by Erik Simpson
In an industry that thrives on labeling musicians and putting them in increasingly specialized and often hyphenated compartments, Living Colour were frequently an anomaly. They seemed to be the penultimate outsiders, never fitting into any easy stereotype, and confounding all expectations by following their own instincts rather than any "conventional wisdom", courtesy of a recording industry that had, in it's infinite wisdom, decreed that a group of African-American men playing "rock" music was unheard of, unthinkable, or worse, unmarketable. They were never afraid to follow an idea to it's logical conclusion, and the distance they traveled in the short space of 3 cd's, an ep and a greatest hits collection was truly impressive; more than most bands do in a lifetime.
A quick listen to their 1991 ep "Biscuits" gives a good view of their varied influences. The ep contained covers of James Brown's "Talkin' Loud And Sayin' Nothing", Al Green's "Love and Happiness", Jimi Hendrix "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" and a live version of Talking Heads "Memories Can't Wait". The Japanese version of this ep was even more telling, with a studio version of the Clashs "Should I Stay or Should I Go?", and live versions of Pere Ubus "Final Solution", Led Zeppelins "The Ocean" and Bad Brains "Sailin On". These selections present a very clear picture of a band that was unwilling to acknowledge any barriers, let alone be stopped by them. There weren't then and there aren't now many bands with the range to shift from avant pop to hardcore punk thrash to funk and R&B to classic rock and metal, and pull them all off without sounding forced somewhere along the line.
It was probably that last element that initially opened many doors for them. One of the first impressions many probably had was of their monolithic riffing, as heavy as any metal band. It was soon apparent that there was much more going on than any hard rock formula. It soon was equally obvious that anyone who was drawn in by their initial success with a series of fairly mainstream sounding songs was going to have to open their mind a bit if they were planning on sticking around. Though Living Colour would always be characterized to some degree by a very heavy, aggressive sound and thoughtful, often socially pointed, lyrics, they would always strive to challenge themselves and, at the same time, their audience.
Maybe it would be a mistake to write off Living Colour as strictly being Vernon Reid's band, but he seems to have definitely been the driving force. Many of their songs, particularly early on, had his name in the songwriting credits (although, particularly as they progressed, drummer Will Calhoun made many memorable contributions, and their later numbers seemed to be mostly group compositions, implying a more communal method of working had been arrived at), and it was he who finally pulled the plug on the band. And through it all the glue that held it all together was Vernon Reid's brilliant playing.
I personally became aware of Vernon Reid during his tenure with Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society. Jackson was an alumni of Ornette Coleman's Group (check out "Dancing in Your Head"), and his Decoding Society was a truly unique ensemble, polyrhythmic and polytonal, working from a variety of styles and influences. Much of the playing was of an ensemble nature, but Vernon still managed to catch my attention with guitar playing that was much more electric and aggressive than was the norm for "jazz" guitar, then as well as now. "Mandance" and it's follow-up "Barbeque Dog" on Antilles were good examples of their ensemble approach, but it was two albums on Moers Music that really caught my attention. "Street Priest" and "Nasty" were much freer in execution and VR's playing on them was a revelation.
Guitar playing with that kind of fire and passion (not to mention tone quality) in a "jazz" framework was almost unheard of. John McLaughlin's work in the late '60's and early '70's with Miles Davis, Tony Williams and Mahvishnu was perhaps my only connection at that point, although Vernon's playing in the Decoding Society was more abstract, showing a post-Ornette Coleman influence that the first crop of fusion players had all but ignored.
Fusion had already seemingly burned itself out and was on it's way to becoming a dirty word as the jazz world (or at least it's public face) took an increasingly conservative turn, which, then apparently buoyed by increased sales, institutionalized the retro chic that had taken hold. There is no doubt in my mind that fusion was an important movement. There is also no doubt in my mind that it went off course, after its initial flush of success. Instead of bringing the best aspects of both the rock and jazz worlds together (which I would suggest were jazz' sense of rhythmic and harmonic exploration and/or freedom and rock's sense of rhythmic and harmonic immediacy, drive and, for lack of a better word, spirit), it increasingly brought the worst together instead, growing as bloated and overdone as the worst rock music of the period.
Vernon brought this experience with him when he formed Living Colour. His guitar breaks often featured jagged, dissonant bursts of pure passion; poetry from the soul and crazed whammy bar excursions that hinted at what he had learned in the Decoding Society, while still fitting neatly into 3 and 4 minute rock songs.
My only problem was that I longed to hear Vernon take things a bit further than Living Colour's format would allow for. Thus, I was happy to find Reid and Calhoun working with John Scofield and Jack DeJohnette on the latter's "Music for the Fifth World", playing in a more jazz/world music vein, and while the recording wasn't completely successful, it's high points were noteworthy.
About this time, reports surfaced of Reid and Calhoun doing some fusionesque gigs with Vernon's old Decoding Society cohort Melvin Gibbs on bass, and both Reid and Gibbs surfaced on The Decoding Society's "reunion" recording "Taboo". Vernon also showed up making guest appearances on several different recordings around this time, such as Garland Jeffries, MC900 ft Jesus and Carlos Santana. All this suggested that perhaps Vernon was getting restless within the confines of Living Colour. Or perhaps this was just stuff to fill in the gaps while Living Colour regrouped, having replaced original bassist Muzz Skillings with Tackhead bassist-extraordinaire Doug Wimbish.
This final edition of Living Colour was the one that pushed things the furthest. While "Stain" seemed initially to be harder, darker and more relentless than their previous work, it also turned out to be more experimental. There was a new level of sophistication and subtlety, and, more than in the past, they utilized the recording studio's potential, where their earlier recordings had primarily documented a more live approach. The 4 new tracks that appeared on this years best-of collection, "Pride", took this direction even further. ("Pride" was apparently one of those misguided record company releases that are put together to make that last bit of money off of the fans of the now-defunct band. As a greatest hits package it was a woefully deficient compilation of a band that deserved better. I don't get the feeling that the band had much input as to the song selections, and many of their best songs are missing. The selection is heavily skewed towards their debut, "Vivid", which, while probably their biggest seller was not their most challenging, or their ultimate artistic statement, which was probably "Times Up". Given the large number of b-sides, live tracks, remixes and other stray tracks that they produced in their time, a rarities package of some sort would have been a much better way of saying thanks to the fans, and if a real greatest hits package was indeed required, it is hard to imagine not being able to compile a better one than this. Ultimately, it's only real reason for existence is the four new songs, which are basically used as a carrot to entice Living Colour fans, who otherwise had all the albums, to dig deep and cough up. I, for one, am glad to have these new, final tracks, but it seems to me they could have been presented in a manner so that long time fans wouldn't have felt that the record company was taking advantage of them yet again. Too bad. End of tirade.) The 4 new tracks are all that is apparently left of their final, abortive recording sessions. Working with Doug Wimbish's old Tackhead cohorts, producers/engineers/sonic terrorists Adrian Sherwood and Skip "Little Axe" McDonald took Living Colour to new levels with dense, layered, sophisticated mixes. Tablas and turntables were seamlessly blended with the more traditional elements to create tracks that rewarded repeated listenings with intricate detail. It was at this point that Vernon, feeling he had gone as far as he could personally with Living Colour, apparently decided to pull the plug.
All of this is by way of bringing us to Vernon Reid's first album strictly under his own name. "Mistaken Identity" is the sound of constrtaints being thrown off. With a brilliant new ensemble named Masque, he has created a sonic joyride seemingly designed to foil any attempts at categorization, once and for all. Everything previous can now be seen as leading here. Living Colour-ish guitar lines collide with jazzy horn riffs atop hip hop beats and imaginative sampling and scratching. Vernon has said it is "the place where rock, jazz, hip-hop and technology meet".
To achieve this he has surrounded himself with a group of musicians and producers who are flexible enough to help him realize his ideas. Masque consists of Hank Schroy on bass, Curtis Watts on drums, Leon Gruenbaum on "samchillian tip tip tip cheepee" (apparently a keyboard device of some sort, Vernon is quoted as saying it's "an instrument even stranger than its name"), theremin and melodica, DJ Logic on turntables and the great Don Byron on clarinet and bass clarinet. Beyond these band members you will also find such musicians as Fred Hopkins on acoustic bass, Graham Haynes on cornet, Paul Leake on tablas, Seamus Eagen on illin pipes and Jaron Lanier on a variety of exotically named instruments, adding to various tracks.
Complementing the range of musicians, behind the boards are legendary Miles Davis producer Teo Macero and hip-hop producer Prince Paul, known for his work with De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest among others. The range of experience the principals brought to the project virtually guaranteed that Vernons ideas would find a sympathetic reception.
Unlike Living Colour, "Mistaken Identity" is not first and foremost a vocal and lyric oriented project. A few of the songs have guest raps and many of the tracks use samples where you would have found the vocals if these were rock or pop songs, but there is no singing and little standard pop song structure, per se. The raps, or oratory as the liner notes prefer, by Beans, Lady Apache, and Chubb Rock are for the most part brief, to the point and effective. Many of the tunes utilize samples looped through a tune where the vocals would be, like the John Lee Hooker sample in "CP Time", the Lightnin' Hopkins one in "Lightnin'" or the Specials in "Saint Cobain", just to list the ones prominent enough to require being credited. This approach has the effect of filling some of the holes that one might feel due to the absence of a traditional vocal presence, for those who rarely venture near purely instrumental music.
At the core of all this is some excellent playing. Don Byron is in fine form throughout. He contributes many of the most overt jazz moves on the record and his contributions are always great, particularly on "The Projects", "My Last Nerve" and "Whats My Name". It would be hard to overestimate his contribution to the overall success of the project. DJ Logic also has a very crucial role. His use of turntables in a band framework is innovative, at times adding color, at times functioning as a percussion instrument.
The rhythm section is solid throughout, although their role is primarily of a supportive nature. They are the foundation that everything else is built upon and there isn't really much room for them to do much else. The primary complaint I had of the entire project was that, due to the prominent hip-hop influence throughout, even the numbers that tried on other beats ("Saint Cobain"'s rock power chords or "Freshwater Coconut"'s reggae influence, for example) invariably fell into the same loping midtempo range and while there is a fair amount of variation beat-wise, the degree of variation tempo-wise is negligible. The sole number to break the mold is the furious "Whats My Name", which would have been one of the standout numbers anyway with scorching solos from Reid, Byron and Gruenbaum and a jagged, dissonant theme over a breakneck pace, but as it is the only uptempo number here it is doubly noteworthy.
As for Vernon Reid himself, he leads the way most of the time with his guitar playing and almost every song has a burning guitar solo at its heart. Known for his furious explosions of notes, he throws a bit of a curve on "Mistaken Identity" by playing long, drawn out tones and a jazzy acoustic solo on "Mysterious Power". "Uptown Drifter" has some clean, beautiful playing over a hip-hop beat accented with tablas. Elsewhere however, his playing is as furious, distorted and passionate as we have come to expect. In fact his playing has stayed remarkably constant throughout his career, pointing to a really well developed sense of who he is musically. The setting may change but his playing is always recognizable.
The compositions themselves range from the hardcore hip-hop attack of "CP Time", and "Signed Fictitious" to the power rock of "Saint Cobain" to the fusionesque "What's My Name", to the jazzy "Mysterious Power" to the eerie, driving, unclassifiable "The Projects". No tune is ever working from just one basic vantage point at a time, though. There are always several ideas in play at any one time and much of the personality of this recording comes from the collision of ideas and genres. It is surprising that something with an agenda and viewpoint as eclectic as this can end up having as consistent a personality as "Mistaken Identity" does, and that is a testament to the people involved, and the quality of work they did. While all is not now sweetness and light, it isn't consistently as dark in tone as was Living Colours later work. And that is the sheer enjoyment of creating this music peeking through.
On the non-musical side, there are a couple of new aspects at work here. One new wrinkle is the presence of humorous interludes, in the form of short comedic bits interspersed with the music, primarily "Mutation"'s 1,2 and 3, and the short, "Uninvited Guest" skit at the end of the disc. I'm not sure that they add anything, but they are mercifully brief, and funny at least the first time or 2.
The other is the presence of a multimedia track. Enhanced CDs seem to be the coming wave, and perhaps they will soon be as obligatory as music videos. I would tend to hope that this will not be the case, as I am not sure every musician out there has something to say that can only be expressed through multimedia. This is not to say that no one should be doing enhanced CDs. Some artists are making very good use of the medium. This particular instance was apparently concieved and realized by Vernon, and it deals with his trials and travails in the music industry. His love for the art of music and his lack of affection for the business of music are the basic subject, and he gets his point across fairly directly. All in all, it doesn't detract and, though I doubt I will access the multimedia track often, it does not affect my overall opinion of this recording, which is the real point, anyway. In fairness, it is not used as a selling point, as my copy didn't even list the multimedia track on the outside, but on a insert that was stuck inside.
So, even though I am sorry to see Living Colour gone for good, I am glad to see Vernon moving on and conquering new territories. He obviously had something in mind when he pulled the plug and now we can hear just what it was. He remains a beacon of integrity, which, granted, is no guarantee that he will create good music, but he is also a monster of a guitar player who has constantly pushed himself to do great work, whatever the circumstances. This new recording is just the first step on the next part of the journey, and I am anxious to see where he goes from here. I don't see him as the type to settle in a rut and keep making the same record over and over again with minor variations. "Mistaken Identity" is a step in several right directions. It has depth. It has intelligence. And it has great guitar playing. What more could you ask for?