In his classic 1973 book ``The Anxiety of Influence,'' the prolific literary critic Harold Bloom argues that great poets define themselves through a complex struggle in which they misread the work of their predecessors and thereby create their own distinctive voice.
Maybe the collaborative nature of jazz works as an antidote for anxiety because the most creative improvisers embrace and build on their influences rather than distorting and disowning them. Take the case of the fiercely creative pianist-keyboardist Andy Milne.
M-BASE alumnus
The Toronto-born Milne first gained notice in 1992, when he moved to New York and joined the visionary alto saxophonist-composer Steve Coleman's band Five Elements (the name comes from a kung-fu movie). Working with ideas he had explored in the progressive Brooklyn-based M-BASE collective, Coleman turned his band into a laboratory in which loose but rigorously conceived structures grew out of bristling hip-hop, funk and jazz rhythms. Heady and street-smart, it was volatile, virtuosic music that repeatedly simmered and boiled over.
Through Coleman and M-BASE (an acronym for Macro-Basic Array of Structured Extemporization), Milne played with leading creative artists such as vocalist Cassandra Wilson, alto saxophonist Greg Osby and trumpeter Graham Haynes. Milne also worked extensively with the excellent vocalist Carla Cook. But his six-year tenure with Coleman made the deepest impact, and it can be heard in Milne's own band Dapp Theory, which makes its Bay Area debut next week with a series of gigs, including Sunday at the Jazzschool in Berkeley, Tuesday and Wednesday at Bruno's in San Francisco and Thursday at Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz.
``I was in that band at a formative period of my life,'' says Milne, 35, from his Brooklyn apartment. ``Steve gave you a bunch of things to think about that were a little different than what other people were thinking about. The only way to really make it was to use your creativity and dive in, figuring out a new voice for yourself and a new way to solve musical problems. A lot of other pianists who I was hanging out with in New York were playing much more mainstream gigs, where the solutions to'' musical ``problems had already been documented.''
Piano trio base
While Coleman's influence runs deep, Dapp Theory is hardly a Five Elements knock-off. Steeped in the piano trio tradition of Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and Wynton Kelly, Milne builds his sound upon a piano-bass-drums rhythm section. Since forming Dapp Theory in 1998, he has developed it into a highly distinctive ensemble that's as comfortable exploring a tune by Joni Mitchell as laying down an elusive groove.
``Playing with Steve brought my attention to rhythmic concepts that weren't being explored in other parts of the music,'' Milne says. ``But when I left Steve's band, I kind of got back to the track I was on before. Now I'm in a space where I take a lot from Steve, in terms of the looseness and structure and apply that to a sensibility that's much a more pop-ish, singer-songwriter way of dealing with the music.''
The latest version of Dapp Theory features Canadian bassist Rich Brown, drummer Sean Rickman, the rapper Dobbins and Swiss-born harmonica virtuoso Grégoire Maret (who performed with Charlie Hunter's band at Yoshi's in December). In an oft-repeated quote, guitarist Phil Upchurch described Dapp Theory as ``the band that Miles [Davis] would have, were he alive today.''
It's pretty much the same group that will be featured on Milne's next album, ``Y'all Just Don't Know,'' scheduled for released in the spring on Concord Records. Particularly interesting is the two-song collaboration between Milne and fellow Canadian Bruce Cockburn, a passionately engaged singer-songwriter known for his incisive, politically charged lyrics.
A stretch for Concord
It might seem like an unlikely project for Concord, a record label best known for its neo-swing players such as tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton and cornetist Warren Vaché Jr., as well as Rosemary Clooney and Mel Tormé. But Milne fulfills the label's desire to help chart jazz's future as well as preserve its past.
``I love the way he stretches things and pushes the envelope,'' says John Burk, Concord's part owner and executive vice president. ``I think it's some of the most inventive and interesting work I've heard recently. Rather than looking back at a tradition that already exists, he's forging new ground. He's got all these different elements, and he's mixing them extremely well, with a super-high level of musicianship and artistry.''
It's not surprising that Milne's new record label would tout him so highly, but it's an opinion shared by some of jazz's leading young players, including tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and trumpeter Ralph Alessi, with whom Milne performed around the Bay Area last summer.
An artist deeply engaged with his surroundings, Milne has absorbed a breathtaking array of sounds and styles and is creating material that speaks to this moment, and the next. ``Most of the music is conceived from the perspective of what I'm interested in in daily life,'' Milne says. ``If I'm interested in some concept or structure or institution that exists in society, whatever it may be, I want to comment on those things'' musically.
