BY ELENA OUMANO, The City Sun Feb 14-20 1990
Saxophonist Jenny Hill recalls accompanying her high school teacher to a concert given during the '70s by soprano saxophonist-composer Jane Ira Bloom. The teacher's disbelief in a woman's ability to handle a brass instrument remained intact despite the living proof right in front of him. "This is the first time I've seen a woman play like that," he exclaimed to his young student. "It's impossible! Women can't do that!"
Unless he's been hiding in the classroom since, her teacher must have seen the impossible become vividly possible at least a few times more, particularly if he's attended concerts by the great reggae visionary Burning Spear. Hill along with Nilda Richards on trombone and Pam Fleming on trumpet - known collectively as the Burning Brass - consistently managed to pull off another "impossible." They draw the spotlight away from the magnetically stoic Winston Rodney with their brilliant horn work, reggae roots refined by classical training and inflections of jazzy NYC style.
Their new band's debut performance last month at MK's revealed that the Burning Brass is much more than superb side women. With three horns fronting the group, the slant is naturally dubwise - a neglected style of reggae (some say it's highest expression) that's only given its full due when the venerable Skatelites come to town. But these young ladies have a very different background and training. Their band illustrates what can happen to reggae in the hands of well-trained, creative musicians who feel the music, sense the limits on what it can contain, and yet can't help but push those boundaries just a little bit farther than anyone else imagined they could give. As high and wide as it flies, though, Burning Brass knows not to mess with the one drop.
The rhythm section clearly has mastered Sly and Robbie's example. Their smooth switches of tempo interrupted one reverie only after the listener comfortably was grooving into the next, but they remained resolutely locked in the funky, molasses groove that is the essence of reggae throughout, providing firm footing for the quixotic, melodic meanders reminiscent of improvisational jazz taken by the brass section. The two fine vocalists' scatlike bursts dropped in and out of the driving instrumentals, fragments of lyrics coming at the listener like echoes of familiar classics. Rather than just being well executed cover, these references evoked the added impact of entire memories drawn from the best of reggae's past. The brass solos had all the excitement of finely honed technique married to a feel that no school can teach, without rampant egos hogging the stage. The ladies of the Burning Brass clearly lead, but they understand fully the dynamics of reggae's easy give-and-take.
It sometimes seems as if every sideman wants to be a star, but few have what it takes, namely the ability to write original material and to project it. Diminutive, blond, blue-eyed roots "dawter" Pam Fleming was another surprise. She sang her "Thanksgiving in Africa" and other tunes with the kind of soul, cool and wit that only instrumentalists can offer - a feel that counts for more than just a belle voce.
"Get Those White Girls Off The Stage," a satirical Hill-penned rap, is Burning Brass' comedic response to a not-so-funny incident that occurred the night after Peter Tosh was murdered, when Burning Spear appeared to a sullen crowd at the Empire Skating Rink in Brooklyn. Amid the silence and the weird vibes, one lone Rasta woman kept shouting, "Get those white girls off the stage!"
But Burning Brass revels in their mix of gender and race. "We're just having a good time and not letting these barriers get in our way," they insist.
And that democratic spirit seems to be the key to the band's reason for being. "We wanted to have a band that combined a lot of different sounds," says Hill. "Reggae, because we had many year' experience playing it, and also our American backgrounds - our funk chops and our rap. The band incorporates a lot of brass melody plus a lot of rhythm - funk and back beat. We want people to dance."
Right now Burning Brass is shopping its demo and planning a recording with Sly and Robbie.
Record companies - look no further; here's your money.
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