PUTNEY — Although Derrik Jordan doesn't particularly like being labeled a world fusion artist, he is pragmatic about it.
“I'm like my good friend Will Ackerman, who is not fond of having his music being saddled with the label 'New Age,'” says Jordan. “But Will realized that however much he dislikes the term, and however inappropriate it seems to him to describe what he creates, that name is a way for people to come to his music, and [tells them] where to put his CDs in a record store. The same is true of world fusion.”
World fusion combines various kinds of diverse music from around the world to create new and exciting musical hybrids.
“It is a stupid name, because the musical traditions covered by it are too varied and different from each other,” Jordan says.
Also, the music Jordan composes changes indigenous music in important ways.
“What I write is inspired by many cultures, but I have no interest in regurgitating each's traditional music,” Jordan explains. “I have studied online and on records, from which I take ideas to synthesize through my own sensibilities. Yes, I may imitate a certain aspect of style or theme, because I hope to capture some of the culture's flavor through a particular feeling or vibe.”
But in the end, what he does is original.
On Friday, April 22, at 8 p.m., Next Stage Arts on Kimball Hill in Putney will present a world fusion concert entitled Rhythm Village.
Jordan, a local musician and composer with a four decade-long passion for world music, has put together an evening featuring some of the local musicians and composers who share his interest. Each will perform original compositions inspired by musical traditions from such disparate places as Africa, Brazil, Colombia, India, and the Middle East.
On a small dance floor at Next Stage, the audience will have the opportunity to move around to some very rhythmic music.
Joining Jordan for this event will be three respected musicians who have found inspiration in world fusion music.
The director of Vermont Jazz Center, Eugene Uman is an accomplished jazz pianist who is also responsible for bringing many wonderful jazz players to the Brattleboro area.
Inspired by the music of Colombia where he has lived, taught, and travelled many times, Uman will present a selection of his Colombian-inspired compositions at this concert, performed by his small ensemble.
Well known for his groups World Rhythms Ensemble and Impulse Ensemble, Tony Vacca has worked with many musicians, including Sting and Don Cherry. Vacca will be performing some of his world fusion compositions with Impulse Ensemble, a trio that includes Jordan and Jim Matus.
Vacca's instrument of choice is the balafon, a kind of wooden xylophone.
Matus plays electric Greek lute, which is similar to an electric guitar, as well as the laoutar, which is a combination of a mandocello and a Greek laouto. Heavily influenced by Middle Eastern music, Matus will perform a solo piece and also another original composition with Impulse Ensemble.
A founding member of Simba, one of Brattleboro's most beloved dance bands, Jordan is a multi-instrumentalist and music producer, and his music is currently featured in many films and TV shows in the U.S. and internationally.
He was commissioned by The Windham Orchestra to write “Windham Loops,” and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra for “Odzihozo And The Lake,” which has been performed in ten venues around Vermont. “Brazilliance - Everyone Loves Brazil,” a 29-track double CD, showcases the best of his original sambas and bossa novas written during the past three decades in the classic and timeless Brazilian style.
The featured composition of the Rhythm Village concert will be Jordan's “Baka Bachianas.” Inspired by the unique vocal singing style of the Baka forest people of Cameroon, Jordan composed “Baka Bachianas” in 2015.
“The Baka people have a distinct style of yodeling, which I believe was influenced by their nomadic existence in the rain forest,” Jordan says.
The piece, composed for flute choir and using eight flutes of all sizes, will be performed by the Keene State Flute Choir and directed by Robin Matathias, who teaches flute at the Brattleboro Music Center.
Jordan discovered after writing the piece last year that Brattleboro dancer Georgette Beighle, who was half-Baka, had produced a short documentary film about her people.
“The purpose of her film was to raise money to purchase land for a group of Baka who were being exploited by a local village in Cameroon,” Jordan writes at the Next Stage website. “The Baka are traditionally hunter-gatherers but have fallen on hard times. She was able to buy some land for them in Cameroon and had signed all the papers but still owes money to complete the transaction.”
When Jordan composed “Baka Bachianas,” he didn't know that Georgette was Baka or that she was involved in this campaign to help the Baka in Cameroon. When he found out, he contacted Georgette and presented the idea that this Rhythm Village concert could be a way to help her raise more money and awareness for her campaign.
“She loved the idea and a second event has now also been scheduled in Burlington on Saturday, April 30,” Jordan writes.
An excerpt of her film about the Baka will be shown at the event in Putney.
“Creating live music is a sacred trust,” Jordan says. “That moment of ecstatic communion when performer and audience become one is one of life's greatest experiences.”
Growing up in New Jersey, Jordan began his musical career not as a world fusion artist but as a singer/songwriter.
“Like so many other kids from my generation, I was inspired to become a musician by seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.” Jordan says. “I went out to buy an instrument the next week.”
Jordan soon formed his own band, and by the time he was in the ninth grade he had a gig at his junior high school dance. “I was composing that early too,” he adds, “and had a composition of mine performed at my high school senior show. It was probably rotten, but I remember being very proud.”
Jordan discovered world music only after he went to Bennington College, where he studied percussion with master drummer Milford Graves and composition with Henry Brant. “Not knowing anything about Black music or World music, Graves and Brandt opened new vistas of music for me,” he says.
After college, Jordan went to New York City to seek his fortune.
“And I was rather successful there,” he says. “But after three years I got so overwhelmed by the noise pollution I had to leave the city, so inundated by the sounds of Manhattan, I had stopped writing music. I needed to go somewhere quiet.”
Having already fallen in love with Vermont at college, he moved to Brattleboro.
“My girlfriend at the time was a good cook, and she got a job at The Common Ground, a coffee house and restaurant where I could also perform,” Jordan explains. “Brattleboro was a cool arts community even then, and perhaps was more favorable to an aspiring musician. There were lots of places you could perform. I mean there were even three bars in Putney!
“Then the scene died, with people staying home with their VHS players and to raise kids. It has gotten better in the last few years, however, and now there are a few more venues for musicians to perform, although places where you can dance is still something scarce.”
Jordan began writing music that joined world fusion with classical only in the past eight years. “I was already in my 50s,” he says.
“My compositions now are played by many chamber groups and symphony orchestras,” Jordan adds.
He will concede it has been a struggle.
“I did not come to music through studying classical music,” he says. “I had to learn how to properly notate what I write so classical musicians could play it. I would not say the music I compose is difficult to play, but it is unfamiliar for musicians raised in the Western classical tradition.
“They are not used to playing the rhythms I present. Not that they cannot play complicated rhythms. Much of 20th-century classical music has very complicated rhythms of its own. But what I write has a different sort of rhythm. I often have to work with the musicians playing my pieces. The challenge of my music is that it is difficult because it is unfamiliar.”
Jordan admits that he hasn't heard very many good performances of his work.
“I get frustrated sitting in the audience seeing what I write butchered by the players,” he says. “The problem is that there is not enough time to rehearse what I write. Usually you get, at best, three rehearsals, which is never sufficient to understand a new language.”
Jordan used to think the poor performances were because his musical notation was poor.
“But recently I had the thrill of hearing my work performed by Carpe Diem in Columbus, Ohio, who really got what I do,” he says. “The group is familiar with playing world music and so took to my music very easily. Carpe Diem raised the bar of what I can expect from hearing my work performed.
“I am happy to say that we have a good flute choir from Keene State who will be performing Baka Bachianas at Rhythm Village in Putney, so I am very optimistic about the quality of the performance of my work at this concert.”