Blurring the Boundaries

Two musicians noted for their ability to switch between styles and genres, both featured at the EFG London Jazz Festival in November, talk to Clare Stevens about abou howo their e careers caees havea e developedde eloped

I’m in this space because I want to bring music that moves people and helps people to feel closer to each other as human beings.

Ayanna Witter-Johnson

Ayanna Witter-Johnson

Singer – Cellist – Composer

Ayanna Witter-Johnson and her cello – which is called Reuben – seem equally at home performing and being filmed in a skateboard park in the middle of a London housing estate, on stage at the Wigmore Hall, at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, or even on a windswept beach in Aberdeen, promoting the True North Music Festival. They sing, they dance – yes, Reuben dances too – and they play an extraordinary range of music, from highly individual versions of standards such as Gershwin’s ‘Someone to watch over me’, Erroll Garner’s ‘Misty’, Sting’s ‘Roxanne’ and the Abyssinians’ ‘Declaration of Rights’(which Witter-Johnson has recorded with the jazz singer Cleveland Watkiss), to her own songs and works for orchestra or instrumental ensemble, some of them written when she participated in the London Symphony Orchestra’s Panufnik Composers’ Scheme.

Witter-Johnson is of Jamaican heritage, but was born in North London, and says her introduction to music was fairly conventional, through one-to-one piano lessons from an early age. Her secondary school head of music encouraged her to take up another instrument in order to challenge herself and broaden her musical understanding, and when her mother ruled out wind, brass and percussion as ‘too stressful’ she was forced to choose a string instrument. ‘The violin seemed a bit too small, as I had large hands; the double bass a bit too big to carry around, and at that stage I didn’t really know what a viola was, so that left the cello. I loved it from the beginning.’

Weekends were focused on acting and musical theatre; Witter-Johnson didn’t attend junior conservatoire, her school didn’t offer A-level Music and it wasn’t until her gap year was approaching that a friend suggested she should come along to a jam session and she was introduced to another world of creative music-making. ‘As a classical musician I didn’t really know how to jump into that space, but I wrote something in order to be able to perform it, and that was the turning point for me,’ she says. ‘That led to me applying to Trinity Laban on a whim, really, initially to do their foundation course because I thought I didn’t really have the credentials for the degree course. But lo and behold they invited me to be on the composition course, so I ended up doing a four-year degree.’

Asked if the conservatoire helped her to develop the three strands that now comprise her career, Witter-Johnson admits that it was difficult not to be pigeon-holed as a composer. ‘I did take second study jazz piano in my first year, and second study classical cello for the other three years; those skills definitely helped me to form my voice. But it was getting a gig outside college where I was singing and playing cello that really set me on my path – all the things I did in and around my degree course, the concerts I went to, the friends I made, the opportunities I created for myself, the occasions when I felt inspired by my peers.’

As a Trustee of Awards for Young Musicians and an Ambassador for the London Music Fund, Witter-Johnson now has the opportunity to be a role model for young people who are beginning to develop their love of music. Would she encourage them to take advantage of every possible opportunity?

‘Yes – make friends, collaborate, and get involved as much as possible in and around your studies. Those experiences, those relationships were the building blocks of my career, really.’ In her work with these charities, she adds, ‘I’m trying to just be visible. All the experiences you may have are going to help you form your own unique voice; you may choose to do things in a certain way, but you also have the option to do things in another way. I think I could be helpful in the sense of being an example of doing things differently.

Doesn’t mean it’s better, doesn’t mean it’s worse, just means there are options.’

While Witter-Johnson can see the positive results of initiatives such as the Chineke! Orchestra and the #BlackLivesMatter movement, she says her real hope is to see more of an integration; more people of colour behind the scenes as well as on stage, ‘ and ultimately, we want to get to a place where there are black musicians in all kinds of orchestras, not just one separate set-up. But progress takes time and you’ve got to start somewhere.

‘I’m in this space because I want to bring music that moves people and helps people to feel closer to each other as human beings. That’s my intention for being here, so I just ride the waves as they come.’

Focusing on the jazz world, does she think there are fewer boundaries now than there were 50 years ago?

‘It’s probably a little more open now, but saying that, I don’t know, 50 years ago there were all kinds of discoveries being made, embracing new aspects of being a jazz musician. Now there are clearer lanes that you can slot into, and each lane has its own culture. I have such a great respect for jazz music as a whole and I am inspired by it. I wouldn’t say that I am a full-on jazz musician, but I definitely embrace the history and the legacy of jazz music and I play with aspects of it in my music.’

ayannamusic.com

Photo: Neutro

‘So I basically bought a few instruments and started listening to records of blues harmonica and trying to copy what I heard’

Grégoire Maret

Grégoire Maret

Musician – Virtuoso harmonica player – composer

‘Amelting pot of musical cultures unfolding note by note,’ is how the concert listing described Harp vs Harp, the programme by harpist Edmar Castañeda and harmonicist Grégoire Maret that was showcased at the EFG London Jazz Festival. The two performers, it declared, have

‘ rewritten the rulebooks for their respective instruments’ .

The title of their duo recital might seem misleading until you remember that the harmonica is also known as the French harp or blues harp. It is not a common solo instrument; speaking to MJ ahead of a masterclass in his native Switzerland, Maret recalls that when he fell in love with the sound after hearing it played in a blues concert in his home town, there was nobody to teach him to play the harmonica himself. ‘So I basically bought a few instruments and started listening to records of blues harmonica and trying to copy what I heard’.

‘Once I got started, there was no going back; it became a passion. The blues harp is very small, it has just ten holes and only plays in one key, but you can bend the notes and get all kinds of expression, and I loved it so much I just couldn’t stop playing it. I had to take up the chromatic harmonica as well in order to be allowed to major in it at high school. It has a little slide on the side that enables it to switch keys, it’s like having the black and white notes on the piano, so you can play anything.’ Early inspiration came from blues players like Sonny Boy Wilson and Junior Wells, but when he was 17 Maret was lucky enough to meet the Belgian jazz harmonica player Toots Thielemans. ‘He gave me the best advice – he said “if you really like what I do you shouldn’t just copy me or try to be me, you should take it as an example and try to find your own path and your own route”. That really helped me to get my head in the right space and see which direction I should go.’ This meant moving to America to study at The New School in New York, where the harmonica was welcomed instead of being laughed at as it had been in Switzerland. ‘The attitude was so different it was crazy. But also, in terms of jazz New York is the place to be. I just tried to be a sponge, listen to as much music as I could and absorb as much as I could.’ Influential figures included the saxophonists Arnie Lawrence and George Garzone, the bassist Reggie Workman, and the pianist Gary Dow. But soon Maret himself began to be recognised for his skill and inventiveness on the harmonica. Major artists such as Herbie Hancock (who has called him ‘ one of the most creative musicians around’), Pat Metheny, Cassandra Wilson and Marcus Miller invited him to tour with them. Over the past couple of decades he has established himself as a unique and compelling voice across the spectrum of modern jazz, with guest appearances in performance and on record with the likes of Prince, Sting, Terri Lyne Carrington and his original mentor Toots Thielemans as well as with his own quartet. to hard rock, it doesn’t matter for me. If it touches me emotionally I’m all in, and I really enjoy the challenge of learning something new. ‘But it’s true that jazz has changed a lot. Younger players are really excited about mixing jazz and, say, world music or R&B or hip hop and it sounds amazing, and you hear less of the traditional form of jazz where it was just straight

‘But it’s true that ahead. When you can hear amazing jazz has changed a lot. players who play straight ahead it’s incredible, but it’s also great when Younger players are really you hear players who mix, say, excited about mixing jazz folkloric music with jazz, I think that’s fresh and exciting, I embrace and, say, world music it all.’ or R&B or hip hop and it The Harp vs Harp project is a sounds amazing’ perfect example of how Maret’s music-making has been inspired Grégoire Maret by people he has played with and relationships he has developed; he and Castañeda met when they were both guests of Marcus Miller at Monaco Jazz Festival. ‘We weren’t supposed to play in the set at the same time, but during the sound check we both started playing and we thought we’ve got to do something together. ‘Edmar comes from Colombia, where they have a very strong tradition shared with Venezuela of using the harp in a very, very original way, totally different from what we’re used to hearing in European classical music or in folk music – it’s all about the rhythms. Sometimes, when Edmar plays, you feel the instrument is not going to be able to take this, he goes so far, but no, that’s the way it’s meant to be played, it’s gorgeous. ‘I played with his band a few times but eventually we would always break it down to just the two of us playing together, it felt so special.’ The result was Harp vs Harp, released as a recording on the ACT label in 2019 and toured round the world. ‘Originally it’s a mix between Colombian traditional music and jazz, we do all kinds of stuff from the tradition and then expand it using our knowledge that comes from being jazz Photo: Aline Muller musicians. We complement one another and when we play together it feels kind of like an orchestra, it’s really full; and if one of us decides to change an arrangement there’s no problem, because we really listen to each other and respond. The possibilities are almost endless – we never get bored because it’s always different.’

Asked if there is more blurring of musical styles and genres now than in the past, Maret says that for him, ‘it is really just about music, I just love music, from classical gregoiremaret.com edmarcastaneda.com