The
first question is always the classic one: how does it start your love
and interest for guitar and what instruments do you play or have you
played?
The
Beatles are the cause of my interest in guitar. I started playing
when I was 14 years old. Later it was blues, Jimi Hendrix and the
rest of the rock guitar material. I began improvising after hearing
Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton. I learned to
play standards and then began a self-directed course of study in
guitar and improvisation. I’ve only had a few guitar lessons,
otherwise I am self-taught. I played trumpet for about a year when I
was 12 years old. I began playing double bass in 2000 at age 45. I
am a decent improviser on piano and drums, but I have never performed
on either one, yet.
You
have released a new album with Chris Cretella, called Storms. How did
it start this collaboration e and why did you choose to play
classical guitars?
Chris
was my student at New England Conservatory of Music. I knew him
before he enrolled and knew that he was a very strong player. So our
lessons were very advanced, about improvisation, technique etc. Since
his graduation we have worked together in a few settings. We decided
to work on this duo quite deliberately. Once we began we knew quickly
that we had to record it.
I
have enjoyed a lot your book “Perpetual Frontier”, shall we try a
game? I ask you the same questions you have asked to the musicians
who you interviewed in your book, I’m curious to read your answer:
“What were and are your main musical influences?
On
guitar, Jimi Hendrix, Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian, Derek
Bailey, Rene Thomas, Blind Lemon Jefferson, John McLaughlin, Baden
Powell. More broadly, blues, jazz, West African kora music. African
fiddle music, Gnawa music, Gamelan, Tibetan Chant Music, Indian
Music, Messiaen, Cage, Elliott Carter, Charles Ives, Ornette Coleman,
Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Evan Parker, Braxton, Fred
Hopkins, Monk, to name a few.
How
do you express your "musical form" both in execution and
improvisation, whether you're playing "in solo" or together
with other musicians?
For
years I composed. My technique emerged partly due to my compositions
and also due to serious study of the methodologies of improvised
music. gradually I began to understand that I didn’t need
composition, that the way I played was the composition. My use of
what I call the
properties of free music
functioned in ways that shaped every aspect of my performances solo,
and in groups, by providing me with many points of reference in the
process of making the music.
Do
you develop a "form" by default making adjustments as
necessary or leave the "form" itself to emerge depending on
the situation, or exploits both creative approaches?”
Some
of my work is organized prior to the performance. But most of it is
what I call a resultant
form.
It is formulated in the process of being made. However I use very
specific materials in process to shape the music in a way that varies
within each duration of performance.
Berio
in his essay "A remembrance to the future," wrote: "..
A pianist who is a specialist about classical and romantic
repertoire, and plays Beethoven and Chopin without knowing the music
of the twentieth century, is also off as a pianist who is specialist
about contemporary music and plays with hands and mind that have
never been crossed in depth by Beethoven and Chopin. " You play
both traditional classical and contemporary repertoire ... do you
recognize yourself in these words?
Although
I actually don’t play classical—I am an improviser, I do see
myself in these words. I study music all the time searching for an
understanding of the design and expression. And I don’t believe
that contemporary music should be devoid of the qualities of
classical music. However I do believe that those qualities need to be
rendered in ways that express our time, our world now. And I believe
that rigor in music extend itself to an expression speaks of the
deepest and most searching view of existence.
What
does improvisation mean for your music research? Do you think it’s
possible to talk about improvisation for classical music or we have
to turn to other repertories like jazz, contemporary music, etc.?
I
use improvisation to make music. I never make “an improvisation”
and I think musicians who do are terribly naive. Improvisation
enables me to configure music in subtle and complex ways on a
spontaneous platform. The work in preparing to make music this way is
in the study and understanding of how improvisation can be used to
achieve this goal. But the result has to be heard as music and not as
mere process.
What’s
the role of the “Error” in your musical vision? For “error” I
mean an incorrect procedure, an irregularity in the normal operation
of a mechanism, a discontinuity on an otherwise uniform surface that
can lead to new developments and unexpected surprises .
Great
question! In my work, an error occurs when there is an attempt to
compose something within the performance, using improvisation that is
meant to provide more order than is actually needed. As if someone
tries to insert material meant to formally organize the process with
identifiable material. That kind of attempt inhibits the process with
too much control and so that is what I think would be an error or
wrong, in the negative sense.
Otherwise,
the configuration of ideas/materials/decisions when encountering a
contingency that may not be what is hoped for, or expected, is to me,
an opportunity to create a new result.
The
one exception to these situations would be when I personally just
cannot accurately play what I am attempting to play. In which case I
attempt to utilize what I get and carry on either with another try, a
variation using what I got, or a shift to something else.
I
have, sometimes, the feeling that in our times music’s history
flows without a particular interest in its chronological course, in
our discotheque before and after, past and future become
interchangeable elements, shall this be a risk of a uniform vision
for an interpreter and a composer? The risk of a musical
"globalization"?
This
doesn’t bother me. I am not a linear thinker so I enjoy tracking
the ontological framework of everything. As an artist in the world, I
am generally in a state of mind that is a combination of
contemplation, inspiration, fear and horror. The world is amazing and
terrifying to me. No matter what art and music have done to
evolve us and civilize us, humans continue to devolve in new a
horrifying ways all the time. So it is necessary for us artists to
remain open to what is new no matter where it comes from, and try to
be as inclusive as possible. I think this is a very exciting time for
the area I work in because it has grown to be Global and new things;
techniques, ideas and communities of musicians are popping up all
over.
Let’s
talk about marketing. How much do you think it’s important for a
modern musician? I mean: how much is crucial to be good promoters of
themselves and their works in music today?
I
am not sure. There are facets of the music business that stagnate
rather than generate a future forward sensibility and so old things
always do better than new things. Therefore it’s necessary to know
your own market and to build it yourself if one that welcomes you
doesn’t already exist. The parts of the music scene that support me
are mostly grassroots or musician run with some exceptions.
Please
tell us five essential records, to have always with you .. the
classic five discs for the desert island …
I
don’t know if this list is the
5.
But it would do
Albert
Ayler Spiritual
Unity
Alhaji
Bai Konte Kora
Melodies from the Republic of The Gambia, West Africa
Jimi
Hendrix Band
of Gypsies
Jimmy
Lyons/Sunny Murray Jump
up/What to do about
Evan
Parker/Barry Guy Obliquities
What
are your five favorite scores?
5
that I love. Not sure what are my absolute favorites. All chamber or
orchestral
Olivier
Messiaen Sept
Haiku
Charles
Ives Calcium
Light Night
Elliott
Carter 1st
String Quartet
Sofia
Gubaidulina Concerto
for viola and orchestra
Witold
Lutoslawski String
Quartet
With
who would you like to play? What kind of music do you listen to
usually?
The
only person I wanted to play with who I haven’t played with yet is
Ornette Coleman. He’s very old so I doubt it can happen. The people
I enjoy playing with or would like to work with more are Anthony
Braxton, Barry, Evan Parker, John Butcher, Peter Evans, Agusti
Fernandez, Mat Maneri, Chris Cretella, Yasmine Azaiez, Brad Barrett,
Nate Wooley, Ken Vandermark, Alex Ward, Andria Nicodemou, Jim Hobbs,
Mat Maneri, Taylor Ho Bynum, Tyshawn Sorey, and a few others.
I
drive a lot. Most of my listening for enjoyment is in my car. It’s
normal for me to listen to Mozart, Bob Dylan, Brian Ferneyhough,
Scodanibbio, Ornette Coleman, Rev Gary Davis, Derek Bailey, some
traditional African music and some noise improvisation or any similar
mix during a drive.
Your
next projects?
New
Cd’s II will be releasing a new solo guitar recording this winter,
a new electric trio called Mess Hall, duo with the bassist Brad
Barrett, trio wth Nate Wooley and Evan Parker, duo with Evan Parker
and a 5 piece chamber work called Ultra with feathure Agusti
Fernandez on piano.
When
we will see you playing in Italy?
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