The Living Daylight Song

[Malva Ferster]

Duringthe summer of 1999, a small musical force came down from the Pacific Northwestand raided the East coast with its vanguard of funk-free-fusion jazz. This trio, known asthe Living Daylights, raided small clubs as well as being one of the main acts at theCambridge Music Festival as well as Phish’s grand event in Oswego. Since theirrampage of the east, in which they created quite a stir, the Living Daylights have sinceretreated to their home base to work on some side projects as well their third album.

The Living Daylights have a unpretentious lineup: bassist Arne Livingston, saxophonistJessica Lurie and drummer Dale Fanning; but their sound is beyond simple. The three areveterans of the Seattle music scene in which they have played every type of musicimaginable – African worldbeat, psychedelic and avant-garde jazz just to name a fewstyles. In 1995, the three got together to play a type of jazz that is definitely funky;it is definitely avant-garde and it definitely has a rock and roll beat. Livingston keepsthe funk going with his fretless bass and Lurie’s extended solos evoke imageries ofColeman, Coltrane and Zorn while Fanning propulses the band in every direction imaginable.Since their success of their second album 500-Pound Cat, the Living daylightsrecorded and released a session with their east coast jazz trio counterparts – TheSlip. This release is called the Slipping Daylights and is a great meeting of thetwo coasts. The album was recorded at the High Sierra Musical Festival and features an allout improvisation between the two trios – two drummers, two bassists, oneguitarist/pianist, one saxophonist. The albums get spacey, it gets funky and above all, itjams out continuosly. As you read this article, the band is working on their third albumand this is when we were able to catch Arne Livingston for an e-mail interview.

Arne Livingston: Jessica and I met in high school. We played in a funk band together.Dale and I met in '87 playing Zairean Soukous for the first time. We became fascinated byall things African, Cuban, Folkloric, etc. We did a lot of sideman stuff, just abouteverything imaginable over ten or eleven years. So the Living Daylights was aself-indulgent project where we all got to do whatever we wanted, with or without aconcept rooted in tradition. More like making up our own tradition on the spot. And thechemistry and friendship factor was large. It was really the first time I ever played thebass for me. I was a good chameleon as a freelance guy.

AL: I was between bands so I had a list of names I was keeping in the event I everneeded a band name or song titles. Living Daylights was my favorite. I had been in SE Asiafor six months so I had no idea about the James Bond Movie at the time, or I never wouldhave named us Living Daylights, but I love James Bond.

AL: We have a larger vocabulary to draw from after 5 years. Our improv sections gofurther and last longer and have more focus all the time. I still think we write cooltunes. We'll always be "LD" as long as we have that.

AL: We have two albums and we're working on a third. We initially released a cassettethat's got some really cool stuff on it, but we've re-recorded some of that material andwe don't play some. There's no question that live and studio are different animals.Spontaneity live is easy. Studio is more about the performance of the tune, and solos haveto speak, and that's hard for me in the studio. I've decided I prefer soloing when a bunchof drunks are yelling at me. It's more exciting. I always think Jess and Dale do afantastic job in the studio. But I think they would tell you that they feel awkward or alittle under inspired and that they struggle with the neutrality of a studio.

AL: I could always play the drum set and the bass from about 12 yrs. old, on. I triedpiano, harmonica, guitar, choir and couldn't do any of it. I took dance classes and playedrhythm instruments and my life turned around. My mom was into dancing so I started youngand I'm sure that's where I got the knack for bass. I was not very devoted to academicpursuits so it seemed natural to follow the thing I was good at.

AL: I studied with Steve Kim in Seattle for a year when I was fifteen. Bush School hadscrapped what was left of their music program so I transferred to NW School of the Arts,Humanities, and Environment. The place was an art and music heaven. You couldn't believethe talent of the students there. I went to Cornish College of Music in Seattle for a yearand a half and to Berklee School of Music in Boston for only one semester. I'd say almosteverything I know and use and feel comes from the day to day experience of playing withpeople. I've played with really good musicians from literally all over the world and it'san education you'll never get in school.

AL: I don't know. It's a great instrument to play. I think of playing fretless noteslike putting "English" on a cue ball. You can make them buzz or growl or whineor bloom. The nuance is incredible. Also, for an electric guy it's the closest he'll everget to an upright tone, if he tries (and hopefully he won't). But all the jazz and Latinguys want the real thing. Fretless doesn't have the same attack, sustain, and decay of anupright. So it's just a cool sounding electric bass.

AL: There are a lot of ways to answer that. One is, which bin are you in at Tower?That's pretty sarcastic but it's pretty damn true. I like to joke that we play"local" music because we should be in the "local" bin. But they put usin jazz. Another thing I like to say is that we don't have a style, we have a sound. We"sound" like the Living Daylights, which is a big style-stew. But that doesn'tsatisfy anyone. So we go for the "funky-jazzy-etc." thing because it's theclearest way to use words to describe our sound.

AL: Early on Jess wrote most of the tunes. I would do anything I could think of to fillit in so that you wouldn't perceive two linear instruments playing one note at a time. Iwanted just the two of us to sound huge. We'd present the stuff to Dale mostly arranged.Nowadays we do that still, but we group write more and entire tunes come in completesometimes. Often we get a passable arrangement and we start giggin' it just to have somenew material. Tunes evolve fast. Usually by the time it's recorded and released it haschanged yet again.

AL: In a nutshell, it was flattering to be invited to play but I thought the2nd stagewas pretty underattended. Given that 50,000 people were just "right over there".But it was a great event and backstage was interesting. I liked seeing the detail thatgoes into such a large production.

AL: They're a phenomenon. The first time I saw them they did their trampoline thing. Itwas so silly and then after 20 minutes of hardcore improv, I realized not one of themskipped a beat bouncing up and down. I can't say I'm a huge fan or anything but thatknocked me out. It's like Victor Wooten, playing the bass is so certain that he has timeto work on throwing the bass and spinning and doing his hat trick. I'm psyched if I canplay well for an entire night. These guys are beyond solid, they're toying with it, andthe audience. I love anything done to that level of obsession.

AL: I had what I thought was a great jam with Matt and Stone one day. I don't know whatthey thought. I felt like I clicked so hard with Matt. I was just waiting for him to askme for my number. I was thinking of all the cool side projects we could do. But he didn'task. I didn't ask him because of the rock star thing, you know.

AL: I like the DJ/Jazz guy thing. I like the Acid Jazz and all these young dudesplaying Headhunters style grooves. Where was this when I was 21? I grew up on this kind ofstuff. So I enjoy sitting in occasionally. Not too often.

AL: There's a lot of new music in Seattle, composed, improvised or otherwise. Jessicagets around this scene a lot and offered up a festival to honor all this music. Toneholeis a nice compliment to the other fests in town.

AL: Dale was in TM for 8 years. They mobbed Seattle clubs playing dead-ish stuff andwent completely unrecognized by the Stranger, though they were atop drawing band. I joinedat the bitter end. TM was the Northwest’s answer to Phish/Widespread etc. Sad to seeit not get the place in the sun it deserves. But our last reunion was one too many for me.We started working on all this new material and that's just not where I'm at with it. Ourfirst reunion (the one on the CD) just rocked. We played the hits and everybody gotsweaty.

AL: We'll have a place on our website addressing these. I play with Marit Peters whojust released her first CD. Jess plays with Kulture Shock and has a solo CD of her own.Dale tours a lot with Magdalen Hsu-Li and gigs around town.

AL: We won't really hit the road substantially until this summer and fall. So staytuned at 've got a friend who updates it regularly now (honest). I know we've been promising amore current site. So we're well on our way now.

Message boards : The Lounge : Stress: The confusion created when one's mind overrides the body's basic desire to choke the living daylights out of some jerk who desperately deserves it

Message board moderation To post messages, you must log in. "Oldest firstNewest firstHighest rated posts first 1 2 Next AuthorMessage Gary Charpentier

Stress: The confusion created when one's mind overrides the body's basic desire to choke the living daylights out of some jerk who desperately deserves it.

A place to scream at the world when you need to but can't do it at the jerk(s) who need it.

Don't know about that, but sometimes it's quite possible to pay a visit to said jerk & have words in their "shell-like" ears

If that's "aimed " in my direction Sirius you know where i live mate , the only house in the cul - de - sac with wheelchair ramps , just like you and " word in their shell like " i've got a saying . 1st hits " free " then you pay :-) , but won't drink in the village only one pub now and it's run by a a-hole . Lot cheeper to drink & smoke at home lot less hassles alround :-) ( ain't paying nearly 5 for a pint !!! , had my leg amputated NOT a frontal lobotomy )

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