How does someone become a jazz musician? What do you need to know? Do you have to get a license or something? Over the past 60 or so years, more than a few rock musicians have introduced some jazz influences into their work in the name of expanding their world view, appearing cool, or convincing people they can do more than rewrite "Louie Louie." Very few have chosen to dive as far into the deep end as King Khan. On 2020's The Infinite Ones, Khan put together a crew of adventurous musicians (including Marshall Allen and ...
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How does someone become a jazz musician? What do you need to know? Do you have to get a license or something? Over the past 60 or so years, more than a few rock musicians have introduced some jazz influences into their work in the name of expanding their world view, appearing cool, or convincing people they can do more than rewrite "Louie Louie." Very few have chosen to dive as far into the deep end as King Khan. On 2020's The Infinite Ones, Khan put together a crew of adventurous musicians (including Marshall Allen and Knoel Scott of the Sun Ra Arkestra) to plumb the outer edges of his musical thinking, and it was that rare example of a rock musician crossing the boundaries into jazz without sounding like a dilettante. Apparently emboldened by the experience, Khan revisits this territory on 2023's The Nature of Things, a set of nine pieces that blend the open-ended constructs of jazz with a side portion of world music. It's worth noting Khan has a résumé that includes garage punk, stripped-down blues, roots music, wild party-starting R&B, and even a from-beyond-the-grave collaboration with William S. Burroughs, so this music comes from an intelligent sonic omnivore and not some guy who learned three chords last week before deciding he could become the next John Coltrane. Khan is smart, gifted, and bold enough to make his instrumental concepts work, and while the Sun Ra associates that appeared on The Infinite Ones don't appear on these sessions, most of the rest of the crew have come back, and these players work together in inspired fashion. For this project, the band includes John Convertino of Calexico on drums, Torben Wesche of King Khan and The Shrines on sax, Davide Zolli of the Mojomatics and Brontez Purnell of Younger Lovers on percussion, and Alex White of Fat White Family on sax and flute; Khan plays bass, guitars, keyboards, and percussion. The album takes its name from a television series hosted by natural scientist David Suzuki that was a staple in Khan's native Canada, and fittingly, the first two tracks pay titular homage to Suzuki and his work, with a global musical outlook informing Khan's sonic exercises, while the saxophone cross-talk of "Snarlin' Lil Malcolm" and the film noir atmospherics of "Sparkle of Truth" are great soundtrack pieces for a movie inside your head. There's no telling if the world of jazz is ready for a wild provocateur like King Khan, but The Nature of Things shows he's crashing their party whether they like it or not, and he's doing so with smarts, style, and an ambitious sophistication. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
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