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Jon Christensen
(August 2005 Issue)
A Beat Is Not Always What You Think It Is The title of this piece is a cryptic warning that appears
in the liner notes of Jon Christensen: Selected Recordings,
a recent tribute CD on ECM's Rarum series. Over the
past thirty years,
the Norwegian drummer has played drums and percussion on fully
fifty-five releases from the esteemed
German jazz label.
Jon
elaborates on beats: "You could go to a jazz club Tuesday at 8:00 and
play just one tap on
the cymbal, then come back to the club exactly one
week later and play one more cymbal hit. People would think the
two
events have nothing in common. But that is a beat."
Well, that might not wash in Nashville, but it's
certainly worked its
magic for a host of ECM artists. "If I'm playing with a band in 4/4 in
a medium tempo," Jon explains,
"and I feel like loosening up a bit, I
could go out of tempo or stop altogether"but I always know exactly
where I am.
I'm just not marking the 1 or setting up the bridge with a
fill. I always try to avoid that. Instead, I try to play in
waves."
Although Christensen can play straight time with the best of 'em - always
on a brutally heavy old
Turkish K - he'd rather mix it up a little. You
hear Jon's diverse approaches on his ECM Rarum release,
eloquent
testimony to his status as a master of modern jazz drumming. Other
Rarum honorees include Chick Corea, Jack
DeJohnette, Pat Metheny, Dave
Holland, Gary Burton, Keith Jarrett, and Bill Frisell.
Last year Christensen turned
sixty. This year he's touring with a
guitarist half his age, Jacob Young. Over the decades, Jon intimates,
"I've
always been hired to play like I play. I've been playing "Jon
Christensen" all the way. Journalists began writing that I was
this
innovative drummer and that people from Japan and Europe had begun
trying to play like me. Only then did I figure out,
Hmmm, maybe I've
done something different after all."
T. Bruce Witte
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