Glenn Kotche of Wilco
At the very least, Glenn Kotche�s Mobile presents a fascinating discourse on the meaning of percussion. Because Kotche is best known as the drummer for the band Wilco, he does of course play drums, the centerpiece among instruments that make noise from what is essentially brute physical contact (beating, scraping, brushing, etc.). But he also plays vibraphone and kalimba, neither of which lacks melodic principles or possibilities.
After earlier solo records, Introducing and Next, Kotche has established his ability to craft an entire album around percussion. And he has quite specific reasons to do so.
�I make records to explore specific rhythmic concepts, and as long as they accomplish or answer those questions, I�m happy,� he says. �I hope it would be listenable to people who aren�t percussionists. Any music fan with an open mind should be able to appreciate it.�
The basic rhythmic concept of Mobile comes across in the introductory sentence from Kotche�s liner notes for the record: �In the right lighting, I�m usually struck as much by the shadows that a mobile creates as by the sculpture itself.� In essence, the mobile here is perhaps a more complex version of what parents hang above a baby�s crib � smaller pieces swaying and spinning and bobbing around the movements of a central axis.
�I was thinking about how a few different relationships between themes can be explored on drums or a melodic percussion instrument,� Kotche says. �That related to me like a mobile sculpture � the simple pieces that are constantly in flux. And then also the transitory and migratory themes, and the idea of stretching a beat. That may sound lofty, but there�s so much going there that it�s important to set those parameters. Otherwise, I get carried away and start meandering.�
Mobile doesn�t meander, although sometimes it does wander. It gains a mesmerizing power from its intelligent variations on themes. �Clapping Music Variations� opens the album and sets the mood; it nods to Steve Reich�s 1972 duet of hand clapping, �Clapping Music,� and contains the sly revelation that hands were really the original percussive instruments.
From there, the album ranges from the electronic modification of �Individual Trains� to the story of �Monkey Chant,� in which various instruments represent various characters (monkeys, natch) from a Hindu epic � it�s something entirely unlike �Peter and the Wolf,� but over its nearly 12-minute running length it�s also entirely unlike a drum solo.
Another sidelong revelation of Mobile (like the aforementioned lesson on percussion) is the education of Glenn Kotche. Percussion, like any other musical endeavor, can be somewhat taught, and Kotche graduated from the University of Kentucky�s percussion program. For him, this process of learning was more a matter of filling his toolbox rather than learning how to use the tools.
�I did everything from percussion ensembles to jazz, steel-drum and African-drum ensembles and marching bands,� Kotche says. �I exposed myself to everything. But I�ve always had the duality. I�ve been involved in school stuff, but I�ve also been in a rock band since fifth or sixth grade. They inform each other. I can think of colors and textures and do more than just beats. Jeff Tweedy saw that and that was why I was asked to join Wilco.�
Speaking of constant flux, that was in 2001, when Tweedy, for all intents and purposes the leader of Wilco, was putting together Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the album that catapulted the Chicago band well beyond its alt-country origins (and also marked arrivals and departures of personnel). Kotche was an important factor to this, but Wilco also had its effects on him.
�It�s more important to make a record we�ll be happy with and be excited about, even if that sounds selfish,� he says. �If I thought about making an accessible all-percussion record, that would lead to compromises and things I wouldn�t have any heart behind. That�s something I learned from Wilco.�
Tweedy liked what he learned enough that Kotche ended up in Loose Fur, a strange-rock trio that also includes composer and producer Jim O�Rourke. Kotche also makes up one-half of the jazz duo On Fillmore, with bassist Darin Gray as the other half. And then there is his touring, with Wilco, on his own, and more recently with fellow Wilco musician Nels Cline � and even here he�s not through exploring.
�The plan is for us to maybe get together and do a little collaboration after the end of our separate sets,� Kotche says. �I�m sure that will be very impromptu and fresh and, hopefully, exciting.� VS
Check out Glenn Kotche and Nels Kline at The Pabst Theater on Saturday, July 29.
Jon M. Gilbertson is Vital Source's Music Editor. He also freelances for just about every pub in the region that writes about the subject.
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