Making the Long Voyage Back to Music of the Vikings

During the late 1970s, Jim French helped found a lively avant-garde jazz scene in San Diego. Known then for his capable saxophone playing, French has since been drawn toward more obscure forms of music. He has become a musical archeologist of sorts. He is fond of rare, ancient music and re-creating old instruments. But he is also an inventor of unusual new instruments, such as the one he calls a “Frenchophone.”

French will focus on some of his ancient finds this Friday night with a program he calls “Mead, Maids and Madness,” an evening of Viking music, stories and poetry inspired by his Viking/Nordic ancestry. His performance marks the midpoint in Rusefest Spring ‘92, a two-week festival of avant-garde jazz and loosely related music being presented by the Ruse artists’ collaborative at the Marquis Public Theatre.

During the late 1970s, French was an avant-garde mover and shaker on San Diego’s underground jazz scene, working alongside such budding talents as bassist Mark Dresser (now playing with revered avant-garde saxman Anthony Braxton) and vocalist Diamanda Galas (now pursuing a solo career in New York). Some still recall French’s weird, experimental ensemble, the Anarkestra. But his skills as a musical scholar and instrument builder have gradually eclipsed his jazz musicianship.

He builds custom mouthpieces for such prominent jazz musicians as Charles McPherson and Pharoah Sanders. For Sanders, French has created saxophone mouthpieces from old rosewood and ebony.

But one of French’s prized creations is the “Frenchophone,” a wooden wind instrument that incorporates a vibrating elastic membrane stretched over a single, square air channel. Sanders even owns one, although he has not yet mastered it, French said.

On Friday, French and his musical mates, Jonathan Glasier and Jim Danielson, will concentrate on playing French’s recreations of authentic Viking wind, percussion and string instruments, using them to revive Viking music written between 600 and 1000.

French, who grew up in Oklahoma City, made his first instruments as a boy, carving back yard reeds into flutes. French became aware that, while jazz’s African roots are essential, there are other important sources behind it too.

“One of the great influences on jazz that has never been formally acknowledged is Native American music,” he said. “Early jazz rhythms were not pure black or pure Indian. They were of mixed racial origin. When you listen to early jazz, you hear some of the very fast drum patterns, like the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and later ‘hot’ jazz. That steady pounding is (American) Indian. The syncopation on top is from the savannas of Africa.”

French’s earlier fascination with jazz and its roots eventually led to his current pursuits. He feels that, by reaching further back, he will find more ways to stretch the limits of contemporary music.

“For me to play saxophone, which I can do very well, is a distraction,” French said. “I’m distracted from this very important creative work I do with inventing instruments and building ancient instruments.”

Don’t expect to hear a direct connection between French’s Viking ruminations and modern jazz. But there’s a thread, he contends, vague hints of jazz in the melodic and harmonic structures of the older music.

San Diego is not a place where such unusual art as French’s draws big audiences. Last Wednesday night’s opening Rusefest concert featuring pianist Eric Grizwold’s Mungus Jazz Ensemble, for example, lured only about a dozen curious listeners. Yet French, who lives near Del Mar, considers San Diego the ideal place for experimental artists.

“You have the best chance of isolation to do your work,” he said. “It’s smack dab in the middle of a devil’s triangle of cultural perversity. We’re between Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Tijuana.”

French’s Friday night performance begins at 8. Admission is $7. The festival continues Saturday night with an original work by Grizwold, and Wednesday, with “Fear of Silence,” experimental music by the Ruse Music Collective. For more information, call 295-5654.

RIFFS: Crack bassist Nathan East sat in with San Diego’s Fattburger at the Doubletree Hotel after East’s April 17 appearance with all-star group Fourplay at the Spreckels Theatre. Fattburger includes East’s old Crawford High School sidekick Carl Evans on keyboards. . . . The bitter legal dispute between the Thorntons and Culbertsons over control of the Culbertson Winery in Temecula hasn’t soured the winery’s entertainment schedule. The four-concert Champagne Jazz Series opens this Sunday afternoon at 4 with a show by keyboardist Keiko Matsui. In its fourth year, the series will also feature Richard Elliot (May 17), Peter White and Tim Weisberg (May 31), and Grant Geissman and Michael Paulo (June 7). Four Champagne Jazz shows last fall were all 550-seat sellouts. For ticket information, call the winery (699-3021) or TicketMaster.

CRITIC’S CHOICE: HE’S A TRIPLE-THREAT JAZZ ARTIST

Some musicians double on saxes and flute, but not many also attempt the demanding clarinet. Buddy Collette, who looks and talks much younger than his 70 years, will have all three with him for shows Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Jazz Note in Pacific Beach.

Collette, who has played with Charles Mingus, Ella Fitzgerald and Chico Hamilton, notes that clarinets use especially stiff reeds. They require strong embouchures, or “chops,” in musicians’ parlance, to make the horn sound good. Because the instrument demands a different approach than a sax, it is tricky to switch between the two within a single set, but Collette appears to do it with ease. He likes the clarinet’s personality.

“It’s very versatile because of its extreme range,” he said. “It has a warm, low bottom end that can be fat and expressive. You can play blues down there and it’s great for accompaniment. Then it has a throaty mid-range that’s very pleasant and warm, and the highs are more shrill and screaming, for when the rhythm is pounding and you need to get up there to be heard.”

The clarinet was traditionally associated with Big Bands, through the music of Benny Goodman, Pee Wee Russell and others. But the instrument takes on a different role in a small group.

“In a Big Band, I would go to the high register to be heard,” Collette said. “A small group lets me play more in the middle and on the bottom.”

This weekend, Collette will be backed by pianist Harry Pickens, bassist Marshall Hawkins and drummer John (Ironman) Harris. He’ll mix new material with selections from his two published songbooks, which contain more than 80 of his own compositions. Music starts at 8 and 10 Friday and Saturday nights, 7 and 9 Sunday night.