Rabble Without A Cause
Wednesday April 2nd, 2014 with Bernard Stepien
Swiss avant-garde accordionist Hans Hassler

It is an undeniable fact that Jazz was born in America but also that any American Jazz musician will always be influenced by the inevitable Blues. Blues is America’s folk music. Thus, if you are a European Jazz musician there only two possible strategies: either you copy cat the Americans including their Blues or you try to do something else. On the Free Jazz side of things, this can actually be easier. Europeans have a solid tradition of classical avant-garde, written though, not improvised. So, what about the Blues? Here again, Europe has a deep tradition of folk music, so here again no problem. In the case of Swiss musicians, the folk tradition is called Ländler, in short the instrumental version of the famous Yodel. Here in North America, we associate yodel music with Hollywood and its flimsiness more than with the Swiss Alps. In Switzerland, yodel is very serious business. Thus, when a Free Jazz musician touches yodel, he also touches some sensitivities. In short, accordionist Hans Hassler deconstructs yodel and uses some of its components to project them into a totally different experience. Tonight, we will listen to a 2011 Intakt Records CD where the topic is fully explored with Berlin clarinetists Gebhard Ullmann and Jürgen Kupke and Swiss heavily world music influenced percussionist Beat Föllmi. Missed last week’s RWAC show featuring Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis? Get it from our archives on this link: http://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/95/16334.html