| HET VOLK 13/02/1996 [dutch version] |
| KISS
MY JAZZ OR LIONELL HORROWITZ & HIS COMBO? by Thomas Lowette (translated by me) "Did he already ask how sorry you about quitting dEUS", Elko Blijweert wants to know. "No, not yet, but we're getting to that", Rudy Trouvé smiles. But there's no need for any explanation, Trouvés recent occupations say it all. The out of self-protection “sick-of-it-all” guitarist of dEUS has followed his heart, said goodbye to the five-star hotels and checked in again in Heavenhotel, the old brothel and semi-squat which hosts Kiss My Jazz and Lionell Horrowitz, among others. Free from the repetitive occupations of a success band, Trouvé and his friends are focused entirely on his old dada again: being creative, music, paintings, music, language, music and crossovers. There's an atmosphere present, resembling to that of the existentialists in Paris in the fifties, when Cobra-artists lived there and jazz musicians ended up in the same place. The band Kiss My Jazz took its name from a painting by "writer"/bass player Jacki Billet, the CD-title 'Doc's Place, Friday Evening' from a painting by Trouvé himself. And Lionell Horrowitz brings an experimental sort of music for a film. -Antwerp- Are you still with us? I, for one, can't keep up with which band he's talking about when Trouvé says: "It was our intention to start as a crooner-ensemble, Frank Sinatra, even a pinch of Engelbert Humperdinck." We're a long way from home, but we travel in order to learn. Rudy Trouvé: "'Doc's Place, Friday evening' may appear to be chaotic in the beginning, but a lot of it are "simple songs" with some trash thrown in. Accessibility has a lot to do with airplay. The more you hear it, the more accessible it seems. dEUS, Evil Superstars, Mad Dog Loose, they all can get airplay on the radio nowadays. Something's happening, you can hear influences by Captain Beefheart in more and more music." Bram Van Looveren: "Recycling can be really cool, but you can't restrict yourself to 'just recycling'. You have to dó something with it." Trouvé: "I've always been a huge fan of Chet Baker, for instance. And 'Doc's Place' is released by Knitting Factory Works (the reputed New York label of avant-gardists as John Zorn, Marc Ribot and other experimental artists); that's pretty much a dream come true. In that context, we're pretty accessible. I also don't feel we're doing intellectual gibberish. That is in no way our goal. As long as the atmosphere feels right." Van Looveren: "That's exactly the power of improvisation: not thinking too much about these things, just dóing it." Trouvé: "Doing as you please. The advantage ànd disadvantage of improvisation is the moment of happening: it can be good, but also bad. It's fun to take that risk. And then you find yourself playing a poptune. You're always playing with certain people on a certain level and with a certain way of playing. So it speaks for itself some things are only possible in Kiss My Jazz, and some only in Horrowitz. Horrowitz brings more experimental material, but also dreamy pop and film music. Kiss My Jazz is more loose, with more je m'en foutism, and always tries to keep a certain jazz-feel, starting from a perhaps naïve view on the beat poets from the fifties and sixties. Literature as well, yes, and painting. Those are all attempts to capture a precise moment. We don't want to choose between one thing or the other, because we all get bored real soon. You can never be entirely happy, you know? So you do as much different things as possible. And that's why you have to stop any commercial growth from the beginning. Doc's Place is limited to ten thousand copies." Jacki Billet: "It's a form of self-protection." Trouvé: "The purely business side of music has a certain logic which can't be avoided: playing, selling records, playing, breaking through, and before you know it, you're in an impossible situation." Heyme Langbroek: "On top of that, we're all doing other things as well, which we don't intend on giving up." Trouvé: "And we're all not the sort of people who would find forced success a pleasure. Should we be locked together for a month for a tour or a promotion, our friendship would definitely suffer." Langbroek: "So we'll never exploit any success to its fullest." Trouvé: "You must also keep in mind people can grow sick of us too, should we be omnipresent. That sort of evolutions should be avoided, otherwise we're all better off with regular jobs. It is very dangerous when a band becomes your income, because then you're tempted to do certain things to get that income. In the long term, it is our intention to live off our music, but then through the numerous bands we're in. Should you want to live off one band, you have to perform a lót, sell lots of records, and make it your daily wórk. I've got every respect if you'd want to that, but it certainly isn't my goal. You have to keep your music pure, enjoy the atmosphere of a good rehearsal, and show that to the world; the spirit of pure amateurism. I have no problems seeing myself and thinking about myself as an artist, but talking like that about myself is a different matter. It's okay to think of yourself as important, but you also have got to be able to put yourself into perspective. Because it is also irrelevant. If you're sitting at a table with other people, and someone says: 'I'm a window cleaner', everybody will think: 'yes, so what!? It's the same deal with an artist. 'Yes, an artist, so what?!'. A good craftsman is worth just as much. But with a bit of luck, as an artist, you can throw in emotion, melancholy and cheerfulness. As long as there's a form of emotion involved, even kitsch can please me. It was our original intention to start as a crooner-ensemble, Frank Sinatra, even a pinch of Engelbert Humperdinck." Langbroek: "It's mad, yes. And Barry Manilow. Doesn't that look hip? It will." Trouvé: "We're not bothered by what's hip and what's not. That changes every two years anyway."
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| HET VOLK 13/02/1996 [english version] |
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KISS MY JAZZ OF LIONELL
HORROWITZ & HIS COMBO? Thomas Lowette "Heeft hij al gevraagd hoeveel spijt je hebt dat je uit dEUS gestapt bent", wil Elko Blijweert weten. "Nee, nog niet, komt nog", schildert Rudy Trouvé een lach op zijn voorhoofd. Maar ik hoef geen tekst en uitleg bij die vraag. Het antwoord laat zich immers uit Trouvé's hele doen en laten lezen. De uit zelfbescherming verwaande "beuzak" van dEUS heeft zijn hart gevolgd, het vijf sterren-logies verlaten en is opnieuw ingecheckt op Heavenhotel, het voormalige bordeel en semi-kraakpand dat onder andere Kiss My Jazz en Lionell Horrowitz herbergt. Bevrijd van de monogame bezigheid van een succesgroep legt Trouvé zich weer onbelemmerd met de zijnen toe op zijn dada: creatief bezig zijn, met muziek, schilderijen, muziek, taal, muziek en mengvormen. er hangt een sfeer van existentialisten in het Parijs van de jaren vijftig, toen Cobra-kunstenaars er hun stek hadden en jazz-musici er neerstreken. De groepsnaam Kiss My Jazz ontleent het gezelschap aan een schilderij van "schrijver"/bassist Jacki Billet, de CD-titel 'Doc's Place, Friday Evening' aan een doek van Trouvé. En Lionell Horrowitz verzorgt een experimenteel soort filmmuziek. -Antwerpen-
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