William Parker Interview

Vision Festival (NYC, 2024)

18

Julio, 2024

Text: Claudia Tebar

Photos: Eva Kapanadze I Luciano Rosetti  ©Rossetti PHOCUS

Free Jazz and avant garde pioneer William Parker granted us with an enlightening interview during Vision Festival 2024 at Roulette in Brooklyn, New York where he was honored and was a recipient of the Vision 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award.

In&OutJazz: What does it mean to you Mr. Parker to have received this award as a leader in the free jazz community?

William Parker:  Well, I’m very happy that it happened because it will give publicity to not just what I do but what everybody in the community does. We’re lacking press here. The New York Times, The Village Voice and a lot of the other newspapers in America New York have stopped writing about us. And, so you need a liaison or a bridge between the music and the people, and that could be publicity…, that could be newspapers. You just want your name to be out there so people are aware of what you do. And the award helps that, and hopefully other people will be able to present their music as a result of me getting the award.

In&OutJazz: How do you feel about being a leader in the free jazz community?

William Parker:  I feel that there are a lot of things to be done and I think you know every musician leads themselves and I do what I do. I think the labels that people put on people are from the outside and you can’t really avoid that but my responsibility as I’m 72 now is to continue to knock down walls, is to continue to present good music, is to continue to open the door and help guide younger musicians so that they can take the place of a lot of musicians who passed away. We lost saxophone player Peter Brötzmann, Kidd Jordan, Charles Gayle in the last years and they can never be replaced but we can try to get musicians to be interested in playing the creative freedom music. Because freedom, free music equals freedom and freedom equals enlightenment and so it continues the idea of a better planet and maybe we can go on for another few years.

In&OutJazz: What does free jazz mean to you? How do you differentiate “free jazz” from “jazz”?

William Parker:  Basically you have the freedom to play what you want to play in a situation. Your goal is to make the music sprout wings and fly and in a free jazz or free music, you’re free to use any element that ever existed, any element that you didn’t know about, that you discover in the moment to enhance the music. And so it’s like you don’t have any rules…, the rules are to be, to play the most creative profound music you can play and the only rule is to succeed.

In&OutJazz: Beautiful. Can you tell us a little bit about playing with Cecil Taylor , Milford Graves , and Don Cherry …?

William Parker:  All those people were great musicians and what they called progenitors or masters of the music. And again, what they did was allow you to be yourself. I played with Cecil for eleven years, and he never told me what to play once. It was setting up a situation and then allowing us to play.

In&OutJazz: Wasn’t that scary at the beginning for you?

William Parker:  No, because I had my training in New York playing with Jemeel Moondoc and Roy Campbell and Billy Bang . And I was really ready for anything when it came to free improvisation.

In&OutJazz: We know that you are one of the best double bassists of all time, and also a prolific artist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, writer, and also a teacher. What come first for you? Who are you first?

William Parker: What comes first to me is kindness, and giving, and sharing music, and sharing ideas, exchanging gifts with people, helping people to open up their gifts, for them to share them. And whether it’s music, whether it’s dance, whether it’s poetry, whether it’s writing, it doesn’t make any difference whether it’s just talking. You always try to share, get the light turned on, so that we can’t see without light. And once we have light, we can begin to shape our lives in a better way. I mean, it’s almost a hundred degrees today. And we’re still dropping bombs all over the world. And these things, there must be something better for human beings to do than to kill each other. And that’s the message we want to get. It’s we have to stop war, we have to begin to enrich each other’s lives, not try to take each other’s lives. And that’s going to be done if we engulf ourselves in music and art. It changes our lives. It brings peace and harmony in the world.

In&OutJazz: What would you say are one or two of the basic concepts in avant-garde jazz or free jazz?

William Parker: It’s to play like it’s the last time you’re gonna play. Play like every sound you are playing can change the world. You know, and so if you believe that everything you do is important and can change the world, I think that’s more important than what key you’re playing, what rhythm, whatever, you know, what style you’re playing in. It’s how you play and what you do and try to vibrate. Music is water. You want to play and it vibrates and turns to steam when it boils and heats. And that’s when it’s usable. That’s when you open up and go into the tone world. You go into the third world. You go into the world of light and sonic vibration. The world of pure happiness and joy. And that’s the kind of experience you want to make. So how you do it, it doesn’t really make any difference. As long as we do that, because we have to reverse ignorance. We have to reverse hate. We have to reverse this idea of ​​severe, harmful capitalism. And we have to begin to elevate the people from within. They’ve got to elevate themselves so that they can fly. And it’s very important that everyone flies.

Nicholas Payton Interview

02

Julio, 2024

By: Claudia Tebar

Photos: Nicholas Payton

Not everyone is lucky enough to sit down with someone like Nicholas Payton. In this interview that Nicholas Payton gave us in November 2023, you can see the renowned artist in a personal setting. Mr. Payton, not only talks about music, but also about his philosophy of life, his self-perception, and his opinion on current society.

In&OutJazz How do you define yourself? Where does the term “The Zen Gangster” come from and what does it mean to you?

Nicholas Payton I didn’t come up with that, so that’s not a self-definition. Vijay Iyer called me “The Zen Gangster” and I thought it was a bit apropos given my nature. Much like The Savior of Archaic Pop, which a lot of people think I’m calling myself a savior, no, someone else called me that and I adopted it.

In&OutJazz What does it mean to you to be The Savior of Archaic Pop?

Nicholas Payton Well, it’s been one of my monikers for over 10 years. Someone wrote a post about me on a blog site called “The Pop of Yestercentury,” you can look it up. But it was in the wake of the initial post that I made about why jazz isn’t cool anymore; they wrote an article talking about the concepts behind my post and they branded me that. Their theory behind it was that I, in some way, was trying to save pop music by reconnecting it to its roots in Black American music, the genesis of pop music before so-called jazz separated itself from the popular aesthetic. So, again, this was someone else coming up with a name that I adopted, but it wasn’t me calling myself anything.

In&OutJazz Can you tell us about the term #BAM?

Nicholas Payton Okay, well, I don’t like the term “jazz”. I believe it has racist connotations and roots. So, when I wrote the initial post, a lot of people were like, well, if you don’t call it jazz, what would you call it? And I simply said Black American Music. We live in the age of the internet and hashtags, so #BAM is an acronym for Black American Music. I thought it was a cool way to have somewhat of an onomatopoeic destruction of the word “jazz,” so, #BAM is a declaration of strength affirming the idea of Black American Music.

In&OutJazz What has the #BAM concept meant to you on a musical level as a new idea and criticism of what’s established? What have been some of the consequences for you? Not consequences in a bad way, but just in general.

Nicholas Payton I don’t know if there’s been any musical consequences per se. I mean, I’ve had people not want to give me gigs or think I’m angry or racist for saying it, but I mean, I knew before I said it that that was the risk of speaking to this because I’m challenging the status quo. I’m challenging decades long of musical oppression and centuries long of racial oppression. So, I was well aware of what I was doing, and I was willing to accept the consequences for my actions because what I had to say about it is important. And it was also ahead of its time when I started speaking to this. We were in the height of the Obama years, and a lot of people felt maybe that we had crossed over or come past certain racial things. This predated George Floyd, and predated Tamir Rice. It predated Trayvon Martin. It predated Michael Brown and the Black Lives Matter movement. So, in light of all those things, after they happened, over time, the concept of #BAM became more sensible to people. So, I think what happened was perhaps it was before its time, which is strange to me because racial oppression has never gone anywhere. It never dissipated. It just changed forms. But I think to a lot of people, maybe they were under the impression that somehow we had advanced a lot further than we actually had. And I think what I helped uncover is that we are not as advanced as perhaps we thought we were. So…

Then, whereas it seemed like a majority of people did not agree and were against me, fast forward 10 plus years later, I think a majority of people actually understand my point and actually agree. So, it just took time for a lot of people to see, which to me seemed pretty plain and obvious, but it wasn’t, which is why I needed to speak on it the way I did.

In&OutJazz Do you think your critical and controversial nature has interfered or interferes in the present with your work?

Nicholas Payton I don’t view myself as controversial. It’s just that we live in a society in which the things I see and the ways I feel tend to be in opposition of a lot of the ways we’ve been taught to think and feel. But I don’t intentionally set out to be controversial. These are ways in which I quite naturally think and feel.

In&OutJazz Could you name some contemporary musicians or artists with whom you have greater musical and conceptual affinity?

Nicholas Payton Anybody who’s recorded with me, I would say. Bill Stewart, Vicente Archer, the people who have been playing with me for years. Kats in Butcher Brown, Corey Fonville and Devonne Harris and all of those guys. I like Joel Ross.

In&OutJazz Yeah, can you tell us some names with whom you have conceptual affinity? Maybe you haven’t played with them, but you know, they have similar opinions and support the term #BAM.

Nicholas Payton Well, I don’t judge if people support Black American Music or not. People have a right to feel and label their music as they choose. What I do find important is the idea that people self-label and not think they have to succumb to being labeled. So whatever someone wants to call it, whatever they want to do, I’m open with it. For instance, Christian Scott, who I’ve known since he was a teenager in New Orleans, he calls what he does “stretch music” and that’s cool, but he also doesn’t like the term jazz. Different people have different ways of expressing that. I’m all for that, whatever it is. I just don’t like the term jazz. I find it to be particularly degenerating, derogatory to the music.

In&OutJazz Do you prioritize creative freedom above all?

Nicholas Payton I don’t know. I don’t think creative freedom is more important than, say, having clean water and clean air or having a certain moral character in which people treat one another.

There’re certain things in terms of living on this planet in this realm that I find to be more important than music. The creative part is just a means for me to utilize the art to speak to those freedoms that we have as beings on this planet. So the music to me is not even the most important thing. It’s what I create and how I make people feel and changing thought. Most of us as beings in this realm, on this planet, are oppressed in some way. We feel some lack of freedom, not necessarily creatively, but just to be ourselves, to think as we want to think, to live as we want to live. The Earth’s natural resources are something that we are forced to pay for, that are commodified and monetized. I don’t think we should have to pay for water any more than we don’t pay for air. To pay for water is as ridiculous to me. The fact that people don’t have access to clean water is more important than if we call music “jazz” or “Black American music.” So the point of art to me is to speak to those socio-political issues. I try to use music and words as a means to speak to our liberation as beings and people on this planet. That’s the most important thing to me.

In&OutJazz Can you define what creative freedom means to you?

Nicholas Payton Well, I think that’s a bit redundant. I mean, it’s the same thing. You can’t be free without being creative and you can’t be creative without being free. But you also can’t have freedom without tradition and form. So, to me, you have to have an understanding of history and lineages and those who came before you to be truly free. Some people want to be free of rules or free of traditions or free of whatever. And to me, that’s not true freedom. There’s only freedom within the context of confines and rules and form. That’s not to say you need to be oppressed to be free. But, in order to be free, one must have some understanding of what the limitations are. It must be contextualized against something. You can’t be free within free. It has to be contextualized against something else, juxtaposed against something that is perhaps more static or less lucid, if you will.

In&OutJazz How do you feel about having become identified as a guru? Guru of this community, guru of the arts.

Nicholas Payton A guru is what a teacher is, is that what you mean by guru?

In&OutJazz Yes.

Nicholas Payton I mean, yeah, I am a teacher of sorts. I thought it was weird at first, you know, when I first started giving lessons and teaching, because at that time in my, I guess, early, mid 20s, I still very much considered myself a student. And even at 50, I still consider myself a student. But yeah, I think I’ve learned some things along the way. And I think a part of learning things is sharing what you have learned with those who may not have had those experiences, as my elders did for me. So that’s why lineage and tradition is important because it’s important that we share what we find along our journey as a means of helping the music and this artistic community grow. That’s a part of the tradition to me. So, yeah, if some people see me as a guru of sorts, I guess I get that. It’s certainly nothing I necessarily set out to do. But at the same time, it’s something that I proudly step into, a position and a mantle and a responsibility that I accept because there are certain artists or gurus of mine, which many people perhaps don’t have access to because they’re not around in the physical realm anymore. And it’s incumbent upon me to be a link to those people for younger generations through my experiences with them. And not only that, but the things that I’ve learned or the concepts that I’ve been able to develop in my experiences and making mistakes and doing things perhaps the wrong way or not the most efficient way. I’ve learned maybe easier ways to do things, and if something that I’ve learned can help someone younger than me save some time of going through the headaches and the challenges that I’ve been through, then I have no problem sharing that to make their journeys easier with hopes that they can learn something from this information and maybe improve upon it and teach that to someone coming after them. That is the main part of what it is that we do here. The work that I do here is that we share what we’ve learned and hopefully make the journey easier for other people that we share this planet with. To me, I value that above music itself or creative freedom. This is to help one another, make this journey easier.

In&OutJazz Could you name a couple of teachings or experiences that you’ve had in the past that have changed your life or the vision you had about something? Anecdotes with other artists when you were younger or even in the present?

Nicholas Payton Sure. We could be here all day doing that. I am getting ready to release my first book, Notes from the Zen Gangster, which should come out some time in the next couple of weeks. And that’s full of anecdotes and stories and things that I’ve learned along the way.

In&OutJazz Wow, okay. We will pay attention to that.

Nicholas Payton Please, thank you.

In&OutJazz How would you define your musical evolution?

Nicholas Payton I don’t know if I would. The only thing that’s really mattered to me is that I’ve evolved.

For me, there is no need to have to define it. It’s been my musical journey. And when I look at it, I can say that I’m proud of my growth, that I have grown. I feel blessed and honored to still be here and to still be creating new things and discovering new things. I feel honored at the great musicians I’ve been blessed to work with and learn from and share with. But I don’t know if I would define it. I don’t know if I can because it’s not over yet. I don’t know if I can while I’m still doing it.

In&OutJazz Could you tell us what period or vital moment are you in now, musically speaking?

Nicholas Payton Is that the same answer? I don’t know. I’m creating it right now, so it’s hard for me to say what it is while I’m creating it. Once I do the album, that album has a name and that’s usually the end of whatever that is. Once we go on the road and play the music, the music often evolves and that becomes something else. So that album, those recordings are a snapshot in time and can’t be recreated, not even by myself. I can’t recreate those moments. So I don’t really seek to define things or categorize things in that way, which is kind of why I opt for, if this could even be considered a categorization, Black American music because it’s open-ended. I don’t like genre classifications. I don’t like those types of definitions. They’re stifling to me. They stunt growth.

In&OutJazz Tell us about celebrating your 50th birthday with the publication of a new album came about.

Nicholas Payton It was a last minute idea, kind of like everything else I do. When I recorded it, I had no idea when it would come out. I just knew I wanted to get an album out some time this year. Initially, it was supposed to come out on September 9 and the person I had helping me upload it to the portal made a mistake in leaving out some of the guest appearances, so I picked another date. The next closest date that made sense to me was September 26, which was my 50th birthday, but there was no initial plan to release a 50th birthday album. I live my life as a free-flowing, creative form of exploration, moment to moment. I don’t tend to plan these things well in advance.

In&OutJazz How was your experience with Verve Records and why did you decide to create your own record label?

Nicholas Payton I enjoyed my time at Verve. It was a long time ago. I mean, the last album I made for them was in 2000, 2001. It was over 20 years ago. I’ve since been at Warner Brothers. I did two albums for them. I did an album for Concord. I started my own label because I grew over having to adhere to someone else’s schedule, which was based on other artists and other releases. I wanted to be able to record and release as many albums as I wanted to without having to get approval and consent from anyone else in terms of how I did that. Even though when I was at Verve, I was very good at developing a sales pitch to get people on board to support what it is I was doing. But I don’t have to create sales pitches anymore. Just like I told you, I decide “Hey, I want to release it on the 9th. Okay, that’s not going to work. I want to release it on the 26^th.” I don’t have to pass this decision through someone else. I don’t have to wait months for someone’s release schedule and a publicist and this and that. So many of the inner workings that happen at labels, you have to wait six months for a setup to release an album. I can record an album today, mix it and master it tomorrow, and release it on the third day for the world to hear.

That’s why I started my own label, to be able to do it the way I want to do it, when I want to do it.

In&OutJazz What’s your experience and opinion with the big festivals, clubs, and events? Do they put limitations on you when they are hire you? Do you think they leave artists complete freedom or not?

Nicholas Payton I don’t know. Every festival, every venue is different. Some venues want to know who’s playing with you, they want to know the concept of the gig. Some venues don’t care and they’re perfectly fine with whomever you bring and whatever you do. Everybody’s different. Ultimately, nobody can make you do something you don’t want to do, so I think every artist has the choice to do what it is they want. Now, you also might have to pay the consequences for that. You have to pay the consequences for your choices or your actions to comply with what you’re being asked to do, or not comply with what you’re being asked to do. At the end of the day, you have to live with your decisions and that’s how I’ve always guided my career. None of these people at a record label or at a venue have to live with your performance. You do, so you have to be happy with it. So yeah, there are no rules as far as how everyone runs their business. Everyone’s different. Some venues, some festivals have a heavier hand and want to have more input than others. So unless we go down the list name by name, festival by festival, we can’t categorize them all as one way or another.

In&OutJazz Let’s generalize, do you think it’s more one way or another? There’s no predominant way?

Nicholas Payton I’m not overly concerned with freedom because no one else controls that. I think to be obsessed with freedom is more problematic than the reality of living your life. It all comes down to how free you’re willing to be responsible for, because with freedom comes responsibility. How many people really want to be free? That’s more the question. It’s not a question of can you be free? I don’t think a lot of people want the responsibility that comes with freedom. That’s the issue.

In&OutJazz Can you tell us what projects do you have active right now?

Nicholas Payton A lot. I have a new album I just started recording with Sasha Masakowski That’s going to be the musical companion to the book, Notes from the Zen Gangster and it’ll be my first duo album. It’s also going to be my first drumless album as a leader. And the music is very meditative. The book is coming out of the intense lessons and questions that I’ve had along my journey of studying Zen maybe some 20 years ago. I’m also working on a new project with Otis McDonald. I’ve been working at his studio for the last year or so. Somewhat of an R&B album with me singing through a vocoder. I also have some special guest vocalists that are probably going to be on it as well. But much of it is me singing in the vocoder, which is not something that I’ve done in the past. So that’s a new form of expression for me. When this album is released, it’ll be the third in a trilogy of love-themed, R&B albums. Bitches would be the first, Maestro Rhythm King the second. And this next one that I still haven’t decided the title yet will be the third in that series so far. I have another album that I’ve been working on with Marcus Gilmore that we started at the top of the pandemic. It’s a tribute to the photographic works of Kwame Brathwaite, who was very instrumental in spearheading the Black is Beautiful movement in the ‘60s. We chose photographic works from his archives and composed original songs that sound like the photographs. That’s another project. Then there’s New World Order, which is a trio I have with Sasha Masakowski and Cliff Hines. This is the group that made the Quarantined with Nick album that I did at the top of 2020. On New World Order, we also have some special guests. Christian Sands guested on a song. Joshua Redman guested on a song. Also Butcher Brown guested on a song. So that will come out maybe some time next year. I also have an album, Light Beings that I recorded in 2019 that I was going to release in 2020, but when the pandemic happened I decided to sit on it. I want to get this album out soon. It’s basically a suite of music dedicated to the electromagnetic spectrum. Seven movements, each song is dedicated to a different wave of light. The song Visible Light, which is on my latest album, DRIP, is actually from that Light Beings project. So yeah. And I have maybe 3, 4, 5 other albums that are almost done, that are unreleased, that I want to get out at some point. A lot of things.

In&OutJazz Impressive! Can you tell us about the creative process? What inspires you to start a new project?

Nicholas Payton I always feel it. I never turn that faucet off. It stays running, so I don’t look at creativity as something you turn on and off. I keep that tap running and that way I don’t have to think about it. This is why I have more albums than I know what to do with. I’m always recording. I’m always inspired. Life inspires me. That’s what inspires me. Not music. Life inspires me. As I live my life, my life has certain sounds to it. So I write music based on my feelings, or people I meet, or loves that I have or that I’ve lost. All of these experiences go into creating music. And I write all the time. I don’t give myself a schedule to have to write. I don’t need permission to write. Whenever I hear a melody or a rhythm or a set of chords, I record it and I put it down and I develop these ideas. That is my life’s work. That’s what I do. I’m always writing. Whenever I have a thought or an idea, I write it down. And I compile these things. And over a course of 15 years, then you have a book. Over a course of several months or weeks or days, you have an album. So I just keep making things.

In&OutJazz Could you tell us one thing you would like to do and you haven’t done yet?

Nicholas Payton I don’t know. I guess I won’t know that until I do it. The only thing that stops me from doing certain things is maybe having the money to do it. But I’ve done everything that I want to do, really. I’ve played with most of the people that I’ve wanted to play with. I’ve done most of the things that I want to do. I don’t look for permission. That’s the big thing. I think so many musicians, they look for somebody to give them permission to do something. The artist, to me, does not wait. That’s the difference between an artist and a musician. The artist just does it. They don’t wait for permission. So I consider myself more of an artist. I do the things that I want to do. I seek the opportunities that I want to have and I take the risks necessary to bring those opportunities to light and to create those things. And once you get working on them, then you bring a lot of energy to you. So I don’t sit around and wait for people to give me permission to do what it is that I have the power to do myself.

Javier Moreno Interview

22

Junio, 2024

Texto: Begoña Villalobos

Fotos: Valentín Suárez

Ha sido un placer entrevistar al contrabajista y compositor español Javier Moreno, en relación al nuevo álbum publicado por el sello Fresh Sound Records, Quinteto Capital (2024, Fresh Sound Records).  Javier Moreno (bajo), Jorge Vistel (trompeta), Victor Correa (trombón), Román Filiú (saxo alto), Borja Barrueta (batería), grabado en Camaleón Estudios, Madrid, 13 de octubre de 2022.

In&OutJazz Hola Javier. Muchas gracias por la entrevista para In&OutJazz. Empezamos sin más preámbulos. ¿Cómo ha surgido el proyecto de Quinteto Capital?

Javier Moreno En primer lugar, Begoña, saludarte y darte las gracias por incluirme en tu espacio.  Quinteto Capital, es una reflexión musical sobre el arraigo, y hace referencia a mi vuelta a Madrid después de casi veinte años. La idea del proyecto surgió cuando gané el premio de la residencia de composición de Conde Duque de Madrid en plena pandemia. A partir de esta oportunidad, y aprovechando también la disponibilidad de los músicos en ese momento, comencé a idear por donde quería ir y comencé a componer un repertorio para el concierto final de fin de residencia.  Por suerte, en ese momento, todos teníamos tiempo para ensayar y para estudiar, ya que la música requiere bastante trabajo por su complejidad.

In&OutJazz ¿Puedes presentar el quinteto? ¿Qué aporta cada uno a la propuesta? ¿Cómo es la narrativa de diálogo que se establece en el quinteto?

Javier Moreno La formación inicial del grupo, somos Victor Correa al trombón, Román Filiu al saxo alto, Jorge Vistel a la trompeta, Borja Barrueta a la batería, y yo al contrabajo.

Con respecto a la narrativa de diálogo que mencionas en lo compositivo, es interesante la pregunta, porque es un disco que en realidad son como siete estudios de contrapunto distintos. El contrapunto es diálogo. Es una herramienta que estudia de alguna manera como se establecen conversaciones entre varias voces y como resulta su relación final en el conjunto.

Atiende más al movimiento horizontal que a la armonía en lo vertical, y es por ello elegí cuatro voces melódicas para el ensamble, y ningún instrumento armónico como el piano o la guitarra, pero sobre todo, este diálogo, en intención compositiva, está siempre presente en todo el disco de dos maneras diferentes: la primera se presenta en la búsqueda de un equilibrio con respecto a las diversas conversaciones que se dan entre secciones:-  las voces melódicas muchas veces funcionan como engranajes baterísticos que acompañan melodías principales que se encuentran en el bajo y el trombón y viceversa,-  y a segunda se presenta en la búsqueda de equilibrio con respecto a la experimentación entre extremos: desde la “no funcionalidad armónica” en las diversas zonas disonantes (en ocasiones cercanas al dodecafonismo)  a las melodías más cantables y épicas, y desde la densidad más intensa al silencio y a la sutileza.

Con respecto al diálogo y la interacción entre los músicos, cabe mencionar, que son intérpretes con los que existe un contacto artístico intermitente desde hace bastante tiempo. A Borja y a Víctor los conozco hace casi veinte años (actualmente, yo también soy contrabajista de uno de los proyectos de Victor Correa), a Román Filiu y a Jorge Vistel los conozco desde hace menos, pero Román ha tocado ya varios repertorios con mi música, tanto en Nueva York, (cuando ambos vivíamos allá), como aquí en Madrid, asimismo yo, de manera puntual, también he tocado alguna vez su música.

Por último, para terminar esta cuestión y respondiendo a lo que aporta cada uno de los integrantes de forma individual, añadir que se podría decir que Borja Barrueta podría aportar la tierra y el rock, Jorge Vistel la exploración del “Edge” (o el límite) en las improvisaciones, Román y Víctor la cohesión de la melodía y el ensamblaje, y yo el bajo y la hoja de ruta.

In&OutJazz Es el cuarto disco con el sello discográfico Fresh Sound Records, ¿cómo se trabaja con Fresh Sound Records?

Javier Moreno Siempre he tenido muy buena experiencia con la discográfica, y para mí es muy gratificante, que sigan existiendo medios para producir discos físicos en los que un sello se implica. En este caso, a diferencia de otras producciones, el proceso a seguir con el proyecto, fue mostrarle la grabación del directo del concierto de fin de residencia de Conde Duque en 2020 a Jordi Pujol (director de Fresh Sound New Talent Records) para que escuchara el material, y tras la escucha accedió a realizar la producción. Después, todo el proceso fue bastante rápido, además Jordi también, en la medida de lo que puede, ayuda también para prensa, para algún contacto en festivales, clubes, etc.  Mi experiencia ha sido y es muy positiva, eso sí, después de cuatro discos y doce años de relación con el sello, no sé cuánto de New Talent hay ya en mi historia.

In&OutJazz Jajaja ¿Dirías en primera persona que Quinteto Capital forma parte de una evolución respecto a los discos publicados anteriormente en otras etapas del ciclo vital (cuando vivías en NYC, etc.)?

Javier Moreno Se podría decir, en general, que sí, que forma parte de una evolución en el sentido de que cuando tuve todas las composiciones acabadas, sentí un alivio creativo grande al darme cuenta de que me había sorprendido a mí mismo notablemente, ya que conseguí orientar el proceso creativo hacia zonas que no había transitado antes, siguiendo, también de alguna manera, el hilo conductor procedente de mis otros discos. Después de procesos de creación intensos como este, siempre te queda un poco la duda de haber terminado un statement que valga la pena. En este caso acabo todo de la mejor manera posible, aunque siempre hay cosas que mejorar… Pienso que, como compositor y artista, siempre tenemos que tener una responsabilidad con la sorpresa y con el cambio sobre nosotros mismos.

Quinteto capital, en ocasiones, puede sonar más mainstream que mis otros álbumes, y, por otro lado, sonar también mucho más experimental. La verdad es que estoy muy contento con el resultado, porque al fin y al cabo buscaba (como comenté en la cuestión anterior) un equilibrio entre fuerzas y entre extremos.

In&OutJazz In Sides (2019, Fresh Sound Records) es también un álbum increíble, ¿cómo ha sido la evolución desde In Sides hasta Quinteto Capital?

Javier Moreno Gracias Begoña, me alegro de que hayas escuchado más material mío, y que te guste también.  In Sides, se grabó una semana antes de mudarme a España de vuelta desde Nueva York. Es una despedida, hay bastante nostalgia (como denotan los títulos de Sights from a Lost Winter o No One for the Rhine), es un despegue hacia algo diferente, es el inicio de un viaje, en cambio. En esta línea, es interesante mencionar, que Quinteto Capital es un aterrizaje, tiene más folclore, más tierra y más rock también. De alguna manera, siento que hay más certeza en lo que se presenta, aunque también hay misterio e incertidumbre en temas como retorno. En cualquiera de los casos, cuando compongo trato de no pensar en nada, ni siquiera en un resultado estético, trato de ser fiel un proceso compositivo X y confiar en que saldrá un resultado que merezca la pena. Por decirlo de alguna manera, cuando compongo muchas veces, me entrego al caos y confió en salir airoso del viaje impregnado de todo lo que esté viviendo o experimentando en ese momento musical y vitalmente hablando.

In&OutJazz ¿Cómo describirías el aporte de Michael Attias en In Sides, respecto al enfoque de Román Filiu en Quinteto Capital?

Javier Moreno Son personalidades totalmente diferentes en dos proyectos que también tienen dos puntos de fuga hacia lugares con diferente dirección. Michael es un improvisador nato de vanguardia, y en In Sides, aporta mucho edge en varios temas, además tiene una familiaridad (con la que siento mucha cercanía) muy natural con todo lo étnico – modal dentro del free.  Con respecto a Filiu, la aproximación es diferente: es un altero impecable, con recursos para improvisar en cualquier situación, y que además que ofrece un centro inmejorable en sección. Me interesa mucho la relación que tiene con Vistel desde hace años, y sabía que iban a hacer un ensamble muy sólido con Víctor. Por eso les junté.

In&OutJazz ¿Cómo defines tú mismo la forma de componer y las composiciones en Quinteto Capital? ¿Antes eres compositor o músico – intérprete? ¿Cómo describirías en primera persona tu concepto musical y la forma de escribir?

Javier Moreno Estas son preguntas también muy interesantes de responder, y son temas que comento bastante con mis alumnos de composición. Lo cierto es que, efectivamente, soy intérprete y contrabajista primero e intento aproximarme a la composición desde el punto de vista de un compositor que no tiene nada que perder porque ya tiene una personalidad artística de intérprete y de contrabajista definida. Este es un juego que uso a menudo para liberarme de los prejuicios que solemos tener tipo debo de sonar a esto, o debo de sonar a lo otro.

Dicho esto, y aunque suene un poco psicópata, muchas veces, me acerco a la composición como si yo mismo, fuera otra persona que no tiene ni miedo, ni juicio artístico ante lo que vaya a salir, y después, cuando tengo el resultado sobre la mesa y me convencen plenamente mis melodías y mis composiciones, intento absorber la sonoridad de lo que he creado en vista de mejorar también como contrabajista, fabricando mis propios estudios de contrabajo  con mis propias melodías y mi propio material para mejorar y complementar mi calidad y mi identidad como interprete. Diríamos que puede en ocasiones sigo proceso un inverso de alguna manera.

Leer al maestro Ran Blake me está ayudando mucho en este camino de retroalimentación artística. Es como establecer un baile: dos yoes diferentes con el intérprete y el compositor. Es algo bastante nuevo para mí, y que me inspira mucho.

In&OutJazz ¿Cómo ves la proyección nacional e internacional de Quinteto Capital?

Javier Moreno Sobre ambas proyecciones espero que sean extensas, fructíferas y duraderas. De momento hemos tocado en el Festival de Jazz de Alpedrete en febrero, y también en Jazz a Head de Bremen en abril. Vamos a ver que sale de todo esto, pero a veces mover el quinteto, sobre todo fuera de nuestras fronteras, puede ser complicado, es por ello, que el proyecto, tiene también el potencial de ser en trío. Por eso, también trato de ofrecer la opción de contratar el mismo repertorio y el mismo proyecto en formato reducido: Trío Capital. Mil gracias por la entrevista Begoña, y gracias por el apoyo, de corazón.