John Tchicai

The Great Dane....

It was my love for Roswell Rudd’s music that introduced me to Danish saxophonist John Tchicai, who I really discovered in more detail just recently. I was well aware of his early association with Rudd in the New York Art Quartet, but merely as a name on the album. I had not really “heard” his voice yet. However, a couple of years ago, my musical mentor sent me this album:

The autograph by Tchicai inspired me to learn more about him and his musical legacy. I discovered that although Tchicai may not be a well-known name, he was a prolific and respected artist. Beginning with what we explored in last week’s journey, the 1964 revolutionary New York Art Quartet, he continued to record for nearly five decades. As much as I like that quartet, I think Tchicai’s best music came after the 1960s.

On this week’s journey, we’ll paddle the waters of a few of his later and my favorite recordings. We’ll begin in 1978 with his recording with Johnny Dyani and Dudu Pukwana, move ahead forty years to an association with John Coxon and Ashley Wales, and end with a couple more obscure recordings.

---

After the formation of the New York Art Quartet, in 1965, Tchicai returned to his homeland Denmark. Only Rudd was able to join him, so they enlisted Copenhagen bassist Finn von Eyben and South African drummer Louis Moholo for a pair of concerts in late 1965. Moholo had played with the Blue Notes, the South African jazz sextet that featured Chris McGregor on piano, Mongezi Feza on trumpet, Dudu Pukwana on alto saxophone, Nikele Moyake on tenor saxophone, Johnny Dyani on bass, and Louis Moholo on drums. They were the first integrated jazz band in South Africa during apartheid.

In 1978, Tchicai teamed up with Blue Note alumnus Dyani and Pukwana, and recorded a modern jazz classic, Witchdoctor’s Son:

From this album here is Radebe:

In the early 1980s, Tchicai switched to the tenor saxophone as his primary instrument. In 1990, he was awarded a lifetime grant from the Danish Ministry of Culture. The following year, he and his wife relocated to Davis, California, where he taught music at the University of California at Davis and led several ensembles. In 1997, he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.

In his later years, I like how Tchicai broadened his music to include lyrics, poetry, and electronics, which resulted in some of his finest recordings, like his 2005 John Tchicai with Strings:

This album is a saxophone-and-electronics adventure with British duo Spring Heel Jack’s John Coxon and Ashley Wales, former drum and bass producers who, after developing a fascination for free improvisation, created the Treader label in 2004. John Tchicai with Strings was Treader’s fifth release. Their first was the iconic Evan Parker with Birds - For Steve Lacy.

This classic finds British soprano saxophonist Evan Parker playing to a collection of sounds and field recordings by Coxon and Wales made in Liskeard, Cornwall, and St. Marys on the Isle of Scilly.

---

John Coxon and Ashley Wales formed Spring Heel Jack in 1993 in London exploring two genres of dance music: drum & bass and jungle. For example, here is Bells from their 1997 Busy Curious Thirsty album:

Their drum & bass sound influenced Everything but the Girl, who asked them to perform the music on the title song of their 1996 Walking Wounded album.

Their 2000 release Disappeared marked a transition and featured the British saxophonist John Surman, whose appearance was a harbinger of later changes. Their 2001 Masses was the first of several albums for the cross-genre Blue Series of Thirsty Ear and was an even more radical departure. From there, they pursued collaborations with jazz artists including Evan Parker, Wadada Leo Smith, and Han Bennink. However, I think their best collaboration was with Tchicai on his Tchicai With Strings.

This is an enormous recording. Just listen to Lied and you’ll get a feel for where Tchicai was going at this point in his musical journey:

Tchicai’s Solemn is another great example:

Here is another great, late, and somewhat obscure Tchicai recording. Tribal Ghost was recorded live in New York in February 2007, but not released by NoBusiness Records until 2013, after Tchicai had passed away.

Here is the title track:

And one more for the road. There’s something about Kristian Blank’s obscure 1981 album Den Yderste Ø that hits home for me. The album was recorded in, of all places, the Faroe Islands:

Pouel Kern’s Danish voice reminds me of the narrator in Gabriel Axel’s Babette’s Feast, the 1987 movie adaptation of Karen Blixen’s short story from her 1958 book Anecdotes of Destiny.

Karen Blixen has always been one of my favorite authors, and I’ll always cherish my 1991 visit with my mother to Rungstedlund, Blixen’s country house in Rungsted on the Øresund coast just north of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Listening to this album brings me back there to the days my mother and I stayed in Rungsted….

From this album, here is Tchicai’s beautiful saxophone on Tilegnelse:

It’s Tchicai playing on this and other later albums that I find him at his best. I hope our journey on these Danish rivers brings the Great Dane the greater recognition he deserves.

Next week on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll dig our paddles in to explore the waters of the great Bill Dixon.

Please hit this link to buy me a cup of coffee, if you’d like to show your guide some appreciation for this and past journeys. Know in advance that I thank you for your kindness and support.

If you like what you’ve been reading and hearing so far on our journey and would like to share this with someone you think might be interested in learning more about our great American art form: Jazz, just hit the “Share” button.

From Astaire to Sun Ra: A Jazz Journey is a reader-supported publication. If you feel so inclined, become a paid subscriber. To subscribe to my journey, just hit the “Subscribe now” button.

Also, find my playlist on Spotify: From Fred Astaire to Sun Ra.

Feel free to contact me at any time to talk shop. I welcome and encourage that.

Until then, keep on walking….