Mostly Other People Do The Killing

“Slippery Rock”

(Hot Cup Records, Hot Cup 123)

The New York based group Mostly Other People Do The Killing have been Jazzmann favourites for a number of years now with both Tim Owen and myself writing about the band’s albums and live performances elsewhere on this site. Tim has also reviewed the group’s latest, “Slippery Rock”, on his own Dalston Sound website. http://www.dastonsound.wordpress.com

MOPDTK is the main creative outlet of bassist and composer Matthew “Moppa” Elliott who names all his compositions after towns in his native state of Pennsylvania. Elliott’s band is an all star aggregation featuring trumpeter Peter Evans, saxophonist Jon Irabagon and drummer Kevin Shea, four highly creative musicians who are all involved in a plethora of other solo and collaborative projects.

The quartet have acquired something of a cult following for their powerful and frequently anarchic live performances whilst their albums manage to simultaneously homage and lampoon the whole jazz tradition. Elliott and his colleagues are phenomenal technicians, music college educated and fully aware of the whole history of jazz and its established traditions. Whilst clearly loving the music they also take great delight in subverting jazz history, a couple of quotes from Elliott may serve to explain his group’s approach to their shared jazz heritage; “I would rather make music that uses jazz’s identity crisis against it, piling as many nonsensical musical associations together as possible to create music that is aware of its own inconsistencies, ironies and contradictions and likes it that way” or “I like my jazz with some dirt on it, bring out the mud.Standing on the shoulders of giants makes it easier to kick them in the teeth”

Elliott’s studied irreverence finds voice not only in the music (which is stuffed full of quotes from sometimes incongruous sources) but also in the spoof liner notes which he pens under the name of Leonardo Featherweight on album sleeves that have pastiched classic recordings by Art Blakey, Ornette Coleman, Roy Haynes and Keith Jarrett . Elliott is at it again on “Slippery Rock” with a delightfully subversive Featherweight piece that posits the notion that the 1970’s and 80’s were a golden age for jazz with smooth jazz the definitive form of the music. However I’m not sure if the cover, which features the band in lurid, garish 80’s style suits, represents a parody of any specific recording.

Although MOPDTK claim that the inspiration for the music to be heard on “Slippery Rock” stems from an immersion in 70’s and 80’s smooth jazz the finished product sounds very different. There’s a rumbustiousness about the group’s playing that is anything but smooth and a sense of fun and irreverence is present throughout. Typical MOPDTK in other words, whatever the reference points may be.

Some of the tunes to be heard on “Slippery Rock” were performed at the group’s show at London’s Vortex Jazz Club in July 2011 (reviewed by Ian elsewhere on this site). Among these was the rousing album opener “Hearts Content” which is introduced by a drum barrage from Shea underpinned by Elliott’s sturdy bass. There’s some terrific interplay between the horns of Evans and Irabagon, something of an MOPDTK trademark, the pair sparring playfully above Shea’s energetic drumming. Both horn men toss in a few choice quotes (“Celebration” by Kool and the Gang anybody?) during the course of their boisterous sonic brawling. It’s loud, brash and irreverent but it’s also tremendously exciting and the whole performance is delivered with an often bewildering technical skill.

The exaggerated blues/gospel stylings of “Can’t Tell Shipp From Shohola”, a tune stretched out to almost epic proportions at The Vortex, almost comes as a form of light relief. Once again the horns carouse above Shea’s kinetic but always inventive drumming on a piece that updates Charles Mingus for the 21st Century.

Elliott describes “Sayre” as being “based on the compositional clichés of 1980s smooth jazz”. You could have fooled me as Irabagon’s tenor takes raucous flight followed by the wail of Evans’ trumpet. The pair’s daring extemporisations are built around a catchy r’n'b style theme but MOPDTK soon leave this behind, stretching out to gloriously irreverent effect with Shea’s free-wheeling drumming at the heart of the music.

“President Polk” apparently draws inspiration from r’n'b artists Prince and R Kelly. Evans plays piccolo trumpet, an instrument he deployed to stunning effect at The Vortex, and Irabagon appears on the rare sopranino saxophone. Elliott cites the use of these instruments as being the logical extension of the idiomatic use of “extreme high registers to connote emotionality in the r’n'b genre”. In the hands of Evans and Irabagon the sounds generated are frequently astonishing and sometimes laugh out loud funny. Humour is an essential element of both MOPDTK’s recordings and their dynamic live shows.

“Yeo, Yough, Yo” is inspired by former Tower of Power saxophonist Lenny Pickett and is described by Elliott as a “free for all with each member of the ensemble aggressively jockeying for the spotlight”. Evans is the early frontrunner with a dazzling, often vocalised trumpet solo but Irabagon’s barnstorming tenor is equal to the challenge. Shea meanwhile drums with Keith Moon style abandon and it’s left to Elliott to hold it all together.

“Dexter, Wayne and Mobley” manages to homage three Blue Note era saxophonists on a piece described as a “nine bar repeating form with several interlocking melodies woven into it”. There’s some magnificent interplay between Evans and Irabagon, the two of them intertwining those melodies above Shea’s metronomic groove. The tip of the hat is readily apparent but this also music that sounds thoroughly contemporary. 

“Jersey Shore” is said to utilise “triadic harmony in non functional sequences”. Whatever the technicalities (and let’s face it, is the press release going to be any more reliable than the liner notes?) the music is still wildly exciting, the patented MOPDTK sound of squalling horns above thrillingly hyperactive drumming. At the close buzzing reeds and brass coalesce above an insistent cow bell beat, the latter no doubt some form of ironic musical comment.

There seem to be several tunes playing concurrently on the splendidly anarchic “Paul’s Journey To Opp”, which paradoxically also contains one of the album’s few moments of straight four four swing. Most of the time MOPDTK’s rhythms are like a roller coaster, the regular shifts and lurches also having the effect of keeping the horn men constantly on their toes. There’s never a dull moment on an MOPDTK album, which suits me just fine, but their ongoing intensity is something some listeners may find unsettling.

The album concludes with “Is Granny Spry?” which invokes some smooth jazz sacred cows (which I’m too lazy to bother trying to cross reference) and also borrows from Haydn’s trumpet concerto.There are splendidly animalistic horn sounds from Evans and Irabagon as Shea eventually goes ballistic for one last time.

Despite the unpromising “source of inspiration” Slippery Rock turns out to be a classic MOPDTK album that fully embodies the band’s virtues. There’s humour, irreverence, fiendishly clever writing, scorching solos and an astonishing level of technical skill. These guys are good and they know it, fortunately they don’t take themselves too seriously and utilise their phenomenonal techniques for the purpose of having some serious fun. MOPDTK’s records are hugely enjoyable and their live shows irresistible. Check these guys out when they next come to the UK, they’ll blow you away. 

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