Kazutoki Umezu’s Kiki Band “Kiki”

"Kiki" (ewe)    

Kazutoki Umezu — saxes
Natsuki Kido — guitars
Takeharu Hayakawa — bass
Kozo Niida — drums

The Kiki band is hard, fast and loud. Their music is wrapped tight in the free-style blowing of Kazutoki Umezu on sax and the tough, heavy metal guitar of Natsuki Kido. The drumming of Kozo Niida and bass playing of Takeharu Hayakawa keep every tune pegged to a strong, heavy beat, funky at times, rock-ish at others, almost never jazz-like.

What really intrigues about the Kiki band, though, is the appropriation and recombination of different musical structures. They put a Hendrix-esque guitar over long, flowing Middle Eastern modalities. Then they pop progressive feedback on top of a country and western beat, with a heavy metal guitar break in the middle. Then Umezu gives a reggae lilt a screeching free-jazz assault. This kind of dissonance can be a little overwhelming at first, so much so that Umezu even apologized to the audience before a summer show for the band’s “hard” sound. But, in addition to the pyrotechnics, the Kiki band has an exuberance about their polymorphous perversity that is simply hilarious.

Arty without all the pretence, they merge all their musical ideas into a central core of glowing intensity. Umezu plays with many other groups, everything from klezmer to rhythm and blues, and has recorded with the cream of New York’s avant-garde, including John Zorn and Marc Ribot. The Kiki Band’s release of this year, “Kiki” captures their sound well, and allows you to adjust the volume at home. Live, of course, the loudness is another part of the mix. What other “jazz” band does a cover of Ian Dury?