Global Roots Primer: An interview with Sway Machinery's Jeremiah Lockwood

Balkan Beat Box guitarist Jeremiah Lockwood graciously sat down with me  for a short, but idea-packed interview prior to BBB's show here earlier this month.  I actually did not recognize the leader of Sway Machinery when I stuck my head in the green room without his trademark stage outfit of suit, tie, and pork pie hat.  A slender guy with a soft voice said "That's me" and we headed up to the office while The Brass Messengers blasted in the hall.

So what about that suit and hat? To understand the stage gear, all one must do is realize that Lockwood spent his teenage years busking subways around New York with blues musician Carolina Slim.  Slim mentored Lockwood, taught him guitar licks and told him  that what he wore needed to "respect the stage." Somewhere online there  are photos of the two of them playing together.   In an early one Lockwood is wearing tennis shoes and a Nike jacket while Slim sports a traditional bluesman's suit and hat.  In all the other shots, the two of them are dressed identically in the suit and hat.  I must admit, when I used to see him dressed that way in BBB, I thought it was rather affected.  In light of his history, it makes perfectly good sense.

The name of the band is actually one Lockwood has used for various projects since his teen years.  The Sway part is about "moving between worlds, with music that "transcends genre, time and place."  The Machinery refers to the ideas of philospher David Hume regarding the  nature of humankind.

If you've heard anything at all about this band it is probably is that it involved Cantoral (Jewish sacred singing tradition) vocals with something of an indie rock supergroup.  (The band contains members of Antibalas, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Arcade Fire as well as Balkan Beat Box.)  That combination would make anyone scratch their head and go "Huh?"

Again, in the context of Lockwood's history it makes perfect sense.  His grandfather was a famous New York cantor named Jacob Konigsberg who made recordings in the 1940s and performed around the city.  I asked him to explain the whole cantor thing for us Midwestern goyim.  He told me to think of a cantor as the Jewish version of a griot, someone who is trained to transmit the oral traditional of a community through story and song.  What a cantor sings can be thought of as prayer poems; many of the texts actually date back to medieval Europe.

The sound of a cantor's voice is also probably unusual to most of our ears; it's an extremely low-pitched,  rich vocal style.  I asked Lockwood how a little guy like him, with a rather soft-pitched tenor voice, gets the big low cantor sound.  He chuckled and said,"I studied." Traditional cantors received vocal training for years, and beginning in the late 19th century, were required to study Western classical vocal traditions as well.

But what does such an ancient vocal style have to say to a 21st century secular audience?  Lockwood says,"There's a power to the language.  Tradition makes you stronger, it's a way to do justice to the things that feed you. You have to take risks to make it personal."

I feel a visceral power, a strength and celebration, to some of the recorded songs, although I have no idea what he's singing about. On more than one occasion, one of the tunes has moved me to tears. (I know, I know, Tinariwen can make me cry, too...hey, I'm in touch with my feelings, OK?)   I also clearly get the feeling that the live show will bring that power tenfold.  Inspired by Fela's legendary performances, Lockwood wants every performance to be an event.  As he put it ,"Ceaselessly rejoicing for an hour and a half." 

Rejoicing may seem an odd verb choice, because although the vocal roots are sacred, the band's sound certainly can rock a concert hall or theatre. Reviewers of the band's shows also use the words "joy" and "joyous" a lot.  While I can see that, I hear that joy coming from a heavier place.  Perhaps it's that contrast that makes this music so intriguing.

Talking with Lockwood about spirituality, my sense was that he sees a larger spiritual/cultural history element to this project, although not necessarily a religious one.  How it is perceived is more in the mind and heart of the listener; in other words, don't expect church music.  Don't expect Fiddler on the Roof.  Do expect a powerful traditional vocal style set to music that rocks.  Check out "Anim Zemiros" on their Myspace to see what I mean. With a bass guitar on this tour instead of their usual baritone sax, he said to expect an even heavier sound for their Cedar show.

In an older interview I read online, Lockwood said "The subcurrent of all folk music...(is) the ability to find identity in mythological places, not political places."  When I asked him what he meant by that, he said people have stopped asking the (mythological) questions and that politics is everything now.

Yet earlier this year, Sway Machinery took their particular Jewish mythology on what could be construed as a very political  journey as they accepted an invitition to play at the Festival au Desert in northern Mali.  I've linked in a past post to the piece Lockwood wrote about their time in Mali, both as Americans in western Africa, as Jews in a Muslim country and as musicians among other musicians.  It's a moving and humorous look at a journey that he feels was life-changing, although he's still in debt from the airfare to Timbuktu.   "The invitation was a sign; it was a step I had to take."

"The idea of playing with traditions and fusing disparate musical worlds is a staple of Malian music. When I introduced one song in our set as being by my grandfather, Cantor Jacob Konigsberg, many in the audience clapped and cheered. They did not need to have any notion of what a cantor is to feel the value of a young man carrying on family tradition. Seeing turbaned men pumping their fists in the air along with my grandfather’s “Aveinu Malkeinu Z’khor” is certainly one of the most memorable and inspiring images from our journey."[from the interview linked above.]

The band's journey to the desert and the musicians they played with there will be reflected in the band's evolving sound.  Here's a snippet from a PRI's The World show in June about their new album, which Lockwood told me would have a much more African sound.  A film about their travels is a work in progess, at least in part as they seeking funding to work on it.

What about the whole idea of cultural appropriation in global roots music?  Sure, Lockwood is a Jewish guy playing the music of his roots, but what about fusing that with a West African sound, or non-Jews digging his take on the tradition? "I'm not a purist," he told me. "To learn about another culture and respect its mystery, you get deeper into the meanings as you understand the history.  As long as it's about love it's all good."

Sway Machinery's GLobal Roots fest show at the Cedar is Thursday, September 23.  Some of their pals from Mali, singer Khaira Arby with her 10 piece band, will open and the two bands will play some tunes together.