Avant-Dilettantes
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This summer AUM Fidelity, an independent New York label that specializes in the kind of ecstatic free jazz made by the likes of David S. Ware and William Parker, released Something Grand, a sprawling, beautifully packaged set of three CDs (or four, if you get one of the first 2,000 copies pressed) of rare Shrimp Boat material, nearly all of it previously unreleased. Label owner Steven Joerg, who grew up in the Chicago area, never missed Shrimp Boat gigs when he was home to visit. The set certainly captures the band’s broad range better than its albums–1989’s self-released Speckly (now out of print), 1991’s Duende (Bar/None), and 1993’s Cavale (Bar/None)–but it still fails to convey their importance to Chicago. I’m not sure any recording could do that.
Context is such a crucial element to critical understanding, and it’s especially key here. Shrimp Boat’s influence can’t be judged on the usual scale. They didn’t spawn a flock of imitators; in fact, to my knowledge they didn’t spawn even one. They had a small, hard-core local following and won only isolated critical acclaim outside of the city–CMJ, then under the direction of future Spin editor Craig Marks, once called them the best band on the planet. But their fearless dabbling had the effect of educating Chicago audiences, paving the way for the local music renaissance that’s still going strong today. Chicago’s open-minded free jazz, post-rock, and even alt-country scenes owe their existence in part to Shrimp Boat.
Something Grand was culled from more than 400 hours of recordings, including live shows, four-track practice tapes, and a passel of 16-track stuff from Wood’s old studio, Idful. It’s a fine complement to the studio albums, filling in the evolutionary gaps with bits of electronic fuckery, jazz workouts (among them the Sonny Rollins vehicle “Wonderful! Wonderful!,” a staple of Shrimp Boat’s live set), and even an excursion into dub. But to the uninitiated it may seem excessive–in fact, no other word can describe the likes of “Ollie’s Song,” a 12-minute train wreck built around Oliver North’s Iran-Contra testimony. The 54-page booklet includes an oral history that traces the band’s development and dissolution; what’s missing is a section about where Shrimp Boat fit into the bigger picture. I turned down a request to do liner notes, thinking the set was probably something I’d want to write about in the paper, so consider this column an addendum.
Bob Mehr is on vacation.
