RIP Jaki Liebezeit

RIP, a true legend. I listen and hear music differently (and better) because of Jake Liebezeit

RIP

Went to the Dublin night of various ex-Can members playing solo stuff.

― Stevolende, Sunday, 22 January 2017 21:29 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

1999 or so? I was at that too, fond memories of dragging some schoolmates along.

Can were always a group of outstanding individual players, but it is inconceivable to think what they have sounded like without Jaki.

RIP. Probably my favorite drummer. Just the pure sound of his drums were something else. His sense of rhythm still knocks me out.

xp agreed, he was their binding agent/catalyst

Love his drumming here (also there and everywhere)
RIP Jaki

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAhTMkXAPUk

search the first two Pluramon records, he is all over those and sounds so good

^^ yes.

aw man, RIP human metronome

Oh god, no, that man spoke directly to my soul. The best ever.

I read about Can for years before I ever actually heard them, and I don't know what I expected them to sound like -- "weird," I guess, influential in some way. I was totally unprepared for them to be a funky groove band, and Jaki was totally the soul of the band's sound. They might have still been a good band with a different drummer, I don't know, but he made them great.

Fuck. Probably my favourite drummer, and getting to hang out when I supported him and Hans Joachim Irmler in 2015 was a fucking dream come true. He was super lovely, too.

RIP. I'm off to play Halleluwah on an infinite loop.

When will we be home, be at home, a line, no questions
Now I don't know what I feel, "be easy", Jaki said that
I just saw her, could say another colour, I don't know if that's good or bad
"For five colours will make the ears blind", Jaki said that
Actually here's the sound, I hear that

i can probably do without most rhythms if i can just have jaki and autechre ca. 1994.

have spent past 10 years or so commuting to/from work and being one of those people finger-drumming on the steering wheel to kill time. there are only two instances i've gone into work with blood on my hands from smashing my fingers so hard on the steering wheel to a song i was on listening to and one of them was "halleluwah." rip jaki

xxp heresy, Ae have become more and more interesting rhythmically as they've gone on. Jaki, well he's just a fundamental constant of the universe.

fuck everything

So underrated I've been bummed about this and noone knows who I'm talking about, he deserves better he was the best rock drummer for me no contest. I need new friends.

i always forget that holger, irmin and jaki were older when can started, so i was surprised to realise jaki was 78. still too young, obviously

i was reading david stubbs' book on krautrock recently and i enjoyed the story about someone (i forget exactly who) getting annoyed in the studio by the sound of a drum loop that someone had left running for hours upstairs. their patience wearing thin, they went to investigate and found jaki at his kit, hammering out the same metronomic rhythm he'd been playing all morning, and getting annoyed by the interruption

It's possible to overstate the metronomic minimalistic aspects of Jaki's drumming with Can, he could extremely maximal live!

I think the metronome is the unshakeable pulse running through everything he did - delicate cymbal patterns, straight 4 or head-down explosive freakouts, he was permanently locked to the cosmic timebase.

Very true.

and maximal on record when required too - the multiple overlapping drum parts on halleluwah, for example

When you listen to CAN for the drums, as I usually do, the edits on the long pieces really jump out because the drum pattern shifts abruptly instead of the steady evolution he would have done in between.

:( RIP

in the 90s everyone talked about how amazing Can were but everything was v out of print so all I could find was their later work (Rite Time and later an Out of Reach+s/t twofer), which left me going "I don't really get it but they do have an amazing drummer"

finally Napster came along and CDs were reissued and I could appreciate the canonical good stuff, and also that they had a really, really amazing drummer

The only things that seemed to be around was the "I want more" single, and the album with all the mice on it. (I got the single)

Many years later, got the 2CD "Anthology", heard "Father Cannot Yell" and was away.,.

fuck me - RIP legend

RIP jaki hero
One of the most important musicians in recorded history IMO

jammed Tago Mago this morning. One of the top 5 rock drummers ever. Almost seems limiting to just call him a "drummer."

totally

not to insult drummers!

but totally

Weeeeelllll, it is insulting drummers a bit. Jaki played other instruments but was a drummer through and through.

Can were always a group of outstanding individual players, but it is inconceivable to think what they have sounded like without Jaki.

Pink Floyd? Joking... but not outrageously.

He was a drummer! He was the drummer I most want to be and he inspired me to start playing. I can't believe he's gone.

My only consolation is that his spirit lives on in the playing of so many other drummers who he has inspired. I continue to believe that my dreams of being The Jaki in someone's band will come true. RIP, teacher.

ha, yeah, no offense to drummers! i guess i just meant that his parts always seemed more like fully-fledged compositions than backbeats. something like that, anyway.

Also seems like Jaki and Malcolm steered the direction of the band early on, away from arty noodlings to something with considerably more oomph.

I think what I was trying to say is that he was 100% a drummer, and could only have arrived where he arrived by drumming, but like a few other players of miserable physical contraptions he reached a place where drumming becomes idk pure source code or something

Tyler - what you describe is part of being an excellent drummer imo. Not a cog in the machine but the engine itself.

^otm.

there's a reason prince always did the drum track first

yes, you're right LL!

i like this

"Jaki was always proud of being able to make certain people in the audience vomit," claims Karoli. "He could focus on one person in the crowd, and this person would start vomiting. We had a very medical approach to music."

"It would have been a healing for the guy; he needed it," explains Schmidt.

We had a very medical approach to music.

this is incredible

that's amazing

been in my head all day

Shit news, but lord what a force of nature he was.

https://youtu.be/5a_XVM7LGnk

I mean, hell of a run, that's the key thing -- compared to some of the losses last year, 78 years is a long time. It feels more like Cohen's passing than anything else -- someone who kept busy for decades who could have simply rested on laurels. In strict Can terms, Karoli passing at 53 was the real tragedy.

(xp) He said he never did drum solos, what happened at that gig was there was a power cut and Jaki kept playing, even though the entire venue was in darkness, until the power came on. I had that gig on a bootleg cassette years and years ago, Brussels, 1976.

i can probably do without most rhythms if i can just have jaki and autechre ca. 1994.

+1
If Jaki Liebezeit would still be alive, most other drummers could shut up.

damn that is only a single character too long for a display name if u take out the comma and space

That's bc you don't really mean it ;)

In strict Can terms, Karoli passing at 53 was the real tragedy.

v true

Seconded

the rhythm goes on!

https://unbound.com/books/jaki-liebezeit/

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/prog-rock-grooves-jaki-liebezeit-the-nature-of-rhythm-tickets-119431766629
a tribute toi Jaki as part of the Culture NIght celebration tonight.
not sure what status is on tickets and how limited tehy are so best to try to book one as soon as you see this if you can.

I just got one at 9:30 am Pacific Time. Starts at 11:00.

not sue thsi si going to work, but the youtube showing is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNkWUDCZ6QA
may remain there, not sure

or if that doesn't embed the URL is
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNkWUDCZ6QA

Working for me!

I was not able to attend via my reg because I used my work email rather than my home one to get the link here at work, so Eventbrite doesn't recognize me.

ok, that link appears to start at about the right place. I noticed the one i had on Facebook started 3hrs and 9 minutes into a longer recording. Looks like that's bookmarked at the right point though

Thought this revive might be about an album he did with Kevin coynes son that I read a positive review about today

NO, quite good little improvisation thing done byu some musician fans in Dublin. I quite enjoyed that. Nott sure how frequently I'd revisit but did enjoy it.

Saw jaki i a 2 piece thing inn Dublin in the late 90s. wonder if that was the Coyne son thing

This continues to be one of my favorite things on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/h6w7JiWRpvA

Are there more of these videos?

Currently reading the Jaki book mentioned upthread, finished the bio section and getting into the theory portion.

Shamefully I've never been a huge Canhead, although I've dipped into the records over the years and love his playing (and recently got obsessed with the two recent Drums Off Chaos records that are available on streaming). Curious about the Club Off Chaos records, listening to some stuff on youtube that's totally sick.

Anyone heard this one?
https://www.discogs.com/release/26242415-Various-Instant-Music-Club-2007-2022

I have not, but I love his drumming on the Pluramon albums

I'm amazed there still exist ILXors who aren't into Can, I thought that was like, our band

Lol, I mean it's not like I don't like them, they just never clicked for me as an obsession. Neu was the one that captured my imagination in the early ILM days.

That Instant Club Music live compilation rips btw, feels like a cool documentation of a scene too? Lots of rhythmic percussion ensemble stuff (using Jaki's systems even when he's not on a track) along with electronics, piano, some great vocals, etc on some pieces.