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Court Jester's Crew
In the idyllic medieval city of Tubing, we tracked a tough Ska-band, formed by young but rough Rudies.
By the way, Tobi plays drums, Simon trumpet, Jo saxophone, Wagner trombone, Alex guitar and
S.P.R.U.D. sings.
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In “Elevator Offbeat" you sing “I wanna hit you (musically)"…and your CD really hit us at SkabadiP. Before we received your CD from Grover Records, I must admit I never heard from you, but I see you’ve already published a CD. When, why and where did CJC take place?
Tobi: We started in 1993. All began when Johannes and I were sitting in the night bus. It was late and we were drunk. We had to go home and we met a guy we had never seen before; we started to talk about music. Actually we told him we wanted to form a Ska band and he said he got two friends (a bass and a guitar player) and they also wanted to found such a band. He gave us their telephone number and the next morning we gave them a call. Two weeks later we had our first session, here in Tübingen. That’s some kind of strange thing, since just two days before I broke my wrist and so I had to play the drums with just one arm.
I have two brothers (Simon and Wagner) who play trombone and trumpet and they joined us. Our singer King S.P.R.U.D. was a good friend of ours. He didn’t know how to play any instrument and he wanted to join a Ska band as well. Although he didn’t think so, we knew he could sing for us.
Court Jester’s Crew…how came out such a name?
Wagner: Actually, even six months after our first meeting we didn’t have any kind of idea yet, but one night on a weird party someone suggested this name, and we liked it so much that we spent the night writing this name on the walls. The next day we realized that we must had called us like that.
What do you guys do for living, apart from playing in the band? Do you play in other bands?
Tobi: We are quite a mixed crew. Some of us are students, one runs a club, no professional musicians. But next October everybody is going to reserve half a year for the band, so we will be kind of “professional" in this period. I personally have another band, a Funky-Soul weird thing with a complete fucked up live show. Some time ago we all played in different bands, but now I could say we are just deep into CJC.
S.P.R.U.D.: But there’s also the Shake-A-Leg Sound System. I run this together with Roger.
Changes in the line-up, actual one
Jo: Four years ago we had to replace the guitar player and the bass player. At the moment we are 9 guys, and two are singers. Formerly Roger, the second singer, only ran his own sound-system (Shake-a-Leg) and toasted a lot…he joined us on our first record and on the second one you hear him on...well…"Shake a Leg". As he is a good percussionist as well he became a regular member of CJC.
Tell us something ‘bout your first release
Tobi: It was a self-production, it was released on We Bite Records (www.webite.de)…since we had to name it, we simply called it ‘Umbe’ (from ‘umbenennen’: to rename, in German it sounds like ‘to call something umbe’, which makes no sense). It’s a little bit faster than “Too High For Low" and more influenced from other styles like punk, two tone and rhythm and blues…we were much younger and you can feel it.
Where have you played up to now?
Wagner: Apart from Germany, we did some gigs in France and Switzerland. In fall we hope to play in Italy as well as in Spain. Till now we did about 120-130 gigs.
Now a custom-question for your singer. I thought one German singer speaking Jamaican Patois was enough (Dr. Ring Ding), but you seem to have such knowledges too…have you learned it or is it just a natural talent of you?
S.P.R.U.D.: I didn’t really learn it, I just listen to a lot of records and I took the colour of the language. Neither me nor the others ever went to Jamaica, we just heard really a lot of records.
That’s just what many Italian Ska-Bands don’t do…and you understand it listening to them.
Your musical varity is really surprising…Ska, Reggae, Rocksteady, Ska-Jazz, even some Latin rhythms (Big Boss remembers me of “Los Hooligans") and a little bit of Hip-Hop. Even if I’m not a musical expert, your compositions are elaborated and refined, but you guys are all quite young? Where comes such a musical varity from?
Simon: We play together for seven years now. We srtarted at an average age of ‘bout sixteen. We listen to a lot of music, not necessarily only Ska/Reggae and we all played in in big jazz Orchestras, Funky bands, marching Bands or Punk combos for a while before we formed CJC.
Ok those are the basics, but what gives CJC its special tasteful sound?
Alex: When we create a new song we spend a lot of time on it. We really want to work with it intensively. We experiment a lot and we always try to find the right way to play a song. We need to have a thight groove and a good flow…and we always want to create interesting sounds, because every song must have a special spirit. I think a lot of Ska bands think they do Ska music because they play offbeat, but they don’t put soul into it. Ska really can stand lots of influences and it deserves to be played with spirit. There are so many bands who copy some sound and don’t dare to be creative in playing Ska.
Have you even thought of doing Dub?
Tobi: We have a side project which is called “The Good Old Boys"…
Uhm…it sound like “The Good Fellows"…it’s quite menacing…
Tobi: Yeah…and we just play phat Reggae- and Ragga-Riddimz…we feature many MCs, toasters, singers and, of course, we play Dub there. It is one big session on stage. It depends on the man at the mixing console, and of course on the amount of joints we smoked, if it tends to dub or not.
Favourite Dub Players, apart from King Tubby and Lee Perry?
Tobi: Uhm…Audio Active from Japan, they are quite interesting. Also things like Rockers HiFi and ... hmmm but that’s all electronic stuff. Mad Professor’s cool, Dub Syndicate.
I didn’t hear any Ska-core on your CD, even considered that’s so popular nowadays, what’s your opinion about that?
Jo: We listen to Operation Ivy, Rancid,... Voodoo Glow Skulls and Mighty Mighty BossTones we don’t like that much. It seems quite a sort of fashion, and we are never going to play Ska-core because there are too many Jazz-players in our band who would start a riot :-)))
What do you like/listen to, apart from Ska/Reggae/Rocksteady?
All: Jazz, Beach Boys, AC/DC, Soul, i gruppi della Motown, Joe Henderson, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyler, Franck Black, Mano Negra, John Lee Hooker, Jon Spencer, Bob Dylan, Anti Nowhere League, Motorhead, Chili Peppers, Neil Young, Ween, Lou Reed, Tower of Power, Hip Hop, Drum and Bass…
Of course not every one of us likes all that sounds. But fuck the categories, if it sounds cool we respect it.
And what are your musical inspirations concerning the old and present Ska/Reggae/Rocksteady music apart from the Skatalites?
All: It’s hard to tell…We like Ken Boothe, Toots and the Maytals, Prince Buster, Slackers, Hepcat, Dr. Ring Ding, NYSJE, Caribbean Beat Combo, Butlers, Buju Banton, the Specials, Ethiopians, the Wailers…
What are you relations whit the other German Ska bands?
Alex: Quite Good. As soon as you play with the bands and get to know them the vibes are good. All of them know how to drink :-)
Wagner: …As Dr. Ring Ding says, we are on a mission, not on a competition!
Is it true that in Germany’s school system the musical teaching/education is much more widespread/important than in some other countrys’ (Italy)?
Simon: Uhm…I think so…it’s easier to get in touch with a classical education. Maybe you don’t get a good education in playing the instruments...but at least you get an important background. By the way: Four of us played together for the first time in our school’s jazz band.
From “Too High For Low" I personally love the melancholy “Take I By The Hand", whith that mix of pulsing Reggae and exploding Ska…how did you create this piece of great music and, in general, how do your songs come to light?
Tobi: I wrote this one night, when I had a kind of depression. I had problems with my girlfriend and I wrote a song which I wanted to dedicated to her. The next day the bad feelings were gone and it was completed in three more hours.
Alex: That’s a kind of exception, since most of our work take a lot of time. Someone writes the lyrics, some other the music and everybody contributes something...we are quite a democratic band.
Or a pure capitalist one…if we look at Adam Smith’s subdivision of work :-)
Wagner: Often it’s like that: One brings a song, then all of us check it at the session and maybe we change the rhythm, add some parts…
What are you gonna do in the future, website…projects for your next CD?
Alex: Uhm…The Website is a work-in-progress, actually it’s been in progress for some years. In Summer we will record as a backing band with Laurel Aitken...yeah we will! In autumn we probably also record another CJC CD.
A message to SkabadiP?
Thanks a lot and keep on rocking in a free world! Feel the spirit!
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Web Site: www.cjchome.com
6 May 2000
by Alessandro Melazzini
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