» Music with Jeff Hemmings
Maverick Jerry Dammers’ Spatial AKA Orchestra may be a play on his orginal band’s name but it’s altogether different
Everyone seems to have gone a little potty for The Specials reunion tours, but the man who actually formed that band, wrote many of the songs and set up the legendary 2 Tone label has been following a very different path ever since he left the band back in the ‘80s.
Although Jerry Dammers has fallen out of the spotlight in recent years, he still regularly DJs in nightclubs, as well as performing with his band, The Spatial AKA Orchestra, playing his own compositions and tributes to Sun Ra and other experimental jazz and cossover artists. It’s something that he has worked hard on over the years.
“It started life about 15 years ago,” says Dammers. “I was involved in hip-hop jazz jams at the Wag Club and it developed into Jazz Odyssey, although we only ever did one gig! And then I was asked to DJ [to Sun Ra’s Space Is The Place film] at the re-opening of the Roundhouse in London. I used the oppportunity to make it more interesting by getting together a Sun Ra tribute band.”
Sun Ra holds a special place in the hearts of leftfield jazz and music fans alike. His controversial and ‘cosmic’ music was radical, pioneering and often suprising, for instance with his extensive use of electronica. “Sun Ra’s music had a framework but there was a lot of freedom within that. That’s what I try and do – a lot of it is scored, but then we improvise around the main themes. I particularly like the more rhythmic and repetitive side of him. A lot of our stuff is quite funky.”
Dammers has assembled a remarkable cast of musicians for his 19-piece Orchestra, including the likes of Denys Baptiste, Zoe Rahman, Finn Peters, Rico Rodriguez (who used to regularly play with The Specials) and poet/rapper Anthony Joseph.
“I’ve started to introduce a few originals into the set plus some songs of my own,” says Dammers, best known for writing classic songs such as ‘Ghost Town’ and ‘Free Nelson Mandela’. “We do some Alice Coltrane covers, a bit of reggae and ska… I’ve always been into jazz; not a complete jazz-head but I got into it again via hip-hop and breakbeat music, stuff that uses a lot of jazz.”
As well as the music, the band’s limited performances are also sprawling visual affairs – the Orchestra often coming on stage dressed like Ancient Egyptian wizards! “There are lots of mannequins, a spaceship, lots of garbage on stage,” says Dammers. Not literally garbage, mind, but stuff that he found that formed the basis of an art exhibition to coincide with this project. Far out!
The Spatial AKA Orchestra, 5 March, Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, Thursday 4 February
