I passed on a recent sold-out gig by Andy Sheppard and the Espen Eriksen trio at Chichester Jazz Club. Why? So I could keep my ears keen and eyes open for the slightly later concert by the Trio Akima ensemble of Geoff Hearn (ts, f, elecs, pc, v), Paul Richards (g) and Joe Philogene (pc, v) at St. Luke’s in Brighton. Blessed with a fine acoustic, in recent years the handsomely scaled yet intimate church has developed a successful music programme, embracing a stimulating variety of classical, jazz and “world music” projects.
Warmly received, the two-set evening performance by Trio Akima – their second appearance at St Luke’s – saw a healthy turn-out from a diverse audience happy to have braved the cold evening drizzle which had set in earlier. Inspiration for the group’s name, says Hearn on his website, ”came from a composition by the great Yusef Lateef and Akima can be roughly translated from the African Bantu language as ‘birth and the celebration of life’.” Further sources suggest that the word or name can also signify affinities with or connections to realms of spiritual import.
All such proved apt in an affirmative evening of spacious yet finely rounded music as questing as it was lucid and patient, chiefly modal in nature and sprung off improvised structures, even as it was rooted in archetypal, world-ranging elements of feeling and form. Tribute was paid to the many tragedies and travails of Native American culture in pieces with Hearn on Native American flute, such as Yuba and Bear In Danger by the Native American flautist and social activist Mary Youngblood, and Hearn’s own The Land They Once Knew and Buffalo Dance (Healing Song).
Elsewhere, the Taoist-touched Hearn turned to tenor saxophone – on which he was ultra-soulful – and haunting alto flute, in a programme which included such indicative Hearn titles as Sunrise, Being Here, The Peace Beyond and Spirits. The timeless heritage of Coltrane and Sanders, Cherry and Lateef gently (and potently) infused music which included a beautiful reading of Coltrane’s Lonnie’s Lament from the 1964 Crescent album.
An occasional sampled tanpura drone, delicious, diversely grooved energy and the most subtly inflected of meditative dynamic transitions: all such helped shape and sharpen the thought that the point of jazz-inflected improvised music is perhaps not to seek to dazzle the listener with any supra-normal technical prowess – long the Achilles heel of a certain jazz attitude – but rather, as Lester Young held, to speak (or rather, sing) to the hungry heart and mind, body and soul.
Which is not to say that the music of Akima is short of technical mastery: far from it. But that mastery is set in service of an essentially poetic understanding of and approach to matters of telling melodic utterance, variously arching phrase length and expressive control of tone and register; the interplay of solo voice and group dynamics, silence and sound. Hearn calls the result “meditation music with a deep groove” … ”Free Spirit Music!”
Over the years, the Akima project has taken various forms and size: in early days, a British Arts Council tour featured an ensemble of master Yoruba “bata” drummers. But on the evidence of this concert, it seems to me that the current incarnation would be hard to beat.
Long domiciled in England, the African-Caribbean Joe Philogene is a remarkable artist, with a vivid yet unforced command of all manner of percussion. His unerring articulation, dynamic sensibility and finesse have garnered considerable international recognition, including work with the kora master Seckou Keita. A special collaborator with Hearn in recent years, the percussionist is vital to Trio Akima. Whether conjuring eerie and atmospheric overtones from his Tibetan singing bowls, or laying down irresistible grooves and moods on African thumb piano, various African drums and shakers, and – especially – the West African Kamala N’Goni (hunter’s harp) – Philogene offered the purest percussive poetry, shorn of all excess.
The same can be said of Paul Richards. For some years now this wide-ranging finger-style guitarist and teacher has made a substantial contribution to the jazz scene in Brighton & Hove, running the weekly Brunswick Jazz Jam sessions, for example, while also appearing with his own trio at a variety of notable venues and festivals (e.g., Brighton’s The Verdict, Cheltenham, Love Supreme and Rye). An enthusiast of Latin music and an occasional giver of solo classical recitals, Richards has also turned his hands to flamenco. In a Sussex Jazz Magazine interview he reveals that his elective affinities have included Baden Powell, Paco de Lucia, Yamandu Costa and Nelson Veras. But he’s also been enthused by Mike Stern’s playing – “so legato and stretchy” – while wondering, like a fair few before him, if Bach might not be “the original jazzer”.
Playing an elegant, narrow-bodied and amplified nylon string Godin, Richards jelled beautifully with Hearn and Philogene, his contributions ranging from rippling finger-picking colour and texture to a more edgy linearity of gliss-fed attack. Sensitive to silence, he sat out on two numbers while Hearn and Philogene swapped melodic and rhythmic motifs, with Hearn complementing Philogene on one piece by eschewing any blowing to concentrate on some multi-phrased fingering of the key pads of his saxophone.
“Whatever I play today”, Hearn has said, “there’s still a blues foundation somewhere deep down. You could argue that at root all great music of the world is blues. Without that human ‘sob and joy’ the music is empty, for me at least.” As this refreshing event at St Luke’s attested, to inspiring effect, Trio Akima brings a special inflection to that “sob and joy”. Catch them whenever you can!
