JAZZ MAGAZINE survey...
Responses by ELLERY ESKELIN
Jazz Magazine (Paris) asked a number of musicians to respond to 10 pre-arranged questions regarding the topic of free jazz. These same 10 questions were asked by Jazz Magazine to a number of musicians in the late 1960s. This current inquiry was a commemoration of sorts and and attempt to see what has changed in the last thirty years with respect to current day musicians's feelings about music.
These responses were published in the April 1999 issue, along with responses from Steve Coleman, Oliver Lake and Sabir Mateen. Other responses appear in the March, 1999 and subsequent issues.
1 - How would you call the music that you play? Why?
It depends on who is asking. Most of the time I say jazz. Sometimes I say improvised
music. Jazz means different things to different people. I do not think there is a
satisfactory name to use in every instance.
2 - Does your music express a general conception of the destiny of the world and man?
Do politics, religion, philosophy play an important part in your art?
General conceptions of the world, politics, religion, philosophy are all reductionist
concepts in that they require focused, sometimes narrow definitions of what they
are. Music is much more than all of that. Music can go beyond that. Music can ask
questions. Music does not have to be an answer to anything. Music transcends the paradigms
of question/answer, or any other philosophical constructs that people devise.
3 - Do you think before or during your improvisation ? If so, what do you think of?
Yes, I think. I am aware of everything that I am hearing. I am aware of consciously
directing the music to reflect how I feel at any given moment as well as observing
how the music can proceed without any conscious direction from me. Thinking and feeling
are not really different things. Thinking is more of a verbal process, feeling is more
of a non verbal process. I use both.
4 - Is swing important for you when you play?
Swing is simply one option at any given time. It is not an overriding concern to me.
5 - Do you enjoy playing? Do you try to please those who listen?
I would not play if I did not enjoy it. I find it futile to attempt to please an audience
in terms of what I think they want to hear. Most people who come to concerts of this
type usually expect the artist to give them something personal and honest. They are often looking for the artist to present them with something new, something that
will make them feel in ways that they did not know was possible before. It is this
manifestation of the human spirit on a fundamental level and transfer of energy that
is most important, not trying to guess what people want to hear.
6 - When you create, is beauty your goal?
How can one define beauty? I find definitions are limiting so I do not impose them
on my music.
7 - What is freedom in music? What are the links between freedom and mastery of the
instrument?
Freedom in music simply means the ability to play whatever it is you want to play.
Mastery of your instrument allows for more options although I would point out that
you only need enough technique to realize your ideas. Musicians with more technical
options are not necessarily superior to those with less. It's about your conception. My
favorite musicians are the ones who make the most out of what they have, be they
virtuoso or not. It takes imagination and soul to create. Technique serves this process
but is not a substitute for it.
8 - Are you able to make a living from your music?
Yes, I make a living playing the music I want to play, be it my own or as a sideperson
with others.
9 - What would you like to do in the near future? And with whom?
I would like to expand out from the niche of the jazz/improv music scene, but I'm
not quite sure how. I'm not looking to change my music in order to find a larger
audience, I am simply looking for ways to bring what I do to more people. I feel
that I have a fundamental connection as a musician to the rest of the world at large and as such
I would like to develop myself beyond the current jazz/improv scene. Perhaps some
collaboration with filmmakers, dancers/choreographers or theater people. Earlier
this year I played on a recording called "The Grassy Knoll", a sampler based electronica project.
I would like to pursue more projects like that as well.
10 - How do you foresee the future of jazz?
I don't. I don't think about the future of jazz very much since I am not so interested
in what jazz is or is not. To address your question however, it all depends on how
you define jazz. In one way of looking at it, jazz has been dead for quite a while.
In another way, there is an amazing amount of creative music that comes out of jazz
which is going in many directions at once. Instead of looking for the next Charlie
Parker or John Coltrane, we must realize that the conditions that made it possible
for musicians such as these to dominate the music are finished now. In today's music many
more influences are operating simultaneously, weaving in and around each other, fragmenting,
creating hybrids, suggesting new possibilities. Today each musician is freer to go his or her own way in finding personal solutions to the implications of all these
influences. We have much to reflect on from the past and the sometimes difficult
task of making sense and drawing continuity from it as we head into the 21st century.
This is the challenge that I feel and many of my fellow musicians share. Instead of looking
for the "next new trend" we should take into account that each musician of today
is solving that problem in their own way. As a result it's become more difficult
for any single musician to become too influential over the others. I find this to be a very
good climate to create music in and a phenomenon that most of the jazz world is missing
out on. Much new this new music (perhaps not easily defined as jazz), is being propagated by smaller independent record labels from all over the world. Listeners must
work harder to find it however since the major labels are in no position to provide
the public with the next new jazz messiah. That time is over.
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