Jerry Dammers Spatial AKA

As a reformed Specials prepare to go on a sold-out revival tour without its founding member, Jerry Dammers - the man who penned the anthems Ghost Town and Nelson Mandela and the gem What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend - is poised to touch down at the Barbican with his retro-futuristic 18-piece arkestra, The Spatial AKA.

Flashback to declamatory times - founding The Specials and the 2 Tone label Dammers pioneered the ska revival in a turbulent UK in the 70s and early 80s. He was the driving force behind their political pop which put an insurgent and increasingly experimental agenda at the top of the charts.

The Specials – Ghost Town

Today, he’s firmly refocussed on the intergalactic adventures of The Spatial AKA Orchestra and the future - it’s sure the shape of things to come is littered with surprises. Having witnessed a previous performance of the Spatial AKA at the Meltdown, hosted by Jarvis Cocker, I’d been blown away by the music, the combination of sheer fun and celebration, and a deep sense of loss due to the death of his father and his musical mentors - Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane and Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd. I felt privileged to have been there that night and was more than happy to have been immersed in the Arkesta’s ambititious deconstructed cover versions.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since The Special AKA rocked the world with Nelson Mandela and Jerry casually admits to have been quietly plugging away, DJing and working on his various preoccupations. That period has mostly passed undocumented, but he’s proved to be mystical maverick himself.

“There was the hip hop and jazz jams at The Wag Club with Jason Jules. That’s going back 15 years. I ran Chazz, which was a night at The Atlantic in Brixton, named after Charles Mingus. That was ten years ago, we played a lot of spiritual jazz and attracted some very hardcore chess players. That kind of music goes with playing chess. Too many people listen at that kind music rather that to it. I also had the Jazz Odyssey band – that did one gig at Glastonbury.

“I always wanted to do a Sun Ra tribute band and a couple of years ago I was asked by the Roundhouse to DJ at this art event with a film about Russian Cosmonauts (Andrei Ujica’s cult Russian space film Out of the Present). I thought it would be better to put a band together. So, we did. There was a giant rocket made from garbage so we set up in front of that. It was very dramatic… but it was an art event so it was pretty much off the radar.”

However, the seeds were sown for the Spatial AKA and reflecting on that first mission Jerry laughs and says, “The good thing about costumes is it’s hard to take yourself too seriously wearing a gold sequinned cape. It makes it all fun. When you’re all in costume, it’s like everyone’s committed. The whole visual experience, the clothes and the projections that we have with Spatial AKA, help you get into the music. They create a different world. It’s a whole experience.”

Sun Ra: Space Is The Place (1974)

Due to big band logistics The Spatial AKA project moves at a speed a little below Warp Factor 2, but Jerry is keen to inform us about their new piece that combines the two dons of exotica Martin Denny and Les Baxter. Expect jungle madness, exotic forests and singer Francine Luce turning those familiar animal sounds into an avante garde vocal thing.

Martin Denny playing ‘Quiet Village’

“This is probably the last concert to be focussed on Sun Ra,” maintains Jerry despite the fact that Ra is without doubt his main man - his spiritual and cosmological mentor. He constantly digs out relevant quotes from Ra and the Spatial AKA is due to premier the collision of two heavyweight Ra tunes True Retrospect and Discipline which have been adapted and “decomposed” by Dammers.

“We will do a weird French library tune, Bachanal Chez Satan… orgy in Satan’s house… do you think that’ll get the Barbican going? Might do a Moondog tune and Cedric Brooks’ Sattya… it’s all the same spiritual vibes. I like to get some reggae and ska in there, it’s all related. The other thing is, reggae was very influenced by the exotica, the singing is as much Nat King Cole as it is Otis Redding.”

Spatial AKA play Ringo Rock

All the magical arrangements for the Arkestra are honed by Jerry Dammers himself: “I get bits transcribed and then they are fed through the computer. Getting all these people together for rehearsal… for me, it’s got be do-able not overly complex. Also the audience can feel the structure. Besides that, it’s all groove based and it’s influenced by hip hop, you can feel that in it.”

“There’s a lot of people involved, and I feel completely honoured to play with these guys” says Jerry before extolling the virtues of poet Anthony Joseph and Space Ape – a collaborator of Kode 9 and “a modern version of Linton Kwesi Johnson”. Spatial AKA also takes some of the top jazz musicians in the UK into orbit.

“The theme of this concert is vaguely of being in peril… of a human race heading towards self destruction… I’m trying to remember the time when there was a vision of the future because now it’s like retro-future… we need to dream of a better world. The Spatial AKA takes you on a journey. There’s a serious side, a funk side, an up side, a down side… and it’s a lot of fun.” he says about to conclude but not before describing the space ship he’s made from an old motor cycle sidecar!

Paul Bradshaw / Straight No Chaser

Jerry Dammers Spatial A.K.A. Orchestra Presents
Cosmic Engineering: A tribute to Sun Ra and other mystic mavericks
10 March 2009 / 19:30
Barbican Hall
www.barbican.org.uk

Spatial AKA is:

Jerry Dammers, musical director, selector, keyboards
Denys Baptiste, saxes (Mercury Prize nominee, Mobo award)
Larry Stabbins, saxes (Working Week, free jazz stalwart since 60’s)
Zoe Rahman, piano (Mercury Prize nominee, Perrier award winner)
Jason Yarde, saxes
Finn Peters, flute (BBC Jazz award, London Young Jazz Musician award)
Nathaniel Facey, saxes (Empirical, North Sea Jazz EBU award)
Anthony Joseph, poet (author, “The African Origins of UFOs”)
Francine Luce, vocals (sung with Lester Bowie, Evan Parker, Steve Beresford)
Neil Charles, double bass (Empirical, Soweto Kinch)
Patrick Illingworth, drums (Pinski Zoo)
Crispin “Spry” Robinson, percussion (Galliano)
Robin Hopcraft, trumpet (Soothsayers)
Mat Fox, baritone sax (Happy End, Kinetica)
Harry Brown, trombone (Jazz Warriors, Jazz Jamaica)
Ollie Bayley, electric bass
Guy Clarke, guitar
Steve Gibson, classical percussion, vibes

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