Jim Ryan

Saxophonist, composer, poet and visual artist Jim Ryan once played bebop on trombone and studied philosophy in his native St. Paul. Later he played flute and sax while living in Paris. Now based in Oakland, CA, Jim leads free jazz ensembles and exhibits monotypes and watercolors. Over the next two weeks, Ryan displays the colors of both his sonic and visual palettes as he leads his Forward Energy Quintet in gigs at the Black Dog Café (February 22nd) and Clown Lounge (February 25th) in St. Paul, and (along with a display of his artwork) at the Center for Independent Artists (February 24th) in Minneapolis. From the Twin Cities, the band will move on to Champaign, IL for a performance at the Krannert Art Museum (February 28th) and to Chicago for shows at the Velvet Lounge (February 29th) and Brown Rice (March 1).

Jim Ryan’s career in the arts has been fueled by many influences and experiences, all of which seem to converge in the magical and perhaps maniacal music that flows from his horn. Piano lessons in school under the supervision of nuns gave way to an interest in swing and the trombone while in his teens, but he was soon under the spell of the great bop innovators—Monk, Parker, Rollins, Gillespie. After earning his degree in philosophy from the University of Minnesota, Jim was drafted into the Army and ultimately stationed in Paris, where he remained after his discharge and became active in the community of beat poets. Now in his 30s, Jim returning to his interest in music, and picking up a wooden flute and then a C-Melody saxophone. He soon was intrigued by the free jazz that spread across the Atlantic to France in the late 60s and 70s, and found new inspiration in the music of Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Sonny Murray, Anthony Braxton, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor and Frank Wright. After spending a year in workshop led by the late Steve Lacy, Jim founded the Free Music Formation, performing in Paris and European venues. Back in the U.S. and living in Washington, DC, Jim formed the Art Performance Group in 1979. Moving to California, first to Marin County and now a resident of the Bay Area for the past fifteen years, Jim curates several music series, plays with the Left Coast Improv Group, and leads flexible configurations of Forward Energy for which he plays sax and flute, and spoken word. The band has released five recordings for Edgetone Records including the recent Ghost Dog Tour Compilation, excerpts from his 2007 tour of Midwest and east coast venues.

It was the Ghost Dog Tour that connected Jim with trumpter/percussionist Dan Godston and bassit Joel Wanek of Chicago, and drummer Steve Hirsh, poet/spoken word artists Mankwe Ndosi and J. Otis Powell, and multi-reedist/percussionist Douglas Ewart of the Twin Cities. The core of that tour was Godston’s concept, the Stir Trio/Quartet. The new Forward Energy Tour brings together Ryan, Godston, Wanek, Hirsh and a second tenor saxophonist, Alicia Mangan. (The last night in St. Paul, Adam Linz will fill the bass duties while Godston and Wanek return to Chicago.)

Dan Godston

One of the most innovative musicians in the Twin Cities, bassist Adam Linz appears regularly with Fat Kid Wednesdays (also on the bill at the Clown Lounge on February 25th), with George Cartwright’s Gloryland Ponycat, and many other area ensembles.

The Ghost Dog Tour Compilation

Steve Hirsh © Andrea Canter

Godston’s Stir Trio/Quartet is represented on three tracks from three venues. On two (at St Paul’s Black Dog Café and Clown Lounge), Jim Ryan’s sax is prominent, conjuring strings as much as brass with an eerie vibrating tone, while on another (the quartet at the Mercury Café in Chicago) his spoken word adds a layer of free verse—as if another instrument in this mix. The Trio performance at the Clown Lounge also features Godston’s straining trumpet and Wanek’s dirge-like basslines, the sum total reminiscent of Anthony Braxton, whose large ensembles typically include myriad saxophones. Yet Ryan manages a similar brass menagerie with what seems to be only one sax. Their free-form evolves into a call and response pattern among the horns, like a little country jaunt that almost swings before Ryan emits a series of humorous honks before moving into a more melodic motif. As with many of these tracks, the musicians seem engaged in a heated conversation.

Joining forces with Mankwe and Ewart at the Center for Independent Artists in Minneapolis, the expanded Stir ensemble features Ryan on flute and Ndosi reciting words about technology. She matches the eerie instruments – including deep hollow blows from the digeridoo--with her voice. Identifying these instruments without visual cues is challenging, but also fun; some of the sounds are celestial, like tribes from at least two planets merging together. The melodic, dark bass playing brings to mind a futuristic Peter and the Wolf, as one can imagine animals lurking in the shadows.

Five tracks feature Forward Energy in various combinations. Adding J. Otis Powell to the quartet at the Acadia in Minneapolis, we’re given another voice and rhythm as Powell’s lines spiral and wrap around themselves. The addition of Steve Hirsh on drums also brings in a new layer of rhythm. The trapset seems to take on a more assertive role when Forward Energy moves into the Velvet Lounge in Chicago with Jerome Bryerton taking over percussion, batting about a frenetic conversation with Godston’s squaks and Ryan’s squeals. Two gigs in New York bring in new partners for Ryan (without Godston and Wanek) and new conversations, including guitar and bari sax.

Traveling to the Iron Post in Champaign, IL, Ryan sits in with the Nu Orbi ensemble, a quintet aptly named for the other-worldly sounds of their collaboration. Over the sounds of an unexplored universe, Ryan blows a Coltranish set of phrases, echoed by hollow flutes and synthesized notes. In Columbus the “Collective” is a sextet of musicians led by Gerard Cox on Fender Rhodes, Ryan again the only common denominator of the tour and the music among the heaviest of the set, raucous percussion, eerie chords from the Rhodes and a cacophony of horns created by two alto saxes and Ryan’s tenor. The final track, recorded at ABC No Rio in New York, is in two parts, starting with a trio edition of Forward Energy (tenor sax, bari sax and bass) along with recitation from Ryan, and ending with a “collective” of saxes, strings and rhythm section. The former suggests a larger ensemble, or perhaps more accurately a traffic jam soundtrack that resolves in more melodic passages; the latter further suggests the big ensembles of Anthony Braxton—there’s a lot going on, somehow the conversation evolves with a thread of logic, and I wish I could see it as well as hear it!

The Music of Forward Energy

Regardless of configuration or ensemble leader, Jim Ryan describes the music as “total Improvisation with an internal (blood and nerves) awareness of the jazz tradition. . . this means (to me) that each player listens to what is going on around him/her and incorporates herself/himself into that environment in an intelligent and empathetic way, while retaining full personal expression (one's individual style). Each configuration of Forward Energy requires intuitive adjustments (larger or smaller depending on circumstances). Therefore, these are not scripted or much talked about.” And sometimes, Ryan finds himself involved with an unfamiliar group of musicians, when he will elect to “let the group take the lead and then try to fit in with what they were doing.”

Alicia Mangan

Local spoken word artists Mnkwe Ndosi and J.Otis Powell provided spoken word accompaniment on the Twin Cities portions of the Ghost Dog Tour last spring. On the new tour, Jim Ryan will fill that role himself. “One of the greatest challenges is to meld music and spoken word,” says Jim. “I have memorized several of my pieces and my approach is to speak when the music calls for a change of feeling or direction or needs something new. I usually find that the other musicians sense this and go along with it . . . I don't consider spoken word like song lyrics--it is another genre and calls for support from the musicians, so in this case the other instruments play a subordinate role. The pieces are not usually very long and the musicians work well with it if I lay the words appropriately. Sometimes the players can really get into it and create beautiful background textures, which are expressive of what is being spoken. Sometimes during a concert I don't feel the call to introduce spoken word, so I don't . . . but I think there will be some in the concerts on this upcoming tour. I might also mention that I formed a group called Subjects of Desire, which was dedicated to performing my spoken word pieces for male (me) and female speakers (Auora Josephson).”

On the 2008 Forward Energy Tour, Ryan notes that “the goal as always is to play the best music we can…that someone will find it interesting, even valuable…to present a more concise, i.e. tight group, and to introduce Alica as a top-flight, highly advanced practitioner of the tenor saxophone. This music is not easy listening . . . the hope is that a few will pay some attention to what they are hearing.”

During over the next two weeks, there will be several opportunities to pay attention to what Ryan has described as “sounds you have not yet heard.” Let Forward Energy propel you to new sonic experiences, a new appreciation for the spontaneity that helps to define jazz, be it swing, bebop, or “free” in conception.

Forward Energy Tour:

• February 22, 7:30pm at Black Dog Cafe (308 Prince St., St Paul, 651-228-9274); donation
• February 24, 7:30pm at the Center for Independent Artists (4137 Bloomington Ave. S, Minneapolis); $6-8
• February 25, 9:00pm at The Clown Lounge (under the Turf Club at 1601 University Avenue, St Paul; 651-647-0486). Featuring Fat Kid Wednesdays + Forward Energy 4tet with Adam Linz
• February 28, 7:30pm at the Krannert Art Museum’s Sudden Sound Series (500 E. Peabody Dr, Champaign, IL; 217-333-1861); Free
• February 29, 9:30pm at the Velvet Lounge (67 E. Cermak Rd, Chicago; 312-791-9050); $6-10.
• March 1, 9:00pm at Brown Rice (4432 N. Kedzie Ave, Chicago); $6

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