Ellen
Johnson Tells A Tale of Fiona Flanagan
Ellen
Johnson Tells A Tale of Fiona Flanagan
In
some ways the album cover for Ellen Johnson’s
Form & Formless reminds one of a
Vincent Van Gogh painting, as the image is comprised of a mix of solid lines and
portions of the image, which are less defined. The image prepares the listener
for the music they are about to hear.
Ellen Johnson explains, “That's interesting about Van
Gough, but I thought of it much like a painting as well. If you get up close to
the computer images they are really fascinating. It is hard to tell on the
little CD cover. I was thinking of it more as going from something concrete to
an atomic structure. The idea is that we see form from our limited point of view
but there is a world of atoms all around us, just like in music when we hear a
song, but there are vibrations happening that we can't perceive other than
through the song form. It is a way to experience what's beyond all of this and
the idea of perception.
The photographer Adrian Mendoza took the photo and then
he did a computer imaging process that created the effect, then Jeff (her
husband) further processed (the image) in photoshop to create the illusion of it
going from form to formless.”
As for the music that appears on the album, she says,
“We had no preconceived idea of what we were going to be doing. We had no
charts, no sheet music or anything.
We never discussed hey let’s do this here or let’s create this there. We never
discussed anything, so here we were. I was in my little studio booth and John
(Stowell) was in his little studio booth and somebody started and out of that a
song occurred. What makes the idea
of improvisation work is listening to each other intently and being sensitive to
each other. It is being able to work when somebody can be a leader and somebody
can be a follower. It changes at different times.
For five of those songs we had no idea of what was going to come out or
where the middle or the ending would be.
We just created them on the spot. There were not any charts, there was no
discussion, we just started singing or (playing) something instrumental and then
we created out of nothing. It was like having a blank art canvas with no
preconceived idea of what was going to be painted.
John Stowell did four of those pieces with me and Larry
Koonse did one. I then did five songs that were already constructed pieces,
“Naima,” “Sonny’s Isle of St. Thomas (also known simply as St. Thomas),” “’Round
Midnight,” “Weird Nightmare,” and “Nature Boy.” Larry Koonse played on all of
those except one, “Nature Boy,” and John Stowell played on that one.
I compared it to the Yin Yang symbol as in one white
spot in the black and one black spot in the white. For the form songs we were
"recreating" them in some capacity by putting our own interpretation to each
song and improvising through the changes with our own interpretation in the
moment. Out of form we can create a formlessness interpretation and out of the
formless we create a new form. It's based on the Taoist philosophy of life.
John and I have known each other since about 1980 when I
lived in Portland, Oregon. We have a very long history together. John is an
incredible musician and free improvisation is no problem for him. Connecting
with someone who had that particular understanding of doing things that way
worked very well for both of us.”
One of the prettiest songs on the album, an original
tune, “Fiona Flanagan’s Fable,” has an
accompanying video that was created by Jeff Foster, Ellen
Johnson’s husband who used a drone for his aerial videography. The mood is
peaceful and Ms. Johnson’s vocals absent lyrics are both enchanting and
mystical, while John Stowell’s guitar is subtle, elegant and articulate.
Ellen Johnson takes a moment to talk about “Fiona
Flanagan’s Fable.” “It is one of those free improvisations. The family name for
my grandmother on my father’s side was Flanagan and they were Celts. When I was
sitting in the studio waiting for this moment to happen for whatever was going
to come out of me, I started to hear Irish flute and I started to follow that
direction with my voice. When I got done with this piece, it just felt like I
had gone to some place in my past. I have never been to Ireland, so I was just
imagining this whole scene of being in Ireland for some reason. The title pays
homage to my family Flanagan.
There is also another humorous angle to this. I do an
Irish accent sometimes. Sheila Jordan (Jazz singer) loves it when I do this
character. I named her Fiona Flanagan, Flanagan, because of my family name and
my Irish accent. I just put Fiona in there, because I felt it was a part of me
and a part of my heritage. (Then breaking
into an Irish accent she says) ‘You want to hear a bit of Fiona, so she
comes in and she tells Sheila, Sheila don’t you be worryin’ about anything,
everything is going to be workin’ out for ya’ just fine.’
Sheila just cracks up everytime that I do this. It is a little fun thing.
When the song was finished it felt like a story.
These things that we were doing on the spot were
instantaneous moments of what I perceive as drawing deep within yourself and
bringing up some part of yourself and telling a story. We are story tellers.
Instrumentalists do it without words and then singers do it most of the time
with lyrics. We are sharing some kind of expression or story with whoever the
listener is and we are bringing him / her into our world and they are also
creating their own world out of it as well. Whatever their perception is and
however it fits them is why I think some people resonate with certain songs,
because there is a part of them in that song. There is something that they feel
or there is a story that is being told that they can relate to and that they can
imagine. They are little stories really.”
Ellen Johnson’s creativity emerges in yet another light
on Form & Formless as she uses her
own voice to create the special effects and they are not manipulated
electronically, with the exception of a wee bit of reverb on the songs “Corky’s
Caper” and “Weird Nightmare.”
She explains, “It is hard to describe it. It just comes
out of me. It is almost like you are channeling voices or something and I am
using properties of my articulator to create these sounds.
I got these sounds that (are similar to) electronic effects and they
sounded like I was under water. I want to make sure that people know that was
not tweaked in any way. That is how it
came out with the voice.
At the beginning of “Weird Nightmare,” when I did those
sounds they put a bit of reverb on that, just to make it sound a little bit
spooky.
That is what I mean by nothing was used in terms of effects to create some of the sounds that you hear, especially on the free improvisation.
The seagull on “St. Thomas,” was my sound. I did that.
I do it in real time. I didn’t come back
and put it in. I do it when I perform. My
husband gets a kick out of that when I do it live. For me it is using the voice
in (all of its) creative potential and forms of expression. I know I would have
been able to play the part of Jonathan
Livingston Seagull and that would have been wonderful,” she says in response
to our poking fun at a missed opportunity for the 1973 movie, but there is
always hope for a remake of the film.
As for some of the other songs that comprise
Form & Formless, Ms. Johnson says,
“John Coltrane’s “Naima,” “’Round Midnight,” (Thelonious
Monk / Cootie Williams / Babs Gonzales) and also “St. Thomas,” (Sonny
Rollins with lyrics by Ellen Johnson) were songs that I learned many years
ago in Chicago when I was first learning Jazz music. I was in an instrumental
Jazz workshop that met once a week with an incredible pianist named Willie
Pickens. When I first learned to sing Jazz I learned these kinds of songs and I
didn’t learn standards. I knew standards from musical theater, but as far as my
first Jazz experience as a singer, I sat in the horn section and all I did was
sing their lines and I never even sang lyrics. I learned “Naima,” I learned
“’Round Midnight,” I learned “St Thomas,” I learned Charlie Parker tunes and I
learned Miles Davis tunes. These tunes are very special to me, because they were
my foundation.
The first time that I heard the lyrics for “’Round
Midnight,” was Betty Carter and she of course did Babs Gonzales’ lyrics and not
the lyrics that most people do. I always knew those lyrics and I think that they
fit the song better.”
Nolan Shaheed’s trumpet introduces “Round Midnight,” and
Ellen Johnson’s vocals entice the listener with lyrics that counsel about the
bliss of romance. Having Nolan Shaheed
play his trumpet on the song was not planned and Ms. Johnson refers to it as
“another improv.” Mr. Shaheed was in the studio noodling on his trumpet, while
“’Round Midnight,” was being played and Ellen Johnson made the decision to have
him play on the song.
Ms. Johnson continues, “Naima,” didn’t have any lyrics
and “St Thomas,” didn’t have any lyrics. Back in 1976 or ‘77 I ended up writing
some lyrics for “St Thomas,” because I just wanted to sing it with lyrics. I
wanted to capture how it felt to me. Fast forward to sometime around 2008 or ’09
or ’10 or whenever it was and I contacted Sonny Rollins to approve them. He
loved them and he published them through his publishing company. That was a big
thing for me, because it was Sonny Rollins’ tune. I felt that was great. That
was special.
I had lyrics for “Naima,” and for this recording project
I contacted the Coltrane family and at first they said they loved them and they
approved and everything was fine. The week before I went into the recording
studio they changed their minds. So, here I was and I was thinking what am I
going to do? I had learned “Naima,” as an instrumental, so I said I am just
going to sing it as an instrumental piece. That was an improvisation too and
then I went oh I think I will layer it. The lyrics that I had written were the
connection between “Naima,” and the ocean, so what I heard in my mind were these
ocean waves coming and going. That is how I
imagined the piece. That is why the layering for me is these different ocean
waves coming in and out. As most things happen in life, sometimes one door
closes and another door opens and you find something else that works and maybe
works better than the original plan. I still like my lyrics for “Naima,” but
this worked nicely for this project.
As far as “Weird Nightmare,” I just go back to my love
for Charles Mingus. I have been doing his vocal music from recording number one.
I just love his music and it has always been a part of something that speaks to
me.
“Nature Boy,” (Eden Ahbez) wasn’t really planned, but
the reason I really like that song is the message that the greatest thing that
you can ever do is to love and to be loved in return, which I think is a
beautiful statement about life.
All of those Jazz classics were deeply embedded in my
roots of where I come from and they were songs that really speak to me in a very
deep way. That’s why they were chosen.”
Returning to the theme of the album and the discussion
of starting with a blank canvas Ellen Johnson says, “The title of the album
Form & Formless relates to the
balance of life and creativity and creating out of nothing. When you think about
creating music you really start with a blank canvas all of the time. Because we
write the music down doesn’t make it any less starting with a blank canvas. I
like being in that blank canvas place. I know not everybody does and especially
singers. Definitely that’s not for everybody. For me I love that and ooohh let's
see what happens in the moment and what comes out. Sometimes you fall on your
face and sometimes it’s a beautiful journey.”
Form & Formless
is indeed a beautiful journey. Please
visit the website for Ellen Johnson.