The Musical Lives of Neill Duncan. By Dominic Blaazer
NZ Musician, Vol. 8, No. 3 June/July 1999
Good evening, and welcome to another edition of 'In The Spotlight'. To call tonight's guest 'a busy chap' would be veering towards understatement. He's usually involved in a hundred different musical projects at any given time, is an active collector of nauticalia and Kiwiana and doesn't get to see his girlfriend or his little grey kitten, Pod, nearly enough. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mr Neill Duncan." (Cue applause.)
Putting other projects aside, Neill found the time in May to release 'Quiver', his first solo album, out on Braille Records. Neill's name will be familiar to many musicians nationwide, but if you moved within the Wellington music scene of the early '90s you'll probably know him through his prodigious saxophone talents in Six Volts, but further back in the '80s, he was in the Spines (with Mutton Bird Ross Burge) and was a founder-member of improvisational free-noisers, the Primitive Art Group.
"That was an anarchic jazz outfit. Basically, five young men screaming on their instruments for two hours without a break. It was extreme - so much so that there were a couple of gigs where people had epileptic fits, believe it or not!"
Neill is a compulsive accompanist but for his own project he called in many favours owed to him. All the king's sidemen are there on 'Quiver', including former Mutton Bird David Long, Nigel Gavin (two songs in two takes!), and Janet Roddick and Dave Donaldson, both from Six Volts. Donaldson also played most of the bass on the album and shares the production credits with Steve Roach and Ben Harris. The project was financed by Neill, with an $8,000 grant from Creative New Zealand.
"It took 18 months to record in a lot of studios' downtime, but that's not to belittle it because it's been my main focus. A lot of people in this country have to pull favours to make an album, and then repay those favours, and that's what I'm doing."
While Neill is totally immersed in improvised jazz, he also lives and breathes four-on-the-floor rock'n'roll with equal ease.
"I confuse people sometimes because I love all sorts of music, but I decided to come into this world and make a living out of things I love doing - and one of those is playing jazz on my saxophone, so I play in a little group called The Stompers. They're three old boys who've played a lot of New Orleans music and have spent a lot of time over there playing it. The improvisations I do with them remind me of what I used to do with the Primitive Art Group. It was absolute bliss playing in a band of five people, not sure what sound you're making as it's all so glued together. That's collective improvisation, which is exactly what the New Orleans sound is. It's like flying."
Neill's other regular gig is with The Jews Brothers who play a blend of traditional Eastern European klezmer music with some modern liberties taken. The baby of Grey Lynn bohemians Linn Lorkin and Hershal ("no other names, just Hoishal"), the virtuoso line-up also includes tea chest bassist Harman Hielkema and guitarist/mandolinist Nigel Gavin. So atmospheric is the result that I have witnessed the band turn a Taupo sports hall into a Parisian pavement cafe - not an easy task.
Avant-garde saxophonists Sun Ra and John Zorn both inspire Neill. Zorn not only pushes the envelope in jazz, but has also recorded a series of albums on Jewish music.
"There's a big tie-in with what I do in The Jews Brothers. You wouldn't normally get a saxophone player who plays like me in a band like that. But it's working and the band loves it, as does the majority of the community who come to see us. There are purists, who I always have problems with: jazz purists, klezmer purists, any purists are confused by what I do. The jazz nazis have always been on my back but I can't see the point of doing something if you're not enjoying it, or if you're not trying to find a new sound that hasn't been done yet."
Although Neill moved to Auckland five years ago, he still sees himself as a relative newcomer.
"It takes a while to break in up here but I'm becoming known now as the person that does 'odd' things, like if somebody wants a saxophone player who's slightly left-of-field and has been brought up on Ornette Coleman rather than Kenny G, they'll ring Neill Duncan. I have a little recording studio where I record soundtracks for little films and TV docos, which is another part of how I earn my living. I'm not purposely going out to make strange music, it's just that's where I've ended up. It just seems like music to me."
Neill's television work ranges from musically directing documentaries ('Ten Guitars' and 'Through The Eyes Of Love — The New Zealand Love Song') to scoring music for a programme about peoples' fascination with blood.
"I really love putting music to imagery. When you do TV jobs, it's incredible how a piece of music will change an image, especially if you juxtapose, for instance, a sweet little piece of music with something really violent on the screen. It gives it such a different meaning and if you get an open-minded director, you can put a whole lot of things there that they're not expecting. It's a great, exciting jigsaw puzzle and I love doing it."
Neill is also one of this country's most in-demand theatre musicians. He has toured nationally with the stage version of Peter Jackson's 'Braindead', played a Wellington season of 'Cabaret', done a season of 'Tele Bimbo' with comedienne (and partner) Cal Wilson and also accompanied many of actor/director Michael Hurst's productions.
While mainly a saxophonist, Neill also played the clarinet, guitar and keyboards on 'Quiver', but he actually began his musical career on drums, stepping into the breach after a friend broke a snare skin. The drummer ran home for a replacement, leaving the then 18-year-old Neill to jump on the kit.
For Neill, and countless others before him, making a solo album should at the most basic level represent who you are as a person, an artist and a performer. But with such a wide palette of musical colours and history to choose from, how best to make a cohesive album?
First and foremost 'Quiver' is a collection of well-written pop songs. Many of the songs are constructed with webs of sound layers and this gives it an industrial/metallic sound in parts. Neill has an ingrained love for grungy old instruments, tape echos and recording gear, but he has also embraced modern equipment. The basic recordings were done at both Eamon O'Kane's Ambush Studio in Auckland, at Neill's home studio and in Ben Harris' laundry. (Ben and Neill played together in 10-piece dub ensemble Repeater.) Some inevitable Pro Tools assembly/collation and other finishing touches were done over a fortnight at Plan 9 Studio in Wellington.
"I love what technology is doing to music. I'm really getting into sampling and I like mutation a lot. I do tend to like those industrial hard-edged sounds. It ('Quiver') was recorded digitally on the Akai DR8 hard disk recorder which, I think, is the warmest digital recorder around and the most state-of-the-art. The instruments were very analogue but to record them digitally, I think I've used the best of both worlds."
And the best recordings in the world are never fully realised unless they are mastered properly. For 'Quiver', Neill used his connection with Australian mastering guru Don Bartley at Studio 301.
Now the record's finished, Neill is already feeling inspired about his next one. Meanwhile, I urge you to experience 'Quiver' for yourself. While it's angularity may initially throw you, the standard of the songs will quickly overtake that, leaving the production totally in context. Go on, be a devil.
Neill's Studio Toys
Akai DR8 hard disk recorder and Akai S2000 sampler
NHT monitors
Spirit Folio 12-ch desk
Ancient Ibanez rack mount FX
Antique foot-pedal
Harmonium
Italian wind organ/Hotcake combination
Roland Juno 106 synthesiser
Gretsch Tennessean guitar, Hofner flamenco guitar
Roland TR-808 drum machine
Quite a few old drum kits and two boxes of percussion "toys"
Watkins Copycat tape echo
Selmer saxophones and
Clarinet
Neill Duncan passed away on 28 December 2021.
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