Pulled Apart At Lightspeed: Lloyd Miller
nomatrix12
Lloyd’s Diatribe is a perfect example of how sometimes collaborations between artists don’t pan out as well as planned.
Compared to Mulatu Astatke, Lloyd Miller is probably more iconic as an academic figure in music rather than as a performing artist. He’s recognised as the originator of “oriental jazz” which marries the modal frameworks and instrumentation usually found in traditional music from countries such as Iran and Thailand and other parts of the Asian region with the languid moods and pacing of cool jazz (he also had a prime time TV show in Tehran in the mid ‘70s under the name Kurosh Ali Khan).
With his mastery over 100 instruments as well as being a scholar in Persian music, Miller is able to have his compositions at best reveal themselves to have a hypnotic depth that makes some of the more famous West coast jazz musicians (Stan Getz, Art Pepper etc) look boilerplate by comparison. Juxtaposed by Inspiration Information,it feels as if the Heliocentrics take a less active role in choosing to play it straight. The band shows that they are able to present themselves as being chameleonic, sensitive, and willing to adjust their style of playing depending on the collaborator. With Astatke, Catto and the band were far more daring to toy with established grooves as well as to bring a certain energy and aggression to the mix. This aforementioned aggression that would usually be associated with rap music.
Bali Bronze for example is built around an eerie vibraphone melody that lasts throughout the length of the song. The steady droning bassline mixed with Catto’s steady pulse on the drums (a turn away from his usual hard hitting style) keeps the song from slacking, the icing on the cake being the haunting flute that somehow feels both distant and close at the same time. Clearly it comes across that Miller has a strong attention to detail and recognizes when to use his instrumentalist talents rather than to just show off. It brings the best qualities of the two collaborators together.
Which is where Lloyd’s Diatribe comes in. Over an intentionally jerky groove and what feels to be a half finished melody, Miller then proceeds to go into the kind of rant from older jazz musicians that we’re sadly used to hearing about. From men wearing jeans too low, girls wearing clothes far too tight,and people's energy being spent due to “obligations” like work and taxes, even commenting on the song itself because “who plays in E natural?” Millers’ rant runs trite quickly.
The song comes across as disruptive at best and completely tone deaf at worse. It’s a disruption due to being the only track featuring vocals, which is already an anomaly for the majority of the Heliocentrics discography, most of which remains almost all instrumental. Not only that, but it ends up conveying Miller as someone who looks at the youth in a reductive manner. It ends up feeling like, from a non-jazz perspective, the sonic equivalent of suddenly being subjected to a Lord Jamar rant.
It could be assumed that the Heliocentrics allowed Miller to have this moment. Since he stands as a respected musical figure, his beliefs and disappointments are coming from a place of authority and a want for everybody to “do better”. Not only that, but it could also be assumed that having the diatribe on the album serves as a way for listeners to understand Miller’s ethos and principles who may not be familiar with him.
The last album Miller put out directly credited to his name came out in 1997; so it’s reasonable to assume that both parties treated this album as something of a major comeback. A comeback for an artist who isn’t just appropriating these particular regions’ sound’s for selfish appropriating reasons, but who genuinely admires and has studied the craft.
Instead of doing that, the song instead does the opposite and comes off like the whinging of another old jazz crank complaining about how ironically jazz doesn’t have a definitive place in the culture like it once had.