Some people lament the scarcity of their favorite type of live music in their local area. A few, like guitarist/promoter Rob Cambre, do something about it.
Cambre, 31, a New Orleans native, has for over three years managed to present cutting-edge, expressive art music to New Orleans audiences on a regular basis. He often calls it simply “creative music.” It’s the kind which, for the most part, continues and expands on the “avant-garde” or “free jazz” tradition forged by figures like Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor in the early 1960s–music that transcends labels and completely resists categorization. Under the name Anxious Sound, his one-man, ultra-grassroots production company has brought in established and emerging artists from this perpetually underground, yet influential international music scene to perform and collaborate with local musicians.
“The audience in New Orleans is perceived as disliking music like this,” says Cambre. “But my belief is that they haven’t really had a chance to like it or not. If they only see one person playing creative music one time a year at the Jazz Fest, that just makes it seem strange to them. They don’t get familiar with it or learn how to listen to it. I saw that many of these artists want to play here, and the audience in New Orleans hasn’t really had a chance to get to know this music on a regular basis. There was a need for this to take place.”
Cambre admits that his early connection to music formed at 14, when, like so many in the early 1980s, he wanted to play electric guitar like Eddie Van Halen. Fortunately, his tastes matured, and he wound up at Louisiana State University where he became involved with college radio station KLSU, immersing himself in the seemingly countervailing worlds of underground rock and free jazz.
“That music had something that the heavy metal stuff didn’t, not just musically, but also the socio-cultural part of it,” he says. “You could be a participant in this music. Punk rock eliminated the elitism of the great musician or the rock star. You started getting this sense that there was room in here to do some work of your own. And I noticed a similar thing in the jazz stuff I was discovering at the same time, particularly free jazz stuff during the ’60s where African-American musicians that wanted to define things on their own terms started their own self-reliance movements, whether it was organizing like the Chicago musicians with the AACM, or some of the New York musicians starting their own record labels or pressing their own records.
“Then as I got out of school, a lot of the musicians in the post-punk/alternative movement were talking very openly in the press about their interest in and love of a lot of the free jazz stuff. So it tied together in a very apparent way and made sense. Now you have something of a movement of people who grew up on underground rock that are taking a very active interest in free jazz and improvised music, to the point now where most of the small independent American labels that are putting out improvised music are run by people who used to be involved in doing their own punk rock shows and things like that.”
Cambre eventually returned to New Orleans, where he became a WWOZ radio programmer and began influential associations with saxophonist Kidd Jordan and drummer Alvin Fielder, two veterans who have served as free jazz torchbearers in this region. “Those two guys are incredible world class musicians who have played with so many other luminaries,” Cambre notes. “It seems to me that their true worth has not been totally appreciated by the audience here.”
Cambre also connected with local saxophonist Nick Sanzenbach, with whom he produced his first shows in 1997–one during Jazz Fest of particular note. “You know how Charles Mingus did that Newport Rebels Festival in the early ’60s where he boycotted Newport and him and Max Roach and Ornette Coleman had their own festival? That was definitely an influence,” says Cambre. “We decided we disliked what was being represented at the Jazz Fest, so we rented out the Faubourg Center on Frenchmen Street and put on our own concert. The really cool thing about that night was Samurai Celestial (a.k.a. Eric Walker), who passed away a couple of years ago. He was this great drummer who used to play with Sun Ra’s orchestra who came in to play our festival. Samurai had connections to a lot of players in New Orleans, to Nick and Kidd and to Michael Ray, so at one point Samurai was conducting us and it was this group of like 13 guys… It was just really exciting.”
Cambre was inspired by the success of adventurous concert programs in other cities, such as “New Music Mondays” at the Alligator Lounge in Los Angeles, and a regular Wednesday night series at the Empty Bottle in Chicago. “I thought, this is how you build an audience, by presenting this stuff regularly,” he recalls.
He began his own New Orleans series in August of 1997, with a show featuring William Parker, a preeminent bassist and major force within the “downtown” free-improv music scene of New York City, performing with his wife, dancer Patricia Nicholson. For a venue, Cambre choose the Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center, mainly because these sort of concerts are better suited to a non-bar environment, but also because of Zeitgeist’s established reputation for uncompromising cinematic programming.
Today, thanks in large part to Cambre’s series, Zeitgeist plays an essential role in the New Orleans music scene. “We definitely needed another venue,” explains Cambre, “especially since a lot of the venues on Frenchmen Street are not happening anymore. Dream Palace is gone, Dragon’s Den has some problems with the fire code… The options are a good deal more limited, so I was really glad that Zeitgeist wanted to open things up. You need a place just to fuck up in a way, even if it’s a place where you’re just going to have an attendance of ten people or something. You need a place to get it out in the public.”
Over the last three years, Cambre’s “[Out] Reach Creative Music Series” has boasted numerous highlights, including performances by the DKV Trio from Chicago, European bassist Peter Kowald, guitarist Davey Williams, and, of special note, a collaboration by Kidd Jordan and renowned drummer Andrew Cyrille in August of 1998.
“That was a prime example of exactly what I want to do with this thing,” says Cambre, “because Kidd Jordan is well known in New Orleans and Andrew Cyrille is one of the most respected drummers in jazz. The intent, beyond just bringing in great musicians from Europe and New York and Chicago, is to feature people in New Orleans that are playing creative music and featuring them especially when they collaborate with musicians from out of town. Not a lot of people knew that Kidd and Andrew were friends, let alone that they’ve played together.”
Most Anxious Sound events occur on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. at Zeitgeist (1724 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd./504-525-2767), but sometimes Cambre uses other venues, such as the Mermaid Lounge. On a few recent occasions, he’s presented music at informal parties in his Uptown home, borrowing a page from the New York City loft-performance tradition started in the early ’70s, when forward thinking musicians who encountered resistance in traditional public venues would put on concerts in their loft apartments. Cambre hopes that providing these new forums and social contexts for gigs will help break up the musician cliques that are inevitable in any music scene.
“There are cliques in New Orleans and I don’t think anyone is to blame for that,” he says. “But I think I can try to be a bridge builder of sorts. You know, get the Ninth Ward freaks to meet guys who are maybe from the more ‘pro’ musician clique. This is already happening now, and not just because of me. It was happening naturally, but (the concert series) is a way to push that along, to make different collaborations happen, and that’s how you get an interesting and lively music scene in your city.”
Of course, attendance at these events can sometimes be disappointing, given that it’s the polar opposite of a “pop” music experience, and Cambre admits he sometimes must go into his own pocket to pay musicians. Still, by declaring Anxious Sound non-profit, applying for grant funding and courting corporate sponsors in the future, he hopes to defray costs. He seems convinced that there is a place for this music in New Orleans, especially since a clear connection can be made between the collective improvisation of early New Orleans jazz and modern free-improv music. As Cambre notes, both these idioms are based on “everybody listening to each other, having respect for the others, knowing when to step up and when not to, and that’s a really interesting thing to participate in or see happen… With improvised music, you get a wreck sometimes, but sometimes it can be a beautiful wreck. And I think that happens in the original (New Orleans) jazz also. It might soar, it might tank, it might just kind of float there for a while, you don’t know, and that asks a lot of the audience, but I think that also gives the audience a lot, too.”
Following is a tentative September schedule for the [Out] Reach Creative Music Series at Zeitgeist: The CA-LA Duo with Rob Cambre (guitar), Endre Landsnes (drums) plus special guest on September 6. Brian Prunka (guitar) with The Brian Prunka Quartet (new jazz) and a set of Middle Eastern music with members of his band Mahfouz on September 13. The Bowling Lamas featuring Dave Easley (pedal steel midi), Mark McGrain (trombone & electronics) and Louis Romanus (drums) on September 20. Markus Lupertz, world renowned German painter and musician, with Kidd Jordan (saxophone), expatriate South African drummer Louis Moholo, Jesus Cantaloni (saxophone) and Frankie Wollny on September 27.
Zeitgeist also hosts numerous other jazz-related events this month, such as a large jazz ensemble conducted by Nick Sanzenbach on September 9, featuring Kidd Jordan and others, plus Sheik Rasheed and Winds of Change. In addition, guitarist/composer Jonathan Freilich is curating an eclectic music series on Thursday evenings. Contact Zeitgeist at 504-525-2767 (www.gnofn.org/~zte) to confirm listings and get more information.
