WWW.JAZZINSIDEMAGAZINE.COM July-August 2017 Spectacular Jazz Gifts - Go To www.JazzMusicDeals.com Fabulous CDs, Box Sets & The Jazz Lovers Lifeme Collecon 20 PRINTED VOLUMES, OVER 6000 PAGES + 20 CDS = 40 POUNDS OF JAZZ Photo Gallery Retrospective Photo Gallery Retrospective Terence Blanchard Terence Blanchard {shown) {shown) NewporT NewporT Jazz Festival Jazz Festival Interviews The Necks John Scofield Jazz At Linocln Center, October 6-7 Jeremy Pelt Blue Note, September 25 Comprehensive Comprehensive Directory Directory of NY Club, Concert of NY Club, Concert Eric Nemeyer’s
Transcript
WWW.JAZZINSIDEMAGAZINE.COM July-August 2017
Spectacular Jazz Gifts - Go To www.JazzMusicDeals.com Fabulous CDs, Box Sets & The Jazz Lovers Lifetime Collection
20 PRINTED VOLUMES, OVER 6000 PAGES + 20 CDS = 40 POUNDS OF JAZZ
August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com 2 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880
Jazz Inside Magazine
ISSN: 2150-3419 (print) • ISSN 2150-3427 (online)
August–September 2017 – Volume 8, Number 6
Cover Photo (and photo at right) of Terence Blanchard
by Eric Nemeyer
Publisher: Eric Nemeyer Editor: Lily Chang Marketing Director: Cheryl Powers Advertising Sales & Marketing: Eric Nemeyer Circulation: Susan Brodsky Photo Editor: Joe Patitucci Layout and Design: Gail Gentry Contributing Artists: Shelly Rhodes Contributing Photographers: Eric Nemeyer, Ken Weiss Contributing Writers: John Alexander, John R. Barrett, Curtis Daven-port; Alex Henderson; Joe Patitucci; Ken Weiss.
ADVERTISING in Jazz Inside™ Magazine (print and online) Jazz Inside™ Magazine provides its advertisers with a unique opportunity to reach a highly specialized and committed jazz readership. Call our Advertising Sales Depart-ment at 215-887-8880 for media kit, rates and information.
Jazz Inside™ Magazine | Eric Nemeyer Corporation MAIL: P.O. Box 30284, Elkins Park, PA 19027
OFFICE: 107-A Glenside Ave, Glenside, PA 19038 Telephone: 215-887-8880
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION Jazz Inside™ (published monthly). To order a subscription, call 215-887-8880 or visit Jazz Inside on the Internet at www.jazzinsidemagazine.com. Subscription rate is $49.95 per year, USA. Please allow up to 8 weeks for processing subscriptions & changes of address.
EDITORIAL POLICIES
Jazz Inside does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. Persons wishing to submit a manuscript or transcription are asked to request specific permission from Jazz Inside prior to submission. All materials sent become the property of Jazz Inside unless otherwise agreed to in writing. Opinions expressed in Jazz Inside by contrib-uting writers are their own and do not necessarily express the opinions of Jazz Inside, Eric Nemeyer Corporation or its affiliates.
SUBMITTING PRODUCTS FOR REVIEW Companies or individuals seeking reviews of their recordings, books, videos, software and other products: Send TWO COPIES of each CD or product to the attention of the Editorial Dept. All materials sent become the property of Jazz Inside, and may or may not be reviewed, at any time.
August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com 6 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
HiromiHiromi
Newport Jazz Festival 2013Newport Jazz Festival 2013
August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com 7 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880
Terence BlanchardTerence Blanchard
Newport Jazz Festival 2013Newport Jazz Festival 2013
Conrad HerwigConrad Herwig
Newport Jazz FestivalNewport Jazz Festival
August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com 8 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880
Wayne ShorterWayne Shorter
Newport Jazz Festival 2013Newport Jazz Festival 2013
August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com 9 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880
xxxxxxxxxxx x
Marcus MillerMarcus Miller
Newport Jazz FestivalNewport Jazz Festival
Tia FullerTia Fuller
Newport Jazz FestivalNewport Jazz Festival
August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com 10 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880
Gregory PorterGregory Porter
Newport Jazz FestivalNewport Jazz Festival
Lionel LouekeLionel Loueke
Newport Jazz Festival Newport Jazz Festival
George WeinGeorge Wein
Newport Jazz Festival 2013Newport Jazz Festival 2013
August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com 11 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880
Saturday afternoon, Saturday afternoon,
August 14, 2004, greeting: August 14, 2004, greeting:
James Moody and Ron CarterJames Moody and Ron Carter
August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com 12 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880
Phil Woods & Jackie McLeanPhil Woods & Jackie McLean
Newport Jazz Festival 2004Newport Jazz Festival 2004
Bill CharlapBill Charlap
Newport Jazz Festival 2013Newport Jazz Festival 2013
August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com 13 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880
Wayne Shorter & Dave HollandWayne Shorter & Dave Holland
Newport Jazz Festival 2004Newport Jazz Festival 2004
Ravi Coltrane & Michael BreckerRavi Coltrane & Michael Brecker
Newport Jazz Festival 2004Newport Jazz Festival 2004
August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com 14 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880
Percy HeathPercy Heath
Newport Jazz Festival 2004Newport Jazz Festival 2004
Albert HeathAlbert Heath
Newport Jazz Festival 2004Newport Jazz Festival 2004
Jimmy HeathJimmy Heath
Newport Jazz Festival 2004Newport Jazz Festival 2004
15 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880 August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com
Tuesday, August 1
Bertha Hope at Bryant Park, 12:30 PM. 5th Ave. @ 40th St.
Michael Bank 7 at Shrine, 6:00 PM. 2271 7th Ave.
Sachal Vasandani & Friends: Tribute to Nat 'King' Cole at Dizzy's
Club Coca Cola, 7:30 and 9:30 PM. 10 Columbus Cir. #10.
Sofija Knezevic 3 at Flatiron Room, 7:30 PM. 37 W. 26th.
Nate Smith & Kinfolk at Jazz Standard, 7:30 & 9:30 PM. 116 E. 27th.
Mika Shinno/Senri Oe at Smalls, 7:30 PM. 183 W. 10th St.
Joey DeFrancesco & The People at Blue Note, 8:30, 10:30 PM. 131
W. 3rd St.
Brenda Earle Stokes 3 at Cornelia St. Cafe, 8:00 PM. 29 Cornelia.
Joe Lovano 9 at Village Vanguard, 8:30, 10:30 PM. 178 7th Ave. S.
Luke Sellick at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, 11:15 PM. 10 Columbus Cir. #10.
Craig Wuepper at Fat Cat, 12:30 AM. 75 Christopher.
Wednesday, August 2
Dominick Fairinacci at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, 7:30 and 9:30 PM.
10 Columbus Cir. #10.
Mike Rodriguez 5 at Jazz Standard, 7:30 & 9:30 PM. 116 E. 27th.
Tyler Mitchell 3 at Jules Bistro, 7:30 PM. 65 St. Marks Pl.
Dan Blake & the Digging at Smalls, 7:30 PM. 183 W. 10th St.
Joey DeFrancesco & The People at Blue Note, 8:30, 10:30 PM. 131 W. 3rd St.
Joe Lovano 9 at Village Vanguard, 8:30, 10:30 PM. 178 7th Ave. S.
Luke Sellick at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, 11:15 PM. 10 Columbus Cir. #10.
Ned Goold at Fat Cat, 12:30 AM. 75 Christopher.
Thursday, August 3
Ben Wolfe 6 w/Randy Brecker at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, 7:30 and
9:30 PM. 10 Columbus Cir. #10.
Yael Dray 3 at Flatiron Room, 7:30 PM. 37 W. 26th.
Remy LeBeouf Big Band at Jazz Gallery, 7:30 and 9:30 PM. 1160
Broadway.
Pat Martino 3 at Jazz Standard, 7:30 & 9:30 PM. 116 E. 27th.
Birdland Big Band at Birdland, 8:30 and 11:00 PM. 315 W. 44th.
Joe Lovano 9 at Village Vanguard, 8:30, 10:30 PM. 178 7th Ave. S.
Dave Gibson 4 at Luca's Jazz Corner, 9:00 PM. 1712 1st Ave.
J.C. Stylles/Steve Nelson: The Bobby Hutcherson Project at Smalls, 10:30 PM. 183 W. 10th St.
Luke Sellick at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, 11:15 PM. 10 Columbus Cir. #10.
Paul Nowinski at Fat Cat, 1:30 AM. 75 Christopher.
Friday, August 4
Ben Wolfe 6 w/Randy Brecker at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, 7:30 and 9:30 PM. 10 Columbus Cir. #10.
Mario Castro 4 at Jazz Gallery, 7:30 and 9:30 PM. 1160 Broadway.
Pat Martino 3 at Jazz Standard, 7:30 & 9:30 PM. 116 E. 27th.
Louis Armstrong Birthday Party: Joey Morant & Catfish Stew at Lucille's Grill, B.B. King's, 7:30 PM. 237 W. 42nd.
Tom Guarna Group at Smalls, 7:30 PM. 183 W. 10th St.
Full Disclosure Quintet at South Orange Gazebo, 7:30 PM. 17 Sloan, South Orang NJ.
Jeff Miles 3 at Bar Next Door, 8:00 PM. 129 MacDougal.
Christian Scott at Blue Note, 8:30, 10:30 PM. 131 W. 3rd St.
Rufus Reid 2 at Mezzrow, 8:00 PM. 163 W. 10th St.
Joe Lovano 9 at Village Vanguard, 8:30, 10:30 PM. 178 7th Ave. S.
Luke Sellick at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, 11:15 PM. 10 Columbus Cir. #10.
Alex Han at Blue Note, 12:30 AM. 131 W. 3rd St.
Nick Hempton at Fat Cat, 1:30 AM. 75 Christopher.
Saturday, August 5
Ben Wolfe 6 w/Randy Brecker at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, 7:30 and
9:30 PM. 10 Columbus Cir. #10.
Pat Martino 3 at Jazz Standard, 7:30 & 9:30 PM. 116 E. 27th.
Behn Gillece 4 at Smalls, 7:30 PM. 183 W. 10th St.
Christian Scott at Blue Note, 8:30, 10:30 PM. 131 W. 3rd St.
Birdland Big Band at Birdland, 8:30 and 11:00 PM. 315 W. 44th.
Joe Lovano 9 at Village Vanguard, 8:30, 10:30 PM. 178 7th Ave. S.
Luke Sellick at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, 11:15 PM. 10 Columbus Cir. #10.
Gabriel Royal at Blue Note, 12:30 AM. 131 W. 3rd St.
Brooklyn Circle at Smalls, 1:00 AM. 183 W. 10th St.
Sunday, August 6
Kyle Poole & The Gang at Jazz Standard, 11:30 AM & 1:30 PM. 116
E. 27th.
Ben Wolfe 6 w/Randy Brecker at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, 7:30 and 9:30 PM. 10 Columbus Cir. #10.
Pat Martino 3 at Jazz Standard, 7:30 & 9:30 PM. 116 E. 27th.
Renaud Penant at Jules Bistro, 7:30 PM. 65 St. Marks Pl.
Larry Ham/Woody Witt 5 at Smalls, 7:30 PM. 183 W. 10th St.
Christian Scott at Blue Note, 8:30, 10:30 PM. 131 W. 3rd St.
Joe Lovano 9 at Village Vanguard, 8:30, 10:30 PM. 178 7th Ave. S.
BJU: Adam Kolker Group at Shapeshifter, 8:40 PM. 18 Whitwell,
Bklyn.
Monday, August 7
Jazz House Kids w/Christian McBride at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola,
7:30 and 9:30 PM. 10 Columbus Cir. #10.
Lance Bryant 3 feat. Jason Marsalis at Trumpets, 7:30 PM. 6 Depot Sq., Montclair NJ.
Eddie Palmieri at Blue Note, 8:30, 10:30 PM. 131 W. 3rd St.
Jim Ridl 3 at Mezzrow, 8:00 PM. 163 W. 10th St.
Tuesday, August 8
John Ellis 6 at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, 7:30 and 9:30 PM. 10 Columbus Cir. #10.
Dor Sagi 3 at Flatiron Room, 7:30 PM. 37 W. 26th.
Eric Harland 3 at Jazz Standard, 7:30 & 9:30 PM. 116 E. 27th.
Janice Friedman 2 at Mezzrow, 8:00 PM. 163 W. 10th St.
John Pizzarelli/Jessica Molaskey: Sinatra & Jobim @ 50 at Bird-land, 8:30 and 11:00 PM. 315 W. 44th.
Tribute to Geri Allen feat. Esperanza Spalding, Teri Lyne Carring-ton & Joe Lovano at Village Vanguard, 8:30, 10:30 PM. 178 7th Ave. S.
Zoe Obadia at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, 11:15 PM. 10 Columbus Cir.
#10.
Wednesday, August 9
Ulysses Owens Jr. at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, 7:30 and 9:30 PM. 10 Columbus Cir. #10.
Eric Harland's Voyager at Jazz Standard, 7:30 & 9:30 PM. 116 E. 27th.
Mademoiselle Malvina at Jules Bistro, 7:30 PM. 65 St. Marks Pl.
Vitaly Golovnev 5 at Smalls, 7:30 PM. 183 W. 10th St.
Earl Klugh at Blue Note, 8:30, 10:30 PM. 131 W. 3rd St.
Dave Scott 5 at Cornelia St. Cafe, 8:00 PM. 29 Cornelia. (Continued on page 16)
CALENDAR OF EVENTSCALENDAR OF EVENTS
How to Get Your Gigs and Events Listed in Jazz Inside Magazine Submit your listings via e-mail to [email protected]. Include date, times, location, phone,
tickets/reservations. Deadline: 15th of the month preceding publication (Jul 15 for Aug) (We cannot guarantee the publication of all calendar submissions.)
ADVERTISING: Reserve your ads to promote your events and get the marketing advantage of con-trolling your own message — size, content, image, identity, photos and more. Contact the advertising department:
22 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880 August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com
The Necks
The Necks Exposed
Interview & Photo By Ken Weiss
This unclassifiable Australian instrumental trio
coalesced in 1987 and have achieved effusive criti-
cal praise and a large cult following along the
way. The three likeminded veteran jazz musicians
– pianist Chris Abrahams, bassist Lloyd Swanton
and percussionist Tony Buck – specialize in long-
form improvisations that feature microscopic
changes and variations that have been known to
induce hallucinatory states in close listeners. The
three share an incredibly tight connection and
often complete the other’s sentences. This inter-
view took place on February 26, 2017, just prior
to The Necks’ performance at the Philadelphia Art
Alliance.
Jazz Inside Magazine: There’s references by the
media labeling The Necks as one of the best or the
best band in the world. That’s a lot to live up to.
Lloyd Swanton (bass): There’s one specific
quote, and that’s from Geoff Dyer who is quite
unashamedly our biggest fan, and if he wasn’t
such a clearly intelligent man, and such a great
writer, it might be embarrassing, but we’re big
fans of his writing and he’s big fans of us so we
were only too happy to have him say that about us.
Chris Abrahams (piano): Even though this is an
incredibly important part of our lives, I don’t think
we’re the best band in the world.
Swanton: [Laughs] And it doesn’t concern us.
Tony Buck (percussion): Clearly there is no best
band in the world and I don’t think of our music in
that way.
Swanton: And that does actually chime with
something that the band was very much about
from the word go which was not having a goal of
something we wanted to obtain. The whole point
was to just start with an idea, it doesn’t have to be
a brilliant idea. We were never about making eve-
ry moment just an expression of sheer genius.
That’s absolutely not what we’re about.
JI: Why did you name yourselves The Necks?
Buck: One of the reasons we named the band The
Necks was that it didn’t really have any connota-
tions.
Abrahams: I think it does sound like the name of
the band, it sounds like a real truism, as opposed to
naming it the such and such trio. We definitely
wanted to present what we did as a group sound.
We wanted to sound like a group. We made the
decision similarly to how we name albums or
tracks, normally we try a number of options, very
intuitively, and in some magical way, a word
comes and we all go ‘Yeah, that’s totally fine,’ and
that’s what happened with The Necks. Lloyd can
tell the story better.
Swanton: We had been discussing this for some
time and I rang Chris and said, ‘I’ve got a great
idea for the name,’ and he said, “And so have I,
The Necks.” And I went, ‘That’s great.’ He liked it
and it was done.
Abrahams: The word came and it seemed to
somehow relate in an oblique way, maybe the
monosyllabic nature of it, and it’s not particularly
a prominent part of the body but it’s a necessary
one. It’s a connecting part, there’s a sort of modes-
ty about it. There’s all these things about joining
the mind and body but those things came later, but
I’m in no way devaluing other interpretations of
the name. It essentially was an intuitive thing.
Swanton: It’s a very common word that everyone
can relate to and yet it’s not normally seen as a
pleural in isolation which I think catches people’s
eye. It does get misheard at times and people think
we’re called The Next or The Nexus or The Nex.
One theory I’m fond of also is that because it is
very recognizable, and yet it’s very hard to attach
any value of any strong significance to it, my feel-
ing is that it didn’t go out of fashion because it was
never in fashion. It’s never going to be outdated
because it was never of its time.
Abrahams: The way we came up with The Necks
is the way we play music, it’s an intuitive thing.
It’s not an intellectual decision, it was put out there
and we liked it, so in a sense, it was a kind of mu-
sical decision. We liked the sound of the word.
JI: I understand that the name was almost The
Dogs.
Lloyd: Wow, how did that sneak out? Only a few
people know that. I still think that’s a good name
for a band and that was my suggestion. It was an
ironic, slightly inept title because it sounds quite
punk but I still like it although I think The Necks
was a better one for us.
JI: What type of music were each of you playing
when the trio formed in 1986?
Buck: I was playing modern jazz music and in
post-punk and rock bands. Mostly jazz and adven-
turous rock music.
Abrahams: When we formed The Necks we all
had played together a lot and knew each other
well. I had been in a group with Lloyd for five
years and I met Tony when I was still in high
school. We grew up in the same suburb of Sydney.
I was very much into post-Coltrane modern jazz
from the ‘60s. I was playing in a soul group and
various rock outfits.
Lloyd: I was primarily playing modern jazz and
doing casual jobs in the music scene. I had done a
little classical study in London and was getting a
few calls to do that. We all had varying relation-
ships with modern jazz and what we did in The
Necks represented some fulfillments that weren’t
really coming to me from modern jazz. I had a bit
of an epiphany when I was studying in London. I’d
been playing really intense modern jazz as my
focus for five years and after spending nine
months there, hearing a lot of other kinds of music,
I felt like modern jazz exclusively didn’t speak to
me and I needed to find expression through some
other forms.
JI: You’re not the first improvising trio to be
open and play in the moment but your approach to
being open while performing an hour-long piece of
music that unfolds and evolves ever so slowly is
unique. Are you aware of other bands trying to do
what you do?
(Continued on page 23)
InterviewInterview
“The whole point was to just start with an idea, it doesn’t
have to be a brilliant idea. We were never about making every
moment just an expression of sheer genius.”
23 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880 August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com
Swanton: We often get sent material by people
who say, “Hey, we love what you do and we’re
really influenced by you and here’s some music
we made.” We always appreciate the tribute and I
find, without exception, the music they present is
always very square in its form, and although it
may be very beautiful, it seems to lose that thing
we have, the openness from the very first note.
Somehow we hit upon that very early on, I think.
If they’re attempting to emulate us, then they’re
already trying too hard. [Laughs] The only way to
emulate us is to not emulate us.
Buck: I think one thing about what we do is the
thing about being slow in a sense. A lot of impro-
vised music is about fast reactions and taking the
music somewhere very quickly and multi-
directionally, and we respond to changes quite
slowly, even though things are changing constant-
ly, but quite slowly, and I think in some Scandina-
vian improvised music groups there’s a similar
sense of space and slowness but it doesn’t come
from the same place. The hypnotic element and the
wave of repetition, or the seeming wave of repeti-
tion, can change through subtle manipulation or
subtle shifts in gravity, and is something we’re
very interested in. It’s sort of cyclic and rhythmic,
as well as the sonic, but I think the Scandinavians
are more interested in the sonic, kind of textural
thing.
Swanton: I often say I’d like to hear bands using
our concept, and they’re welcome to it, because we
have our own strengths and weaknesses and likes
and dislikes, which makes a performance by us
sound a certain way, and I would love to hear peo-
ple bringing a whole other skillset to the music but
very much using the principle that we use. That
would be absolutely fascinating.
JI: Each of your live performances start fresh
with no preconceived notions. You never play the
same music over. Would you describe the process
of your playing? What exactly are each of you
doing during the arc of a performance?
Swanton: Trying to hold on. [All laugh]
Abrahams: What makes the group so adhesive is
the big level of trust. I think possibly growing up
in the same part of Sydney and having very similar
experiences and value sets prior to forming The
Necks, and then having done The Necks for three
decades now, there’s a certain trust and place we
can go to as a group, and whether we understood
what that was what we were doing, whether that
would be beneficial? I know this is maybe a
copout to the question, but I’m not sure how help-
ful that would be. There’s the big picture which is
we allow the music to unfold in its own time, and
we allow, hopefully, one thing to lead to another,
and there’s a whole area of muscular interaction
with our instruments which is not particularly
conceptual, it’s very movement based. I don’t
know, it’s not like we’re going towards a sound on
our own volition, it’s that we’re being compelled
onwards. We set something up and then we try to
keep it up, keep it moving in whatever way it hap-
pens. I’ve tried to think about what we do through-
out the years and it’s changed quite a lot. I went
through a period of thinking that made these kind
of abstract narrative pieces that used repetition in
order to sort of mesmerize and push forward and
kind of cause a hypnotic state that the audience
can hear develop but ’m not so sure about that
now.
Swanton: It’s interesting, just having done four
nights at Issue Project Room [in Brooklyn], which
is an extremely resonant space, and it was under-
standable that we got into some of the more hallu-
cinatory acoustical properties that we like to gen-
erate when we are playing, creating all kinds of
shimmering, multilayered effects where sometimes
even we don’t know where the sound is coming
from. I can open my eyes to look around, and I can
see what all of us are physically doing, and yet
there’s a sound there that I don’t know where it’s
coming from. A lot of people comment on that but
just to set the record straight, that’s not the only
thing we’re striving for. It’s amazing when it hap-
pens, and when we first put the band together that
was completely unknown to us, it wasn’t the goal
to investigate acoustical phenomenon in different
rooms. When it happens it is great but we’re not
(Continued on page 24)
24 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880 August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com
gonna spend half the night trying to get that state
happening when there’s plenty of other things that
can occupy our time fruitfully.
Buck: There’s an interesting thing that Chris al-
luded to, that the sound is the thing that compels
us to kind of suggest what to do next. It’s like
spectral composers that will, instead of taking a
form or a specific mood, the sound will suggest a
composition as it’s unfolding and that also influ-
ences how we play the instruments, like Chris
referenced to, physicality. I think we’ve learned to
let the sound of how the instrument is speaking
dictate how we physically interact with it as well,
and there’s also rhythmic elements to that that
apply. There’s certain pacing of phrases in differ-
ent registers that will suggest where the music will
go. So we’re listening and responding to the spe-
cifics of what each of us are playing and the
changes we make and how it’s sounding.
Abrahams: The end result is also informed by
our musical experiences outside of The Necks or
outside of the performance that we’re giving. We
don’t disallow any kind of generic or melodic or
arrhythmic aspect. We don’t do it very much these
days but we could suddenly play a kind of rock
feel. We don’t shy away from very simple diatonic
melodies. It’s quite liberating in a way.
Buck: Because we’re improvising, the other side
of the coin is that we don’t have an obligation to
go into the rock field if it’s not appropriate.
Swanton: There’s the old Charlie Parker quote,
which I think is still one of the best things ever
said about playing music. It’s along the lines of,
“Learn the music, learn the instrument, and then
forget it all and play.” That says it all to me. Be as
best informed as you can as a human being and as
a musician, and constantly strive to bring in new
elements that excite you, but when you are actual-
ly performing, just let it happen. Be open to any-
thing happening, and in our case, it’s often be open
to sitting on a major triad for fifteen minutes and
hearing it in a way you’ve never heard it before.
We talk about music all the time, we never talk
about how we want to introduce it in the group.
That’s an absolute no-no, but we talk about music
that excites us, and we play music to each other,
and we have activities outside of The Necks that
we are always more than welcome to bring in.
JI: As you mentioned, the music that you were
playing before the trio formed and the music you
play outside of The Necks is very different from
what the trio does. What’s been the major hurdle
you’ve had to overcome to deal with playing in
such a unique way as The Necks?
Swanton: If there was a hurdle it was very early
on when we were workshopping the band and it
was jumped very quickly. I think for many years
now we would all say that playing The Necks is
the easiest, most natural playing that any of us do.
We had problems, maybe, getting other musicians
to understand and to take us seriously but it didn’t
matter because they weren’t in the band. In a wider
sense I think we’ve built up a body of work and a
name now that people have to come to us on our
terms. There’s an awareness of what we do now
that influences the way some people I play with in
other bands, who understand what I might be do-
ing, and they react accordingly.
Buck: To me, I’m really interested in lots of dif-
ferent ways to play music. I like to be in ensem-
bles that are formed to explore something quite
specific. Variety is the spice of life. There are cer-
tain things I like to do that’s outside of The Necks.
JI: There must be some nights where you feel the
music was not as strong as other nights? How
often are you not satisfied with the performance
and what defines an off night, if you have them?
Abrahams: Getting back to the original sort of
philosophy behind the band, I think that good per-
formances/bad performances weren’t quite as
starkly contrasted in the way we wanted to set up
the music. Success or failure didn’t enter into it. I
think we were trying to get away from that idea
when we first formed the group but we do live in
the real world and yes, certainly, there are times
where, possibly, one of us comes off the stage
feeling that it wasn’t one of their better nights. I
think it’s rare [that we have an off night], it does
happen very occasionally.
Buck: It’s a very subjective thing. We’re sitting in
different places as well, so it might sound different
to each other.
Abrahams: The subjectivity is that I can play
something and think it was really terrible, and then
I can hear a recording of it and feel that it was
actually very good, and then I can hear the same
recording three months later and think it was pretty
terrible. [Laughs]
Swanton: Or you can have an audience member
say, “That was unbelievable!” For myself, I’m
least satisfied when I feel like I can’t hear what
I’m doing or I can’t hear what the other guys are
doing and it puts doubt in my mind as to how well
it’s going across to the listener. You learn that if
you do have a down night, it’s only one night.
Abrahams: The music that I played before The
Necks was very much about competently produc-
ing and performing in front of an audience certain
material that you’ve deemed worthy and impress-
ing an audience with your competency. Now with
The Necks, we were never about that, it was never
competently reproducing pre-rehearsed material.
The music unfolds in a way that can never be re-
hearsed.
Swanton: And yet the irony is, and many people
have observed, and we totally agree, is that we
have a really identifiable sound. We have this will-
ingness to put aside any bane of reaching any par-
ticular performance convention and yet somehow
in doing that, we’ve come up with an identifiable
product.
JI: How do you determine it’s time to end a piece
during a performance? Is it based on an internal
clock or is there a hidden signal?
Buck: It’s a bit like the piece of music is compel-
ling us to follow and that sort of also dictates when
it’s had enough. There’s this entity of the music
that we are serving that’s made up of structural
elements but what follows is suggested by the
music itself and the way that we might change as
the gravity shifts, it will just come to a conclusion.
It seems we come to a point where it’s enough, it’s
finished.
Abrahams: This may sound pretentious but may-
be it’s a bit like the name The Necks where we
reached the decision together on it. It’s a decision
that we make together that I think is purely musi-
cal.
(Continued from page 23)
“...instead of taking a form or a specific mood, the sound will suggest a composition as it’s
unfolding and that also influences how we play the instruments, like Chris referenced to, physicality. I
think we’ve learned to let the sound of how the instrument is speaking dictate how we physically interact
with it as well…”
The Necks
25 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880 August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com
Swanton: We have established a pretty good
internal clock over the years. We’re not aiming for
any particular duration but we have found that to
explore ideas the way we like to explore them, and
do something that we like to do, usually takes like
45 minutes to an hour. But in terms of improvised
music in general, I actually think the ending really
defines everything you’ve done before and, in a
way, is very important, although as an improviser,
you’ve always got to not let anything loom so
large in you that it gets in the way of the freedom
and openness. I think in any improvised context
that you’re weighing the odds at any time and you
might be asking yourself, ‘That’s a really good
place to end according to my aesthetic judgement
at this point in time and we can either let it go for
another 10 minutes, and maybe not have such a
good place to end, or we can stop now,’ so I will
often make a pretty snap decision in an improvised
context to say, ‘I’m done.’
Buck: The skill sets you develop as an improvis-
er, finding endings is one of them that’s really a
skill. It’s a sort of collective decision that’s made
kind of intuitively, and it’s really hard to talk
about. As Lloyd said, there’s a sort of length of
time, and because we’ve been doing it for a really
long time, we do have a good sense of how long
the piece is, but we don’t think that because it’s
been 45 minutes that we should end. We’ve played
concerts where pieces are 38 minutes or pieces are
120 minutes. There really isn’t a standard, it’s
dictated by something else rather than the obliga-
tion to play a 45 minute set.
Abrahams: There was one time we were playing
at a Sydney festival and we, in response to the
environment, which is a whole other side to The
Necks and how we relate to the space we play, we
came in at about 35 minutes. There was only one
set there but once the piece was finishing, we
couldn’t not finish. It’s more satisfying to have an
ending that the music is determining rather than us
lengthening it.
Buck: Or putting the piece on life support.
Swanton: I would think it’s a very similar skill to
what standup comedians use, picking that right
moment to end. In terms of performing in front of
an audience, you might have another 10 minutes of
material in the front of your mind to use but if that
was a really good moment to end, you should end
rather than bring in all this other stuff and then
possibly have a bit of a dip and never be able to
fight your way out of it.
JI: You mentioned that the playing space effects
how and what you play. Would you talk about
that?
Abrahams: I think there’s a very site specific
dimension to what we do, and again, it’s not that
we approach this scientifically. Bear in mind
we’ve been doing this regularly for over 30 years,
we’ve developed a way of getting it up and going.
We respond to the architectural spaces we play and
the instruments we are given to play, because we
don’t travel with our instruments anymore, and I
think we respond to the context which can often
mean the closeness of the audience, the energy in
the room. And all of these things actually have
structural importance and input in how we’re gon-
na play. We play in a very big range of spaces,
from totally acoustic, small churches with huge
reverb time to recently opening for the Bad Seeds
on the east coast of Australia, and these were al-
most stadiums with 10,000 people in the open air.
It compelled us to play a certain way. For me on
the piano, if I notice around a certain frequency or
pitch, things are sort of sounding weird, things are
reflecting off, that will become a thing that I will,
if I’m enjoying it, the strangeness of it and what
it’s doing, this will determine what I’m gonna play
around it in a large way.
Buck: It’s like that spectral composer idea where
sound does become a full element of the music.
For me, especially now that we’ve been playing in
more sort of polymetric, cyclic ways than we
might have when we first started, where it was
more of a hooked-in rhythm section, I find that
nowadays I’m playing something on cymbal and
something on tom-tom and the tom-toms in the
room are just too resonate and I have to change my
pattern, slow it down to fit the room. I can do that
only because there’s no obligation to play this
locked-in groove thing. I can play the sound that’s
most appropriate for the space.
JI: Your trio prides itself on playing new music
each night. Bassist Barre Phillips’ longstanding
trio with Urs Leimgruber and Jacques Demierre
feel that each of their totally improvised perfor-
mances are connected and that they are extending
the same piece from show to show. Does any of
that hold true for The Necks?
Swanton: Not in that every one of our pieces has
a clear beginning, middle, and ending, so if it’s
one big piece, it’s quite a lumpy one. I agree that
there is a connection from night to night, particu-
larly when we are touring and playing a lot of
performances. There’s themes that we often fall
into on consecutive nights but, the thing that’s
great in The Necks, there’s this unspoken agree-
ment that as soon as someone is a little bit uninter-
ested in pursuing that direction any further, you
just throw something new in. The trick is doing
that artfully and musically, but there’s no denial
that certain tours develop certain identities.
JI: Your first recording was 1989’s Sex. Why did
you give it that provocative title?
Buck: I remember a little bit about that but I don’t
know if it will be helpful to talk about it. [Others
laugh] It was an interesting piece of music that’s
quite central but it didn’t have a climax so…
Swanton: Are you embarrassed talking about
sex? [All laugh]
Buck: No, it was very central and it was like the
best bits of sex without the thing that’s the aim [of
sex], but what’s actually the thing that destroys it,
stops it. It was like the central sexual thing, in a
way, but it didn’t follow that normal narrative,
climatic thing. It was just a word that was tossed
around.
Swanton: I clearly remember it happening that
way. I remember the engineer Michael Webster
having to write the name on the big tape reel box.
He said, “What are you guys gonna call this,” and
one of us said sex and that’s what it became.
Buck: It’s sort of a similar sounding word to The
Necks.
Abrahams: I don’t think it’s a particularly sexy
piece of music. I think there’s a certain ambient,
melodic, very peaceful thing about it. I always
thought of it as sex meaning a much more existen-
tial thing rather than being something inspired by
having sex.
JI: It’s ironic that it’s called Sex because, as the
internet points out, it’s often played at birthing
centers.
Swanton: It’s also played a lot to calm crying
babies. I used that album for that reason for many,
many nights and got to the point where I got to
know that record more than I wanted to. [All
laugh] And I associate it with screaming babies
but now enough time has passed that I can ap-
proach it on objective grounds again. I also knew
someone, a heart surgeon that they played it during
surgery because it was the only thing the operating
(Continued on page 26)
The Necks
“I would think it’s a very similar skill to what standup comedians use, picking that right moment to end. In terms of performing in
front of an audience, you might have another 10 minutes of material in the front of your mind to use but if that was a really good
moment to end, you should end …”
26 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880 August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com
theater staff agreed on.
JI: Why do you think Sex remains your most
popular selling record?
Swanton: There’s no denying the title has some
cache. I think the best way to explain it is after a
gig, people come up to buy a record and ask which
one did we play tonight and after we explain that
it’s all improvised art so it’s not on any album,
they look at the recordings, see Sex and say,
“Ahh,” and pick that one. It’s also got a whole fan
base that doesn’t necessarily turn up to our gigs.
You can tell from the figures that if the number of
people who bought the album were all coming to
the shows, we’d be having to play in 2000 seaters
every night, which we wouldn’t want to anyway. I
think it’s amazing that people just kind of latched
onto this album but I don’t want to make out that
it’s some sort of cash cow that just keeps going. It
certainly was really good that our first album was
successful and has provided a sort of bedrock for
our ongoing activities.
JI: When I asked that I was giving you the chance
to say, ‘Because sex sells!’
[All laugh]
JI: Historically, your pieces are very long which
makes them non-radio friendly. Do you get much
airplay?
Abrahams: We used to do quite well on commu-
nity radio, particularly when the presenter had
some essay classes [and work to do]. [Laughs]
There was a radio station in Brisbane that had
Neckathons and would play over half a dozen
Necks albums.
Swanton: We were very lucky with the Ambient
Music Show on national radio in Australia that
would run Sunday nights and Sex in particular was
really tailor made for that. They would play it in
its entirety so it would clog the airways, and I
would say the length of the piece was a help rather
than a hindrance then. As Chris alluded to, com-
munity radio presenters just did not want to go on
live and talk very much, they had other things to
do.
JI: How do you decide when it’s time to put out a
new recording and what determines if it is to be a
live or studio version?
Abrahams: We’ve gotten into a routine that we
haven’t really shaken since we began which is we
tour Australia every year in the summer and we
record before going out.
Buck: The band had been together 4 or 5 years
and I left Australia and moved to Japan first and
then to Europe, and we continued the band when I
would return to Australia. We’d set aside time and
use it as best we could to record and do concerts.
Swanton: We actually have quite specific criteria
for our live albums, so that has to be fulfilled to
start with. They’ve got to sound good, they’ve got
to be produced in a way that we’re happy with,
and we have to get 3 people to agree on which
ones are worth considering for releasing, and
whether or not they need any kind of intervention
to tidy them up. I know sometimes I’ll focus on a
particular concert that we’ve got a recording of
and listen to it occasionally for a couple of weeks
just trying to decide whether I think that’s a really
amazing piece or whether there’s a better one. It’s
always very hard to decide and in a lot of ways,
it’s probably easier to book a recording studio and
just go in and do a piece of music.
Buck: We have a hundreds of hours of live re-
cordings. I had this idea that we could actually
release a record every year for the next 500 years.
We could be the most prolific band ever. [All
laugh]
JI: How do you perceive the finished product
between your studio recordings, which include a
good deal of post-production and mixing, versus
your live recordings, which have audiences to
inspire you?
Buck: We’ve all had experiences, unlike some
other improvising jazz type musicians, we’ve
played in rock bands where we had studio experi-
ence and weren’t frightened or maybe inspired by
the idea of using the studio as an instrument or
using it for what it has to offer. It’s a bit like we
use the room to inspire us. We’re very interested in
the combination of the acoustic piano, acoustic
bass and drums in a live setting, while in the stu-
dio, we have all these other options and it seems
silly not to try and use.
JI: The Necks have had their own recording label
since 1994. Why is it called Fish of Milk?
Swanton: Okay, [others laugh] there’s a particu-
lar china milk jug made by an English company in
the shape of a fish and you pick it up by the tail
and pour the milk, or maybe it’s gravy, out. The
housemate I had at the time had this fish shaped
milk jug and for some reason my housemate and I
sort of used to talk some caveman talk to each
other and say, “Give me fish of milk,” instead of
saying please pass the milk. For some reason, that
was my suggestion for the name of the label.
Again because it didn’t really make a lot of sense
and yet it was identifiable words that everyone
knows. Our first release on the label was Aquatic
and we asked the graphic designer to come up with
some lettering and gave him no instructions at all.
He said, “Yeah, Fish of Milk, I can’t possibly see
what that could mean. I can only come up with one
idea,” and he showed us something in the shape of
a sperm cell, and we thought, ‘Well, that’s a strong
image.’
JI: Why haven’t you released your solo projects
on the Fish of Milk label?
Swanton: For one thing, it’s just a lot easier to
keep everything together that we all contribute
equally to and all take equally. If we started get-
ting to one of us having a really successful solo
record, we’d have to do a lot more bookkeeping
and who’s owed what. It’s about simplicity and
also about strength of identity. It’s simply about
The Necks. Also, there’s an understanding that we
don’t use The Necks to promote our other projects.
Sometimes we’ve had to explain to promoters and
publicists who decide to advertise other projects
we’re involved in as, “Featuring The Necks’ blah,
blah, blah.] We have to tell them that’s not cool. It
can be mentioned in passing but it can’t be a head-
lining thing.
Abrahams: Yeah, we never sell individual mer-
chandise at Necks shows. And I think that speaks
to the longevity of the group. I think a big reason
for that is that there’s no real leader. We are all
equally involved in the input and carrying out
various and different functions. We have no man-
(Continued from page 25)
“Maybe it’s common to say that a band had to come from a certain place and time to sound the way it did but I think that’s very true. I think the lack of the dead weight
of musical history where we lived, we really had the freedom to not
feel like we had to conform to any checklist.”
The Necks
27 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880 August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com
ager. There’s absolutely no feelings of being left
out of anything, which can happen when you have
a definite bandleader and songwriter.
Buck: This speaks to every aspect of the group,
musically as well. There’s no soloist/accompanist
roles, we are all combining to make a sound to-
gether. We do things together.
Swanton: Yeah, we really split the tasks. I tend to
run the record side of things and the online sales.
Chris has become our travel agent recently and is
doing an amazing job there. He also keeps track of
the on tour finances. Tony used to be our navigator
but now GPS has replaced him. Yeah, you’re our
drummer. [All laugh] We all cover for each other
if need be.
JI: You’re an Australian band. What’s Australian
about your music?
Abrahams: It’s a very complex question. At
times the landscape in Australia seems like a never
ending repetition of desert algorithms of trees and
bushes but somehow you magically, gradually end
up at the coast in a tropical situation, and how that
happened, you don’t know. That’s possibly some-
thing. We grew up in a particular scene in the early
‘80s, a very vibrant music scene interested in post-
Coltrane American jazz from the ‘60s and ‘70s. I
think that has a dimension in it. Sydney has always
created musicians/improvisers that approach their
instruments very physically, who concentrated a
lot on being able to play as opposed to say, and I
may be treading on dangerous territory here, but
my appreciation of say, Melbourne, was it had a
much more sophisticated, maybe ironic distanced
view of what making music is. It was a more intel-
lectual kind of pursuit, whereas, I think in Sydney,
it was possibly more physical and about the move-
ment and feel oriented.
Swanton: Maybe it’s common to say that a band
had to come from a certain place and time to sound
the way it did but I think that’s very true. I think
the lack of the dead weight of musical history
where we lived, we really had the freedom to not
feel like we had to conform to any checklist. In
Europe, you really feel the weight of the classical
tradition, and I think in America, the jazz tradition
is approaching the same standards. We were lucky
not to have that in Australia. For generations be-
fore us, jazz musicians in Australia really learned
everything from the radio and records and had
very little opportunity to hear top practitioners
play. Our generation at least had technology and
CDs available so that we didn’t feel as isolated.
We grew up with that freedom from tradition but
also had the benefit to start to access the
knowledge that comes with those traditions.
JI: Does the Australian government give support
to its musicians?
Swanton: We have to be very careful about what
we say. We’ve been very generously supported in
the past year or so with arts funding by the Aus-
tralian Counsel. We could get into some very po-
litical discussions about the role of arts funding
and how much governments should be doing and
how involved in picking [what to support] but
that’s a can of worms that we really shouldn’t deal
with. Traditionally, there has been a fairly high
degree of funding of arts and culture in Australia
and we’ve been occasional beneficiaries of that.
We got quite a substantial grant to pursue some
activities related to our 30th year anniversary,
which this tour is closing. For the most part, we’ve
been able to do this by ourselves and we take great
pride in that as a group. One area that Australia
could learn about from America is the level of
philanthropy, which is quite extraordinary in
America. Here’s a message to all the rich people in
Australia – start donating more money to fund
arts!
Abrahams: There’s been sever cuts recently in
Australia. If you compare funding in Australia to a
country such as Norway, which has one of the
most generously funded arts programs, we’re way
behind that. It’s getting harder to sell the idea that
art is necessary and important for the social cohe-
sion and betterment of people’s lives in Australia.
JI: Although Chris grew up in Australia, he was
born in New Zealand. Does that mean Chris gets a
lot of teasing from the “real” Aussies in the band?
Swanton: [All laugh] We’ve learned to more or
less accept Chris as one of our own.
Abrahams: Yeah, I think there are a number of
things I get teased about, New Zealand is not one
of the main ones. [All laugh] I don’t speak with a
New Zeeland accent. I actually left New Zealand
when I was 2 months old.
Swanton: I would actually say, in the music scene
in Australia, there’s immense respect for New
Zealand musicians. They tend to move to Australia
to make their so-called big time and I play with
Kiwi musicians all the time. A lot of that rivalry is
not legit.
JI: As Australians, what do you find most odd
about Americans or American culture?
Buck: In so many ways it’s quite foreign and in
so many ways it’s really the same culture.
Swanton: Tipping is interesting. You can read all
sorts of metaphors out of the land of free enter-
prise versus the land of communal wealth. Tipping
is not a standard practice in Australia and you can
get into a political thing there by saying that’s
because we have a minimum wage agreed upon so
that you can actually survive without tips, which is
really the European model. I read a book about
tipping in America. I’m fascinated by the skycaps,
the curbside check-in thing, which is unheard of
anywhere except in American airports. If you’re
gonna give your baggage to that person, who then
loads it on a cart and takes it inside, you tip them,
and yet if you go up to the check-in desk, you
don’t tip the person there. Is there some sort of
subsidy for working in the outdoors? In Australia
you tip if the service is really good but you know
the person isn’t going to starve if you don’t. The
very first time I spent any time in America was in
Los Angeles and if anything, it was disappointing-
ly similar to back home. Part of the reason, apart
from the gum trees and the little bushes they im-
ported from us 100 years ago, was that we’d just
seen so much of it on TV and the movies. After a
while that turned into an admiration, like I thought
there is that American get-up-and-go where they
actually think that there’s something really amaz-
ing about this street corner in Los Angeles that’s
the setting for some drama that’s beamed out to
the whole world. Coming from Australia, we
might ask ourselves, ‘Well, why is that? Is it spe-
cial enough?’ That self-doubt really wasn’t an
issue in the minds of American TV and Hollywood
makers.
Buck: In writing songs about American towns,
Americans celebrating their own thing is very
American and Australia doesn’t seem to do that
very much. Also American culture in every city is
so different.
JI: A question for Chris. Why do you perform
with your back to the band rather than face them?
Abrahams: Because physically I’m closer to the
other members. The reason it’s not a problem, me
(Continued on page 28)
The Necks
“I think there is a certain fragility in what we do, it’s not the sort
of music we can thrust down people that don’t hear it. We’re not
something that instantly grabs attention. It’s rare but we do have some horror gigs where clapping
did occur in relief when it was over.”
28 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880 August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com
not looking at the rest of the band, is that the music
doesn’t require it and in fact, I play with my eyes
closed. It requires us to hear each other in the best
possible way and the way it is now, I can hear
them very well. It’s not that unusual, if you look at
old videos of Oscar Peterson, he’s set up that way.
It would be tricky if I were the band leader and
had to do visual keys.
Buck: Right, with the scolding looks! [All laugh]
Swanton: That’s the preferred set up for all three
of us. Chris did not request it.
JI: Also for Chris. At times your piano playing
sounds like the piano has been altered or prepared,
what are you doing to make those types of sound?
Abrahams: A lot depends on the room and the
piano but a lot of the sounds I can get out of the
piano has to do with striking the string while it’s
still vibrating and interlocking the natural cycle the
string has for being struck to stasis. For instance, if
I hammer very fast on the string, it’s distorting or
overloading the system on the strings vibration and
you start to get some sort of weird, harmonic re-
sults, particularly once you bring the sustain pedal
in. And also once you start using the una corda
pedal, which can also act as a kind of high cap
filter, and thus increase certain low frequency
oscillation effects that you want to bring in. If you
put that through the techniques that I use, which
often are very fast hammered phrases, interlocking
phrases, that kind of almost form locked together
into an animated, elongated note that coagulates
together, you can get all sorts of differing resona-
tions and harmonics coming off of it. I’m not total-
ly in control of it. There’s a physicality that I don’t
really understand but that’s how I set them up. The
instrument’s gonna have a certain quality. It might
be a bright piano which will mean the top end of it
will resonate in a certain way. Also what you
might be hearing is resonant clashes with what
Tony or Lloyd are doing. The coming together and
crashing in the various frequencies and sounds
made by the instruments produce the secondary
level, a combination of sounds.
JI: A question for Lloyd. You hosted Mixed Mar-
riage, a very popular weekly radio show in Sydney
for many years until 2013. What type of music did
you present?
Swanton: The title is a clue to that. The manifesto
of my show was basically the way jazz intersects
with other musical disciplines or is influenced by
it, which in general terms is the area that interests
me the most right now. I’m not that interested in
pure jazz anymore, but I do really like where jazz
sensibility butts up against other ways of thinking.
And I think it’s the kind of shot in the arm that
jazz needs because it was a hybrid music originally
and I feel it’s in danger of becoming preserved in
formalin. It’s still wonderful music but jazz defi-
nitely benefits from a shot of new blood so I’d
play jazz rock, classical jazz, Caribbean jazz, jazz
reggae, ambient jazz, African jazz, Latin jazz and
all kinds of weird ones you couldn’t even catego-
rize so easily. I always had more than enough stuff
to play for two hours.
JI: Did you play The Necks?
Swanton: Only once, it was a public holiday and
a listener rang up and said, “Any chance of playing
some Necks” and I happened to have a disc re-
cording of a concert we’d done recently. I was
very careful not to try to push my own bearing too
much.
JI: Also for Lloyd, why does your email address
contains the word lobster?
Swanton: No, it’s some little running joke that I
had with some musical friends years ago that in-
volved a lobster. The [email service] company that
I signed up with, Lloyd had already been taken, so
I took lobster and put another L on it, but the fun-
ny thing is now if I go to write the word lobster, I
always have to ask myself if it has two Ls or not.
[Laughs] Yeah, it was just a way of making it a
little Lloyd-ish.
JI: A question for Tony. You produce a wide
array of sounds during performances. What types
of objects do you use in addition to your drum kit
and what sounds are you after?
Buck: I use a lot of objects, an ever expanding
arsenal collection of things. I’m after a wide vo-
cabulary, a wide palette of colors to draw on. I
think it’s coming from thinking of the drum kit in
more of a lateral way, not necessary thinking all
the time of striking heads and cymbals with sticks,
or that it’s always a time keeping thing, or the
sounds are percussive and not sustained. It’s a
three dimensional, sculptural object. It’s an assem-
blage of disparate parts anyway in its classic form,
hence I’m just adding to that. There are sounds
that I’m drawn to. I tend to think in terms of cate-
gories of sound, even in the drum kit itself. The
tom-toms are like these warm, rich colors, the
cymbals are sparkly and metallic, and the snare
drum is kaleidoscopic. There’s also a noise ele-
ment to it. There are other objects that you can
find that I would categorize as more dry or crackly
sounds, and wood, bamboo and cane, and also
seed pods and African shakers. There’s lots of
percussion instruments and everyday objects that
make sounds and I tend to think in those sort of
colors.
JI: The last questions come from other musicians:
John Hollenbeck (drummer and fan of The
Necks) asked – “I love The Necks. I tried to emu-
late your unique concept of playing live, or at least
what I thought that concept was, in 1997 with
Stomu Takeishi and Matt Moran at the weekly
series at alt.coffee in the East Village. The audi-
ence was listening and attentive at the beginning of
the set, but by the end of the set, we had become
background music and no one even noticed when
we stopped playing. Did you ever get an apathetic
reaction like that or other unexpected/unusual
reactions from an audience?”
Abrahams: Early on we had a residency at this
pub in Sydney which was very near a police sta-
tion and there were a number of police and detec-
tives hanging out after their work and they were
very loud. I remember for the first set we played,
we tried to see how long we could play before they
noticed we’d started. There were other occasions
very early on where we’d play and finish a set and
notice that half the audience was asleep. They
might be lying on the floor.
Swanton: I love John’s music and I respect him. I
think he’s making a bit unfair comparison but
we’ve got a bit of an advantage now that we’ve
simply done what we’ve done as The Necks for so
long that, most of the time, when we play now for
an audience, the majority of the people in the room
understand something of what they’re about to
hear and the only way that happened was just by
(Continued from page 27)
The Necks
“There were people then saying, ‘When’s the melody gonna start?’ Now
I think anyone who’s grown up with any kind of dance music is
understanding that that’s not necessarily how things work
anymore. The world has changed so maybe John should try again.”
29 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880 August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com
starting on the very humble, modest level we’ve
been gradually building bigger and bigger. Usually
at a Necks concert, if there is someone noisy, the
vast majority of the audience will turn on that
person and even the drunkest person will grasp
that. John had his experience in ’97, that’s a long
time ago, and I think the novelty of sort of trance
music and long form was greater back then. There
were people then saying, “When’s the melody
gonna start?” Now I think anyone who’s grown up
with any kind of dance music is understanding that
that’s not necessarily how things work anymore.
The world has changed so maybe John should try
again.
Abrahams: I think there is a certain fragility in
what we do, it’s not the sort of music we can thrust
down people that don’t hear it. We’re not some-
thing that instantly grabs attention. It’s rare but we
do have some horror gigs where clapping did oc-
cur in relief when it was over.
Theo Bleckmann (vocalist and fan of The Necks)
asked – “Has electric processing, in particular
looping, influenced your music?”
Buck: We’re interested in and play lots different
sorts of music. We’re very interested in the human
process and some music that has been made by
looping and other filtering electrical processes
we’ve taken as inspiration and tried to emulate or
use elements of that in the way we’re playing. We
have used some filtering and looping but they are
rare. Being humans, we can influence music in a
way that a machine couldn’t and the fact that we
are people playing and we’re interested in change
is very important. My percussion set up and ap-
proach to the instrument was really influenced by
me doing a lot of stuff with samplers in the early
‘90s and realizing different layering of textures is
possible.
Swanton: I think some of the echo effects in dub
reggae have opened our ears to a naturally generat-
ed version of that or even an imitation of that ef-
fect, we sometimes drop-off. The way we play
notes is something that wouldn’t be a standard
instrumental performance convention. In turning
Theo’s question back to front, I think one thing
that sets our recordings apart from a lot of people
that use a lot of looping is that we’re not looping,
the sounds you’re actually hearing are a product of
someone basically sweating in a recording booth
for an hour doing a solo take. We physically put
down a lot of our stuff and, I think blood, sweat
and tears sounds too heroic, but the fact that
there’s a metabolizing human being behind those
sounds, I think is something that always comes
across. We’re not just pushing a button or dialing
something up. We’re not disparaging that, but it’s
absolutely one of the things that’s given our rec-
ords a particular quality that people sometimes
overlook. And fatigue is a big deciding factor in
the way our music goes, and dealing with fatigue. I
will certainly change what I’m playing live be-
cause I physically can’t do it anymore. I struggle
with that. It’s like death is nature’s way of telling
you to slow down. [Laughs] Pain is a warning sign
to do something else.
Barney McAll (Australian pianist now based in
New York) asked - “When you enter the space in
which you create music as The Necks, are you
transported the way that your audiences most defi-
nitely are, and if so, have you had bizarre or
strange experiences when performing?”
Abrahams: I think there’s a definite overlap. One
thing The Necks really opened me up to was the
idea of being both performer and listener. I enter
into a physical space that the audience doesn’t, just
by playing my instrument, but the music The
Necks play allows me to take a more universal
hearing position that’s interactive and, yeah, I do
experience genuine excitement and an objectivity
that’s hard to verbalize, but I’m being carried
along by the music in a way that I think is possibly
similar to how the audience is being entertained.
JI: Audience members have reported hallucino-
genic experiences at Necks concerts.
Abrahams: I sometimes get this feeling where
my balance is such that I feel like I’m on a rocking
boat. Other times there’s been aural hallucinations.
There was one evening a piano in Bern, Switzer-
land appeared to be talking to me.
Swanton: Just stress that Chris doesn’t drink, in
case anyone’s thinking that. [All laugh]
Abrahams: Yeah, and I’ve heard the odd sound
of a children’s choir at times from, I don’t know
where. It’s a complicated situation with reflection
in the acoustic space. So, yeah, I’m hearing things
but I have no idea. I’ll be playing something and
I’ll feel really proud of some sound that I’m gener-
ating and then it will suddenly stop while I’m still
playing and I will realize that it really wasn’t me
playing. It’s part of what makes the music so in-
credibly engaging for us to play it, something new
is gonna happen.
Swanton: It’s an immersive experience for all of
us
Barney McAll also asked – “Lloyd, is it true that
your infamous “Blue Skies” recording faux pas
was a shamanistic awakening to the music you
now play in The Necks?”
[All laugh] Swanton: Thank you Barney. That’s
a joke question. It was at a live gig and the steel
tail pin on my bass with no rubber stopper and a
concrete floor and the bass kept sliding away from
me through the whole gig and the one particular
track that this community radio station chose to
release on album had that “metallic fart,” is the
best way to describe it, at a really slapstick mo-
ment in the performance of “Blue Skies.” I’ve told
people about that for years and they say, “Yeah,
that sounds pretty funny,” and then I play it for
them and they’re just helpless on the floor laugh-
ing.
Brian Eno (a past collaborator with The Necks)
asked – “When you first met, were you quite clear
about how you wanted to work or did that evolve
over time and was that approach a pragmatic re-
sult, for example, ‘We just like that kind of music,’
or was there an intellectual or ideological position
behind it such as, and here’s a wild example – ‘We
want to prove that anarchism can work?’”
[A collective whoa!] Buck: When we first met,
we were being drawn to different music making
situations and approaches that weren’t being satis-
fied in the things that we were doing, albeit, we
were doing a variety of things. We formed the
band to explore things that weren’t being satisfied.
Some of those things had to do with the feeling
that you had to impress people with virtuosity. We
were playing often in situations where we couldn’t
really hear the sound of the instruments properly,
everything was really loud. That was in the mod-
ern jazz and rock we were doing. We wanted to
play music kind of softly and find blends of instru-
ments and a position in the acoustic space to play
free improvised music that was of the moment but
not in the manner of playing solos at the same
time, as we perceived what was happening in free
jazz or improvised music at that time. We were
drawn to rhythm from a lot of the African music
and reggae and soul that we were all interested in.
So in a way, it was on a sonic and intellectual ba-
sis, as far as my take on it.
Swanton: The quest to be ‘in the moment’ is not
something that we invented but I think that we
definitely came to our first get-togethers with the
curiosity of whether the particular processes we
wanted to apply and investigate would allow us to
be truly in the moment, so I would say yes, we
definitely had some quite clear goals.
JI: It wasn’t anarchism though?
Swanton: No, but certainly a freedom. It depends
on your definition of anarchism.
Buck: I talked to him recently about improvising
and he didn’t like improvisation when he was
younger. I think he probably equated it with anar-
chy and clashes of ideas. A bit like John Cage who
was really interested in a lot of different processes
of playing music but wasn’t really interested in
improvising. Brian Eno told me that he only re-
cently changed his mind about now liking impro-
vising. So maybe that’s what he means, that he
thinks we’re improvising and it works.
(Continued from page 28)
“The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes.
That’s the day we truly grow up.”
- John Maxwell
The Necks
30 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880 August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com
Interview with Jeremy Pelt
By Eric Nemeyer
JI: What kinds of direction or perspectives do
you impart as a leader in your group?
JP: As leader of the group, I don’t like to really
dictate a direction. I write the music, but their
personalities give life to the compositions. I rely
on their instincts to shape the piece.
JI: You’ve worked in the bands of two drum-
mers: Lewis Nash and Ralph Peterson. What are
the differences in their respective musical styles
and leadership, and how do you adjust your per-
spective to accommodate each situation?
JP: Well, frankly, one is subtle and one is not.
Lewis, aside from being the world’s foremost
drum set player, has the experience to know how
to shape a band with his playing, and elevate the
musicality of the band. With Lewis, I don’t have
to adjust my perspective. He plays how I feel a
drummer should. Ralph pushes the envelope. He
likes to push the soloist to new heights in his
solo (which could be a good thing or a bad
thing). The fact that he is a very good composer
gives him an innate concept of how a composi-
tion as a whole should be played. With Ralph,
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have to adjust! He’s
a very powerful player (just like his personality)
so I really had to psyche myself up every time…
JI: What are the challenges and different cir-
cumstances that you have faced preparing and
playing in the Mingus Big Band, as compared
with Frank Foster’s Big Band?
JP: Playing in the Mingus band is challenging
because you’re not just playing the music on the
paper. You have to incorporate his attitude, his
meaning into the notes to bring them to life.
Point Blank. Playing in Foster’s band is always
a fun experience. It’s challenging, but in a less
aggressive way. He’s written some saxophone
solos that make me glad not to be a saxophonist!
JI: What are some of the critical elements that
you’ve gleaned about music and or leading a
band from your associations with Lonnie Plaxi-
co, Eric Reed, Louis Hayes, and James Moody
(with whom you recorded)?
JP: Interestingly enough, Lonnie and Eric have
one big thing in common - they are both hustlers
(in terms of getting gigs). They understand that
the gigs don’t come knockin’ on your door. You
have to go and get it. That’s the biggest thing I
gained from my associations with those two,
because I saw what they would go through to
keep their bands working. It’s really hard work
and sacrifice. The bottom line with any band is
you have to keep it working!
JI: What were some of the significant elements
that you learned as a leader, which, with each
one of your recording experience, shaped your
music?
JP: I think one thing that I’m beginning to real-
ize is … I’m starting to learn how to pace myself
better in the studio. Not being on a ‘major’ label,
means that you don’t have the luxury of just
laying around in the studio. You’ve got to get
great results in little time (which is how it used
to be anyhow). Also, I’m learning how to focus
more, musically speaking. My first CD (Profile)
was a good sample of my playing but, in retro-
spect, it doesn’t paint a broad enough picture.
More specifically, there is no group sound that is
important in Jazz.
JI: What experiences have you had performing,
getting bookings as a leader, or making your
record contracts that have provided significant
insight for you as a professional in this business?
JP: This goes back to what I was saying before
about hustling. One thing I’m finding now is that
it’s hard to convince club owners and promoters
to give you a break. “Close to My Heart” got a
lot of press: newspaper reviews, online re-
views—hell, Nat Hentoff wrote a full story on
me in the Wall Street Journal! With all of that,
you’d figure it would be easy to get me in clubs
and festivals, but it still is hard. Things are start-
ing to change though, slowly but surely. I’m
doing the Village Vanguard in July with my own
band, which is the biggest thing to happen for
me yet, so that’s a testament. The frustrating
thing, though, is hearing “Jeremy Pelt is a great
player, but can he make the crossover to lead-
er?” The more you get stuck in the side-man
zone, the harder it becomes to be a leader.
JI: Discuss your associations with a couple of
the jazz musicians who have been most influen-
tial for you.
JP: One of the most influential people for me
has been Dr. Eddie Henderson. His playing is
always clear and concise, and it is loaded with
feeling ... I’ve heard a lot of trumpeters who
might not have the chops that they used to, but
he is always very consistent. For me, all of the
“older” cats (Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Louis
Hayes, Eddie Henderson, et al), have given me
the most insight on the music. I always love
hearing anecdotes and little tidbits of history
from the older cats who were on the scene way
back when.
JI: In the beginner's mind there are many possi-
bilities, but in the expert's mind there are few.
As artists, we experience this paradox. What are
your views?
JP: One name: John Coltrane. Coltrane was
always searching. He never thought of himself
as an expert of anything. My point is: the possi-
bilities are endless when it comes to music. To
say you’re an expert is as ridiculous as saying
you know the secrets of the universe...It’s im-
possible.
JI: What foundational understandings are the
guideposts by which you live your life?
JP: I think I’ve come to terms with the idea that
not everyone is meant to be an innovator. That
only happens once in a while. Just keep experi-
menting and maybe something unique will come
about... The bottom line is, don’t break the mo-
mentum. Keep playing!
“Coltrane was always searching. He never thought of himself as an expert of anything.
My point is: the possibilities are endless when it comes to music. To say you’re an
expert is as ridiculous as saying you know the secrets of the universe...It’s impossible.”
Jeremy Pelt
“The possibilities are endless…”
InterviewInterview
31 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880 August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com
34 To Advertise CALL: 215-887-8880 August-September 2017 Jazz Inside Magazine www.JazzInsideMagazine.com
Joseph Jarman
he’s an okay guy. So I went down to take a couple
of lessons from Jim Hall. That was awesome.
JI: Could you talk about the qualities of Jim’s
playing that inspired you?
JS: I think Jim took the guitar to a new level of
beauty, sonically and just with his playing. He did
that from the moment he started recording and
playing as far as I can tell. He’s got something
special about his sound and his approach, and the
voicings, his whole concept of the guitar. So, I was
one of his big fans and tried to emulate him. I went
to his house and there we just played. He said a few
things. He showed me this one great thing that I
still use, which is dividing the pentatonic scale up
into thirds…no just a triad with a ninth, like: C—
D—E—G. If you take those and play them in
thirds, it becomes this thing called French horn
fifths. I remember he showed me that. I’ve never
stopped playing that. He had a lead sheet on
“Careful”, his tune, in his handwriting, which he
gave me and that was wonderful. I have that here
somewhere. It was just really cool to hang out and
play with him, and the feeling of playing with
somebody…because it was very relaxed and ad-
vanced, you know? I said I really want to move to
New York and he goes, well, I don’t know it’s a
jungle down here. He sort of discouraged me from
moving to New York, but I did it anyway. There
are a lot of people that are not really there to teach,
they’re there to show off or something. Jim’s not
like that. You can tell if you’re trying to challenge
someone in order to help them improve or if you’re
challenging somebody to make yourself feel like
you can blow them away.
JI: After your connection with John Abercrombie,
you moved on.
JS: You know what happened, there’s another guy
too, who you know. And that’s Dave Leibman. I
joined Dave’s band, and there were two things that
happened. In 1978 I met Terumaso Hino, the jazz
trumpet player from Japan who was living in New
York at the time. He played with Jackie McLean’s
group at the time, and he moved to New York. But
he was already a big star in Japan. He had moved
to New York at that time to hang out and play with
Jackie McLean, I think. He heard me and he got me
on a recording session with Tony Williams and
Ron Carter—a quartet date. Then after that we
went all over to Japan, with his brother, Motohiko
Hino, who’s a great drummer. We were playing
kind of in the Miles, sixties, open style, which was
something I was really interested in. That was a
great break for me. It wasn’t maybe as public as
some of the things in my discography have been,
but we played together a lot. Then at the same time,
Dave Leibman was starting a new group. Dave
hired me and Terumaso Hino to play in his band,
with Adam Nussbaum on drums and Ron McClure
on bass. For two years—probably ‘79 and ’80, or
‘78 and ‘79—we worked a lot. We did a lot of
European work and played all the clubs that we
could in America. We did two records on Timeless
Records, the Dutch label. That was a big thing for
me, during that time. Dave really was a teacher. I
was really interested in trying to learn what these
guys were doing when they took it out a little bit,
and I always went to tenor players for that—you
know, because of the Coltrane tradition. I love
Coltrane. I had met Mike Brecker before, and he
was into that. I was trying to figure out the stuff
from what he was playing. Dave Liebman was the
natural next step. So I got to play with Dave a lot
then, and that was really a great learning experi-
ence.
JI: Did you ask Dave questions about the things
that you were trying to figure out?
JS: Yeah. He was really articulate. And we played
his music, which would be his reharmonizations of
standards, which I’ve got to say, were really hard.
You know, because they were his particular lan-
guage. We talked about Miles and Coltrane and
Herbie and the way Chick would do it, and, you
know, this whole thing of trying to… Basically,
there’s no system. Everybody kind of has their own
version of taking it out. But with Dave, again, it
was just further jazz education. You know, you
can’t ever really say okay, we’re going to master
the real changes and then we’re going to take it
out—that’s not the way it works. You just learn
bits of jazz from different eras, different harmonic
vocabularies, as you go along and put it together
and do your own thing. But Dave was really articu-
late and wonderful. The free music that always
interested me were the guys that were coming out
of jazz, you know, Ornette and Don Cherry and
Paul Bley and those guys especially.
JI: How did you make the transition from Dave’s
band to Miles Davis?
JS: Well, I was just on the scene in New York. I
played with Dave, and I was doing whatever. There
were fusion kinds of gigs, too. I remember all dif-
ferent kinds of things. During that time, I was get-
ting my own gigs, too. I made my own record as a
leader in 1977. It was on Enja Records, and the
way that happened was that Billy Cobham’s man-
ager arranged for me to do a demo for ABC Rec-
ords, which was still around. The big ABC Rec-
ords. They were looking to have a fusion guitar
player, and so I made kind of a fusion demo, and
they didn’t go for it, but this demo was sitting
around. It was in a recording studio where Matthias
Winkleman, from Enja Records heard it. This is a
really weird reversal of things. He called me up,
and he said, “I want to do a record with you, be-
cause I like your playing.” He’d heard me in some
different things. “But,” he said, “I don’t want you
to do fusion, I want you to do acoustic jazz.” At the
time it was sort of funny because fusion was the
thing that was selling. At the same time, also, in
1977, George Gruntz from Switzerland, who was
then artistic director of The Berlin Jazz Festival,
came to New York. I was playing at Sweet Basil’s,
with Mike Nock, the piano player from Australia,
who was still in New York then. He had a bunch of
work around New York, and I made some record-
ings with him, too. Gruntz heard me with Mike
Nock, at Sweet Basil’s and he said, “I heard you
with Cobham and Duke and stuff. Would you put
together a group and come to The Berlin Jazz Fes-
tival?” This all happened around the same time. I
was a Dave Liebman/Richie Beirach fan, and had
started to play with Dave around this time. I was
actually in Gary Burton’s group, because in 1977 I
played for a year with Gary’s band. I called Richie
Beirach, I said, “Do you want to make this tour,
we’re going to go to the Berlin Jazz Festival, and
play at a club in Munich and make a live record-
ing?” He said, “Sure.” We got Joe LaBarbera on
drums, who was in Gary’s group at that time. Joe
and I played with Gary in ’77, after Pat Metheny
left. Pat Metheny and Danny Gottlieb left to start
the Pat Metheny group. We never recorded because
Gary was going in a different direction and had
done all that stuff with Pat Metheny. But we were
on the road. Swallow was on bass. We never rec-
orded at that point. I recorded with Gary in the
‘80s. Anyway, I got to go to Germany and play at
the Berlin Jazz Festival, and do a week at a jazz
club, and we recorded live, and I felt like a real
jazz player then, rather than just playing in Billy
Cobham’s band or something like that. We got to
play original tunes and it was with upright bass.
We were swinging.
(Continued from page 32)
John Scofield
“I knew [Gerry Mulligan] had played with Bird so I wanted to know about that, because I was a big
Charlie Parker fan. He said, ‘Oh yeah, Bird, well you know you couldn’t really hear Bird on most of the records he played on - because Bird was always hocking his horn, he never had the right horn. It
really wasn’t his sound. But I heard Bird when he was in shape and on a nice horn…’ I was thinking,
‘Oh my God! He was better than he was on the records??’”
Concert Halls, Festivals, Clubs, Promoters
FILL SEATS IN JUST HOURS!FILL SEATS IN JUST HOURS!
Pay Only Pay Only
For Results For Results Concert & EventConcert & Event
MarketingMarketing Get Your Phones Ringing NOW!Get Your Phones Ringing NOW!
Your MultiYour Multi--Media Campaign Runs On The Proprietary System We BuiltMedia Campaign Runs On The Proprietary System We Built
We Do Everything * Set Up In 2We Do Everything * Set Up In 2--Hours!Hours!
Midtown Manhattan 723 Seventh Avenue, 3rd / 4th Floor New York, NY 10019 Ph: 212-730-8138 Hours: 11–7 M–F; 11–6 Sat
Chicagoland Iroquois Center, 1163 E. Ogden Avenue, #709 Naperville, IL 60563 Ph: 630-778-8060 Hours: 11–6 Fri; 10–5 Sat
Additional hours by appointment.
www.maxwelldrums.com
Trust the world’s leading expert in vintage drums
Our experience: In addition to operating our NY and Chica-goland stores, I currently serve as manager and curator of the world’s finest private collection of rare and celebrity owned drums in the world.
We have authenticated and brokered the sale of instruments owned by such famous drummers as Buddy Rich, Joe Morello, Elvin Jones, Mel Lewis, Tony Wil-liams, Sonny Greer, Don Lamond, Cozy Cole, Papa Jo Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Gene Krupa, Peter Erskine, Stan Levey, Dave Tough, Louie Bellson, Jake Hanna, Earl Palmer, Billy Glad-stone and more.
We have sold more of the world’s rar-est drums and drum sets than anyone in the world. Items such as: the finest known Ludwig Top Hat and Cane drum set; the fin-est known and unique example of Leedy’s Autograph of the Stars set; four of the twelve known examples of ’50s era Gretsch cadillac nitron green “Birdland” drum sets; more Gretsch round badge era 12-14-18 drum sets than any dealer worldwide; eight of the rare Billy Gladstone snares (of which only 25 exist); one of the only two complete Billy Gladstone drum sets.
Our worldwide clientele consists of serious players; collectors, investors and anyone else who loves the finest examples of rare vintage drums. Our expertise runs deep and is rooted in the superb instru-ments crafted by US manufacturers from the 1920s through the 1970s.
John A. Lewis, piano Merik Gillett, drums Robert Trusko, bass TRACKS: Backstory Deadline Jacked Complicity Bylines Liable Precocity Excerpt from the "Ancient Dance Suite" What Say I A Cautionary Ruse All compositions by John A Lewis
![#45: Bill Charlap Trio + Houston Person $35 - [1/14] Poster...Bill Charlap and Houston Person on this occasion. Take a top-rung lyrical pianist, who is a master of the Great American](https://static.documents.pub/doc/80x56/5a878f5f7f8b9a87368e6477/pdf45-bill-charlap-trio-houston-person-35-114-posterbill-charlap.jpg)
