Three musicians in particular have had significant influence on my music and my decision to pursue music. Read on for more details……
Warne Marsh:
I met tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh in Santa Cruz, California in 1983. Through an odd series of events I had come to know his wife, Geri, and she told me that Warne was coming to town to visit their sons at one point. Casey, the eldest son (who now goes by KC, I believe), was playing in the high school jazz band at that time, and Warne came to the school to work a little with the group. I dropped by, and sure enough, in walked Warne with a Walkman cassette recorder around his neck, his tenor in his hand. He was rather short in stature, but his gray hair and studious appearance made him look regal.
The only recording of his that I had heard to that point was Apogee; his recording with Pete Christlieb. In fact it was in the cassette player of my car, and had been for some time. After he finished working with and playing with the school group we went out for breakfast together. Little did I know my formal jazz education had just begun!! I was especially naive at this point, asking lots of questions, and Warne would gaze off in the distance and hesitate in his unique way before answering. The answers were profound, dealing with the music of Charlie Parker, his experience with Lee Konitz and Lennie Tristano, and ultimately his own recordings.
The information now at hand, I began investigating this musical material. With Warne’s encouragement I had begun the process of learning to sing solos, learning some of the Tristano lines and changes, and I was working out of a book he suggested (Hindemith’s Elementary Training for Musicians).
Over time he made repeated visits to our area, and we became friends. He loved to come over to my parent’s house at that time and bask in the warm sunshine and work with me at the piano, playing chords to identify and working with me on my ear training. I was amassing quite a collection of his recordings, and of course the seminal jazz recordings that he suggested and loved, and he could see that I was starting to take it all very seriously. He was very encouraging and warm hearted, and he always had an answer for my every musical question.
Later, when I moved to San Francisco to study music at San Francisco State, we would talk on the phone and he would offer me encouragement and advice. Shortly after my move he visited San Francisco and called me to come by and meet with some of his friends there. That was how I met my good friend George Khouri, a fine Bay Area pianist and now the music director at the elegant restaurant Bix.
Warne was a very complex man, the most serious musician to that point I’d ever met. Of course, the legend is such that he literally died on the bandstand at Donte’s in Los Angeles, playing one of his favorite tunes, Out of Nowhere. As time has passed I’ve come to appreciate everything I learned from him, and I’m often outraged at the injustices that have been done this truly great jazz improviser. It pains me that he is seldom acknowledged as the true master and innovator that he was, and that he’s not part of the jazz elite or been selected into the Jazz Hall of Fame at Lincoln Center. Had his legacy been preserved more on a major record label I’m sure things would be different. I believe his incredible command of the instrument and his totally unique and advanced harmonic language deserve their place in jazz history.
For the uninitiated yet interested out there I’d suggest the Criss Cross recordings as a starting place. The beautiful CD, A Ballads Album, and the fantastic Star Highs recording reveal much of the depth of his artistry. The Art Pepper with Warne Marsh recording shows how developed these two masters were early on in their careers, and of course all the Atlantic material, now re-released on the Mosaic label, truly documents the defining moments of the early years of Lennie Tristano, Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh.
Later recordings, on private labels long since out of print, show Warne at his artistic peak. Records like Warne Out and Ne Plus Ultra. If you are fortunate enough to find a copy of these, do yourself a favor and listen hard. You won’t believe your ears. For the specific details and further information I refer the interested to the books mentioned in my recommend reading section on Warne, Unsung Cat and Out of Nowhere. Anyone interested in sharing stories, music or memories of this great musician are welcome to contact me any time.
Joe Henderson:
That Joe Henderson is a legendary tenor saxophonist, and one of the two great immediate post-Coltrane tenor players (Wayne Shorter being the other) is surely of no doubt to most serious students of improvisation. Imagine my enthusiasm when his phone number in San Francisco made its way into my hands. Lessons with Joe were unlike anything I’d experienced previously. Often four or more hours long, the lessons consisted of learning note for note long improvisations that he’d teach you from his broken down electric piano in his funky basement teaching studio. But it was his philosophical points that seemed to strike the deepest parts of my being.
Early in 1988 Joe mentioned in a lesson that he thought that if I was serious about music that I should go to New York, to absorb that city’s musical aura. I remember shivering at the thought and responding, “I couldn’t do that……” And he asked, “Why not?”, to which I responded, literally, “I’m scared!” His next reply, as much of a challenge as a statement, was….“Man, you need to grow up!” Well, that did it.
That summer was spent wandering around the city of New York, listening to great music, finding my way around, and taking clarinet lessons while there. It was the final transformation. I knew then I wanted to go to graduate school there, and my musicianship took a quantum leap as a result of my time there. It was all too poignant when I was visiting my cousin there in July of 2001 when I saw on the television that Joe had died.
We are so fortunate to have all the great music that this man left behind. It seems he plays all the difficult things on the saxophone that most players shy away from. And the incredible voice of his that comes through in the music, at times so totally personal and always so logical. Needless to say, he was a special man, literate ( he spoke numerous languages, a result of his incessant touring), honest, and incredibly passionate about music. He was and continues to be a huge inspiration for so many jazz improvisers.
If you don’t know his music; run, don’t walk, to the nearest CD store and grab as many discs with him on them as you can find. You won’t be sorry that you did……
Perry Robinson:
These last several years have seen a gradual evolution of my clarinet playing, from my classical studies in college to a more personal approach to improvisation, composition and a new interest in the avant-garde. A very unique clarinetist caught my ear some 10 years ago, and I found myself drawn to his unique, almost vocal sound on the clarinet, and his daring improvisations that seemed to defy the traditional laws of harmony. My discovery of Perry Robinson’s music has been a stunning revelation to me.
While his music is hard to find and often on long out of print vinyl LP’s, I have been very fortunate to find my way to a large portion of his discography. His playing seemed to incorporate the very best of all worlds – traditional harmonic landscapes, klezmer and various ethnic musics, so called “free jazz”, and sonic soundscapes via multi-phonics that defy categorization.
After reading his hilarious book The Traveler, I knew I had to meet this man. So I called him, had a great conversation with him, and sent him my first two recordings, Simple Beauty and Marking Time, as a further introduction. He loved my work and needless to say, we have become good friends. His encouragement and warm personality have been invaluable to my work recently on the clarinet and bass clarinet.
I was rather stunned to discover in our many conversations that we had come to many of the same conclusions regarding the difficulties involved with playing jazz on the clarinet, and it was through his many recorded examples that I began to incorporate multi-phonics and freer things into some of my work. At one point I told Perry that I felt as if he is my musical godfather, and I mean that sincerely.
I have been extremely blessed to fulfill one of my musical fantasies, which was to record a CD of my music that featured Perry. I set out to frame his playing with some compositions that I thought would bring out his lyrical side, and to back him with a fantastic New York City band of sympathetic jazz musicians. The result is my latest CD, Sinfonetta.
We all call Perry “Maestro”, and his playing on Sinfonetta seems to justify that name to me in so many ways. The singing, lyrical voice that emerges from this recording is just as I’d imagined it, and it was quite a thrill to hear him live, in person, in the studio that day in October of 2004. I think working with him, as well as the other fantastic musicians on this recording, brought about a profound change in my musical conception, and allowed my best playing to emerge.
There are many wonderful recordings that feature The Maestro, but a few of my favorites deserve mention here:
Kundalini is a classic recording, featuring Perry, Nana Vasconcellos and Badal Roy. It is here that I first began to conceive of a freer way of playing for myself.
His first record as a leader, Funk Dumpling, is a glimpse into what would become a long and storied career.
Angelology is a terrific and fully realized portrait of his music.
The recent Still Traveling showcases his current quartet, and the amazing trio recording Raga Roni has become my all-time favorite Perry recording. Featuring Ed Schuller on bass and Badal Roy on tablas, this updated version of the trio first heard on Kundalini takes the prize for creativity, spontaneity and group interaction.
It is with tremendous pride and prejudice that I now call The Maestro my friend and it truly has been an incredible experience playing with him and learning from him. On a recent trip to New York we had some time together, and it was a blast. Go out and find some of Perry’s music and see for yourself why he is so beloved by so many. It’s all in the music.
For a great overview of the life and music of Perry Robinson, please see the following excellent article by Matt Snyder:
http://users.bestweb.net/~msnyder/writings/robinson.htm