Keenan Ahrends’ Perseverance: rhythm conversations

I probably wasn’t the only person disappointed that guitarist Keenan Ahrends’ 2018 debut album, Narrative, didn’t feature in that year’s awards lists. Absurd as the notion of “winners” (and by implication “losers”) is in music-making, Narrative told a fresh and distinctive guitar story worth acknowledging.

Now his second release, Perseverance: live at the Birds Eye ( https://keenanahrends.bandcamp.com/album/perseverance-live-at-the-birds-eye) has arrived. It archives his performances at the Basel jazz club last year, streamed as part of the 2021 Makhanda Festival. His trio’s Swiss tour (with bassist Romy Brauteseth and drummer Siphelelo Mazibuko) was part of the ProHelvetia Artist Residency programme; the recording also features Swiss guests, reedman Domenic Landolf and trumpeter Lukas Thoeni.

When I wrote about that Makhanda performance, I expressed regrets at the absence of a set list: this was new, unknown material. The album’s seven tracks correct that deficiency. I now know that one striking bass/guitar conversation took place on a number called Expendables, while drums and guitar conversed on Aunty B. And the very pretty theme that transformed itself into a very joyful, compelling goema, was called Here We Go Again. The digital download also provides a dozen minutes of two bonus tracks, Stories Behind Expression and Family. More about those later.

Domenic Landolf

I’ve used the term ‘Metheny-ish’ about Ahrends instrumental voice before (he may hate it…). What unites these two guitarists from very different contexts and generations is the sense of exploratory emotional space in their music. They both play music with head and heart. Ahrends prefers to see where a theme takes him, rather than mechanically stating the head and marching in a straight line from there. There’s no rush to the conclusion of the tune’s home, but rather continual invention and reformulation along the road.

That’s not to say that Ahrends doesn’t write or state appealing melodies. Here We Go… certainly appealed to me, as did Lullaby of Solitude and Family . But often those melodies emerge from his explorations, rather than conventionally bookending them. Nor is he a grandstanding soloist. When brass and reeds are on stage he shares the sonic space equally, so that it’s not until the fourth number, Aunty B, that the guitar stretches out alone for a long time. The side of any guitarist that often gets an audience shouting – the assertive, bluesy, rocky side – is employed judiciously, so that when it declares itself, for example, on Expendable and Stories Behind… (on that latter, alongside an equally soulful, bluesy Brauteseth) you can hear the audience riding it joyfully home.

Romy Brauteseth

We often don’t talk enough about the rhythm players, but if bass and drums aren’t equally strong and inventive in a guitar-led trio, the whole concept can sound thin rather than spacious, and anaemic rather than subtle. Brauteseth and Mazibuko are perfect trio partners. The drummer judges perfectly when to lay back and shade Ahrends’ colours and textures with his brushes, when to join the conversation more assertively, as with Thoeni on Wandering Dancer, and when to pull out a bouncing, rattling, magnetic solo – one of which makes Family the most satisfying closer track possible. Brauteseth possesses the same finely judged mix of empathy and power. In addition to the contributions already mentioned, strong bass foundations are often what ground the extended abstract excursions. (And there are some satisfyingly long numbers, something live recordings offer that is sometimes absent on studio cuts of the same material.) It’s the swing of Brauteseth’s walking line that helps the Wandering Dancer to dance.

The two Swiss guests, as I noted when I reviewed the streamed concert, have clearly spent far too long in the company of South Africans. Their contributions catch the feeling of Ahrends’ compositions beautifully: Thoeni’s gently upbeat solo on Revival palpably lifts the mood after the darker emotions of Expendable; Landolf’s solo on the title track definitely talks a shared expressive language. Both of them relish the celebratory mood of Here We Go…

Siphelelo Mazibuko

The Live at the Birds Eye series has consistently – and for quite a long time now – given us music from its South African guests (for example, also Zim Ngqawana, McCoy Mrubata and Feya Faku) that faithfully reflects their character in performance, with none of the South African label nonsense about “You must cut the long numbers because they won’t get airplay”. Recordings in this series always bring back grateful memories of how it felt when we heard these artists live ourselves. Gratitude doesn’t pay the bills, though; for that, you need to buy the album.