Ten Questions with Steve Lehman

Steve Lehman is a composer/alto saxophonist living in NY. I first saw him as part of Anthony Braxton’s 12 + 1tet at the Iridium in 2006, and since then have really gotten into his music. His writing is very complex, but clear enough to be easily digestible. He also has a knack for coming up with great concepts and translating them clearly to an improvised setting. On his latest album Travail, Transformation and Flow Lehman leads an Octet of musicians (featuring Ten Questions alum Tyshawn Sorey and former VCU’er Mark Shim) through a set of music derived from studies in spectral harmony. There’s a great description here, and it sounds complicated, but the resulting music sounds amazing from start to finish. Also, the album features a cover of GZA’s masterpiece “Living in the World Today,” and what collection of spectral harmony music would be complete without it!

Check out his music here

For more on the man himself, go here

1: What got you into creative/improvised music making, and what keeps you there?

When I first heard Charlie Parker’s music, at age 10, everything
changed for me. I definitely had one of those thunderbolt moments that
so many people seem to experience when hearing Parker’s music for the
first time.

For me, making music and performing music is about connecting with
other people, finding out about myself, and trying to find some sense
of meaning as a result of my own experiences and my shared experiences
with my colleagues and everyone else who feels they can relate to the
music I’ve involved with.

2: Breakthrough album(s) and Why?

There are hundreds of albums that have been incredibly meaningful to
me and taught me a lot about myself and the possibilities for what
music can be. A few that immediately come to mind…

1. Charlie Parker – Walkman Jazz Compilation
2. Dexer Gordon – Homecoming (Live at The Village Vanguard)
3. Aceyalone – Book of Human Language
4. Jackie McLean – The Jackie Mac Attack Live
5. Michael Finnissy – String Trio
6. Anthony Braxton – Fall 1974
7. Evan Parker – Monoceros
8. Gerard Grisey – Les Espaces Acoustiques
9. Mark Shim – Turbulent Flow
10. Antipop Consortium – Tragic Epilogue

3: How do other art disciplines affect your work?

This question is hard for me to answer. I think when I’m inspired by a
filmmaker or an artist it usually has to do with formal design and
structure. Sarah Sze and Julie Mehretu are two visual artists whose
work often has a lot of resonance for me. Their work is so expressive
but it also seems to privilege meticulous attention to detail and
technical expertise.

4: Favorite Film(s)?

My wife is a filmmaker, so I’ve seen a ton of incredible films thanks
to her. A handful that I seem to keep coming back to…

Killer of Sheep
Blazing Saddles
Cache
Jackie McLean on Mars
La Promesse

5: Favorite Film Score(s)?

I love Neil Young’s score/playing for the Jim Jarmusch film “Dead Man.”

6: Favorite Fiction Reading?

Edward P. Jones
James Baldwin
Aleksandar Hemon
Herman Hesse

7: Favorite Non-Fiction Reading?

It’s rare that I get to do non-fiction reading that isn’t music-related…

The New York Times
The New Yorker
The Economist
The Wire
Music Perception

8: Favorite Guilty Pleasure Music?

I’m too old to be embarrassed by any of the music I listen to. I do
love to play NBA Live 2008 on my PSP (Playstation Portable) which is
definitely something of a guilty pleasure…!

9: Favorite Under Rated Musician(s)?

A few that come to mind…

Arthur Blythe
Michael Finnissy
Stanley Cowell
Freddie Waits
Fats Navarro
Saafir
Kevin O’Neil

10: Recommended Artist(s)/Shout Outs?

Too many to list. This time around I’ll give a big shout out to the
amazing Paris-based percussionist/composer Karl Jannuska. If you don’t
know now you know.

Ten Questions with Joe Lally

Joe Lally is a bassist/vocalist who first gained international acclaim as a member of the D.C. band Fugazi. Since then, he has started a solo career that has lead to tours all around the world. His solo work is really good, and we’re excited to be playing with Joe on Monday, June 1 at The Camel at 9pm!

For more info and to purchase Joe’s solo albums, check out his website:

joelally.com

1: What got you into creative/improvised music making, and what keeps you there?

Discovering bands that no one else seemed to know about and watching them play in theaters or small clubs really opened an alternative world to me. None of the friends in my neighborhood would even go see these bands with me. I was in an art class in high school in which people came from their school in the county and spent 3 periods there. In that class I met a guy named Ivan Martinez who turned me on to everything punk rock and took me to many shows. Although I wouldn’t play an instrument until I was out of high school it was seeing all the local bands that made me feel I could do this.

2: Breakthrough album(s) and Why?

Both the Sex Pistols and Ramones first records for their overall energy delivered with such simplicity. Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures and the First Public Image record. Again for their gut level energy and spare musical approach but artistically got my imagination going.

3: How do other art disciplines affect your work?

Other than constant work, practice, I’m not sure what you might mean here.

4: Favorite Film(s)?

If this is determined by how many times we watch a film I would have to say Duck Soup or Animal Crackers. Otherwise I think it changes a lot.

5: Favorite Film Score(s)?

Ennio Morricone’s Crime and Dissonance on Ipecac is a great sampler of songs from films. This doesn’t contain the spaghetti westerns at all.

6: Favorite Fiction Reading?

Anything by Isaac Bashevis Singer.

7: Favorite Non-Fiction Reading?

Studs Terkel, for example: Hard Times or The Good War.

8: Favorite Guilty Pleasure Music?

I’m not sure there’s anything left to feel guilty about liking.

9: Favorite Under Rated Musician(s)?

Billy Cox, Bobby Leibling, Christina Billotte.

10: Recommended Artist(s)/Shout Outs?

Hamid Drake, Nina Simone.

Ten Questions with Tyshawn Sorey

Tyshawn Sorey is a NY based composer and drummer. He first came to my attention as the drummer in pianist Vijay Iyer’s Quartet on the “Blood Sutra” album. He still plays with Iyer in the trio Fieldwork, with Steve Lehman rounding out the trio on sax. When Sorey’s debut as a leader came out on Firehouse 12 Records, I kind of freaked out about it here. It was so unlike anything I expected after hearing him in other contexts, and pretty much blew me away.

Tyshawn stays busy writing and performing, and in August, he’ll be curating the shows at The Stone in New York so you will be able to see him in a wide variety of settings.

1: What got you into creative/improvised music making, and what keeps you there?

During my formative years in Newark (N.J.), I was always interested in creating things…  I drew a lot, painted, wrote short stories, etc.  But it’s nothing important, really.  My father, in particular, exposed me to many different types of music growing up.  Since around the age of 2 or 3, I knew I wanted to be some kind of musician.  I was never the type to associate myself with any genre of music, because I knew that somehow there was much more to absorb and learn from than what I was exposed to.  So then I began listening to music from other cultures and then delving more into gospel music (my mother was an aspiring gospel singer in a local church, and I still think about how amazing she was at it), country, blues, other types of jazz expression, classical, and dance music.  It was always in me to try and check out as many things as possible, and it was only natural for me to simply listen to the music for what it was.  I mean, there was never any real “way” I became aware of my interests in music and creating, because it was already there from the get-go.  All I would listen to back then was more traditional sounding stuff from WBGO or WKCR only to later discover that I became somewhat of a “jazz purist”.  It became apparent to me that I was listening to music in one “way”; that it was time for me to eliminate the idea of taste, likes, and dislikes and take from whatever I listened to and let it be a part of my musical makeup.  I believe that every listener of music listens in their own way, and I did not want to listen in ANY WAY…but to JUST listen – no feelings that “something sucks” or “something is catchy”, etc.  then, my tastes would not let me fully experience what was happening in the moment.  To listen to something without “listening”.

2: Breakthrough album(s) and Why?

There are WAY too many for me to list.  But here are a select twenty of these:

1 )  Charlie Parker – The Dean Benedetti Recordings

2 )  The Complete Louis Armstrong Hot Five/Hot Seven Recordings

3 )  Pierre Boulez – The Three Piano Sonatas

4 )  Captain Beefheart – Lick My Decals Off Baby

5 )  James Brown – Live At The Apollo, Vol. I

6 )  Max Roach – Drums Unlimited

7 )  Nirvana – In Utero

8 )  Karlheinz Stockhausen – Gesang der Junglinge/Kontakte

9 )  Otis Redding – Live In Europe

10 )  Anthony Braxton – The Complete Braxton 1971

11 )  Jimmy Smith – Crazy Baby

12 )  John Cage – Atlas Eclipticalis and Winter Music

13 )  Cecil Taylor – Indent

14 )  Milford Graves – Stories

15 )  Gorguts – Obscura

16 )  Steve Coleman and Five Elements – Black Science

17 )  Muhal Richard Abrams – Levels and Degrees of Light

18 )  Alvin Lucier – I Am Sitting In A Room

19 )  Morton Feldman – For Samuel Beckett

20 )  Prince – Around The World In A Day

3: How do other art disciplines affect your work?

Well, besides art disciplines…Zen Buddhism, literature, and painting has had a very profound affect on my work in many ways as well as the way I listen to music, which is really no way at all – positively speaking.  Those two things are the primary generators for my work, as well as the experience of everyday life…which, for me, is improvisation in all senses.  As far as favorites in these fields: Robert Rauschenberg, Alan Watts, and Charles Bukowski are among my favorites.

4: Favorite Film(s)?

Again, I will pick a select twenty to choose from – as it would not be possible to list them all:

1 )  All movies directed by John Cassavettes, notably Shadows – which is all improvised

2 )  All movies directed by David Lynch, notably Mulholland Drive

3 )  Werner Herzog – Herz aus Glas

4 )  Richard Pryor – Live and Smokin’

5 )  Robert Altman – 3 Women

6 )  Takashi Miike – Ichi the Killer

7 )  Andrei Tarkovsky – Andrei Rublev

8 )  Spike Lee – Malcolm X

9 )  Nicholas Ray – Rebel Without A Cause

10 )  Jonathan Demme – Silence Of The Lambs, The Manchurian Candidate

11 )  Rob Reiner – A Few Good Men

12 )  Martin Scorsece – Taxi Driver, Goodfellas

13 )  Bryan Bertino – The Strangers

14 )  Francis Ford Coppola – The Godfather I & II

15 )  Carol Reed – The Third Man

16 )  Oliver Stone – Scarface, Natural Born Killers

17 )  Gordon Parks, Jr. – Super Fly

18 )  George Stevens – The Diary Of Anne Frank

19 )  Jon Landis – The Kentucky Fried Movie

20 )  James Melkonian – The Jerky Boys

5: Favorite Film Score(s)?

No specific film scores come to mind, although I have a fond appreciation of the work of film score composer Bernard Herrmann,  as well as all of the scoring for Sherlock Holmes and Perry Mason.

6: Favorite Fiction Reading?

Right now I’ve been getting into the works by Phillip Pullman – His Dark Materials; Henry Miller – Tropic of Cancer; Samuel Beckett – Krapp’s Last Tape, Not I, and a bunch of other stuff; J.D. Salinger – The Catcher In The Rye; Charles Bukowski – Burning In Water Drowning In Flames; Arthur Miller – The Crucible, and a few others.

7: Favorite Non-Fiction Reading?

Amos N. Wilson – Black On Black Violence; Alan Watts – The Way Of Zen; George E. Lewis – A Power Stronger Than Itself; John Cage – Silence; Carter G. Woodson – The Mis-Education of the Negro; William Parker – Who Owns Music?; and Dusty Bunker – Numerology and the Divine Triangle.

8: Favorite Guilty Pleasure Music?

None I could think of…for me, there is no such thing.  I have been checking out a lot of stand-up comedy recordings of the following artists in particular: Richard Pryor, Andrew Dice Clay, Eddie Murphy (his early stuff), Lenny Bruce, some Redd Foxx, Lewis Black, George Carlin, Paul Mooney, and a few others.  But I don’t see any qualitative difference in their work and how it has also been influential to me.  The same goes for listening to Joni Mitchell, Tupac, D’Angelo, Blondie, Wu-Tang Clan, Elliot Smith, Autechre, Meshuggah, or any other type of music.  I mean, I can listen to anything I want and to simply let it come to me…if it doesn’t come to me then I’ll go to it.  But then, if I don’t like the music, the fault is on me – I create the problem with listening to it…  I have to know this for myself, as a human being, that I am not interested in creating a “guilty pleasure” music that has the potential of being brought down to its’ lowest common denominator to sell a lot of CD’s and all.  However, it should also be clear that I do respect it for what it is and for the effort these people put in to express themselves as they wish.  As far as feeling guilty of listening to this is concerned, I don’t.

9: Favorite Under Rated Musician(s)?

I’ll go out on a limb with this one…since this is something that has been bothering me for some time.  There are so many people I wish to list, but the underrated COMPOSERS who I want to discuss are also percussionists that we all know.  Susie Ibarra is my favorite percussionist/composer around right now, and I find that it’s a shame that not many people know that she has a lot to offer as a composer, not to mention the amazing work she is doing.  The same should go for Paul Motian, Mark Guiliana, Gerald Cleaver, Andrew Greenwald, Dan Weiss, Billy Martin, Joey Baron, Marcus Gilmore, Milford Graves, Tommy Crane, among others…  I personally believe that these drummers who are also composers and/or play other instruments should be recognized for all of how they express themselves, as opposed to only being credited for their sideman work and/or for their drumming abilities. It’s interestingly ironic because what these drummers contribute to the music of their respective bandleaders is so strong and powerful that what they create becomes an essential part of the music itself; they MAKE the composition, as far as I’m concerned.

10: Recommended Artist(s)/Shout Outs?

All of the above, as well as Aaron Stewart, Todd Neufeld, Otis Brown III, Jesse Elder, Steven Ruel, Sara Serpa, Thomas Morgan, Fay Victor, Carlos Homs, Eric McPherson, Ingrid Laubrock, Nate Wooley, Russ Lossing, Greg Scrulloni, Steve Lehman, Kris Davis, Randy Peterson, Jacob Sacks, Meilana Gillard, Frank Rosaly, Jen Shyu, Darius Jones, Andre Matos, Matana Roberts, Ben Gerstein, Okkyung Lee, Terrence McManus, Joe Albano, Michele Rosewoman, Carl Maguire, Rich Woodson, Mat Maneri, Billy Mintz, Aaron Burnett, Nasheet Waits, Jeff Parker, John Hebert, Loren Stillman, Vardan Opsevian, Pete Robbins, Taylor Ho Bynum, Judith Berkson, John Escreet, Adam Niewood, and many others…this will take forever to finish.

Ten Questions with Ches Smith

Ches Smith is a drummer/composer living in NY. He is an extremely busy and fast rising presence on the new music scene. If there was a tabloid covering free jazz, than he would have been caught by the paparazzi playing with such numerous figures as: Marc Ribot (in Ceramic Dog), Devin Hoff (in Good for Cows), Mary Halvorson, Tony Malaby (in These Arches), Xiu Xiu, Trevor Dunn (in Trio Convulsant), and many many more. Luckily Ches was able to take time out of his busy schedule to answer the Ten Questions.

You can find out more about him here:
Ches Smith
Myspace

He has many great records out, including his solo percussion album Congs for Brums which can be purchased here.

And his group Good for Cows has a 10th Anniversary show coming up, so keep an eye out on their site.

1: What got you into creative/improvised music making, and what keeps you there?

There was a scene of punks who improvised in Sacramento, CA where I grew up. They were older than me, I looked up to them. I thought noisy improv fit nicely under the punk umbrella. Also, these people led me to believe the idea was to be open to a lot of different stuff. This style of ‘mentorship’ continued when I met Jake Pavlak and Dana Axon in Eugene, Oregon, Willie Winant and Mr. Bungle in the SF Bay Area, and Marc Ribot in New York.

2: Breakthrough album(s) and Why?

John Coltrane’s Om, and A Love Supreme, Miles Davis’ Nefertiti, Slayer’s Reign in Blood, Minor Threat’s Complete Discography.

Also, attending many concerts at a creative music series in Eugene, Oregon from age 17, and hearing Gino Robair, Derek Bailey, Bill Frisell Trio (w/ Joey Baron), and John Tchicai, among others.

3: How do other art disciplines affect your work?

A good idea can be used across disciplines.

4: Favorite Film(s)?

Recently: Trouble The Water, Milk, Synecdoche New York, Ornette Coleman: Made in America.

A long time now: American Movie, Divine Horsemen, Cannonball Run, Space is the Place, Stranger Than Paradise.

5: Favorite Film Score(s)?

No Country for Old Men

6: Favorite Fiction Reading?

Right now I am reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Too soon to tell if it is a favorite.

7: Favorite Non-Fiction Reading?

Paul Farmer, ‘The Uses of Haiti’, Maya Deren ‘Divine Horsemen’, Twyla Tharp ‘The Creative Habit.’

8: Favorite Guilty Pleasure Music?

I don’t feel guilty at all for listening to Blowfly and the Mentors.

9: Favorite Under Rated Musician(s)?

John Amira, Prurient, Carla Bozulich, Sunny Murray, Milford Graves, Peter Magadini.

10: Recommended Artist(s)/Shout Outs?

David Horvitz, Lucky Dragons, Miya Osaki, Wu Fei, Angelica Sanchez, Howard Wiley.

Ten Questions with Kelly Fenton

Kelly Fenton is a composer from New York.  She is a fellow blogger that I discovered pretty early, and have been following ever since.  It should come as no surprise that I would immediately take to an artist that writes big band arrangements inspired by comic books.  She recently premiered her new work Dark Nights: Music for Superheroes and their Alter Egos at the Brooklyn Lyceum.

You can and should follow her blog here, and her 20 piece big band here.

1: What got you into creative/improvised music making, and what keeps you there?

I started playing saxophone in the 6th grade and loved it.  When I got to
high school, the band director at the time started a jazz band that played mostly Easy Packs and pop tunes.  Being the only high school in a small southern town made our jazz band and its members into local celebrities, and as lead alto, and despite the fact I would later discover that we weren’t really playing “real jazz,” I got hooked!

In college at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro I had my first arranging class with bassist Steve Haines.  This was also the year I discovered Brad Mehldau, Mariah Schneider, and the Vanguard Orchestra.  I had been struggling with my saxophone and took much more naturally to writing. My first arrangement was of “Groovin’ High” and was pretty crappy.

What keeps me here? A masochistic personality.

2: Breakthrough album(s) and Why?

The first would be a 4 record collection of Glenn Miller recordings given to me by my grandfather, who would from that day on persist on asking me to play the sax intro to “In The Mood” (still can’t hear that song without thinking of him!).  I loved the romance and nostalgia over those tunes and that era, and I think that’s when I really fell in love with the big band instrumentation.

Many, many years later, I would buy Maria Schneider’s Allegresse.  A year after that I would actually listen to it, or rather the first track, “Hang Gliding,” on repeat non-stop.  It came to me at just the right time in my life and I found the song both healing and empowering.  It was with that CD, and later Concert in the Garden that I would really start to believe that I had a chance at pursuing a career in composition.

3: How do other art disciplines affect your work?

Entirely.  I love stories and most of my music is programmatic, so comic books, novels, mythology, etc inspire me.  I consider these my training wheels; in the future I hope to write music inspired by real peoples’ lives and stories.

I also trained as a modern dancer until moving to NYC.  So when I write, I think about the movement of the music, whether or not it’s danceable and I think about textures and shapes in the same way I used texture and shape to choreograph.

4: Favorite Film(s)?

Gone With the Wind, Charade, Noel, St. Ralph, The Major and the Minor, Spellbound.

I really loved Pan’s Labyrinth though I only saw it once.

There are SO many older films that I’d love catch up on and am embarrassed to admit that I haven’t seen!

5: Favorite Film Score(s)?

I love Max Steiner’s score to Gone with the Wind.  I’m in awe of anyone who could compose that much music for such a long movie! I also really love Phillip Glass’s score to The Hours.  A lot of his stuff sounds similar, but I heard The Hours first and it really struck a chord with me. I also love Henry Mancini’s score to Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

6: Favorite Fiction Reading?

Stephen King’s Dark Tower Series, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, Helen Fielding’s Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, Isaac Asimov’s Nemesis, Frank Miller’s Batman Year One, Neal Gaimen’s Neverworld and Stardust, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Paulo Cohelo’s The Alchemist, really, the list goes on and on!

7: Favorite Non-Fiction Reading?

I love reading memoirs and biographies.  John Guy’s biography on Mary Queen of Scots and Anne Somerset’s biography on Elizabeth I (I clearly have a thing for 16th century British history) are two of my favorites. I love everything by Asne Seierstad, her One Hundred And One Day had a profound effect on my desire to travel around the world, telling people’s stories through music.

8: Favorite Guilty Pleasure Music?

Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera.

9: Favorite Under Rated Musician(s)?

Probably Harry Connick Jr. as an arranger, it may crazy, but I LOVE his second Christmas album!

10: Recommended Artist(s)/Shout Outs?

Joseph Edward Perez,  Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Industrial Jazz Group, Kyle Saulnier’s Awakening Orchestra, all the fantastic players that play in the Bottomless Cup Jazz Orchestra.

Ten Questions with Jessica Pavone

Jessica Pavone is a Brooklyn based composer/string instrumentalist that has been constantly busy since 2000 writing and performing in a wide variety of projects.  Whether in her duo with Mary Halvorson, in The Thirteenth Assembly, in any number of Anthony Braxton’s tone combinations, or leading her soul group The Pavones, Jessica always brings a strong and individual approach to composition and improvisation.  She has several new albums in the works, including a new one with Mary on Thirsty Ear, The Thirteenth Assembly debut on Important Records, and the first Pavones album.  She is also busy composing new string quartet music for an upcoming April performance at The Kitchen in NYC.

In her own words: “The string quartet substitutes a second violin for a double bass and is inspired by an interest in the simplistic beauty of folk songs, a belief that one’s ability to accompany oneself in song as one of the more natural expressions of music, as well as my dealing with Leonard Cohen’s permission to live outside this world.”

1: What got you into creative/improvised music making, and what keeps you there?

I started free improvising with no knowledge of creative or improvised music. It just happened. I started playing with a violin player. We would “talk” to each other.  Then I started to learn that there was a whole world of improvised music out there. I started doing my research.

2: Breakthrough album(s) and Why?

Here are some records that I wore the grooves out of in various periods of my life for various reasons: (life, love, pure sonic pleasure…)

John Coltane – Live at Birdland (side one)
Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate, Songs of Leonard Cohen, and Live Songs
Bob Dylan – Bringing it All Back Home (side two), Highway 61 Revisited
Marvin Gaye – Whats Going On
The Clash – Combat Rock (side one)
Sun Ra – Super Sonic Jazz and Spaceship Lullaby
Jim O’Rourke – Insignificance
Otis Redding – EVERYTHING (lately, Remember Me and Live in Europe)
Leroy Jenkins – Space Minds, New Worlds and the Survival of America
Beethoven - complete piano sonatas
Morton Feldman – Patterns on a Chromatic Field and String Quartet and Piano
John Cage – String Quartet in Four Parts
The Yea Yea Yeas – Show Your Bones (tracks 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 11)
The Ramones – (All-but not a big fan of End of the Century ‘cept for “I Want You Around”)
The Impressions – This is My Country
Alice Coltrane with Strings – World Galaxy
The Talking Heads – Fear of Music
David Bowie – Changes One Bowie
Nirvana – Bleach, Nevermind
The Miracles – Hi We’re the Miracles
Led Zeppelin – I, II, Houses of the Holy
Love – Self Titled (side one)
The Sea and Cake – The Fawn
Air – Mail

3: How do other art disciplines affect your work?

Physical exercise effects my work. Physical exercise isn’t an art discipline, but it is a discipline. My practicing habits grow from my participation in physical exercise and vice versa.

Film effects my work by forcing me to think of creating new worlds and fictional places which can be translated into sound worlds. Watching films broadens my imagination when I am composing and helps me dig deeper into the depths of my intuition and imagination.

I am an avid fan of painting and a painter myself. Painting has influenced me creatively because it is an art form that I have never formally studied. I am not inhibited by any learned technique when I paint as I sometimes am when I work on music. I have no technique as a painter so I’ve created my own. I don’t second guess myself, because I have no expectations having never studied visual art in any way. Painting has helped me tap into pure creativity.

I often compose pieces that are short and in groups or collections which fit with each other. I prefer that to composing one ginormous piece. I’ve often thought of these works as collections of poems.

4: Favorite Film(s)?

Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Dirty Dancing, Godfather I and II, Fire Walk With Me, Taxi Driver, The US vs. John Lennon, Don’t Look Back, Do the Right Thing, Rear Window, The Blues Brothers.

5: Favorite Film Score(s)?

Angelo Badalamenti, Nino Rota (composers)

6: Favorite Fiction Reading?

Anything Paul Auster – specifically Oracle Night, Leviathan and Moon Palace
Middlesex by Jeffrey Euginides.

7: Favorite Non-Fiction Reading?

Musicians biographies and books about how we fucked up the food we eat and the world we live in.

8: Favorite Guilty Pleasure Music?

Hmm, I’m not sure what that means..

9: Favorite Under Rated Musician(s)?

Phloyd Starpoli

10: Recommended Artist(s)/Shout Outs?

Harris Eisenstadt, Sara Schoenbeck, Jeremiah Cymerman, Matthew Welch, Jason Cady, Brandon Seabrook, Mary Halvorson, Judith Berkson, Mazz Swift, Matt Bauder, Josh Abrams, Brian Chase, Peter Evans, Devin Hoff, Ches Smith, Matana Roberts, Katie Young, Loren Dempster, Emily Manzo

Ten Questions with Taylor Ho Bynum

Taylor Ho Bynum is a new music composer/trumpeter from New York.  Working frequently with some of NY’s finest (Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson, Jessica Pavone) and leading groups such as SpiderMonkey Strings and The Thirteenth Assembly, Ho Bynum always brings a unique approach to composition, and improvisation.  Also a frequent collaborator of Anthony Braxton’s, he has performed and recorded all over the world in any number of Braxton’s tone combinations.  He also co-runs the great Firehouse 12 Records with Nick Lloyd.  Readers of this blog will know Firehouse 12 because they released Tyshawn Sorey’s debut, which I gushed over awhile back.  He also keeps a great great blog (his busy schedule is making it hard to keep it up to date, but read the past and ask nicely and maybe it will blossom again.)

Look for his albums on Firehouse 12, 482 Music, and on his website.

1: What got you into creative/improvised music making, and what keeps you there?

When I was about 15, I started sitting in with a local university jazz ensemble that trombonist Bill Lowe taught in Boston. That dropped me headfirst into the joys of improvised music. When I was 18 I met Anthony Braxton and that sealed the deal. So really, I blame those two guys for leading me down this path. The profound spiritual satisfaction of the music making keeps me there (and balances out the general lack of fiscal rewards).

2: Breakthrough album(s) and Why?

Listening to Miles Davis’ In a Silent Way while walking home from high school one snowy night is probably the moment I knew somehow, I had to be involved with music for the rest of my life. Other catalytic recordings: John Coltrane A Love Supreme, Jimi Hendrix Electric Ladyland (particularly 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)), Beethoven’s Third Symphony, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Charles Mingus Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Henry Threadgill Too Much Sugar for a Dime, Braxton’s Willisau Quartet, Charles Ives’ Holidays Symphony, Duke Ellington Far East Suite, Bartok’s String Quartets, and Prince Lovesexy.

3: How do other art disciplines affect your work?

Profoundly. My wife, Rachel Bernsen, is a dancer/choreographer, and our regular artistic discussions and collaborations are a major source of ideas and conceptual development. In general, I’ve been deeply affected by working with dance, particularly in embracing silence; by having the focus on another physical presence I learned how much stronger it can be not to play.

My sister, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, is a novelist. Her work in specific has been an immediate influence; I’ll be recording a piece using text from her first book, Madeleine is Sleeping, later this fall. In general, I am an avid reader, and being deep in a novel is a place of very happy creative engagement.

My brother-in-law, Dana Jackson, is a filmmaker. Working on his movies has forced me to balance my own experimental tendencies with the need for clear narrative, a balance that also informs my work outside of film scores.

One of my best friends is a painter, Nathan Boyer. We shared a studio for a few years, and have been trading ideas (again, often discussing that balance between experimentation and narrative and other such matters) since we were in high school. One of my favorite things to do while on tour in the afternoon before a gig is to zone out with some masterpiece in some great European museum.

4: Favorite Film(s)?

Too many to count, but mostly older ones. The list has got to include a lot of Kurosawa (Ran, Ikiru, Seven Samurai), old Kubrick (The Killing, Dr. Strangelove), Bogart (Big Sleep, Maltese Falcon, In a Lonely Place), film noir (The Third Man, Mulholland Drive), musicals (American in Paris, Top Hat), sci-fi/fantasy (Brazil, Spirited Away, Dark Crystal) and some classic comedy (Duck Soup, Modern Times, Monty Python and the Holy Grail). I just recently saw Kobayashi’s Harakiri starring Tatsuya Nakadai, which was fantastic.

5: Favorite Film Score(s)?

As a jazz guy at heart, I gotta say Asphalt Jungle (Duke) and Elevator to the Gallows (Miles). I also love some of the Kurosawa/Takamitsu collaborations and of course, the Hitchcock/Herrman stuff.

6: Favorite Fiction Reading?

Again, WAY too many to count, and I’m sure I’m leaving out some of my favorites. Ishmael Reed Mumbo Jumbo. Borges’ collected stories. Tolkien Lord of the Rings, Salman Rushdie Satanic Verses. Ellison Invisible Man. Haruki Murakami Wind Up Bird Chronicles. Iris Murdoch The Sea The Sea. Faulkner As I Lay Dying. Nabokov Lolita. Virginia Woolf To the Lighthouse. Cervantes Don Quixote. Dostoyevsky Brothers Karamozov. Recently I’ve been digging into some African literature, both Ben Okri’s The Famished Road and Ngugi wa Thiongo’s Wizard of the Crow were fantastic. David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, may he rest in peace. The books of Daniel Pinkwater, Lloyd Alexander, and Susan Cooper were essential texts of my childhood, and I wish I could have read Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials when I was 10, but it was still fun at 30. And of course, my sister’s books, Madeleine is Sleeping and Ms. Hempel Chronicles.

7: Favorite Non-Fiction Reading?

I’m not a big non fiction reader, though I do read the New Yorker every week. However, my best friend Nick Thompson has been working on a book called The Hawk and the Dove, looking at fifty years of American foreign policy through the careers of George Kennan and Paul Nitze. I’ve been reading the drafts as he’s been working on that, and it is really fascinating, it’ll be released next year. Also, George Lewis’ new book on the AACM, A Power Stronger Than Itself, is a totally essential read for any new music fan.

8: Favorite Guilty Pleasure Music?

There’s really no music I feel guilty listening to. I am something of a Prince fanatic (not so much his new work, really the ‘80s stuff), but he’s a genius so no guilt there.

9: Favorite Under Rated Musician(s)?

I always got to push the Fully Celebrated Orchestra (saxophonist/composer Jim Hobbs, bassist Timo Shanko, drummer Django Carranza). I had a weekly gig with them in Boston for many years, and that band traveled to unique, intense and beautiful musical places. All three of those guys should be famous. And James Jabbo Ware and the Me We and Them Orchestra, that’s the group that showed me what a real big band composer and a real big band sounds like live, and they’ve been going strong for over thirty years.

10: Recommended Artist(s)/Shout Outs?

Duke Ellington. Yeah, he gets a lot of press, but he’s still underrated; to be that good for that long in that many ways is just impossible.

Ten Questions with Mark O’Leary

Mark O’Leary is a guitarist/improvisor/creative-type hailing from Cork, Ireland.  He has played and performed with many of the greats in the field including Paul Bley, Jack DeJohnette, Sunny Murray, Peter Erskine, Gunter Muller, Joey Baron, Han Bennink, Bobo Stenson Kenny Wheeler, Anders Jormin, Bill Bruford, Palle Danielsson and many others.  His unique approach to the instrument can be heard on two new albums.  Check out:

The Synth Show on Leo Records

Television on Ayler Records

Upcoming:

Ellipses on FMR Records

1: What got you into creative/improvised music making, and what keeps you there?

I started playing the guitar as an improviser, I had no teacher, thats how I figured things out, I was interested in sounds initially, not just single note melodies/chords. I sounded a lot like Derek Bailey actually, without even knowing that kind of music existed!  What keeps me there I guess is the ability to move into different stimulating terrain without cartography, reinventing the wheel, new lexicons, I strive to be different, not for the essence of being different but in terms of progression/evolution.  Improvisation is a creative framework for this endeavor.

2: Breakthrough album(s) and Why?

I went through many different phases when I was a kid, the Beatles, TOTP early 80’s, Rory Gallagher(Live In Europe), Bob Dylan, and the people who shaped who I am now Miles, Trane, Ornette, Edward Vesala (who still is one of my favourites check out Nan-Madol), Terje Rypdal (first ECM), Jan Garbarek (early 70’s before Jarrett qt), Tomasz Stanko (Balladyna), Topography of the Lungs by Bailey/Parker/Bennink I had all the Bach Organ Works which really inspired me (watch out for my next Leo release St Finn barres), Arvo Part, Giya Kancheli, Steve Reich, Kurtag, electronic music- Brian Eno, for guitar Tal Farlow, Johnny Smith, Derek Bailey, McLaughlin, Holdsworth, Frisell.

3: How do other art disciplines affect your work?

Visual arts very much, multi media is the future for me.  I like quite a bit of American modern art, Robert Rauschenberg, Willem De Kooning, Mark Rothko are the favourites, I also like Piet Mondrian. The artist I like the most is Gerhard Richter, I saw his exhibition in MOMA a few years back and it was an incredible experience. I also like post Laszlo Moholy-Nagy multi media collage imagery.

4: Favorite Film(s)?

Persona

5: Favorite Film Score(s)?

2001 Space Odyssey, recently Paranoid Park.

6: Favorite Fiction Reading?

Jose Luis Borges or Herman Hesse

7: Favorite Non-Fiction Reading?

Thomas Merton/Thomas Hobbes

8: Favorite Guilty Pleasure Music?

Japan/early Simple Minds/Teardrops Explodes/Vangelis/AC/DC/Slayer/Van Halen 1 and 2
….ooops?

9: Favorite Under Rated Musician(s)?

Some of my colleagues, Daniel Alga in Stockholm, Pepa Paivinen in Helsinki, Jeff Herr in Luxembourg, Jacob  Anderskov in Copenhagen, Daniel Soltis in Prague, Toni Kitanovski in Skopje, Vasil Hadzinmanov in Belgrade.

10: Recommended Artist(s)/Shout Outs?

Jon Hassell, Ligeti, Kurtag, Feldman, Stockhausen, Webern, Schoenberg, Penderecki,  Cage, Leo Smith, Han Bennink, Sunny Murray, Rob Mazurek/John Herndon Chicago-axis,  Alex Cline, Scanner, Thomas Koner, Geir Jensson, Ryoji Ikeda, Helge Sten,  Fennesz, early Kraftwerk, AMM, Masayuki Takayanagi, Conrad Schnitzler.

Ten Questions with Mary Halvorson

Mary Halvorson is a guitarist/composer living in New York.  She plays with many many groups, including her great duo with musician Jessica Pavone, another great duo with drummer Kevin Shea called People, various groups with sax legend Anthony Braxton, and various groups with trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum among others.  She has developed an actual individual voice on guitar, and continues using it in a very wide variety of settings.  The latest is the Mary Halvorson Trio with drummer Ches Smith and bassist John Hebert.  They have a new record coming this October on Firehouse 12 Records.  Check out their webpage for some song previews:

Mary Halvorson Trio

1: What got you into creative/improvised music making, and what keeps you there?

I got into creative/improvised music through listening to and studying jazz and branching out from there. I am interested in all types of music and what keeps me here is the exploration of creativity and something new, regardless of genre.

2: Breakthrough album(s) and Why?

The Beach Boys was the first cassette tape I bought (age 5). I consider that pretty important. And every Jimi Hendrix album. And Miles Davis Kind of Blue, John Coltrane Blue Trane and a Thelonious Monk compilation (those were the first jazz albums I ever bought). Also Wayne Shorter The Soothsayer. More recently… Yusef Lateef Live at Pep’s, an Etta James box set, everything by Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers. Oh and Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt changed my life.

3: How do other art disciplines affect your work?

I don’t think they do in a direct way, but definitely on a more subconscious level. I enjoy visual art and deeply regret that I have no talent for it myself.

4: Favorite Film(s)?

I discovered David Lynch late in life so I’m going through that now. Wild at Heart might be my favorite at the moment.

5: Favorite Film Score(s)?

Hmm. I know this is lame but I’m not sure I have one!

6: Favorite Fiction Reading?

Haruki Murakami– I’ve read everything– and George Simenon/ Inspector Maigret murder mysteries (I’m working on reading everything). I like to find one thing and become so obsessed that I completely exhaust it. I do that with music listening too.

7: Favorite Non-Fiction Reading?

I read a lot of astrology textbooks (again, exhausting it).

8: Favorite Guilty Pleasure Music?

Maybe something will pop into my head later, but I just scrolled through my iPod and I don’t think there’s anything in there that I feel guilty about. Honestly. I feel guilty about plenty of other things, but not music! I do hate Steely Dan though. A lot. That seems to be everyone else’s guilty pleasure.

9: Favorite Under Rated Musician(s)?

Lenny Breau. Jason Cady.

10: Recommended Artist(s)/Shout Outs?

Matthew Welch, Judith Berkson, Jason Cady, Jessica Pavone, Jeremiah Cymerman, Anthony Braxton, Charlie Looker/ Extra Life, John Hebert, Kevin Shea, Tomas Fujiwara, Ches Smith, Michael Attias, Trevor Dunn, Reuben Radding, Jeff Parker, Matt Moran, Matana Roberts, Curtis Hasselbring, Taylor Ho Bynum, Okkyung Lee, Brian Chase, John Dieterich, Jim Black, Matt Bauder, Devin Hoff, Nasheet Waits, Tony Malaby, Jason Moran, Oscar Noriega, Chris Speed, Tatsuya Nakatani, Jacob Garchik, Nate Wooley, Mick Barr, Robbie Lee, Tim Berne, Marc Ribot, Nat Baldwin, Peter Evans, Ted Reichman, Weasel Walter… I have a strong feeling that I’m forgetting someone really important…

Ten Questions with Darcy James Argue

Darcy James Argue is a New York based composer that leads the truly sweet Secret Society Big Band which performs in and around NY. He writes all of the material for this 18 piece monster, and with it (said monster), he manages to create an original sound that still leaves plenty of space for monster members to add their own improvised contributions.

Here’s a great video of the monster in action.

In addition, he is a constant blogger of interesting thoughtful content, and was a major influence on me in the creation of this site. Check out his band’s blog here.

1: What got you into creative/improvised music making, and what keeps you there?

What got me into it? I played trumpet in the highschool bigband, but I was a really terrible trumpet player. Piano was a lot less frustrating — you put your finger down on the right key, and the note you want actually comes out. Every time. Not like trumpet. Playing piano also allowed me to listen more to the big picture, to what the whole band was playing. I very quickly got the idea, “Hmm, that doesn’t actually sound all that hard. I bet I could do that.”

What keeps me in it? Believe me, if it was remotely possible for me to do something other with my life than lead an 18-piece bigband, I’d do that. In a heartbeat.

2: Breakthrough album(s) and Why?

One record: Maria Schneider’s Evanescence. Especially the first tune, “Wyrgly.”

Why? Goddamn, just listen to that track, fercrissakes. For better or worse, “Wyrgly” convinced me that bigband wasn’t a dead end. No, more than that — it convinced me that a bigband could express the precise kind of forward-looking jazz I was interested in, and do it better than a smaller ensemble.

The juxtaposition of those climbing half-time shuffle figures grinding against the wispy, scattershot double-time stabs (about a minute into the tune) remains one of the most audacious rhythmic conceits I’ve ever heard. And that noise Ben Monder makes during his solo break is everyone’s favorite Ben Monder moment.

3: How do other art disciplines affect your work?

Storytelling is key. The difference between good musicians and great musicians is that great musicians are genius storytellers. Any other art that happens in real time — theatre, film, television, dance, standup comedy, spoken word, performance art — is (or should be) tremendously instructive for the creative musician. But ultimately, everything always comes back to storytelling.

4: Favorite Film(s)?

How long do you have? Okay… limiting myself to a desert island Top 10 list? Citizen Kane for its punkrock badassery (who the hell does that with their first movie?); The Big Sleep for being the definitive noir; Notorious for the camera + Ingrid Bergman; The Third Man for showing everyone how to really introduce a character; Seven Samurai for being the most awesomest epic movie ever; Rififi for merging French existentialism with the cynicism of a casualty of McCarthy, and also for that breathtaking heist scene; The Sweet Smell of Success for being the definitive New York City film (now and forever), and for actually using Chico Hamilton’s band; McCabe and Mrs. Miller for the ecstatic patience, for being filmed in my backyard, and for making Deadwood possible; The Godfather Part II for Fredo; Blue Velvet for Dean Stockwell; and Goodfellas for the obsessive attention to detail. (Yeah, okay, I realize that’s eleven. No, fuck you.)

5: Favorite Film Score(s)?

Oh come now. Okay, fine — I will limit myself to just two:

Psycho and Vertigo.

(See, that was easy.)

6: Favorite Fiction Reading?

Ever? Crime and Punishment, with David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest a close second.

Lately? Honestly, I need to find a much healthier balance between online reading/writing and dead-tree reading. The last novel I read that really killed me was Jonathan Lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude. At the moment I am (slowly) making my way through Against The Day (god, that one chapter with Webb Traverse and the railroad bridge is effing brilliant).

7: Favorite Non-Fiction Reading?

I am currently enjoying Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland, which already, in the first 100 pages, contains everything anyone needs to know about contemporary American politics. On deck is Jeremy Scahill’s Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.

8: Favorite Guilty Pleasure Music?

No such thing. Seriously. You might (justifiably) feel guilty about, like, cheating on your spouse, or betting your kid’s college fund on an online poker game. But feeling guilty about enjoying music? Life’s too short, dude.

9: Favorite Under Rated Musician(s)?

Oy. Um… Mary Lou Williams. George Russell. Booker Little. Jimmy Giuffre (still). Late Duke Ellington. Sun Ra and his inner circle. Thad Jones as a cornet player. Bob Brookmeyer as a valve trombone player. Mel Lewis. Lewis Taylor. Post-1970 Gil Evans. Henry Threadgill. Scott Robinson. Andrew D’Angelo.

10: Recommended Artist(s)/Shout Outs?

Sherisse Rogers. Joe Phillips. Matana Roberts. Todd Sickafoose. Corey Dargel. Everyone who has ever played a Secret Society gig or rehearsal.