where he opened for his long-time mentor and idol, the pianist Ahmad Jamal.

At that performance Zanda admits, "I had to import my bass player and drummer from Canada." The dearth of Trinidad-based musicians capable of improvising is only one f the reasons we've been deprived of hearing Zanda the last four years.

"A country of 1.3 million has only produced five pannists capable of improvising," he laments. "Now there are only three bassists, three drummers and two percussionists (able with improvisation). With so few they have a monopoly, they're too busy; they've developed the attitude they feel they're the best. We're in a bad state in terms of improvising musicians. If I want to put together a rhythm section - piano, bass, drums and pan - to deal internationally, there's a serious problem."

But Zanda's time out has not been the egotistical petulance of a diva. He may not have been performing, but he's been composing and documenting over 30 years of experimentation. This is all the more important when one considers the demise of his kaiso jazz colleague, Scofield Pilgrim, who died leaving virtually no record of his work. All lost from the patrimony.

It's worth considering the opinion of Luther Francois here, the St Lucian saxophonist and jazz composer who is also an authority on the history of Caribbean jazz.

Francois states unequivocally that 'virtually all the developments in jazz in the English Caribbean since the 60s can be traced to the experiments of Scofield Pilgrim and Zanda." Francois himself spent many weeks in Zanda's backroom in the 70s listening and learning from him before launching his own career.

What Zanda did was to take the rhythmic spirit of kaiso; the du doop pulse, the heart and belly beat of Trinidad as the basis for improvising. His and Scofield Pilgrim's approach was revolutionary for the English Caribbean because the improvisation s were not simply reworking jazz standards but delving back into our musical heritage to folk song, Orisha and old kaiso to produce a uniquely indigenous jazz.

As Luther Francois contests, "People feel Caribbean jazz is just about putting jazz to Caribbean rhythms." But that is only imitation or borrowing at beat. Zanda was interested in developing our music and not some North American model. Traditional songs like "Every Time I Pass", "Mangos" as well as such classic kaisos as Kitchener's "Ole Lady", "Fever" and Sparrow's "Mr. Walker" became improvisation bases for Zanda, the catalysts for remarkable new compositions which, along with original compositions like "Chip Down" and "Fancy Sailor", have gone on to assume the status of Caribbean jazz standards.

Zanda's own artistic development began in his Siparia home. His Vincentian shoe mender father was a choirmaster and guitarist, while his Grenadian mother was a much-sough-after flower arranger. He started with guitar and bongos.

By 15 he was learning classical piano; "but it seemed I was gravitating towards improvisational music because once my teacher turned her back I'd be improvising. I had a propensity for making up tunes." Drafted into his father's choir, his vocal work became known locally in the duo "The Juices" and when dance bands like the Dutchy Brothers and Choy Aming came to Siparia, he'd join them onstage as vocalist/bongo player.

These dance bands left formative influences.

By 1959 he was going to England. The next decade was spent mostly in London. His musical development took a leap forward when he went to the Flamingo jazz club one night, stepping straight into a session by the Dudley Moore trio. (The little comedian is actually much better at jazz piano.)

Zanda was blown away by the power generated by only three musicians and told himself, 'If this is music that offers freedom of expression, of individual creativity, this music sis for me." Soon Zanda was studying jazz harmony with a teacher Moore had recommended. By 1961 he'd formed the Dez Alex combo with fellow Trinis, who were joined by Errol Ince on weekend leave from the British Army band.

Later Zanda would form a trio "for the sole purpose of experimenting with extempo Kaiso jazz." For him the extempo tradition was the indigenous expression of improvisation and an ideal "vehicle for individual self expression." It was on the strength of the trio's calypso feel, provided by Zanda, that it was hired as house band at the Pigalle in Piccadilly Circus, a premier venue for visiting jazz artistes.

A six-month trip back home in 1967 allowed him to discover that Scofield Pilgrim was engaged in similar experiments with calypso and jazz in his workshops at QRC. Zanda was delighted to see a pan (played by student Ray Holman) utilised as a solo instrument, something he'd been doing with his London ensemble since 1965. The two joined forces and Zanda began to "dig into the vernacular resource of our music. I started to see the value of the folk resource as an important vehicle for us to develop." He also alerted the aspiring musicians in the workshop to creative possibilities of their heritage: "What I did was to raise the consciousness of young musicians as to what they could improvise with."

Returning to London to complete his studies, Zanda also expanded his own musical horizons. "I began listening to a wide range of music; classical Indian musicians like Ravi Shankar and Abdul Khan; classical composers like Stravinsky, Wagner, Mozart and Bach." As an architect the structures employed by Bach were especially fascinating, and when he studied the Baroque period (equally famous for its architecture and its music), he "began to see the relationship between architecture and music."

This was a period of internalisation and he studied composition with a French composer and listened to Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk and Duke Ellington.

Before he returned to Trinidad in 1969 with his Royal Institute of British Architects diploma, Zanda had performed kaiso jazz at the Albert Hall. Reflecting 30 years later on his move back home, he says, "If I knew then what I know now, I would have stayed. The social benefits of my hard work would have been a better investment there."

Fortunately for two generations of Caribbean musicians he returned to take up a position with Watkin Philip Bynoe and Partners on an IDB primary school project. He picked up where he'd left off with Scofield Pilgrim and formed his own workshop, the Gayap Extempo Kaiso Jazz workshop. The structured course with lectures and exercises are part of what he's been documenting during his "hermitage."

Some of the students and musicians who passed through the workshop included Wayne "Barney" Bonaparte, Michael Benoit, Mike Georges, David and Mike Boothman, Anise Hadeed, Boogsie Sharpe, Angus Nunes, and Toby Tobas. Later, when he started experimenting with the fusion of African and Indian rhythms, he was joined by Andre Tanker and Mungal Patasar.

The 80s were spent touring the region and spreading the concept of kaiso jazz as a model, which could be used by other island musicians.

TOP