转：Emma-Jean Thackray: Beat-laden jazz groovers to “move your body, mind and soul”
Thackray's new collection, ‘UM YANG 음 양’, brings together Taoist ideals with a sparkling fusion of jazz, electronic music and experimental flourishes
ByDhruva Balram27th July 2020
原文地址：https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-radar/emma-jean-thackray-movementt-interview-2715998
"If someone asked me, ‘what would your life be like if you won the lottery and didn’t have to think about money?’ It’d be exactly the same,” Emma-Jean Thackray says. “I just want to keep making music. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. I never really felt like I shouldn’t either.”
For Thackray, everything is falling into place – singular, spectacular tunes have made her a renowned figure in the London jazz scene and beyond. The multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer, DJ, trumpeter and composer’s latest project, ‘UM YANG 음 양’, out on July 31, draws from the various elements that have made her work so celebrated – Miles Davis, Alice Coltrane with a little Pharaoh Sanders sprinkled on top. But listen closer and Thackray has woven in elements of LA’s lo-fi scene, Madlib-influenced beats and the vibe of Detroit’s ‘90s house scene.
EMMA-JEAN THACKRAY || Movementt (Official Video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcrXqXoaxV4
“I have this chant; move the body, move the mind, move the soul,” she tells NME from her London home that doubles as her studio. It applies to her own label as well, Movementt. Taking its title and ethos from a track of the same name on her EP, ‘Rain Dance’, the label’s philosophy is one that already underpins all of Thackray’s work: balance, a hymn repeated throughout the first song of ‘UM YANG 음 양’. “I don’t see any issues with putting on something like Sun Ra and then playing techno. To me, there’s no difference. It’s coming from the same place, so it belongs in the same place.”
A vision for cross-collaboration across genres, instruments and music brought Movementt to life. Her new label may be fledgeling, but with a focus on improvisation that doesn’t distinguish between dance music, jazz, electronic and explorative experimentation. “I’m happy to put a mic in the middle of a room and invite people in and make something and see what happens,” she says. “I’m trying to make a family that I have been craving for my whole life. So why not build something new?”
This mindset stems from her Dad raising her on Taoist ideals, a major influence on ‘UM YANG 음 양’, where she leads a septet who recorded the two tracks straight to vinyl. “I think the ideals saved my life in so many ways that maybe I won’t fully comprehend for a long, long time,” she says of her upbringing. “It not only became part of my emotional balance, but it became part of my musical process as well. It was huge growing up and finding it hard growing up where I did, it was like a lifeline to me.”
Thackray was born in Leeds, playing in multiple brass bands throughout her childhood. She was part of the Yorkshire wind band, brass bands, symphony orchestra, big bands and “playing funk with my friends at school.” Thackray dove headfirst into music as a means to escape. “It taught me about how important music is for people, especially where I grew up where there’s fuck all to do. That’s how a lot of working-class communities educate the kids around there. It’s like a youth club.”
Finding herself outgrowing Yorkshire, Thackray attended to the Royal Welsh College Of Music And Drama, then heading out further, taking on a Master’s with Issie Barratt at Trinity. She soon found herself as an RBMA alumnus and in 2018, became artist-in-residence at the London Symphony Orchestra. “It was stressful as fuck. It was so stressful, they nearly killed me.”
The experience did teach her how segregated the classical music community it is, and how she wants to address that issue across all genres. “It’s not a white, non-white thing. It’s a money thing. Classical music deserves to be heard and understood by so many other people but you need to have money for education.”
EMMA-JEAN THACKRAY - UM YANG 음 양
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQcIa2BUcPo
Thackray hosted events where friends of hers would perform or have access to spaces they normally wouldn’t for a myriad of reasons. “I wanted to try and break that down as much as possible and make it about lots of different people in the same room, listening to loads of different kinds of sounds altogether and being just one in a space together.”
Her own influences for that come from famed West Coast producer, Madlib. “I feel like he’s my best friend,” she says. Much like Madlib’s remarkable capacity for picking up instruments for the first time and knowing how and what to play, Thackray does much the same, recounting how she recorded the clarinet for her latest album – learning the parts she had written for the album in 10 minutes. “I wanted to be playful. I’m not saying that I’m good at the clarinet. I’m just saying, let’s just stop being so serious. I just want to have some fun.”
Since she first picked up ‘Sketches of Spain’, the Miles Davis record that changed her perception of music forever, Thackray knew she would inevitably end up here and now, releasing records on her own label and making a singular brand of music.
“I’ve never doubted my place. That’s not to say that I don’t have bags to learn and hard paths to walk down, but it’s a completely comfortable place of knowing that I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing and living my purpose. For a kid from a working class background whose dad is a truck driver, I’m taking this journey all the way to the last day.”
Emma-Jean Thackray’s ‘UM YANG 음 양’ is out July 31.
他妈的Emma-Jean Thackray，我爱你！不仅因为捣鼓出了Miles Davies精神上传承的东西的可能性，而且我喜欢这种女子大生的气质。喜欢这种带毛线帽，黑框眼镜，脸圆圆。像任何一个大学同学，你几乎可以做世界上任何一切事情。我听了一段时间这张专辑，因此看了不少emma-jean的推特，就像任何一个可爱的认识的人一样充斥着大量meme和那种聪明小孩的话儿。如果能和她当朋友就好了，况且她还没有很火:)
再说回这张专辑，她提到在写歌的时候会用到Pala santo，也就是秘鲁圣木用来净化空间。专辑《UM YANG》也是韩语中的阴和，相较于之前那些俱乐部场景相关的音乐。一路从emma最初的音乐听过来会发现在这一张里她的思想和对音乐的理解已经沉淀到一定程度了，“头脑，身体，灵魂”牵一发而动全身的，做到了内在的平衡。并且她拥有这个魄力调控一切编排。这也得益于在伦敦交响乐团驻场的经历，同时她还正在运行自己的唱片公司。
想说的一点对emma-jean的欣赏还出自她的“接地气”，如同同样和她同一批的女性爵士音乐家Angel Bat Dawid（emma自身也很欣赏她）。Angel也算得上是中年妇女的一个形象，她辞职以后用iPhone录制出的优秀专辑，真的很难不让人为之动容。我想很多时候爵士乐于大众而言的刻板印象是“上流”，”资本主义“。其实造成这种想法也并不难理解，学习，包括线下参与到真正live，收集和寻找都需要花一些真正的精力，打破这些壁垒要如何做到呢？有的时候确实会羡慕英国这么好的jazz氛围，希望有一天能真的加入到当中感受这些。而能在家里听到这些感动的，让人惊喜的音乐，其实也算是一种链接了。对于耳朵来说是满足的，我深入听爵士的时间不算长，这些也只是我的个人见解罢。
Emma-jean算是一个对高高在上的反义词，虽然《UM YANG》来说还有继续打磨的空间，但是她还年轻并且也有潜力。不断发展下去说不定就能做出更伟大的东西。然而最重要的是我喜欢她说的”For a kid from a working class background whose dad is a truck driver, I’m taking this journey all the way to the last day.”，对于到处是音乐流媒体的时代，能听到这些并不是很困难的事情，同时也有人可以做到不在乎阶级，不在乎物理条件去创造。是好的事情，同时作为听众也不能固步自封啦，希望有一天我可以真正的实际去感受，和这些音乐交流，我仍然抱有期待。
