Manu Katché's neighbourhood

First Loves Never Die

Paris 

13/09/2005 - 

Manu Katché, rock drummer by profession and jazz musician at heart, has guested on over 200 albums to date, playing with everyone from Francis Cabrel and Kassav to Sting and Dire Straits. On his new album, Neighbourhood, Katché turns his attention back to his own solo career after acquiring mainstream popularity as a member of the jury on the French TV talent show Nouvelle star.

There's no doubt about it, Manu Katché is one of the most sought-after drummers on the planet - and his address book is worth its weight in gold! But Katché is now taking a break from his status as most popular across-the-board guest musician to return to his first love: composing and playing jazz. Accompanied by a group of first-class jazz stars - Jan Garbarek (on saxophone), Tomasz Stanko (on trumpet), Marcin Wasilewski (on piano) and Slawomir Kurkiewicz (on double bass), Katché has just put the finishing touch to a 100% jazz masterpiece, Neighbourhood. RFI Musique ventured into Katché's neighbourhood for a serious music discussion:

RFI Musique: Would you say your new album confirms the old saying that you never really get away from your first love?
Manu Katché: Well, you certainly never get away from your origins! When you decide to become a drummer - a profession where rhythm is necessarily omnipresent - I can't imagine any better way of learning the ropes than starting off with jazz, moving on through soul and then trying out a spot of funk before ending up with rock. I play with a lot of musicians who've never had any formal jazz training, but I've noticed that they've all touched on jazz at some point. I get the impression that jazz is a rite of passage in the music world.

When did you come into contact with jazz for the first time?
It was while I was at the 'Conservatoire national supérieur de musique' in Paris. I was doing a course in classical percussion, but at the same time I'd started playing drums and experimenting a bit with be-bop. I wasn't that good, actually. But musically, I've always been drawn to soloists. I was listening a lot to Parker, Coltrane, Miles and Monk. They gave me a real shock to the system and shook me up in the best possible way. Those guys blew me away. My stepfather spent a fair amount of time listening to jazz, too. He was the one who made me want to play jazz myself. It was all down to the records he listened to when I was a kid. Technically speaking, I'm not a great jazz musician, but I always play from the heart. And I'd definitely say that structurally, I'm a lot closer to a jazz musician than a rock musician.

In what sense?
I'm a very instinctive kind of person, someone who plays a lot by listening to others. The thing with rock is it's a written form of music, a style that's very precise in its structure. You've got your basic verse and chorus structure and you can't really get away from that very much. What made me different when I arrived on the rock scene via Peter Gabriel in 1986 was that I totally changed preconceived ideas about what a rock drummer should be. I started using tom toms and Splash cymbals. In fact, I approach rock music like a jazz musician – and I choose my words carefully. I'd say "jazz musician" rather than "jazz drummer", because I don't consider myself to be a jazz drummer. I've got too much respect for real jazz drummers to say that. So, yes, jazz was my first love and one of the reasons I love it is that it's a music where soloists really get the chance to express themselves.

It's funny, but when you listen to Neighbourhood you don't immediately get the impression that you're listening to an album by a drummer. You tend to stay in the background quite a lot ...
Well, I take that remark as a compliment! It reminds me of a great line by Steve Gadd, in fact. Gadd was doing an interview just after finishing a recording with Paul Simon and he was asked to name the album he'd most enjoyed playing on. And he came straight out and said "This one, because this is the album where you hear me least!" And he's right, drummers can very quickly go into overdrive and get too in your face. Drums are an instrument that kick up a lot of noise! I like to prioritise melody and harmonies, but on Neighbourhood there's a real rhythmic tension underlying everything, even though I've tried to nuance it. Don't get me wrong, the album's not totally free, open and atempo from A to Z! A priori, I'm not a demonstrative drummer and, a fortiori, just because I'd written an album for myself didn't mean I suddenly wanted to become one. It was like the album I did back in '91 (It's About Time). That was an album where there were a lot of vocals, where I deliberately put the emphasis on melody, lyrics and arrangements rather than showing off and giving a demo of what you can do with drums. I think that kind of demonstration works better live on stage because you're in direct contact with the audience and you give yourself up to the feeling of the moment.

It's certainly true that you have a very melodic approach to drums ...
The first instrument I learnt to play was piano (at the age of 7), so I think that's where my sensitivity to melody and ambience comes from. And I'd say I have a tendency to consider the drums as a melodic instrument rather than a rhythmic one. If you listen to all the albums I've played on – and that must be getting on for 300 now, I guess – you'll rarely pick up on me doing something special on drums. That's not my style! I'm much more into the idea of creating an underlying effect in rhythmic or melodic terms that adds a spark of originality in a subtle way.

Manu Katché Neighbourhood (ECM/Universal) 2005

Concert dates: La Cigale, Paris, 4 October with Jan Garbarek, Tomasz Stanko, Marcin Wasilewski and Slawomir Kurkiewicz.

On tour with Franck Avitabile (piano), Alex Tassel (trumpet) and Gildas Boclé (double bass).

Patrick  Labesse

Translation : Julie  Street