1) Who do you listen to/emulate on your primary instrument?
I
have a very long list of people that I enjoy listening to and whose
approaches resonate with the way I’m trying to play. I can’t say I try
to emulate any one person, but I’m trying to figure out some elements
that I like from each player and toss them into the melting pot to
create my own sound. Some artists who have generously (and unknowingly)
contributed to my melting pot are: Brad Mehldau, Taylor Eigsti, Jason
Moran, Danilo Perez, Fred Hersch, Thelonious Monk, Wynton Kelly, Herbie
Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Ahmad Jamal, Jaki Byard, and Hank Jones. Just
to name a few, because there are way more.
2) What are some of your ‘essential albums’?
2. Bill Evans: Portrait In Jazz. Riverside Records, Catalog #1162. Recorded on December 29, 1959. Personnel: Bill Evans (piano), Scott LaFaro (bass), Paul Motian (drums).
3. Joe Henderson: Inner Urge. Blue Note, Catalog #92422. Recorded on November 30, 1964. Personnel: Joe Henderson (tenor saxophone), McCoy Tyner (piano), Bob Cranshaw (bass), Elvin Jones (drums).
4. Kenny Wheeler: Gnu High. ECM, Catalog #8255912. Recorded in June 1975. Personnel: Kenny Wheeler (flugelhorn), Keith Jarrett (piano), Dave Holland (bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums).
5. Wayne Shorter: Footprints Live!. Verve, Catalog #5896792. Recorded July 14-July 24, 2001. Personnel: Wayne Shorter (soprano and tenor saxophone), Danilo Perez (piano), John Patitucci (bass), Brian Blade (drums).
This is a wide spectrum, but is a good starter list.
3) Favorite bands?
Brad
Mehldau Trio, Ahmad Jamal Trio, Wayne Shorter Quartet, San Francisco
Jazz Collective, Miles Davis 60’s Quintet (especially the Plugg Nickel
recordings), also Miles’ band at the Black Hawk (with Wynton Kelly, Hank
Mobley), Bjork, Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens, soooo many more…
4) Who are some contemporary groups (or groups who are new to you) that you’re currently enjoying?
4) Who are some contemporary groups (or groups who are new to you) that you’re currently enjoying?
Becca
Stevens Band, Gretchen Parlato, The Bird and The Bee, Genevieve
Artadi/Louis Cole, Miguel Zenon, Billy Hart Quartet, Craig Taborn, Dave
Binney (Graylen Epicenter, whoa!).
Older artists that I’m just now getting around to checking out are:
Abdullah Ibrahim (also known as Dollar Brand), Elis Regina, Denny
Zeitlin, Herbie Nichols, Andrew Hill, Paul Bley, Ran Blake…
5) How do you learn new music?
5) How do you learn new music?
If
I’m learning a new standard or previously-recorded tune, I try to find
as many recorded versions I can to listen to. For standards, if there
are lyrics, I try to listen to vocal versions first to get an idea of
what the song means and to check out the most humanistic way of
expressing the melody. If there aren’t words (and you really have to be
sure that there aren’t, because so many of the standards have them), I
try to find the original recording, and it’s absolutely the best if the
composer recorded it because who better to learn how to play the tune
from than its writer?! Then there’s a certain amount of experimentation
on my own that I do, “playing” at the tune, if you will. I’ll get to
the point where I’ve listened to the tune enough that I can sing the
melody on my own away from any instrument. Then, at the piano, I’ll
play the harmonies and try to sing the melody. I’ll play the bass notes
by themselves just to hear the way they move, and then I’ll sing the
bass notes under the melody. From there I start experimenting with
actually playing the tune as if it were a performance. This out of
necessity starts off pretty simple, but after a good amount of time I’ll
hopefully be able to find a bunch of different ways to navigate
presenting the melody, but this is before I’ve even begun to improvise.
It’s really important to know that melody cold no matter what before you attempt to improvise, because the best improvisations are going to involve the melody (at least on standards).
If
it’s contemporary music, or music composed by my peers, I find that I
have to ask the composer as much as possible, get inside his/her head
because there won’t be an audio template upon which to base your
learning of the song! Even in these situations, though, I’m relying on
all the music I’ve already heard that may contain similar musical
elements so I’m not completely in the dark on what to do! Here too,
really knowing the melody and the framework of the piece is key to learning it in the most complete sense.6) How do you write/create music?
I
don’t have a set method for this. Much of my writing occurs at the
piano, but I find it’s difficult for me to go in with the agenda of
creation. I find for me it’s kind of like letting the proverbial muse
strike. I can noodle around at the piano, trying to find an idea, for
hours without coming up with anything I like…or it can be 5 minutes and a
tune just starts to make its way out. It’s really unpredictable (and
sometimes frustrating). Usually when something does appear, it’s either
a melodic fragment that I like (which I then develop and figure out
harmonies beneath), or a small harmonic progression which I’ll try to
complete and add a melody to. If I’m having a relatively long period of
unproductivity, I will try to create something away
from the piano so I’m not just relying on all of my unconscious
tendencies. For fun, I have a method of creating a tune which is as
close to the jazz version of aleatoric (or “chance”) music that I can
get, in which I try not to make any pre-determined musical decisions…and
then when I take that to the piano the challenge is to really try to
make music out of it because I will have generated some things that have
no relation to one another! Most of these pieces I never perform
because they don’t amount to much, but each one ends up providing me
with some interesting choices that I can use in serious pieces later on.
7) What YouTube or audio clip best represents your playing right now (we'll just embed a link in the profile)?
7) What YouTube or audio clip best represents your playing right now (we'll just embed a link in the profile)?
8) What do you like to do when you’re not playing music?
I
really enjoy reading, reading in random places, taking walks (a lot of
my practicing gets done on walks), playing video games (Xbox360 ftw),
playing tennis when it’s seasonable, playing darts. I find it’s really
important to have a number of hobbies outside of music to keep my life
in perspective. For me, the other things are a way to keep stress
levels at check and create a lifestyle that is a good balance of
disciplined and unfettered; I can be very spontaneous at times and also
focus intensely on one thing for a long time…the way I create music is
reflective of both of these processes!
9) Any additional words of wisdom?
9) Any additional words of wisdom?
Always,
always be listening to music! Even if from the very first notes you
react negatively to it, try to listen to the whole song, piece, etc.
Everything deserves one whole hearing, if not another. Listen to
styles you’ve never heard before, don’t just listen to jazz. Everything
will inform who you are as a player and as a person…you’ll be surprised
at what kinds of things you’ll find that you really like, but you won’t
know until you find them and listen to them! Also, listen with friends
who are also passionate about music because that forces a different
kind of listening than the passive in-the-car or
walking-around-with-headphones type of listening that we’re prone to.
When you’re with friends you’ll automatically start talking about what
each of you found as hip in that last recording, you’ll rewind it back
to hear it again, you’ll be listening much more intensely.
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If you haven't already, check out earlier profiles on Matthew Golombisky, Nick Finzer and Mike Kaupa. Chris Teal will soon get his act together and fill out his own survey... Also investigate the new IfCM Collective page with more in-depth bios and glamour shots.
