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Jost's quick rise as a singer over the last six years …. is a testament to his innate talent, his precision as a musician, and his distinctive vocal sound. When it comes to vocal improv, it doesn't get much better than this.
Colofon: Jazz In Europe Magazine. Spring 2019
Ivan Paduart & Patrick Deltenre
Hand in Hand Page 3
Mark Murphy
This Is Hip: One Year Later! Page 7
Dee Dee Bridgewater The Ultimate Jazz Warrior Page 15
Gearbox Records The Cutting Edge of Vinyl Page 21
Fred Hersch On the Vanguard of the Trio Page 31
Paul Jost Give Me the Simple Life Page 37
Guy Fonck Jazz Behind the Lens Page 47
E.J. Strickland A Warrior for Peace Page 59
Take 6 Iconic A Cappella Page 65
Publisher: Jazz In Europe Media Group Weversweg 13 7553BH HENGELO (o) The Netherlands Editorial: Editor in Chief Nigel J. Farmer Content Manager: Andrew Read Sub-editor: Pia Sonne-Schmidt Contributors: Erminia Yardley Peter Jones Fiona Ross Paola Vera Jan Veldman Photography Credits: Carl Hyde, Pia Sonne-Schmidt, Guy Fonck, Valerie Nagant, Mark Higashino, John Abbott, Vincent Soyez, Mark Niskanen, Martin Zeman, Chris Drukker, Shervin Lainez, Fabien Genais, John Shyloski. Advertising: For advertising opportunities please contact us at. advertising@jazzineurope.com Graphic Design: DQB Media & Design www.dqbdesign.com P.O.D Provider: Peecho Rokin 75, 1012 KL Amsterdam www.peecho.com No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without prior written permission of the Publisher. Permission is only deemed valid if approval is in writing. All photo material contained in this magazine has been provided courtsey of the artist and/ or their management. The publisher (Jazz In Europe Media Group), authors, photographers and contributors reserve their rights with regards to copyright of their work.
EDITORIAL
From The Editor By Nigel J. Farmer
W
e continue to receive encouraging feedback that exceeds our expectations. Product placement in a market that already has established Jazz periodicals is always a risk! Yet, our approach has been welcomed by both our industry and lovers of Jazz music from all over the world. Here we present our Spring 2019 print-on-demand 3rd edition. Once again we’ve been able to achieve a fascinating mix of interviews and articles from artists, both nominees and Grammy winners, photographers, an author, and producers of quality Jazz vinyl products from Jazz in Europe and beyond! A brief overview of what’s on offer inside: we start by debunking the longstanding myth that the piano and guitar cannot work harmoniously in a jazz duo setting. This Belgium Duo of Ivan Paduart, considered one of Belgium’s top jazz pianist along with guitarist Patrick Deltenre, demonstrate as did Bill Evans and Jim Hall and Oscar Peterson with Herb Ellis. It is not only possible, if done right, it can sound fantastic. Peter Jones’s biography of the American jazz singer Mark Murphy is, without doubt, the most sensitive and insightful book written on this legend. In this article, Peter reflects on the process of writing this book, and the far-reaching affect that Murphy continues to have for jazz singers worldwide. An interview with Dee Dee Bridgewater. A consummate professional powerhouse on and offstage. Passionate in everything she does. Her list of life’s accomplishments transverse the timeline. This interview is packed full of Dee Dee’s truths and reflections. This interview with key team members at the offices and studio of Gearbox Records in London. Shows how constant dedication while always questing and embracing the mix of old and new technologies has produced a global reputation for their high-quality vinyl jazz products.
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Interviewing Fred Hersch is a privilege that was fully embraced by our writer. Fred is very candid about both his personal and professional journey. The time spent with Fred led to a very meaningful exchange that is revealed in this insightful article. I interview the vocalist Paul Jost, he is now one of my hand-picked jazz artist that may well explode onto the European jazz circuit in 2019. Paul’s ability to tell stories with both lyrics and his voice is mature sincere energy. A stunning black and white photo spread of jazz artist from renowned photographer Guy Fonck, and a supporting interview. E J Strickland is one of the most frequently recorded drummers of the 21st century, appearing on over 30 albums. In this interview, he shares his background, experience and how his artistry, life’s experience and observation have led him to his latest album – “Warriors For Peace.” We round off with a pre-concert exclusive backstage interview with Take 6. An American a cappella sextet formed in 1980 and still going strong 39 years later. Their most recent album hitting number 1 on the Billboard contemporary chart. These 6 gentlemen reveal how they balance work and private life, and continue to adapt to remain the most awarded a cappella group in history with 10 Grammy Awards, 10 Dove Awards, 2 NAACP Image Awards, a Soul Train Award, and more. My deepest thanks to all the dedicated team of writers, whose passion to share their love of Jazz with our readers is always very personally humbling. A special thanks to Andrew for his love and application of good design. As well as to Pia for her tireless cross-checking. Our exploration continues into the many facets of the musical art form known as Jazz. I hope you enjoy our 3rd print-on-demand Spring 2019 magazine and continue to join us on our journey. Once again thanks for all your support – Nigel J.
Latest Releases
Gregor Lisser Double Quartet – “On Eleven” Featuring: Dave Blaser (tpt), Michael Haudenschild (p), André Pousaz (b), Vincent Milliou (vln), Samuel Jungen (vln), Adrian Häusler (va), Raphael Heggendorn (cello) "If you are in a hurry, go slowly" – this Chinese proverb has been set aside on the Swiss composer and drummer Gregor Lisser's On Eleven, his debut album with the Gregor Lisser Double Quartet. Lisser explores how deceleration can be expressed musically, in complex as well as thrilling and catchy ways. Even the title he's given this rst release, hints at the artistic essence of the album. It's a colloquial expression meaning "to go on foot". And true enough, the exceptional Swiss musician found the inspiration for all of his compositions during long nature walks.
Adi Becker – “Babbelou” Featuring: Eric Marienthal, George Whitty, Grand Central Orchestra, Jemma Endersby Music that touches your mind and soul. Music that provides for relaxing conversation as well as stiamulating the intellect. Music that grooves like the devil, compelling you to listen with its intelligent compositions. Music that serves up a solid big band sound and that celebrates nely-shaped melodies. Music that pays stylistic tribute to easy going jazz, as well as reening pop music pearls with its arrangements, and exploring musical depths...
Big Band der Deutschen Oper Berlin - Concert Dates Jazzical voices in concert - 2 May 2019 Big Band der Deutschen Oper Berlin - conductor: Manfred Hornetschläger feat: Katharine Mehrling, Meechot Marrero, Seth Carico, Byung Gil Kim. Sinatra meets Basie - 21 June 2019 Big Band der Deutschen Oper Berlin - conductor: Manfred Hornetschläger feat: Vocalist Tom Gaebel
www.monsrecords.de
Photo © Valerie Nagant
ARTICLE
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Ivan Paduart Patrick Deltenre Hand In Hand Throughout jazz history there have been many Piano and Guitar duos, some successful and some not. There has been a long standing Myth that piano and guitar don’t work in a duo setting as the two instruments share similar rhythmic and harmonic functions, as well as sharing similar frequency ranges where the potential for clashes is always looming. This is not something that I would ascribe to and to debunk this myth you only have to listen to the Bill Evans/ Jim Hall duo’s or indeed the many recording of Oscar Peterson with Herb Ellis. One recent example of how these two instruments can be successfully integrated in a duo setting can be found with the Belgium Duo Ivan Paduart and guitarist Patrick Deltenre. The Duo in question consists of Belgium based musicians, pianist Ivan Paduart and guitarist Patrick Deltenre and the album titled “Hand in Hand” was released in late 2018 on the German label Mons Records. Although the two have known each other for more than three decades Hand in Hand is their first recording together since the early 1990’s fusion quintet Aftertouch. After that group disbanded their careers diverged however, the two always held the desire to work together again on another project. The opportunity arose in 2017 when the two musicians performed a Duo concert sparking the idea of recording a duo album together. Ivan stated “The chemistry between us had always been there from the beginning and it seemed inevitable that sooner or later we would do a project together.” Concrete plans for the recording came to frution when music connoisseur Jean-Didier Boucau, being so moved by their performance became a benefactor for the project. In December 2017 the two entered the studio.
Ivan Paduart is currently considered one of Belgium’s top jazz pianists and has long been regarded as a fixture on the international jazz scene with his own distinctive hallmarks in terms of composition and interpretation. Coming from a musical family, Patrick Deltenre on the other hand gravitated more toward the pop, chanson and blues world where he became widely regarded as one of Belgium’s most versatile guitarists. Recently I spoke to both Ivan and Patrick and posed the question of performing in a duo format and the challenges that it brings. Patrick stated. “yes, two multi-function instruments (rhythm, chords, melody) can be a challenge, it’s a matter of finding the right place to be at all times. The most important thing is to constantly listen to the other. Playing without a rhythm section means we both always need to present and play with the dynamics, and most of all find the right voicings so we are at all times complementing each other.” This spirit is also reflected in the album title “Hand in Hand”. In the albums liner notes the two musicians explain that the title “…contains two meanings. Firstly, of course, it reflects the collaboration as a duo; two musicians pursuing a musical goal together. Secondly, it is the combination of two harmonic instruments where their sounds are interwoven in such a way that individuality is maintained, while at the same time, a genuine dialogue is created rather than simple musical duplication.” 4. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Photo Š Valerie Nagant 5. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Ivan Paduart & Patrick Deltenre Hand in Hand is Patrick’s recording début as a coleader and with a long list of credits as a sideman I was interested to know why this was and if he had any plans to record in the future under his own name. Patrick said “indeed I’ve recorded with many artists, in pop, jazz, Brazilian, funk, French songs etcetera and had a lot of fun doing it. To be honest I never felt the need to have a record under my name. now at this point in my career I see things differently, I hope to continue in this direction and consider other projects and hopefully a sequel with Ivan is on the cards.” Ivan’s career took a different path and while he is best know as the pianist in Toots Thielemans band as leader, he has released over 25 albums. Ivan’s skills extend further than that of a pianist and is also well known as a composer and arranger. This can be seen from the 2010 album “Crush” recorded in Belgium with the Netherlands renowned Metropole Orchestra. The album featured many of Ivan’s compositions that appeared on his earlier albums. I was interested to know how this project came about? “Crush was recorded live in 2008 at the Cirque
Royal (Brussels) and stays in my mind as one of the most accomplished (double) CD I ever made! The way it came about is that I was contacted by Dutch vocalist Fay Claassen, she had concerts with the Metropole Orchestra coming up and they wanted me to arrange a tune of mine called “Waterfalls”. They seemed to be happy with the way the arrangement came out and a few months later they got back to me, asking if I would arrange a full program of my compositions. Of course, I was thrilled, but felt that I didn’t have enough experience for such a massive project so I asked Jim Mc Neely, Michel Herr and Bert Joris to help me. We recorded live on December 12, 2008, that concert was a highlight for me and stays forever in my mind.” Moving our focus back to the Duo and looking at the repertoire recorded on the album it was noteworthy that the album contained purely original repertoire. There are an equal number of compositions from both musicians on the album and stylistically there is a strong consistent thread throughout. I was interested to know if the material was composed specifically for the album. Ivan explained “We’ both contributed five compositions each, mine were mostly composed for the album while Patrick’s were mainly old tunes.” When speaking about the composition style Patrick continued “we have different universes of composition style, in general, Ivan favours more knotty harmonies and where as mine are more linear in concept however despite everything, there is a consistent line. I think one of the reasons for this is not compositional but is due largely to the piano and guitar sound on the album, this goes a long way to creating unity.” Hand in Hand is currently available in all the stores and for those that would like to see the duo live, they will be performing regularly throughout Europe in the coming months. Tour dates can be found on Ivan Paduart website www.ivanpaduart.com Hand in Hand is now available on Mons Records.
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ARTICLE
Mark Murphy This Is Hip: One Year Later! Article by: Peter Jones | Photo’s by Guy Fonck
Peter Jones’s biography of American jazz singer Mark Murphy was published in March 2018. Here he reflects on the process of writing the book, and the deep influence that Murphy has had on jazz singers across the world.
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Photo © Guy Fonck 8. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
I
n October 2015 I was at home in London listening to Jazz FM when I heard that Mark Murphy had died. The great American jazz singer had only recently edged on to my radar; as a jazz singer myself I’d heard one or two songs he had made famous, particularly Stolen Moments, and I’d begun performing them. As time went on I discovered his versions of other tunes, like Freddie Hubbard’s Red Clay, Tadd Dameron’s If You Could See Me Now and Sonny Rollins’s Doxy, and started singing them too. It seemed pretty clear that Mark Murphy was a bebop specialist. And yes, there was also a cool, finger-snapping hipster quality to him. He was certainly a lot hipper than most other male vocalists I’d heard, with the possible exception of Jon Hendricks. On the day Mark died, Jazz FM played a ballad of his that I’d never heard before – Our Game. They carried on playing it over the week that followed. It was the most spellbinding thing I’d ever heard. I found out that it came from an album called Once to Every Heart that Mark had recorded in 2002 (although it wasn’t released until three years later) with the song’s composer Till Brönner, who was based in Berlin. By now I wanted to know more about Mark Murphy, and began looking online for a book about him, but there wasn’t one. I discovered a couple of interviews and some reviews of his albums and live performances, but that was all. What could I do? Should I sit around waiting for someone to write a biography, just so I could read it? And very quickly, the idea came to me that maybe I could write it myself. There was only one small problem: I knew almost nothing about Mark. However, being a journalist as well as a singer, I was used to this situation. You just have to go and do the research. I submitted a proposal to Equinox Publishing and received an encouraging reply. They ended up commissioning me, and so began the long process of finding out about the man who had become my favourite jazz singer. Starting with a handful of people who had known him, I gradually expanded my circle of acquaintances over the months that followed, interviewing members of his family, friends, other singers, musicians, arrangers, writers and record company people. I also found out that there had been a fanzine – Mark’s Times – devoted to Mark. It was produced four times a year by a guy who lived in the north-east of England, and it continued for 20 years. And luckily it turned out that the only person in the UK with a complete set of Mark’s Times lived less than an hour from me. I read through all 74 issues, some of them 150 pages long. At my local jazz appreciation group, I found a Mark Murphy fan who owned about 30 of his CD’s, and he let me borrow them.
So what did I learn from all this research? Having started out as a fan myself, I’d become an expert. I learned that Mark Murphy was just as great as I’d suspected; greater in fact, because he wasn’t just a hip bebopper, he could do everything else too. He was a balladeer whose sensitivity would break your heart; he made 9. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Photo © Guy Fonck 10. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
unusual opening lines to Red Clay. According to the sleeve notes to the 1975 album Mark Murphy Sings, the singer had called Freddie Hubbard to ask him what the tune was about. Then, through his own lyrics, Murphy turned this instrumental number into a song about being happy in a certain unremarkable place, but a place that has meaning for you, because that’s where you and your family, friends and neighbours live. PLANET FORMERLY KNOWN AS MOON Mark Murphy’s jazz haiku set to music by Andy Lutter. two great blues albums; he immersed himself in Brazilian music, making several albums of songs by people like Ivan Lins and Milton Nascimento. I’d known he was a master of scat, but I hadn’t known about the way he wrote poetry and used other forms of the spoken word. He was a fantastic improviser, who didn’t just sing over the top of whatever the band was playing – he would direct the band. Very often he would tell the pianist to stop playing so he could do something with just the bass or the drums. He would do weird things with the mic, like zooming it back and forth, or putting it under his chin. Murphy wrote lyrics, too. Screen door slapping somewhere on a side porch / A sleepy morning way out in the boondocks… Those were his 11. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
I became fascinated by other ways in which he adapted tunes, as well as adding lyrics. For example, the original 1962 recording of If You Could See Me Now, sung by Barbara Winfield, renders it as a mournful ballad, as Tadd Dameron intended. Bill Evans took the same approach whenever he played it. But in Murphy’s hands, on the 1989 album Kerouac Then and Now, the song mutated into a medium tempo swing number. Suddenly it was cool, hip – and so relaxed as to be almost flippant. In a subtle way, this changed the meaning of the words. Murphy was not a prolific songwriter, but the songs he wrote are beautiful. As I listened to album after album, I would occasionally come across little gems like the edgy Come and Get Me, which Riverside released as a single in 1962, and which Murphy recorded again on two more occasions. I Know You From Somewhere is a ballad with a dreamlike lyrics about encountering a stranger
Mark Murphy who may or may not be a past lover. Late in his career he worked with the Munichbased pianist Andy Lutter. One of the things Mark liked to do was to write what he called ‘jazz haiku’ – which were really just short poems. Whenever he had time, Lutter would set them to music. Unfortunately Mark became ill and never recorded them, but in 2017 Lutter and the UK singer Tina May released a brilliant album of Mark’s haikus called Café Paranoia, so we can now finally hear them. The jazz haiku poems reveal another previously unknown side to Mark Murphy. I had been aware of his idiosyncratic writing style from his contributions to Mark’s Times. He would often send the fanzine stream-of-consciousness letters from far-flung parts of the world. In 1983, he told the story of a wild cross-country car journey that sounded like something out of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road: “On coming out of the Lincoln Tunnel in the city, I promptly had an accident caused by heavy rain, skidding and confusing traffic lights. Luckily no one was hurt – not even me! – my car only slightly damaged but the other one clobbered! So the shock of that plus the long X-country drive took a lot out of me. Then I got lost in the Nevada Desert – at night (!) in fog, almost ran into 7 cows...” Mark’s haiku poems are more mysterious. One of them, entitled Tundraness, reads as follows: The colour of the tundra is not on my mind / My eye is saved from death because alone tundra-ness is / Sky – endless sky – so am I endless. / I am saved. On the Café Paranoia album, this track lasts only 57 seconds, but it is profoundly beautiful. On stage, he would tell stories. One time he was playing a gig in an English country village, and someone said it looked like the kind of place in which Agatha Christie would set a murder mystery. Mark went outside and thought for a few minutes. He came back in and as the first tune started he told the audience, ‘I had a vision, outside there. I saw two figures hurrying through the rain to get to this gig. One of them was Miles Davis and the other was Jane Marple. And they bumped into each other, and he said, “Hey Jane baby…”’ Although Mark had a long career – 60 years – and released nearly 50 albums during his lifetime, he never made any serious money. He wasn’t interested in money. At various times in his
career he was presented with the opportunity to make some, but always turned it down. It seems inconceivable, but as poor as he was, if he didn’t like the sound of it, he wouldn’t do it. He was once offered many thousands of dollars to be in a commercial for IBM. All he had to do was get on a plane, fly to Texas, work for an hour, and fly back again. But he said no, because it wasn’t his thing. He had too much integrity. In fact, he regarded himself as an artist, first and foremost, rather than an entertainer. He loved working in Europe. As well as living in London for ten years during the 1960s, where he often played Ronnie Scott’s and was heard constantly on BBC Radio, he had a strong relationship with the Netherlands. His greatest collaborator there was the producer Joop de Roo, who booked him for countless radio appearances with the Metropole Orchestra over many years. Joop compiled the best of these for a wonderful album called The Dream, which came out in 1995. There was also an earlier album called North Sea Jazz Sessions Vol.5, also recorded for radio throughout the early Seventies with the Louis Van Dijk Trio. It contains Mark’s first recording of his signature tune, Stolen Moments. Mark sang in almost every European country at one time or another, including France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, the former Yugoslavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia (as it then was), Austria and Germany. The book includes a whole chapter about what Mark brought to the art of jazz singing. Much of this is about his mastery of technique: breathing, scatting, ballad-singing, working with a band. But part of his greatness was his expansion of the role of a jazz singer: he didn’t just sing, he performed, in the broadest sense. He could be screamingly funny, both physically and verbally. He would recite poetry, sometimes only a single line – Age only matters if you’re a cheese. He would talk about films he loved. He would talk in fascinating detail about the songs he was performing. More than anything, he was the consummate improviser: he would make on-the-spot decisions about what was going to happen next. In the same spirit, he loved to be surprised by what his musicians played. And he particularly loved it when things went wrong on stage, because it opened up yet more possibilities for improvisation. All the musicians I 12. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
interviewed for the book confirmed this. The final chapter of This Is Hip discusses Mark as a teacher of singers. Kurt Elling, Curtis Stigers, Tina May and hundreds of others learned how to do it directly from Mark Murphy. His approach was practical. There was no curriculum: every student was different, and needed help in some unique way. One young woman was too blank-faced when she sang, in Mark’s opinion. He told her to imagine she was Edward G. Robinson, and sing out of one corner of her mouth. When he snapped his fingers, she had to switch to the other side. The whole class was amused, including the woman herself, but it worked, and now she understood the need to be more animated as a singer. Mark Murphy taught jazz singing at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, near Vienna, between 1990 and 2001. Whilst there he made a big impression – and not only on the singers.
The head of the jazz course, Karlheinz Miklin, told me many funny stories. On one occasion, Mark noticed a group of newspaper-sellers at a busy intersection in Graz, all shouting out the titles of the papers they were selling. Mark started to direct them as if they were a choir. The police arrived and asked him who he was. ‘I am Professor Murphy,’ said Mark, so they took him to the police station, thinking he was a lunatic. He was not a lunatic, but he was certainly eccentric, and became more so as he grew older. Mark Murphy lived through some of the most interesting times in jazz. He started out as a crooner in the mid-1950s, recording for Decca and then Capitol, but it never felt quite right to him. He had much bigger ideas than just being a professional entertainer. Jazz to him was an art-form, and he saw himself as an artist. Therefore, what mattered was the work, not the fame or the money. And he could have had both if he’d really wanted them.
This is Hip
The Life of Mark Murphy Author: Peter Jones Publisher: Equinox Publishers ISBN-13 (Hardback): 9781781794739 Price (Hardback): £25.00 / $29.95 ISBN (eBook): 9781781796627 Price (eBook): £25.00 / $29.95 Publication Date: 01/03/2018 Pages: 262 Size: 234 x 156mm Website: www.equinoxpub.com Nominated for the 2019 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research.
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D INTERVIEW
Dee Dee Bridgewater The Ultimate Jazz Warrior
Interview by: Fiona Ross | Photo’s by: Mark Higashino & Carl Hyde
Dee Dee Bridgewater needs no introduction. Triple Grammy winner. Record label head. UN Good Will ambassador. Producer. Tony winner. Mentor. Jazz Legend. She has always been a huge role model to me, and I can’t even begin to explain what an honour it was to talk to her. I have seen her perform live many times and she was always mind blowing – she is in a league of her own. Talking to her about her life, her career, her new album was exhilarating. She is every bit the Jazz legend I had imagined – and more. Passionate about her artistry, passionate about helping others – a fierce and unstoppable fighter in this crazy industry. DDB: “I only record material I believe in – if I don’t believe in something, I’m not able to defend it. Also, I produce myself, so I’m not going to do something because someone has told me to do it, if I’m putting my money behind it. I have got to believe in what I am doing. You can’t sell something if you don’t believe in it. People will not buy your truth if you are not being truthful.” Born in Memphis, Dee Dees latest album, the incredible ‘Memphis…Yes, I’m ready’ came out of a journey of discovery about her father, who was a trumpet player, DJ and a teacher at one of only two black high schools – Manahassas High School – which has a significant tradition of cultivating and supporting the arts – Charles Lloyd, Issac Hayes, Booker Little, George Coleman – even Miles Davis said ‘I wonder what they were doing down there when all them guys came through that one school?’ I was extremely curious about the title of the album. Ready for what? I get the impression Dee Dee Bridgewater was ready for anything and everything from the minute she was born. DDB: “I’m ready to be back. I’m ready to reclaim this part of my history. I’m ready to embrace a music that always meant a lot to me, that I always dreamed of performing. I went off into the Jazz idiom, so it’s a kind of stepping outside of myself and the person that the world has come to know and embracing a
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part of my youth, part of who I was as a teenager. And also, it’s an opportunity, to bring a new light to Memphis, a true part of the black music history that has kind of been ignored. I am very happy to say that now that I have focused on Memphis there are a lot of people doing projects, - either going to Memphis, or about Memphis – it’s beautiful, beautiful to see. This music has lifted my soul. I did this album after my mother died, so the music on this album has walked me through the grief of losing my mum and it’s brought me immense joy. And it demands another kind of musical discipline, which I can respect as a Jazz singer. Finding the creativity and improv within something that has to be more structured. It’s been very interesting and it’s another kind of voice application when I sing this music. “My musicality comes from my father’s side of the family. I also have a Great Aunt, on his side, Lottie Gee, who is cited in all the biographies about Josephine Baker. She was one of the primary people that was responsible for getting Josephine to move to France. So, I come from music. I just unearthed all of this stuff.” Getting to the heart of her music, the meaning, the culture, is the driving force behind her work. We discussed challenges of ‘stepping out’ of the Jazz world and into the blues.
Photo Š Mark Higashino 16. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Photo © Mark Higashino DDB: “I’ve had a few situations when I’ve been asked to do this music with my Jazz musicians, because my band – my touring band - are primarily from Memphis, because they know the music – this is their history. I needed that kind of feel. When I was trying to do this music with Jazz musicians, I would say - especially to the horn players - listen it’s a whole different approach to playing. They couldn’t do it. They were like ‘it sounds so easy’, but I was like, yes but it’s a whole other world. And you know, they didn’t realise until they actually attempted to play it – then they were like oh… oh, ok – and there’s a new respect that was created because of that. I’m very proud of 17. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
what I have created. I’m sure that has created some conversations behind my back, ha, because I won the NEA Jazz Masters fellowship and then put out this Blues album, ha, and now, I’m doing R’N’B basically. I’m like, oh well, here we go. This is me. I want to be true to who I am. This experience does not make me any less a Jazz singer. I’m not interested in Jazzifying that music.” We discussed the traditions of Jazz and how the industry reacts when you step outside ‘the box’ – and I was extremely surprised to hear of some of the problems she had encountered. DDB: “Let me say this, I was living in France when
Dee Dee Bridgwater back to the States now you’re a peer musician’ - I got all kinds of stuff. But let’s be clear, I didn’t go to France because I felt I needed to go somewhere else, I’ve always loved France it was my dream to live in France. I came to France because of the love I had for the country, because of the love and fascination I have for Josephine Baker and for black musicians and performers in general – writers, singers, artists – who have gone to Europe and have done much better than they would have in the United States. What I am very clear about is, I was not an expatriate. I went there because of my love for the country, the love of the culture. It’s why I speak French today. I married a French man, I have a son who is French…” I had no idea of some of the problems she had encountered and the criticism she received for daring to do something different – I was amazed that at one point, some radio stations wouldn’t play her music. DDB: “When I started to come back to the US to work, I think around 1995, there were some journalists that tried to make it very, very difficult for me. But you know you just power through all these things – and I was ballyhooed because I changed up my music with every album. But I took my leaf from Miles Davis. Why do singers have to stay in the same niche, doing the same style of music all their careers? Why can’t I experiment with music, with the form, size of band, you know? So, I’ve done that. I did an album, which was my way of saying thank you, and all of the jazz stations took me off the airwaves. They would not play my music and it wasn’t until I did my Malian album and then they were oh, this we like, we’ve been waiting for you to do this. I was like what? What is this racist way of thinking? What I have to go to Africa? What are you trying to say? What is that?!! So, you know, I went through a lot of difficult situations.” I came into myself, as an adult, as an artist, as an entertainer. It was my stepfather who raised me and helped to set up my corporation and got me on my feet, but because I was living in France, I had a different kind of respect. I don’t believe – and I can say this in all honesty – I do not believe that I would have gotten a license agreement – so I could produce myself – in the United States and listen, I was told, when I went back to the States, we would never give you a producers contract, we would never allow you to produce yourself. And my response to that gentleman was, well that’s why I’m in Europe, ha. And there was the ‘how dare you want to come
The life of a Jazz artist is a continual battle – and always has been – and we discussed this at length, and I started by asking about her bond with Billie Holiday and how she is one of the few vocalists that perform the song ‘Strange Fruit’. DDB: “Oh Billie. Billie, Billie. My relationship with Billie is special and that is because I did do this play about her – first time in London – I had to do a lot of research about her and I was not into Billie Holiday before I did this project. I found a lot of similarities in our lives and that was the thing that kind of drew me in with her. I could identify with the woman. She (and I will go to my grave with this) had cirrhosis of 18. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Photo © Carl Hyde 19. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Dee Dee Bridgwater the liver when she was still alive, and they say she died of a drug overdose. There has been evidence of two white gentleman visiting her in hospital bringing her gardenias. The gardenias were supposedly laced with heroin. Now we don’t know if she died of cirrhosis of the liver or a combination of that with drugs. It’s very difficult to find out any information on her exact death, but you know, I think she was deliberately given this stuff. And I think it was a government cover up. Congress issued a law, forbidding her to sing Strange Fruit. Isn’t that insane? And all of her troubles really began after she insisted on singing that song, after that law was passed. That kind of gave the federal government and the local government agencies the right to harass her and bring her down. She was a powerful woman and they knew it. Singing that song… it has to be a particular moment for me to want to go there because, it is not a song I can sing lightly. We got lynching happening again today… I don’t know… I don’t know if I could sing it right now.” Dee Dee spends a significant amount of time mentoring younger artists, not just in her official capacity as a faculty member of George Duke charitable foundation and Betty Carter Jazz ahead programme, but going out to see singers perform. I remember during my interview with Maxine Gordon, her mentioning Dee Dee having the wonderful new artist Camille Thurman’s back. When speaking to Dee Dee – and Maxine – you get an overwhelming sense of their passion and desire to help, support and guide artists. To share their experience and try to help their careers. DDB: “I’m not just concerned about Camille, I’m concerned about a lot of the young women whose careers are taking off and who have established careers. They are known in pockets but not in a national scale or international scale like they should be, and Camille Thurman is one of those. She is amazing, like this triple threat, so I’ve told her, if she has issues, call me. If she’s trying to figure something out, call me.” As I also discussed with Maxine, the music business is a key area where musicians are struggling and unaware of what to do. But where do young artists find that knowledge, and strength? How do you become music industry savvy?
through trial and error. Definitely trial and error… I think the business side of things are harder when you are a woman, but I’m a fighter and I looked at any difficulties as being things I needed to conquer, and I set about resolving those situations.” I asked Dee Dee if she thought being a woman made it any harder. DDB: “I don’t think any issues I had were necessarily because I’m a woman. I mean I know that that is up in there somewhere, and I feel that still today, but I have always stood my ground over the years and I have always been outspoken, and I do have the respect of the Jazz community. And it’s been interesting because as my career grows in the United States, so does Tulani’s, as my manager (Dee Dee’s daughter). It’s interesting as we are now sharing the ride and to see how one hand feeds the other. It’s beautiful because we have a gorgeous team going – my daughter and I and my second daughter China, is in London and she is getting ready to do some amazing things. And she is always saying thank you but I’m just trying to be an example and point the way. I know how difficult it’s been for me and all the ups and downs. Having produced myself for so many years and with Tulani and I dealing with my career, basically together, and having just a small team. I have been able to avoid some of the pitfalls of getting with big management groups and suffering from intervention, you know? “But now I’m back in the states – since 2007 – and I think I’ve done pretty damn good to get my career back on track in the United States because you know the thing that happens when you leave the United States is you get forgotten.” I think this is the only point that I must disagree on. No one is ever going to forget the might that is Dee Dee Bridgewater. There are so many things we discussed, that I cannot include in this article, but let me end on this. Dee Dee Bridgewater is an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. An inspirational role model whose strength, talent, love of her artistry and humanity is felt across the world. It was an honour to speak to her. A true Jazz warrior.
DDB: “If I can help these kids avoid the pitfalls, especially on the business side of things, I feel like I have done my duty if I can do that. Mine came 20. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
LABEL FEATURE
The Cutting Edge Of Vinyl Interview by: Erminia Yardley | Photos by: Carl Hyde
Blue skies and a gentle warm sun adorn my walk to the offices and studios of Gearbox Records, just a 20 minutes walk from King’s Cross Station. The London label’s location has not changed for years and, being back there since the first time I visited in 2015, made it an even more interesting trip. I enter the main room, a kind of lounge-studio paradise for vinyl junkies, a lot of precious and beautiful gadgets as well as vinyls are on show, this awakens thieving instincts in me. But more of this later…
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Photo © Carl Hyde 22. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Photo © Carl Hyde 23. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Gearbox Records
I
am meeting: firstly, Darrel Sheinman, founder and, quoting from one of my old scripts, “the engine behind Gearbox Records’ machine”, then Caspar Sutton-Jones, mastering engineer and Justin James, the label’s commercial director. On this visit, my aim is to talk more in depth about the vinyl side of things and how Gearbox has become such a great label not just in London, but worldwide. I sit down with Darrel in their magnificent loungecomputer-museum room and I confess to him that I feel like stealing all the machines and vinyls in sight in the room. He laughs a warm and perhaps rather incredulous laughter, understandingly grasping my thieving instinct and abstaining from calling the Police instead. We start by remembering that Gearbox has now been in operation since 2009 and so this year represents an important milestone for the label: 10 years. So how did it all start for him then? How has the label grown to date? He explains that in 2009, Gearbox was a hobby label. He was at another industry, and had also been a drummer for a while, he then decided to take a big interest in audio files and equipment, mastering and cutting records. So whilst in the process of restoring, he learnt how to cut records, too. He also decided to run Gearbox as a commercial studio. From 2009 to 2013, for example, after the studio was built in 2012, it was mainly a hobby and they were essentially licensing about 500 records from all the rights to the records from the BBC and things that had never been released before. They would just do a limited run of about 500, this, in turn, would sell out. So, they developed more and did more releases. By that time Darrel was full time together with Adam Sieff, his then business partner. Adam has now retired but is still a small shareholder. Gearbox were basically doing more frontline, contemporary material as well, principally jazz, but also folk and electronic music, although being much more picky in those genres. Darrel explains then they “sort of stumbled across the new jazz scene, almost like a jazz journey. And that’s why we’ve suddenly found that we are signing all these artists like Theon Cross, Binker & Moses. It’s been good for us. We just happened to have luck, it’s not skill. And I’ve always taken the view - Darrel continues interestingly- that if I sign what I like, then someone else likes it too. The money spent on marketing to get that word out has probably been
the best deal, it’s not linear, but there’s a relationship somewhere there”. As previously mentioned, I last visited Gearbox in 2015, so this time I want to give the readers of Jazz in Europe a clear sense of what Gearbox has achieved specifically in the growth in vinyl production. Firstly, Darrel explains that they do do digital, in fact they do all formats now, and that’s worth noting. In fact digital is probably the fastest growing parts of their stable at the moment. He continues saying: “What’s interesting about digital is that it is a great marketing tool to sell vinyl. What’s changed in the market is that when I started back in 2009, vinyl was really something no one thought was coming back. It was very much a specialist product for high-end and audio file and specific collectors. It continued on in that vein for a while and then vinyl started coming back and so the ability to make better productions became more important. We became known for putting out really good productions and therefore we attracted the customers that way as well as the content that, hopefully, was good too. Following on from that everyone was putting download cards in their vinyls and trying to sell them that way. You know, there were all sorts of gimmicks and marketing tricks, free downloads, etc, to basically get people to buy vinyl. Now that’s just not relevant because vinyl has got its own life. It’s definitely back. And, as you know, it doesn’t need any tricks and gimmicks, you’re taking away from the artist when you get free downloads. So we stopped doing it, we were one of the first to stop doing it in fact, and now we just sell all the format separately.” More specifically and thoroughly interesting, Darrel explains that “what we’re finding is that the streaming growth is providing a platform for us to tell people about the content we’re putting out. And what happens is after they’ve done their rental or streaming and they really like it, they then decide to buy the Bible, hopefully. So I think that’s how the market has changed what we do and we’ve adapted to the market and, principally it’s this change of sales mix and how it’s affecting vinyl sales is very important. What we’ve also noticed is because there’s a bigger market in vinyl, it’s less of an audio file specialist product. So it’s no longer important to be at 180g. It’s not so important to do this, especially with this new jazz scene which is attracting a younger hip hop, grime audience, a crossover audience. 24. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Sometimes you have to actually make it cheaper, right? So you might end up being, you know, at 140g which is suddenly acceptable especially when making double albums. So these subtle changes have happened, yes, but we’re selling more records as a result”. Talking about vinyl also means touching upon that dreaded but necessary beast that is ‘the sales”, the efficiency of sales. So I asked Darrel which, in terms of revenues, had the advantage. He told me that vinyl has the bigger margins, but “that the problem is also that it is terrible for the cash flow because one has to make the products”. One great example, he continues, is the Monk album (an album of previously unreleased tracks and one that appears on my top 10 for 2018 incidentally). Gearbox made that product in June. It actually took three years to get that cleared with the lawyers! Eventually they got the clearance, made the product in June of 2018, released it in September the same year, but the distribution didn’t pay them. They got their first cheque in January this year. “That run - Darrel points out - was for 10,000 records. For a small company that’s a lot of money to tie up in products. And basically the company does not get any money back until much later. This is why small labels go out of business. It is because of this cash flow history. So digital is really nice because there’s none of those production costs. One uploads the product on Spotify as your distributors, but at least one’s getting paid pretty soon after the release. And that’s very powerful. So in a way it supports the vinyl sales. It’s always been mostly vinyl. I suspect that mix is going to change. I think vinyl would still go up. It’s not going to go down, but digital will start to equal it”. I always enjoy talking about Gearbox Records to anyone for the simple reason that the label has amassed such a tremendous catalogue and still retains such a modest approach to the big world of records and productions that is out there. This makes it come across as special in my view. I feel I need to lift the tempo a little bit having been chatting about some serious topics, so I ask Darrel whether there was a structure to his day perhaps? Smiling, he says that “it is fairly random…I mean, I suppose I work when I get the children ready for school. That’s the work. And then I come to work and relax. I think the only structure that we have is when we try to divide the day up into its constituent 25. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
parts. So, for example, we will talk to cast around third party mastering, you see, after building this facility for our own releases, we weren’t using it all the time and so we thought why don’t we offer it out as a professional service and make some money, which we started to do and now we’re up there with some of the great studios, we’re winning, business against Abbey Road and Metropolis, for example. The difficulty comes when we are quite busy with third party and we have also got to get our own
Gearbox Records
Darrel, relaxed and still in narrating mode, mentions his partnership with Caspar (Sutton-Jones), Gearbox’s mastering engineer, a great partnership indeed, they still do some mastering and cutting together, but he only gets involved in Gearbox’s own releases. Caspar does all the third party ones, unless it’s a big third party. They are working on a very big third party deal, at the moment, for a major label so that, he explains, needs both of them because there’s
lots of dimensions to it. “So one could say that a structured day will include some sort of balance between third party mastering and preparing our own productions for release”. Caspar, a young addition to the Gearbox team, joins the room where I have been interviewing Darrel, the lounge-studio as I call it. I ask him to explain in layman terms what a mastering engineer really does.. “Well, I get people’s music and I prepare it for the final stage of its creative process which means
Photo © Carl Hyde
releases out and which one to prioritize!”.
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Photo © Carl Hyde From left to right: Justin James | Caspar Sutton-Jones | Darrel Sheinman that the music that I receive, I then optimize it for the different formats. There’s mastering for vinyl, there’s mastering for digital formats, there’s mastering for CD. We need to remember that these things require slightly different techniques. Vinyl, in particular, is quite tricky at times because one is dealing with the physical space, but yes, I’m just kind of making sure that all of the frequencies, the highs and the lows are balanced and even, and I can get a pure, clean cut on vinyl”. 27. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
For the non-aficionados, I ask Caspar to be a bit more specific and a bit less technical, or maybe, I pre-empt, it is the writer in me, but I do want him to explain more, at which he obliges perfectly well by saying that mastering for vinyl, in particular, has a lot of different variables which would mean they will have to be just right for it to work at its best. So, he tells me that he uses things called equalizers, which can change the high and low frequencies. He uses a compressor, and limiters, which tend to squash the dynamic range of music. He uses them
Gearbox Records as little as possible because he thinks dynamics are really, really, really important, but a combination of all of those things plus a lot of trial and error, mean that he can squeeze the music on to the space of a disc. Of course, I tell him that he makes it sound all so easy, bearing in mind it sounds like there are quite a lot of ramifications involved in the process, we laugh and I proceed to ask him about a favourite of mine: The Gearbox Automatic. With its slick, modern look, it is a beauty to behold. It is just there, staring at me from the top of a cabinet at the far end of the room we are in. My thieving instincts are struggling to stay at bay! Caspar joined Gearbox three years ago, at the time, the Automatic was already in the process of being conceived and built. A concept by Darrel Sheinman with Tim Walker, the electronics engineer, designing the circuitry, and in conjunction with Rega turntables, a prototype was finally built. The turntable itself has some genius technology, like the valve preamp which is built-in, “I think valve amplification adds such a beautiful sound” - adds Caspar - “It makes such a natural sound. And the Automatic has a very small footprint as well which makes life easier for someone like me. I live in London, I don’t really have much space, so there’s the perfect size turntable for me. I can put it on my bedside table. As a mastering engineer and someone who loves an audio file, I do like to have a fully wired systems in. So it gives you the option: It’s got gold plated RCA cables, it produces a beautiful sound. Even with its small size, its low mass, on the platter itself, the turntable platter itself, it really does make a very nice noise”. I want to find out though whether there is indeed any particular point during the process of mastering that Caspar finds at all strenuous. He tells me, with his soft voice and enunciation that this would have to be
cutting vinyl itself because “well, it’s not something you can really learn outside of the cutting room. It’s something that you have to really be hands on with and continuously experimenting with. And I’m still trying, I’m still learning. Three years down the line, there’s always new things and new challenges to overcome. I think with vinyl in particular, because there are so many hundreds of variables, very, very fine and very small variables that can completely change the outcome of a cut. it’s realizing those things. It’s always a very fun challenge for each piece of music”. I love the fact that I could ask Caspar very precise questions about the mastering process. I feel quite elated in that his words and explanations showed a love and passion for his job as well as a learning curve which I always admire in people generally. So when Justin James, commercial director at Gearbox steps into the room, things take a further turn. I want to find out how his role is pivotal in the company’s rise. I learn that Justin joined the company in mid-2015 and, in keeping with the philosophy of the label, he was to be in control of all the quality elements and to do everything in house. So his arrival was initially to grow the dealer network worldwide, from the UK outwards. He tells me though that “what’s changed in the last few years is that they now have worldwide distribution, physical and digital, so his chief role remains growing the network, managing the relationships with the various distributors around the world, retaining some of the original philosophy of the label which is to keep building the original relationships. And you know, always remember that word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing. So yes, it’s a sales and marketing role really, but it’s also the task to do the best for all the artists that we put out and for the label and just to build a profile worldwide”. With a lot of travelling involved in his role, Justin explains that whether he is in the US or in Germany, Belgium or here in the UK, it is important to be as personal as possible. To engage with as many people as possible, build a rapport that will get those people to talk about Gearbox again and again. In his opinion, the biggest challenge for the label was building an infrastructure, the kind that a major record company would have, and he says that, if they have done it right, they will be able to upscale everything, bearing in mind financial restraints. He 28. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Photo © Carl Hyde 29. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Gearbox Records adds “not something that brings return and reward immediately, but if done right, the next few years should fall seamlessly into place!”. A question I ask all three of the Gearbox guys is “Vinyl, CD, download or streaming”. A cheeky kind of question because I have now realized how everyone has a different reason for choosing the relevant answer which makes it interesting in itself. Justin tells me then, having aptly reminded me I had forgotten “streaming” and which I add as above to the list (thank you, Justin) that “the very exciting thing at the moment, just in the last six months, is seeing how the value of the digital realm is to us. For example, Spotify, Apple music, they are really supporting some of our recent releases and we’re beginning to see the value of having an extensive
catalogue which we’re growing very fast. However, if we didn’t have firstly the vinyl to represent and to build the philosophy of the label in a tactile, kind of sort of physical object, we wouldn’t have the digital. And also if we stopped doing the vinyl or even the CDs in the future, no one would be interested in the digital. So ultimately the vinyl is, regardless of what brings in the most income, the thing that will remain at the heart of the label and the philosophy of the label has to revolve (wisely chosen word) around vinyl”. Gearbox Records have come a long way and they are still rising. There were many things that were discussed on the day, some I am not able to divulge… as yet, but do keep watching this space for further developments.
Photo © Carl Hyde 30. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
F ARTIST FEATURE
Anyone who’s been around the jazz scene in the last few years needs no introduction to pianist Fred Hersch. With a number of successful albums, a string of Grammy® nominations, numerous awards and highly successful tours both in the U.S.A and Europe Fred Hersch has been riding a wave of success. September 2017 saw the release of his Book “Good things happen slowly” shedding a very open and personal light on his life as a musician, his personal journey and search for identity.
Fred Hersch On the Vanguard of the Trio
Interview by: Andrew Read | Photo’s by: John Abbott, Vincent Soyez, Mark Niskanen, Martin Zeman
In December last year Fred released the album “Trio 97”, an interesting choice to follow the “Live In Europe” album that was released in May 2018. Not only are these two albums live trio recordings, the latest release is a historical recording and as the title alludes, was recorded some 21 years ago. In late 2018, just prior to the release of Trio 97, I had the great pleasure to speak with Fred and discuss the story behind this album and a great deal more.
We started out our conversation speaking about the “Trio 97” recording, I was particularly interested in knowing the back story for the release and why the album stayed in effect under wraps for more than 20 years. Fred explained,“This album is actually my seventh recording at the Vanguard that has been released and this album is the one that was undiscovered. These sets were recorded at the time more from an archival perspective, it was my first time there (The Vanguard) as a leader and my recording engineer said, you know, this is a big event for you, let’s just document it. We had no thought of doing anything commercial with it at the time.” The trio on the recording includes Drew Gress, Bass and Tom Rainey on drums and as Fred said “this trio had a fairly long life” During the time this incarnation of the Fred Hersch Trio was active they didn’t release any live concert recordings. There were a number of studio recordings released, however Fred believes the Trio 97 album is a good addition to
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the catalogue as it documents the trio in it’s natural habitat, on stage. Fred went on to say that he was going through some old recordings when he came across these tapes. They included all three sets of a single Friday night during the residency. “When I heard them after all these years, I thought it would be a good time to release them. So I combed through the material and selected 8 songs, There was some material there that hadn’t appeared on other recordings. To be honest, I really didn’t care if the songs had been recorded before, it doesn’t always need to new material, the most important thing was to get a great performance. After all, how many times did Miles record Green Dolphin Street!” Having heard the album I can attest to the quality of the performances. I was interested to know why these recordings sat around for so long and why bring them out now?
Photo © Vincent Soyez 32. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
2017 and Trio 97 as the name suggests some 21 years ago. I asked Fred if when he listens to the two albums back to back if he thinks his playing has changed in any ways he perhaps didn’t expect. “We’ll I tend to look at things as pre-coma and post-coma. These days I tend not to micro manage as much as I used to, you know, when you’ve been through what I’ve been through it does change who you are and also I am 63 now, not 42
into, I think, is pretty uncanny. I’ve always been one to move forward and not look back, but I was literally just going through things and I thought this material should just come out and why not now. There’s no major strategy behind it. If you look at my discography you’ll find a lot of unintentional albums. I mean with the Live in Europe album, I didn’t even know it was being recorded.”
and there’s a certain acceptance of my style and how I tend to do things, I’m not really looking around at what other pianists are doing, although I do keep an ear out as to what’s happening but I think I can say that my style is fairly well set, and I can say with some degree of confidence that I sound like me. You know, I can honestly say that right now I’m really enjoying playing.” The last few years have been quite hectic for Fred and when we spoke he was taking a few months off, however there is quite a lot in the pipeline for Fred Hersch fans to look forward to. Just prior to this interview, Fred had
Photo © John Abbott
“Well as I mentioned, when the recordings were made we had no intention to do anything with commercially with them, so they just sat around for all that time. Why now, well I’m not really sure why, I think my last trio album “Live In Europe” is in many respects my favourite trio date thus far. There’s a certain confidence to it and I think it stands up very well. I’ve been playing with John Hébert, and Eric McPherson and what we’ve gotten
Releasing this album almost back to back with the Live in Europe album allows us to hear two snapshots in time from Fred Hersch. Live in Europe was recorded in
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Fred Hersch done a number of shows at the Village Vanguard with Esperanza Spalding on Vocals. According to Fred these dates were also recorded and planned for release in 2020 on Esperanza’s label Concord. By the time this magazine hits the streets Fred will once again be in Europe for a number of Solo performances and of particular note for this summer is a project with the WDR Big Band in Cologne, Germany. For this project Fred will perform a selection of his compositions arranged specifically for the project by Vince Mendoza. The recordings were done in January this year and in June the live performances are scheduled.
or on CD, you can hear that the music has evolved, it’s evolved away from that authentic swing feel, that’s a part of my musical DNA. In cases it’s moved away from songs and sometimes melody, it’s more technically ambitious and rhythmically driven. I think technology has also played a large role, I’m a dinosaur when it comes to that, I still use a pencil when I write. But getting back to what settings I prefer it’s mostly the smaller settings where I feel I have more freedom.”
“I’ve actually done more solo albums than trio albums and I’ve probably made equally as many duo albums.”
Photo © JMark Niskanen
As our conversation developed we ended up speaking about the various live settings Fred feels most comfortable in and these seem to be the smaller intimate settings, solo, duo and trio. Fred reminds us that “I’ve actually done more solo albums than trio albums and I’ve probably made equally as many duo albums. This seems to be where I live. You know, right now many musicians are doing quintets and sextets, that seems to be a direction many people are going. When I listen to what’s going on, whether that’s live
Currently Fred is enjoying doing Duo’s with a wide range of different artists. Having already mentioned the project with Esperanza, also coming up in April there are concerts planed with Larry Goldings, Sarah Garzarek and Charles Lloyd. Another Duo of note will be with British pianist, Gwilym Simcock at the Chiasso Jazz Festival in Switzerland in March. Some years ago Fred was on a tour in the UK and heard one of Gwilym’s records being played at one of the venues during the break, “I said to the sound guy, who is that? he told me and since then I ‘ve been a fan. About a year ago I just wrote to him and said, I’ve been following you and your music and really admire what you’re doing. Since then we’ve been talking a lot and I’m really looking forward
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the music business?
In “Good Things Happen Slowly” Fred speaks openly not only about his musical Journey but also his personal journey. In the book he wrote that he felt he was part of the last generations that learned to play jazz “the old-fashioned way, figuring it out by fucking up, getting back on your feet again, fucking up again, hanging out, learning from the masters.” With Fred being a committed educator having taught at New England Conservatory, The Juilliard School, The New School and The Manhattan School of Music and is currently a Visiting Artist at Rutgers University, I was interested to know if he thought the current education system is doing enough to prepare students for a life in
“Well in the mid 1970’s when I decided I wanted to study jazz at a deeper level there weren’t that many institutional programs available so you were forced to study privately and basically learn on the job. These days, jazz studies programs are all over the place, you only have to open the Downbeat educational issue and see the pages of listings. All of these programs have to have a constant stream of students to be able to justify their existence and of course they also have to recruit teachers. These days teachers are also often required to have Masters degrees and doctorates just to get a job and many (not all of course) of these
Photo © Vincent Soyez
to doing a two piano show together.”
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Fred Hersch people are not what I would call creative soles, many have not really been out on the scene trying to make a living from playing, they’ve gone from a bachelor program to a master program and then a doctorate and then straight into teaching. But there are of course exceptions, we spoke before about Gwilym Simcock, he came through the traditional British system and is one of the most creative musicians I’ve ever heard. So I think the real issue is that we’re training so many people that not all will be able to make it in the industry. To think that all of these students are going to graduate and end up leading their own band and tour the world is in my mind a leap to far. That said, the really talented players will always come through.”
Fred and I continued speaking for sometime and we could have gone on for at least another hour or two however as a writer I’m always looking for a good way to wrap up an article and I believe Fred’s statement
Photo © Martin Zeman
I mentioned above that in his book Fred was very open about his personal journey and I wondered if this was a conscious decision. I asked Fred if he felt writing the book in this manner was a difficult process to deal with. “It’s just the way I am, I had a situation where I had a major publisher, editor and collaborator and we knew we were not writing a jazz book for jazz nerds to be published by a University Press, I had a multi faceted story to tell about developing sexual identity, about being a gay jazz musician long before others were out about it. It also deals with major health issues and becoming my own artist and truly trying to accept myself in all possible ways. I also lived in New York in the 1970’s and early 1980’s before the institutionalization of jazz. Back then it was club music, there was a scene, you know, I was hanging out at Bradley’s or the Vanguard and New York in those days was a mess. It was dirty and crime ridden, not like the Disneyland it is these days. So the book is actually a valentine to that particular time and place.
aware of her, I read about her each week in the Village Voice but that didn’t affect the appreciation I had for her journey. Her book inspired me to approach my own book in the same way. I realized that the people who would read my book may not be jazz heads but I hoped that in reading it they may learn something about it. They may come into it from a health or sexual identity point of view or even just a New York story point of view. I was 60 years old when I wrote the book and although I’m not done yet, I do feel I’ve lived enough and experienced enough to warrant a book.”
that he’s “not done yet” sums it all up. Fred Hersch is far from done! Footnote: Fred Hersch’s latest album “Trio 97” is now available on Palmetto Records. For those intrested, you can read my full album review on the Jazz In Europe website.
So there were all these things that contributed to me wanting to tell my story in a full way. I’d say the one book that really made me want to write my book was Pattie Smith’s book, Just Kids, It’s a great book that takes place in the early seventies at the beginnings of the punk movement and deals with her finding her way as an artist. I realized when I read her book that I’ve never owned a Pattie Smith record, I was certainly
36.| Jazz 14. | Jazz InIn Europe Europe - Summer - Spring 2019 2018
INTERVIEW
Paul Jost
Give Me The Simple Life Interview by: Nigel J. Farmer | Photos by: Chris Drukker
For those among us who are not familiar with Paul Jost and his work allow me to bring you up to speed. Paul is a vocalist based on the east coast of the USA and is currently making waves on the New York scene. Although he released his début solo album “Breaking Through” in 2014, Paul is certainly no newcomer to the scene. Now in his early sixties Paul spent the majority of his career working as a drummer, composer/arranger and side man for an impressive list of artists. It was only in 2014 with the release of his first album as a leader that Paul began to focus on vocals as his main instrument. 37. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Photo © Chris Drukker 38. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
W
ith this in mind, I opened our interview by asking Paul, what prompted his change of focus to vocals? Paul replied “I think it’s just a time in my life and part of my journey. So many of the great singers I’ve worked with (Ed: Paul mentioned, Bobby Scott, Mark Murphy, Billy Eckstine, Frank D’Rone, Sylvia Simms, Ann Hampton Callaway, Joanie Somers, Fran Jeffries) have shown me the importance of the lyric and telling the story. I think at this time of my life, with a point of view that’s been developing all these years as an instrumentalist, writer/arranger, husband, father and grandfather, that I can express myself more completely and connect with people in more than a singular way. “I’m comfortable in my skin, never completely satisfied of course, but I’ve made friends with my own vulnerability and okay with expressing that openness now. I’m a grown man with a lot of life experience and not all from music. There comes a time you know. Like I could sing “Lush Life” when I was twenty but it carried a different weight then. Look, Strayhorn wrote it when he was what 16? “The Diviners” was written by Jim Leonard when he was very young, so I’m not saying you can’t go deep when you’re young. You can, and I have, that’s when some experiences (good or bad) can be the most compelling to deal with. Guess I’m just saying that with time, distance and life experience, you can preach from a different pulpit.” While researching for this interview I couldn’t help but notice that many people have commented on his instrumental like phrasing and rhythmic approach to melody. I asked Paul if he felt that his work as a drummer and instrumentalist had played a role in the development of his vocal style. He replied “Absolutely! I think all those experiences are inseparable. All little bits of clay, little bits of colour and textures that form us into what we are.” Paul’s new album titled “Simple Life” is on the verge of hitting the market. Having heard the new album the first thing I noticed was that this album marks quite a departure from his début “Breaking Through”. Breaking Through, was recorded largely as a studio project using mostly session players where as “Simple Life” is recorded as a band project with Paul’s working quartet. I asked Paul if this was a conscious decision he explained that it was definitely a conscious 39. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
decision. Paul has been working regularly with his quartet featuring Jim Ridl, piano, Dean Johnson, bass and Tim Horner on drums and found it important to record the album with this line-up. listening to the album it becomes immediately clear that there is a high level of musical interplay between the musicians, and I enjoyed their unique vision on the repertoire presented. I asked Paul about his arranging process and how this process worked within the band. “It’s been my process (for songs with lyrics), to just sing the lyric over and over with no music and try to keep myself open to possibilities. Trying to
Photo © Chris Drukker recognize any life relationships that emerge from the story and then go from there. They don’t always have to come from my personal experiences. Sometimes you just let your imagination go and project an interpretation. “One of the things I love about this quartet is they allow me to talk about what I had in mind with an arrangement; The feelings and journey that I was thinking about with the character. It helps so much with interpretation but only because they’re willing to invest in the music that way…so we tell the story together. It’s a drag sometimes to be with musicians who see that as “cornball romanticism”
and just want to get to the notes. “I never want the story to take a back seat. I’m sure I’ve developed this from so many of the singers I’ve played with. You know, really hearing them and trying your best to think compositionally. We all have a fingerprint and I’m not saying to suppress that, just that it’s about our conversations and what we tell together. Everyone in this group takes that approach. They’re all masters on their instruments and always aware. There are opportunities to blow and express ourselves telling individual chapters. It’s just that these great musicians also know that it’s not just about the notes and the skill set.” 40. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Photo © Chris Drukker 41. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Paul Jost
The album also features a guest appearance on four tracks from vibraphonist Joe Locke. I asked Paul about this choice and how it came about. He explained that Joe first heard the band at a gig in Red Bank and came up to him after the set. Paul went on to say “..we immediately hit on so many things together.” Some time later, Joe called to ask Paul if he would guest for a few nights at his upcoming dates at Dizzy’s in New York and sing a few songs from his new album “Subtle Disguise”. “... of course I said yes! I was so honoured to be asked.” replied Paul. Paul went on to say “Joe is just an incredible artist with vast experience and he always brings it to bear. I love his fire and also his lyricism and his beautiful sound. He’s such a passionate person and that always comes through in his music. I went to his house to rehearse and in this very first meeting we were telling stories and both welling up at times. That might sound funny. Two grown men sitting around telling stories and shedding tears, but it was the openness and vulnerability I mentioned before.
least and carries a strong message. A quick search on YouTube will also lead you to a number of live versions of this track where the band really stretch out on this tune. I asked Paul about this song and where the inspiration for the arrangement came from. “Mark Murphy was the inspiration for this arrangement, talk about a passionate storyteller! For me, no one framed a story like Mark. I’m grateful for the few opportunities I had to play drums for him and to experience first-hand what an extraordinary, inspiring and transformative artist he was. “Though I understood his dementia to be a misdiagnosis, I found myself imagining how it might be to become aware of my own unravelling which led to this arrangement. I love doing this tune and it’s always different. The CD version is wonderful and there’s a beautiful dialogue between Joe and Jim. When we do this piece live with the quartet it sometimes really opens up expressing the madness and confusion. It’s cathartic. I like pointing to the version on YouTube that was done in concert with the West Chester Faculty. Mark said it best, “Love is what stays” and his love and inspiration sticks forever.”
“...I found myself imagining how it might be to become aware of my own unravelling...”
“There’s an honesty and connection that can’t be dismissed. I think we fit each other’s music really well. When I finally finished the arrangement of “Blackbird” (Ed: Opening track from the new album) I thought it had Joe written all over it and his approach on “If I Only Had A Brain” is just beautiful. I told him he sounded like those “bubbles in a glass of champagne”. We all want to be prepared and sound good of course, but Joe was also instrumental in approaching some of my voicings with Jim and helping them speak in a beautiful way. He also had some great advice for me which he presented in the most respectful way, that I’m certain makes me a better singer. He cares about the music and the people around him.”
In Paul’s biography it states that he is a “passionate storyteller” and I would agree with this. One of the tracks on the album that had quite an impact on me personally and certainly conveys a story is “Everybody’s Talkin’”. Most people will recognize this song from the film “Midnight Cowboy” however his version is unconventional to say the
We moved on to talk about another project Paul did some time ago, re-imagining the music of Bruce Springsteen. The project was first commissioned by Michael Kline and the brief was to re-imagine Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” album to celebrate the album’s 40 anniversary in 2015. The show would headline that years Exit Zero International Jazz Festival in Cape May New Jersey. Paul explained, “It was Michael Kline who asked me to do this and it was a great opportunity to explore Springsteen’s music. I asked Barry Miles if he’d share the arranging duties with me, and of the eight songs he did three, I did three, we did one together and one we left as is. I put together a killer band with Jim Ridl, Tony Miceli, Chico Huff, Anwar Marshall & John Swana and we headlined at Exit Zero with Joey Alexander 42. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Photo © Chris Drukker and it went over really well. Believe me I was nervous about how it would be received”. I think it’s important to note here that this project is not what you would call a “Tribute Band” project. When speaking of the project Paul says his arrangements of the music on the original album push the songs out of the box, but they aren’t “science projects”. He went on further to say, “I stay true to the intent that respects and honours Springsteen and his great lyrics, and I incorporated some of the musical lines so it remains familiar, but I was commissioned to re-imagine the work as jazz and it definitely leans that way with the harmonies, rhythms and interpretations. 43. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
“I’m really proud of the work and grateful to Michael Kline for asking me to do it. We recorded a live performance at The Bitter End in New York with Donald Edwards on drums that came out really well and we also want to do a studio version soon. Another thing I’m really excited about is to do this with big bands. Working on some blow ups of the arrangements now and hoping we might land a few festivals here and in Europe with the project.” While speaking about the Springsteen project, as well as many other topics, a familiar thread emerged, Paul’s writing and arranging. During my research (I’m going to show my age here) I came
Paul Jost
simple people (not simple-minded) and work hard and honest. They’re like flowers blooming in the unlikeliest spots. He’s represented in the story as a farmer sowing their plot that’s been handed down. They believe in and are held together by a “common sense” morality. The kind that lives inside you and doesn’t need to be taught or lectured or need “right” and “wrong” defined. One that’s no more complicated than just listening to the voice inside your head. “This family doesn’t see themselves as elevated or better because of how they choose to live, but they don’t hide from it, make excuses or apologize for their beliefs either. They aren’t uncomfortable saying a “prayer” to their god or their universe by giving thanks and expressing gratitude and appreciation at the table before dinner. They hold hands unabashedly when they walk through town and aren’t fearful to show or receive love. The weak, the unnoticed and forgotten can be seen and heard, and the last lines say it for me. “Though the way of the world is upside down, even the flowers can make a sound, pressed together in a book that’s faded brown. Bound together by a book that’s faded brown. “I was so honoured to have Carl Perkins, The Band and Rick Danko record the song. Carl wrote me such a beautiful note and I was told that at Rick’s funeral the lyric was read because it meant so much to him. That’s so powerful and one of the most important things to me about music and our time here together…to touch and connect with each other. To vibrate that cord we all share.”
across a post about one of my favourite bands from my misspent youth, Rick Danko and “The Band”. As it turns out Paul is the writer of one of The Bands, best loved song’s “Book Faded Brown”. This song features on a number of their albums and in fact is the opening song on their 1998 release “Jubilation”. I’ve always loved the lyrics to this song and couldn’t resist asking Paul to elaborate on the meaning. “Book Faded Brown” is a song I wrote at a time when I felt a general erosion of morality and the “book” is a symbolic collection of that family’s ideals and values. The book may be worn, tattered and faded, but they hold on to these principles. They’re
Paul started his career as I mentioned at the start of this article as a drummer and quickly notched up some impressive credits on the New York session scene. In those formative years Paul was extremely grateful to be given the chance to work on studio dates with the likes of Joe Farrell and Ron Carter to name a few. I asked Paul to tell us a little about those early days and what impact that had on him as a young musician. “In regard to Ron Carter and Joe Farrell, I don’t want it to be construed as if they called me! to play on their records. I was around 20 and in NY playing drums trying to make my way, and in both cases found myself on record dates with producers who had brought us together. Great experiences though and I learned so much from both. 44. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
“I can’t remember the artist when I played with Ron, but we recorded at Plaza Sound upstairs in Radio City Music Hall. What I do remember is how honoured I felt to play with him and how focused he was wanting to get everything just right. It wasn’t a jazz recording and I wasn’t sure what to expect when he’d get there. He was congenial and a total pro. Here I was playing with one of my heroes who carried so much gravitas approaching the music in a workmanlike way. I learned so much from that experience. The importance of always being a professional, bring your best, and that you’re only as good as you are right now. I also understood that if you accept a gig then treat it with respect. By the way, the only time Ron asserted any of his station was to ask for heat! I was freezing my ass off. It’s a big room and it was cold, but I wasn’t about to make any demands. (Thank you Mr. Carter!!). “My session with Joe Farrell was also at Plaza. I’d been listening to his record “Outback” like a thousand times. What a great record and then here I am on a session with him! I don’t remember the artist but the producer was Genya Ravan, and Meco Monardo was the arranger. You can’t go on a session with self doubts, but I had some butterflies. I was just telling myself, be a pro, take care of business and don’t say anything stupid! Meco had written this really cool drum thing for like a 4 bar transition. A sort of half time thing built into a double time pattern, and I nailed it. On a break for playback Joe comes walking over to the drum booth and I’m hoping he doesn’t ask me something like “So what’s your real instrument?” He leaned over the booth and said, “Where you from? Nice job. I like the way you play. Nice feel. Solid time.” No solo he ever played had more impact on me than that brief acknowledgement. I could feel the nerves retreat and the blood returning. “See in both these cases I learned about the humanity and kindness and the weight of encouragement by ones you hold in such high regard, the ones who continually raise the bar. I did a lot of really nice sessions at Plaza Sound. Great engineer there was Rob Freeman, and I’m sure he was recommending me if asked. I remember one date with Sivuca (what a beautiful soul and musician) him asking to have the music brought closer so that “My eyes can eat the paper.” I learned a lot from those experiences.” 45. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
With our time fast coming to an end, I was interested to know what’s next for Paul Jost. “Hopefully more of the same and more often. I love all the things I’m doing in NY and if I can digress for just a minute. When I was playing for Billy Eckstine, he Bobby Tucker and I would go to the cafeteria between shows and man the stories they would tell. You know, I’m sitting there with encyclopedias of jazz! B would tell stories of the days when he’d finish a set and then go down the street to catch Sarah Vaughn and then they’d go here and there to catch so and so, and so and so was playing with so and so. Know what I mean? In a way I would fall in love with that romanticism and that time. “In hearing B’s stories I catch myself now in 2019 going into NY on a Sunday morning to North Square and catch a great singer like Roz Corral with Yotam Silberstein or Ed Cherry and Harvie S, then walk 2 blocks to Smalls and catch Marianne Solivan singin’ her ass off with Josh Richman, Matt Parrish and Vince Ector. Leave there and walk a block to the 55 Bar and catch Vic Juris and Jay Anderson. All this free. Might be a drink minimum, but c’mon. I’m hearing one great thing after the other and leave town filled to overflowing with inspiration (and Mezzrow, Village Vanguard and more are all within a block or two). And 5-10 years from now when I’m mentioning some of those musicians names, the people I’m talking to will be eyes wide open and saying “Wow! You would catch them for free? “I’m living the same life B was talking about, living the dream and knowing the romance of what we do, and I’m a long way away from a young lion any more. There are more days behind me than in front. But it’s all here and still vital and filled with creativity and life and possibilities.” “So what’s up for me? I want to continue to embrace life, create music with sensitive musicians, vibrate the cord we share, be relevant, stay aware, know the love of my family and friends and present something positive to the audiences I’m waiting to meet.” Paul Jost’s new album “Simple Life” will be available in the USA and on digital platforms on the 29th of March and in Europe on May 31st. You can find it at all the usual places.
Photo © Chris Drukker 46. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
PHOTO FEATURE
Michel Reis
Reis Demuth Wiltgen Trio with Joshua Redman, March 26 2016, “Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg”, Luxembourg 47. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Jazz Behind The Lens
Guy Fonck It’s all about the moment!
Born in 1961 in Luxembourg based photographer Guy Fonck has amassed a large portfolio of black and white photography of jazz musicians shot mostly in a live concert environment. Guy’s work has featured at many exhibitions throughout Europe including the International Photo Exhibition of Contemporary Music in Burghausen, Germany where his work was displayed regularly in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Recently I had the pleasure of speaking to Guy about his work.
48. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
49. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Guy Fonck
and in 1987 a number of his photos became part of a collective exhibition “Carte blanche aux photographes luxembourgeois”.
G
uy was “Born into photography”. His father was a passionate photographer and Guy recalls spending hours as a young boy with his father in the Dark Room. He received his first camera at the tender age of seven, an “Agfa Click”, and from this moment on he was hooked. In his early teens Guy developed a love of jazz and blues music “My parents had a large collection of jazz albums but in Luxembourg in the 60’s access to live jazz music was limited.” His main exposure to live jazz at that time came through a family friend, Raymond Clement. Clement was himself a renowned jazz photographer and broadcaster on RTL in the 1970’s. Guy recalls, “Raymond would travel to clubs and festivals to take photos and as he was a friend of the family my parents would let me go with him. This is where my love of jazz came from, I learned a great deal from him.” By the late 1970’s Guy joined the jazzclubluxembourg and had started to develop his portfolio, he recalls “I started taking black and white photos at jazz concerts and festivals, using an Asahi Pentax K2 camera with Asahi Pentax lenses and most often Kodak Tri-X films.” It was in 1979 that his work was first included at the “Internationaler Fotosalon Zeitgenössischer Musik Burghausen” in Germany. Guys work would become a mainstay at this exhibition with his photos being displayed regularly throughout the 1980’s and the first half of the 1990’s. Guys work also formed part of the permanent exhibition of jazz photos at the now defunct Malakoff Jazz Café in Luxembourg
Guy’s activities in the jazz world are not only limited to photography, by the late 1980’s he had become more involved with the organization of concerts and festivals in Luxembourg as well as presenting a jazz program on Luxembourg’s public radio. “After 1986, I got more and more involved at the jazzclubluxembourg, organizing jazz concerts and festivals, such as the annual Jazz Rallye Luxembourg and many of the jazz-related activities in 1995 when Luxembourg was the Cultural Capital of Europe. I was so busy, I stopped with photography for almost ten years.” After this period Guy once again picked up the camera, albeit sporadically, “I continued to focus on black and white jazz photography, while I was programming the concerts for jazzclubluxembourg, before its activities stopped in 2007”. However it was the purchase of a digital camera in 2003 that once again lit the flame of photography for good. I asked Guy to tell us from a photographer’s point of view what makes a great shot. “It’s all about the moment, you want to capture that moment when the artist is fully emerged in their music.” He went on to say “one of the challenges with analogue photography is light and seeing I concentrate on capturing live concert performances this was often a problem. Often you have the moment but the light at that point is no good. With digital this is no longer an issue and I you have more freedom to get what you need. I’m always striving for that one shot that’s both technically correct and captures the moment.” We went on to speak about influences and Guy rightly cites Raymond Clement and his work as an early influence along with the work of Francis Wolff. Guy stated he was the master in capturing the moment. “I think this is why his photos have such an Iconic status.” Guys work is almost exclusively in black and white and I was interested to hear his reason for this. “It’s purely artistic, I think the ambience of Black and White suits jazz.” For more information on Guy Fonck you can visit his website www.focusonjazz.lu. Guys book also titled “Focus On Jazz” is available on Blurb.com. You can find links to both these sites on the Jazz In Europe website.
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E.J. Strickland
E.J. Strickland with the Reggie Washington Quartet, May 10 2018, “Opderschmelz” Dudelange, Luxembourg
51. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
52. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Erik Johannessen
Erik Johannessen with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra feat. Joshua Redman, February 28 2013, “Opderschmelz” Dudelange, Luxembourg 53. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman Two Bass Quartet, Octobre 28 2008, Philharmonie Luxembourg-City, Luxembourg
54. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Philip Catherine
Philip Catherine Quartet, February 14 2017, “Opderschmelz” Dudelange, Luxembourg
55. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
James Carter
James Carter Quintet, October 23 2008, “Opderschmelz” Dudelange, Luxembourg
56. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Joe Fonda
Joe Fonda with the Weird Chinese Songs Trio, April 20 2009, “Opderschmelz” Dudelange, Luxembourg 57 | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Paolo Fresu
Ralph Towner & Paolo Fresu, February 8 2012, “Opderschmelz” Dudelange, Luxembourg
58. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
INTERVIEW
E.J. Strickland
A Warrior For Peace Interview by: Jan Veldman| Photos by Shervin Lainez & FabienGenais
New York based drummer E.J. Strickland belongs to the generation of jazz artists that rose from the City’s jazz scene in the 1990’s. Having worked as a sideman for some the Jazz’s most influential artists of the 21st century including among others Cassandra Wilson, Terence Blanchard, Lizz Wright, Wynton Marsalis, George Colligan, Russell Malone and Ravi Coltrane Strickland is also an accomplished leader in his own right. His most recent album “Warriors for Peace” has received rave reviews and recent tours including an extensive European journey through most of Europe’s leading venues in 2018 drew packed houses. Recently I had the pleasure to sit with EJ to discuss the new album and find out more about is background and vision.
J
an Veldman: EJ, thanks for talking with us. You grew up in Miami in a creative household. Your father was a percussionist in the Ft. Lauderdale Orchestra and both you and your twin brother Marcus ended up professional jazz musicians. Tell us a little about those early days and the road that led you to your profession? E.J. Strickland: As young kids we were exposed to all kinds of great music growing up. My dad was an audiophile and played LP’s of Stevie Wonder, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Jon Lucien, Led Zeppelin, etc. all of the time in our house. Jazz was never “foreign” or an “acquired taste” to us. It was a part of our everyday listening. My father also played drumset, mostly funk & R&B. I saw my dad play at a cook-out one time and fell in love with the drums. We were into football early on, then had an interest in engineering, but in middle school we needed an elective. We chose music. I started on trombone, but really wanted to play the drums. I begged my band teacher to let me play the drums and told him my father would teach me. And, I did study drums with my father: rudiments on the snare, basic grooves on the drum set, etc. We started trying to play jazz right away. We fell in love with music and never stopped. JV: When you moved to New York, you became part of the generation of musicians that included Mike Moreno, Robert Glasper, Brandon Owens, and Marcus Baylor to name just a few. Many of these young players went on to become leaders in their own right and shape today’s jazz. Tell us a little about the NYC scene back then? ES: Before I arrived in New York in 1997, I visited The New School for Social Research where I was considering attending school and eventually did. I saw Buster Williams’ ensemble play in the performance space. Some of the students performing were Gregoire Maret, Marcus Baylor, Jaz Sawyer, Casey Benjamin, Kenyatta Beasley, etc. Right away I knew I wanted to attend school there. When I attended school 59. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Photo Š Shervin Lainez 60. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Photo Š Shervin Lainez 61. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
E.J. Strickland I had ensemble with Robert Glasper, Mike Moreno, Carlos Henriquez, Seneca Black, & my brother Marcus Strickland. Also, Bilal Oliver was a part of our “crew”. We hung out and saw great performances at The Village Vanguard, Smalls, Blue Note, etc. We were all very tight and some of us still remain very tight until this day. The scene was vibrant, and we’d go out and jam every night at sessions. Cleopatra’s Needle was a regular spot. The Up And Over Jazz Cafe in Brooklyn was a spot I regularly played at. Some of the greatest jazz musicians of the generation before us would appear there, play a bit, and school us on serving the music right: Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Russell Malone, Mulgrew Miller, etc. We’d listen to what they had to say and practised hard. JV: In your early career you worked with Russell Malone and Ravi Coltrane. In your Bio it states “Both artists proved to be big brother types for E.J., gently guiding him as he established his voice.” what were your major “take aways” from this time and what have you carried with you in your career moving forward? ES: Russell Malone reinforced the tradition in my playing. To this day, I don’t really know anyone that knows as much music as Russell does. He would encourage me to really dig down groove. He taught me that making the music “feel good” was the most important thing. Ravi encouraged me to find my own voice and way of interpreting music. I’d always ask, “what do you want me to play” if he didn’t dig something I was doing. He’d tell me, “Just find something”. I had to reach down and find my own dance in the music. His compositions forced me to play different things that I hadn’t played or heard before. JV: You’ve built a successful career as a composer, band leader, and sideman. As a sideman you’ve worked with an impressive list of musicians including Cassandra Wilson, Terence Blanchard, Wynton Marsalis, George Colligan and Vincent Herring, to name a few. Also you’ve appeared on more than 60 albums. Do you find it difficult to balance your work as a sideman and your projects as a leader? ES: These days, I am less busy as a sideman and it is easier to concentrate on my own projects. But, I’m still busy nonetheless with Ravi Coltrane, The Manuel Valera Trio, Brandee Younger, Dave Weiss, etc. Nowadays, I find myself writing music more than anything. I just do my best to create great
vehicles for my band to play on. I also started an electric band called Transient Beings which I write music & lyrics for. I have an incredible booking agent Stefany Calembert who is doing a great job on getting me tours. This also helps me focus on being a bandleader and a musician more. JV: Let’s speak about the new album. You mention that the title “Warriors for Peace” is your favourite oxymoron! Can you elaborate a little on this? ES: Warriors For Peace is my favourite oxymoron because it is a very real scenario that we are dealing with, has been dealt with, and will always be dealt with: we must stand up, speak out against, and annihilate hate in order to achieve peace. Martin Luther King is my favourite warrior for peace. He knew that he was destined to be our hero & our warrior against hate. He didn’t fight back with weapons, or hate, or negativity. He fought back with love, vision, and activism. Many people are intrigued by the title. And thats why I chose it. Because I want to shed light on this subject that is still very relevant and always will be. JV: Unlike many albums led from the drum chair this album seems to me to focus on composition rather then engineered rhythmic complexity. Was the a conscious choice? ES: Definitely a conscious choice. I didn’t want this album to “shock”. I wanted this album to relax the listener and evoke peaceful & pleasant thoughts for the most part. Also, this album is a love letter for those who have fought for peace. It wasn’t meant to be a moment for me to show off how complex I can play (which I can certainly do). It is meant to show off my ability to embrace the ensemble & orchestrate the sentiment of these tunes. JV: The album has a very holistic feel to it where in my opinion the individual players and compositions blend to form a greater whole. Do you think that recording the Album in Marseille in the middle of your 2017 European tour had an impact on this? ES: I definitely do think it had an impact on the cohesiveness amongst the group. After being on the road a while and bonding on & off stage, it inspired us to really connect in the studio. JV: You recently travelled to Senegal – tell us about this trip. ES: Senegal was shear beauty! The trip was organized 62. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Photo © Fabien Genais by a good friend from there who I met in NY, Cheikh. It was 3 bands assembled (borrowing each others’ personnel) to play a gig for the Senator of Dakar and his many political associates & friends. And then another party at our friend Sheikh’s beach house: The Brandee Younger Trio, The Marta Sanchez Quartet, & The E.J. Strickland Quintet. We had much fun performing, meeting new friends, and absorbing the beauty of Senegal.
( so far - Le Cheval Blanc in Strasbourg, FR & Sunside Sunset in Paris, FR). Also, we’ll be back in Europe sometime in the Fall 2019. We’re going to Mexico thanks to Jazz At Lincoln Center in April to perform & teach clinics.
JV: You have been touring regularly with the band including a number of European trips last year. Do have any plans to return to Europe in 2019?
JV: I know music education is important to you and you’ve just mentioned you will be teaching some clinic’s in Mexico later next month. Also on your last European tour you also give a number of masterclases. When you give a masterclass what is the most important subject you focus on and what do you hope the students will take away.
ES: Yes, we will return in March of for a brief tour
ES: Teaching is something I really love to do and
63. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
E.J. Strickland
prepare students for a life in the music industry? ES: I think music schools can do much more to prepare students for their careers as musicians. I think they should make music business more of a requirement. Also, we need to prepare our students spiritually for the road before them. Attitude adjustment is very important. And, helping a student set up a good living foundation: place to live, masters degrees, branding, etc. could also help them in the future. JV: Recently I’ve been asking many of the musicians I interview a standard question that, at times, tends to provoke some controversial answers. So here we go, What is your opinion of the state of jazz today? ES: I think that the state of jazz is always evolving to survive and maintain its relevancy in today’s world. I think that there are many musicians who want to control others and make them play a certain way. Also, there’s a lot of controversy over incorporating other styles into the music. But, I feel that we should embrace the changes that are happening. It is only part of the process of evolution. We need to live and let live, I believe. If you are a purest, concentrate on your world of music and do your best at that. If you are someone who loves to incorporate other forms of expression into jazz, concentrate on your world of music and do your best at that. So, all in all, I think we’ll be good as long as we focus more on ourselves and what we have to say than criticizing another for their way of doing things. JV: To finish up, what’s next for EJ Strickland.
continue to love more and more every time I do it. In my masterclass, we will play a bit. Then I answer questions from the participants. I tend to focus on explaining how to master the basics in order to achieve total freedom on your instrument. I also focus on everyone’s role in a band, and how to listen to one another through the language of music. All in all, I want to help musicians actually become “artists” as opposed to someone who plays an instrument.
ES: I am currently working on my next album which shall be featuring both The E.J. Strickland Quintet & my electric group Transient Beings. E.J. Strickland’s new album “Warriors For Peace” is now available on JammincolorS records and can be found at all the usual places.
JV: Having personally spent almost 40 years in the music industry both as a performer and on the business side, I often see a massive disconnect between the artistic aspects and the business side of the industry. Do you think educational institutions do enough to 64.| Jazz | Jazz InIn Europe Europe - Summer - Spring 2019 2018 42.
ARTICLE
TA K E 6
Iconic A Cappella Interview by: Paola Vera | Photos by: John Shyloski
Photo Š John Shyloski
Any singer who aspires for vocal excellence cannot overlook the contributions these men have made to music. Take 6 has performed with and won praise from such luminaries as Stevie Wonder, Brian Wilson, Ben E. King, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Al Jarreau, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, and Whitney Houston, and this is just few names on a long list of who’s who in the upper echelons of the music industry past and present.
65. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Paola Vera: Your most recent album ‘Iconic’ was produced and arranged by yourselves and is your first album to chart at no1 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz chart. Could you tell us a bit more about the process behind making the album? Khristian: Well, the process started before we actually recorded, we were sitting at rehearsal at Mark’s house in California and the concept came while sitting around the table to do songs that we just enjoy singing after every show. You’ll hear us, if you were to be backstage, you’d hear us singing and most of the songs that are on this album are songs that we like and we enjoy singing, because we love music so much right, so we actually ended up doing a list – each person did their top 20 songs, and we went around and voted on the songs that we wanted to do on the album, because there were songs that were from year to year, just incredible songs, iconic songs which is were the name of the album came from, so that was the process in deciding what songs were gonna be on the record.
Mark: We take them; then we arrange them, so that we can do them. Paola Vera: Mark, you have been named the ‘architect of the Take 6 sound’ could you tell us a bit more about the process behind arranging these songs. Alvin: The mar-chitecht Mark: They say that, because I was the original arranger for the group, and have been instrumental in arranging us all the way through but I’m not the only one in fact my partner here David Thomas produced with me the whole project. Christian Dentley is also quite an established arranger/producer he lent his producing arms to it. Paola Vera: So when you go about arranging do you have a specific way of arranging, do you work at the piano or do you have the sounds fully formed in your head and just write it? Mark: Well it’s probably a mixture of them all. I definitely hear what needs to happen in my
66. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
head before I go to a keyboard and work it out and typically with all our songs we will now use modern technology and include sequencers, the entire sequence and perhaps even sing the song down, record it, before everybody else records it, so we can make sure that it works right before everybody else has to get in and work hard to make sure that it’s everything that it needs to be! Paola Vera: So you actually record everybody’s part yourself to check that the voice leading is correct? Mark: Yes to make sure that it works and that it has the excitement, that it has what we want the audience to get. We wanna make sure that we put it all in there for the people from the very beginning. Paola Vera: And you guys learn it aurally I imagine? Mark: Yes, pretty much by rote (meaning repetition). Paola Vera: So it’s a case of listening to the recording over and over again until you’ve nailed your part, and never any kind of sheet music involved? Alvin: Although yea, that’s how I learn mine, because generally they’re together when they’re learning their stuff or recording together and I’m usually Johnny come lately. So I read my stuff down so I’ve got one more step to catch up to where they are. David: I think especially with this particular project we really weren’t together that much. We probably did maybe three songs at best together, everybody did all the others at home in their home studio, recording their own part. Paola Vera: So that actually leads on to my next question about the changes in technology, has it affected the way you work? Claude: So originally we were all together, although we always recorded Alvin by himself. Pretty much all the other guys were together, except they’d do the solos by themselves. Alvin: Yea tonically, if I can get the proximity without others it helps me pitch. David: Yea also, once you get to the mix in order to have enough of the bass you want to be able to adjust the volume of that alone without changing the rest. Paola Vera: What do you think about the evolution of jazz today? Where do you feel it’s heading? 67. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Mark: I personally have seen it grow and expand if you think we started doing a lot of big band styling when we first started and that was in the early 80’s, which was bringing something that was old then, to something new. What we have done is also being expanded by the new generation that’s coming today. They’re doing voicings and things that I would never do, but now it’s becoming ‘the thing’ and they’re very avant-garde with it, at least some of them are! You also have the music where there’s lots of sampling of other music. We find ourselves being sampled as well, which you know, I actually consider it an honour that we’re good enough for them to want to sample and use. By the same token we want to still stay relevant. From time to time we incorporate some of the newer things that are going on in today’s music with what we do. Paola Vera: What advice would you give to artists today starting out? Alvin: I would say for them to take advantage of the technology that’s out today, when we first started there was this record company where you would put out this project, everything was so controlled in how you were seen, but now with Instagram it pulls back all these layers and they see us going to the studios, they see us working on a project, they see us coming off of flights, and at first it’s a little off-putting because you lose a little bit of that mystique. If you just step forward and embrace all of it, for new artists I think it allows your audience to accept and understand who you are on many many different levels, and it gives you relevance. So where as we didn’t have opportunities through YouTube and Instagram to get the mass audience, now everybody can. There’s probably five people that I follow that probably don’t have a major deal, but they are incredible and everytime they come up I’m like wow! That’s an advantage that we didn’t have. Khristian: For me I would say ‘find your thing’ there are 7 billion people on the planet and there’s a good chance that there are a lot of people who are able to grab a hold of whatever your thing is. We live in an age where there’s a lot happening. Find what’s authentically you and do that well, there will be somebody who will listen to and attach themselves to that. It might not be billboard no.1, we have to measure success in a way that’s not off-putting. Something that is reasonable for you, say you know what this is, who I am, this is the music that I do,
Take 6
Claude: I think the first thing is, when you travel as much as we do, you have to get as much rest, actual sleep so that you can rest those vocal chords, they’re muscles they need to be replenished, they need to be restored and so we’re sleeping as much as we can when we’re on the road. We do from time
to time have vocal issues, I think everybody deals with those differently. For me personally, I drink as much water as I can, and take as much rest. I try not to do a lot of singing or speaking until its time to actually warmup. Warmup is important, and you do that just like lifting weights, you start very gently then work harder and harder, till you find the point where you are peaking for the performance. Paola Vera: Groups don’t usually stay together for 30 years and still remain relevant! What’s the secret of your longevity? The mar-achitect (they all laugh) Claude: Back to what Khristian was saying, be uniquely who you are I think we’ve gone through periods of time where we’ve tried to do other things,
Photo © John Shyloski
somebody’s gonna love it, I’m gonna stick to that, regardless of whether I win a Grammy, just so that the people who follow me are inspired by it. Find who you are and do that well. Paola Vera: You all are heavy voice users – how do you maintain tip - top vocal condition with all the travelling and performing? Are there any specific models you use? Have any of you ever suffered any vocal problems and if so how have you handled them?
68. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
to try and find relevance. It always comes back to Take 6 which is a very unique group, and when we do us to the nth degree, it finds an audience. That audience maintains us being relevant. It may not mean that you’re no 1 or that selling millions of albums but you continue to work, you continue to
one. Your continued success has meant having to miss out on many important family events. How do you balance the pressures of maintaining a family life with a demanding global career?
grow and I think that it’s really important to know that as artists.
the priority. We do travel around a lot together, we’ve eaten countless holiday meals together, shared anniversaries when we are away from our families but if they know that they are the priority, whether it is spending time with them, giving them the priority when you’re home, Skype with them at night, making sure that you stay connected. For us this is a lifestyle beyond a job, beyond a career, but our families are our world, and all of that submits under God, who is our life. I think that keeping everything in order keeps it together for us. Although it still demands a lot of time and we have young children and young marriages and all kinds of different things so if we keep that in order
Photo © John Shyloski
Alvin: I think for us, our families know that they are
Joey: And from the inside out you gotta learn to respect and appreciate each other because everybody can be super talented but if you can’t get along and work with each other, find each other’s strengths, cover each other’s weaknesses; if you can’t learn that team spirit, you’ll be a super talented group that’s not going to last long because you can’t actually work together. Appreciating and respecting each other’s talents, giving each other space, be ready to support each other. Paola Vera: Your story is also undoubtedly a family 69. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
Take 6 it stays in balance. Paola Vera: ‘Spread love’ one of your greatest hits from your first album spreads a message of unconditional love which feels particularly relevant and necessary considering many of the challenges we face in today’s world. Have you found it challenging to continue spreading this message in a world where faith is seemingly less relevant? Joey: Yes, and it’s a continued, progressive revelation of how to demonstrate that love, the same way you did it years ago, it has no relevance now because times have changed. Now there are different ways and different experiences people have gone through, and they need that love demonstrated in a unique way that is relevant to them right now. It’s interesting because we did go over a process of ‘well this was happening back then’ but especially now in this culture and this atmosphere. You know if you look at love, doing what’s best for somebody, for their best behalf. it may manifest itself in a wide variety of ways, but when people feel that you actually care about them and that you have their best interests at heart, they generally respond positively to that. So, its always morphing to what the person, what the society needs. Paola Vera: And a cheeky last question to finish. Having had the opportunity to work with so many amazing artists over the span of your career, who was your favourite and why? David: (In a fake English accent) It is a bit cheeky isn’t it. Khristian: Oh ok I’ll go, Marcus Miller. For whatever reason every time I get in that guys presence there is something that happens musically that I wasn’t expecting and the way that he constructs his songs. Some people just wanna do their thing and put Take 6 on top of it, the way that he does his thing, its this interweaving of musical genius that just works. It becomes one thing. It’s genius, but its like that everytime we’ve done that. You know ‘Preacher’s kid’ I was in awe of that entire recording session, of the different pieces that he pulled together and made work. Marcus Miller is probably one of my favourite.
was such a different juxtaposition of musical styling and production style. It was really really cool for us because there was a learning process which was different from anything we’ve ever done, and 30 years in it’s nice to be shocked pleasantly. Paola Vera: So what was different about Dr Dre (an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur). Claude: (Sighs) It was a number of things but starting with seeing somebody have a vision musically that you don’t know where it’s going to go? With a lot of people that we work with we have idea because we kinda come from the same bag, but seeing him put it together, and being a part of that process was amazing because you’re both going in the same direction but from opposite ends and you get it together, it was incredible! Khristian: And to see his work ethic...(everyone nods)...that was something other worldly watching this guy do his thing. Mark: It was one that pushed us. Any of the artists who stretch you and make you more than what you were before makes it automatically worth it. We experienced that originally with Quincey. Quincey Jones taught us so much, from just being in the studio, he allowed us to just be ourselves even in the midst of his entire big productions where he has the best of the best. Then we went with Stevie Wonder, you know being behind when he’s doing his thing over what we’ve been doing, it was just absolutely amazing you get on stage and you think that we have a big band behind us then all of a sudden he says ‘do it a capella’ right before the curtain goes up and you know, you’re talking about being stretched well there we are. Paola Vera: These were great answer to end the interview on. I highly recommend you checkout Take 6’s website at www.take6.com Take 6 seems to be maturing like a fine wine it seems to only get better with age and long may it continue!
Claude: Yea, he’s probably one of our favourite for the whole group I have to say Dr Dre... (everybody nods) we worked with him recently and because it 70. | Jazz In Europe - Spring 2019
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