Head down Spank Alley

Who’s in the Spank Alley? Matt: I’m Matt, first year PhD student and I play the drums Jermyn: Jermyn, 3rd year Biochemistry, undergraduate. I play the saxophone. Faris: I’m Faris. I’m a 3rd year PhD student and I play the piano. Jordan: Jordan, also 3rd year PhD. Bass. Eugene: Eugene. I’m a 3rd year undergrad Chemist and I play the guitar.

Eugene, I have to ask you about your guitar. It’s just beautiful. Eugene: It’s a 1965 Gibson hollow body. I bought it on Demark Street downtown, which is the worst place to buy a guitar because they’ll just rip you off. Good place to window shop though.

Do you know its history? Eugene: The shop owner said he bought it off someone after a gig in the 1970s. That’s what he says anyway.

Jordan, I noticed you were only using one effect pedal in rehearsal tonight. What’s wrong? Are you okay? Jordan: I’m having withdrawal symptoms already. That’s what the ale’s for.

So do you prefer to go light on the crazy stuff with the jazz band? Jordan: It’s not really appropriate is it…

Do you ever go through episodes where the other guys let you do your thing? Jordan: Not really…

So do you feel repressed with this band? Jordan: Haha na, it’s just a bit of a change. Just walking bass lines.

Jordan and I were going to play at THROB but we only jammed once. Jordan: We could have gone for half an hour of feedback to be honest.

When I came into your rehearsal tonight I noticed something different right away: you guys were all playing from sheet music. Are you guys classically trained? Jordan: Don’t look at me.

How long have you been playing your instruments? Jermyn: 11 years. Matt: Same for me. Half my life.

Gone… Matt: Just gone…

…behind the drums. Bashing away at the past. Keys? Faris: About 20 years I think. I only got into jazz about 6 years ago though. Before that I was just playing whatever, just by ear. I’m jealous of people who can actually sight read. I’m not one of those people.

When I learned to sight-read I just ended up memorising the songs and pretending to read long. Jordan: That sounds familiar.

I do envy those people though. You can think about music in a completely different way. You can see real patterns on the pages and if you’re trying to write rather than improvise you can play with those forms. So what have you been playing lately? Jermyn: We play a lot of Herbie Hancock covers. Matt: It seems to be our preferred thing right now. Eugene: Not so much jazz any more. More funk, but it’s a good thing. Matt: Yeah, we’re playing an Average White Band song.

Any traditional standards? Faris: Yeah.

I wouldn’t call Herbie Hancock traditional jazz though… Jordan: Traditional jazz-funk! Well we started playing some more traditional stuff… Eugene: Miles Davis as well. Faris: ‘Spain’, ‘Caravan’…

No Kind of Blue? Matt: ‘So What’!

Don’t you need an upright for that? Jordan: I’ve got one actually.

Dude! Get it out! Jordan: Stick a Big Muff on it haha Matt: Of course our real aim is to become a 70s disco band. Jordan: I’m trying to grow an afro right now.

Don’t count on it. Jordan: Why not? What do you mean?

Well… 3rd year PhD. Anyway... So how big’s your repertoire? Faris: We’ve got about 20 songs or so… Matt: We’ve only been playing together since November. I came to Imperial the month before. These guys played before in various incarnations though. We try to play at least a couple of hours a week. Eugene: This is our first proper gig actually, other than the jam nights.

Is that because you’re playing only standards at the moment? Jermyn: In jazz it’s more about the improvisation anyway.

Do you try to work your own thing around the old classics? Matt: One of the songs we’re playing, ‘Watermelon Man’, has turned out to be a different tune altogether.

Do you ever play any songs in strange tunings? Eugene: It’s all been standard so far hasn’t it? Faris: ‘Actual Proof’ is hardly standard. Eugene: Ohhh I remembered practicing that over and over and over and over…

So have you played the whole of the Headhunter’s record or what? Jordan: Nearly! Matt: It’s so tempting to just stick with Herbie Hancock!

Have you guys seen him live? Jordan: I have. He’s like 74 now. He still jams pretty hard. I saw Roy Haynes recently, who was rather instrumental in the 50s bebop scene. He’s 86 now and he still plays amazingly well. It’s ridiculous. Jermyn: We saw McCoy Tyner recently. He was John Coltrane’s pianist

Have you guys been to Ronnie Scott’s? Matt: Yeah. My cousin actually DJs for the club part of it. He does a thing called Doing Something With Jazz.

The ‘Queen of Motown’ Martha Reeves and the Vandellas sold out 4 nights in a row there. Jordan: Yeah, it’s a classy sort of vibe. Or it tries to be.

Not like Spank Alley I suppose! So other than the London Jazz Festival which is consistently ridiculously amazing, how do you find the jazz scene in London? Matt: There’s the Jazz Café up in Camden. Eugene: There’s a nice joint in Fulham…

Club 606! I remember going there in 1st year, because it was just a few streets away from Orient House where I was. It’s in the middle of this industrial estate. You just have to find this black metal door and walk down these dingy stairs… Jermyn: Yeah, it’s underground right?

Once you get downstairs it’s really chill though. There’s a really strong free jazz scene, particularly around Dalston. Are any of you guys into that? Jordan: I quite like some of that. Eugene: That’s what we call our solos if they don’t work out! “That was freeform!” Matt: It’s good because you can never be wrong. Jermyn: Just walk off the stage to get a beer and call it ‘expression’.

The anguish. “I need a beer. Leave me alone.” [dramatic silence for 10 minutes while you get served] So, I’m taking that as a no. Matt: Pretty much.

Do you guys know Sun Ra? Jordan: Yeah! Did you go see them at Oto?

Not the last time but I caught them during their 3-day residency which prolonged to 5 because the Icelandic volcano left them stuck in London. Anyway, for those of you who don’t know him, he was this free jazz guy in the 60s who took too many drugs. He had this sort of cosmic jazz take on things and he believed he was from another planet. Jordan: Yeah, he actually started playing bebop kind of stuff and somehow went…

Backstage. He thought jazz was channelling the spirit of the universe or something and I can see what he meant. Jazz is some of the most exploratory music there is and much more free than classical. Matt: Classical is much more composed. There’s almost no room for free interpretation. Faris: Having said that, there’s a lot of baroque music which has a lot of improvisational harpsichord passages and variations.

I always thought that when a composer is working on his magnum opus , there must be a lot of theory behind it but there was probably some spontaneous moment which sparked it. That’s what strange about classical music. It seems so restrained though, it almost seems to lose the human element. That’s what jazz manages to save. Matt: you can say what you like about classical music but you have to admit it’s stood the test of time.

Some people might beg to differ on that. Jordan: Some of the modern classical music is really just modern music which is scored for a full orchestra and it just seems to come off as forced. Some of the purposefully dissonant stuff really tries to say something but a lot of it just fails.

So finally, how did your colourful name come about? Matt: ‘Spank-A-Lee’ is a song by Herbie Hancock.

Is there no other motivation behind it? Jordan: It is funk after all so there has to be a bit of spank. Eugene: What better place to get down and dirty than an alley?