Muskoka Dreamtime
Naffin & Wright
Northern Breeze
1999
8 tracks
Separately, each is a successful Canadian musician. Brought together, Nick Naffin and Alyssa Wright create an exotic hybrid flower of music that defies genre and at times challenges the listener's sensibility. There is a wholeness to this music that at times doesn't allow the hearer to distinguish between the instruments but demands that they be heard as one. Often at the same time, there is a palpable tension that stretches and pulls at the edges of the music, the instruments pulling apart like halves of a cell dividing. In many duos, this organic complexity could become an aural wasteland. Somehow, Naffin & Wright make it work, and very effectively at that.
German born Naffin is at first blush a jazz guitarist. His jazz, however, draws on an eclectic mix of outside influences. Here are elements of flamenco and classical guitar, rock and roll, and a range of other styles artfully grafted to jazz to flower into a new form. Naffin brings a spiritual quality to his work, a feel for the natural order of things and the need to be at peace with the universe. His music expresses his strong connection to the land and to nature. This comes through in the inspiration and sources for his work and ultimately in the music. This may suggest a sort of hippy free-spirited person behind the music, but Naffin is also very much an academic. His releases, including this one, are the only music releases I've seen that include copious literary footnotes. A very complex musician indeed!
Wright is a classically trained cellist. Her background is in the city and in the symphony. Need I say more?
When you graft together two plants, sometimes you will create something wonderfully new and exciting. Pairing Naffin & Wright as a duo appears musically to have had that same effect. Here is a music perhaps neither of them would have made alone, a very special hybrid that demands the best of both musicians if it is to work. And it does.
It might be expected that music played by guitar and cello would be very soft and quiet. At times this music is. More often, it's edgy and gripping, demanding the listener's attention. It may make appropriate dinner music, but would be distracting for the romance of candlelight and wine. This is spy-movie music. Think The Third Man.
Sometimes Wright plays along in a classical vein which often contradicts, but doesn't conflict with, what Naffin's guitar is playing. At other times, she seems to slip quite naturally into a soft jazz mode that complements the guitar. On several occasions, it sounds like Wright uses her cello to play a bass line and fill out the background with a bit harder sound.
It may be Wright's classical influence or it may be coincidence, but often Naffin's playing has a very Mason Williams pop-classical sound to it. At other times, there is a very jazz or bebop mood. And at other times, Naffin wanders perilously near rock and roll but backs off as he nears that edge. One clear example is "Octember Moon," which intersperses Mason Williams stylings with rock-like riffs including some reminiscent of Ritchie Valens' treatment of Lecuona's "Malaguena." Another is "The Shaman," which has the sort of hard-driving pseudo classical cello opening introduced to rock by Sixties groups like Procol Harum and Chicago, then is punctuated from time to time by brief rock licks. This hint of rock also shows up in varying degress in the other songs.
One disappointment is the "nature" sounds that appear behind the music, especially at the beginning of "Cirrus." The liner notes tell us most of the songs were recorded in the Muskokas, so it's quite possible these background sounds could have been recorded there and laid in. However, that's not what it sounds like. There are cricket like chirps that have a definite electronic sound and eccentric screeches that require imagination to sound like gulls. My guess is that these sounds were created electronically even though the natural sounds should have been accessible to anyone with a portable four-track or even a good cassette machine. If they were recorded from nature, then the natural sounds were tinkered with too much at the studio and in the process denatured.
Over all, the strongest performances on this release are the songs written by Naffin on his own or with Wright. Bonfa's "Manha de Carnival" is nicely played but lacks soul. It is, essentially, elevator music. My problem with the Lennon/McCartney composition, "Eleanor Rigby," may be strictly a matter of personal taste. I've never much liked it when musicians have classicized Beatles tunes, and Naffin & Wright go a stretch further. They spice that classical flavour with bits that sound alternately like the jazz of Wes Montgomery and the soft latin style of Antonio Carlos Jobim. For me, this melange does neither this song nor any of these styles justice.
Naffin & Wright have attempted an unusual blend of their respective jazz and classical styles and, unlike many such efforts which die on the vine, they have succeeded in creating a new and vital sound. It will be interesting to see this music flower and grow to maturity.
Those interested in learning more about Nick Naffin and Alyssa Wright can visit their website.
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