Interview with Nobuyasu Furuya, Andre Vida and C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core).
Q-Jammin` those topics: Marta Jecu
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1.Taking out Free Jazz from the narrow definition of a musical genre: what means Free Jazz for the contemporary culture, what statement does it make?
foto: nobuyasu by rodrigo pinheiroNobuyasu Furuya: Free Jazz itself represents and was established, in a natural way, as a solution against rigid theory, definition and techniques related to limited musical categories, which might not satisfy the motivation and creative impulse of the musicians, eager to do something different. And this movement and music were totally new at the time of their establishment, and could carry a lot of messages. Smokey dark-golden 60s was a kind of generation, in which drastic political actions happened, in which social mass-chaos, mass hysteria, and collective unrest determined people to reconsider reality fundamentally. So they needed different ways of expression and different things to experience and embody. Therefore Free Jazz was born. But if we see now, this generation and this society are totally different from that period, and no one needs such distinctive power instruments for one’s self expression. Therefore, you listen a lot of so-called Free Jazz (interpreted as such by the artists or promoters), but it transmits of course a state far from the original.
C. Spencer Yeh: Well, I think at this point many might use it as a phrase of convenience or description, referring to the idea of certain instruments played in a certain fashion. I’m not saying I wholly agree, but this is the practice I have observed. In addition to that, I have noticed that the “free” portion of the term has been taken and appropriated to be the statement, than just “free jazz.” We have now “free noise,” “free rock,” “free folk” etc. “Free improvisation” maybe makes more sense if I were to have to pick something which I feel involves my own practice.
Andre Vida: Can ‘Free Jazz’ be removed from the definition of a musical genre? Aesthetically it represents energy breaking through the details of refinement: a repositioning of the language of bebop and post bop improvisation to accommodate the destruction of ‘elegance’. This elegance represents the core aesthetic of jazz as reflected in its marketing, clothing, repertoire and image. As free jazz developed, it generally operates via simplified folk forms and while the ties to the blues are still there – the pop culture references shift away from collective social functions (dance and entertainment) into totally speculative intellectual isolation. The music reintegrates the idea of spiritualism into its core. This is evident in artist’s speculation about improvisation as a means of channelling another energy and ideas about sound as a healing force. If we really consider the abrasive quality of this sound – does the comparison to healing force resonate? Or is this an attempt to turn sound loose of its harmonic linear structure and ‘free’ it into primordial energy?
2. What is coming from new music or improvised music in the way you play? How important are these concepts in defining your music and how important are they in defining contemporary music?
Nobuyasu Furuya: Continuing the aforesaid, it seems that people are really confused and misunderstand what free jazz is. Improvisational music is very often rapidly recognized and judged as free jazz. But I want to warn against this confusion. There are a lot of musicians and music too, which have nothing to do with free jazz, but call themselves in these terms. Free Jazz and improvisational music, sound art, or contemporary music, are different things, in their specificity. Free Jazz is not a category of music. It is a component and a state of the musician’s soul. And we need to know that. The meaning of jazz and blues implies the Black African power movements and culture, and since this influence changed and was embodied by persons who were not originally emerging from this culture, the spirit and freedom of creation were the successors in expressing the message. This SOMETHING is what is important, and I often find there is a major lack of it. Therefore we can’t find real free jazz nowadays. As the modern smooth jazz, Free Jazz is already bleached by a blankness of the soul.
foto: c.spencer yeh by hair-eC. Spencer Yeh: I think that when a movement or category is named, it makes sense on one hand in strictly a matter of communication – even a meal as we call it here “brunch” has been created, rather than having to waste breath talking about eating “sometime between breakfast and lunch.” Oddly, “brunch” has more often than not been taken in even later than a standard lunchtime. Anyways, having the movement/category be named and defined is fine, but then I feel the next issue is following what’s considered the now-orthodox elements of a form, vs. what people consider the lessons or spirit learned in creation and development of that form. Is it the energy, the language, the approach towards instruments, the particular approach towards melody, rhythm, etc. ? Look at what happened with the term “punk” – here you have people still wearing Mohawks and leather, playing relatively same three-chord singalongs. That’s fine, that serves some function I suppose; as with “noise” there is the same going on now, and debate about what is/isn’t noise. I appreciate the orthodox noise acts because I don’t always think something in time has to constantly be revised. However, the danger is always in not allowing yourself to be open to change, to see what developments and expansion may come. These terms “free jazz,” “punk,” “noise,” none would have developed, if people were so strict and policing in execution.
Andre Vida: Free Jazz as a term is tied to a social lineage and language that have been relevant to my development and understanding of the role of sound within social circles, but the aesthetic itself is not directly related to my practice. My interest in performance is more centrally located with the identification and distillation of styles amongst which free jazz has its place. As a social system on a local level I have learned a great deal about the operations of ‘hidden’ knowledge from the existing ‘free jazz’ and ‘improvised’ music scenes, and feel a general frustration with both its aesthetic and presentation. The inward bounds of this kind of knowledge favour and enable a closed inert social system. The tone thus becomes the carrier of an incestuous idea more than a model
for ‘free’ life, energy, or love.
3. Is Free Jazz a music open to eclectic components, does it bear a multitude of influences? Or is it rather a music which should remain stoic, in order to be able to maintain its character in the nowadays music scene?
Nobuyasu Furuya: For me it is not a question of style or strategy, but of the mentioned musical attitude. Japanese music and free jazz are very similar in many aspects: not in their phonetic, physical sound, but as a way of creation and approach to the music. They both carry the real meaning of improvisation: You need to be free from everything and keep yourself within the sound. If one is deeply involved with Japanese music and its meaning and core, then one can immediately recognize that the Japanese traditional music is perfectly in the spirit of free jazz, or even more stronger and dangerous than free jazz itself. So it is quite natural that I am totally deep concerned with it.
C. Spencer Yeh: Again, as I mentioned above, I don’t mind the stoic approach – it would be a shame, for example, if all ice cream parlours ceased to serve Strawberry or Vanilla or even relatively modern flavours such as Turkish Coffee – opting instead to only serve radical new flavours such as Salty Fish or Jalapeno Bean. I think the key from an artist standpoint is, for lack of a better way to phrase it, just keep serious and focused and try to make your work good. It’s very interesting to consider all these issues, and I enjoy discussing and debating them, but there’s also a feeling gained with good work, which is inexplicable and wonderful, and I think a primary driving force for both artist and audience. Sometimes it’s gained through intellectual approaches, sometimes it’s raw intuition.
Andre Vida: This question is hard to answer because when it operates amongst eclectic components, the reactionary definition is disrupted, although I am not sure this coincides with an album like 'Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe' where you see influences of several pop approaches to Ayler's music. Was he selling out? Or did the term Free Jazz decide to adapt to him. The idea of purity of intention and seriousness operates in an essentially different way with all major figures of free jazz – Look at the fact that in my early 20s one of one of the curators of a major NY free jazz festival told me that my music was not serious enough to be programmed. It seemed that this was a response to a performance he attended where I both engaged with the audience and sang. These were of course no-no's to many FreeJazz practitioners in NY in the mid 90's. My question for him is, If Free Jazz has no place for a sense of humour then what are spaghetti sandwiches doing in the liner notes of "My Name is Albert Ayler"?
4. Do you consider that the ideas and expression of the original Free Jazz from the beginnings are fully honoured by the nowadays free jazz music? Do you see a gap between the two? 
foto: andre vida by schlafzeug/haire-eAndre Vida: Definite gap. This is necessary as the political origin of free jazz is at least partially tied to black empowerment and the cultural revolution that surrounded. I have noticed the necessary psychological shift to play 'authentic' free jazz sometimes leads to complicated relationships in self-identity and time-travel, and while it does not limit the practitioners, the meaning and expression of the music becomes something else. Look at the divisions between European and American practitioners. Which is more authentic? I have no opinion – is the question relevant anymore? Free jazz has moved far away from its original social functions and often serves now as a voice for ‘energy idea from the 60s’, ‘ spiritual replacement for Christian models’, ‘expression of political dissatisfaction’, ‘parody of revolution’, 'wordless theatre', and/or ‘embodiment of alienation’. Of course there are other interpretations of its functions, but they are limited by the exclusive and specifically 'educated' audiences that are able to receive them.
C. Spencer Yeh: Off the top of my head I’d say the gaps come down to what I mentioned earlier, about people taking what they gain from a form, and synthesizing (or perhaps bastardizing) it into something else. So what is taken from it, is it necessarily dishonourable? I’d say no. The worst dishonor is to exploit any of these issues and terms for gain to cover up poor work. “Free jazz” is honoured by both the kid going nuts on a guitar, trying to sound like “Machine Gun,” and it’s also honoured by the other who is studying and preserving a more “original” practice.
5. And from a personal perspective: what is it that you need to express, are you interested in cross-references or historical frames and concepts?
C. Spencer Yeh: For myself personally it’s a matter of spending time thinking and practicing, of paying attention and honing skills relative to oneself and what one hopes to accomplish. It’s a private, personal assimilation of these forms I have appreciated and been exposed to. Maybe what I lack at this point is a complete schooling and training to be able to cross-reference and frame to what I would consider a satisfactory level, if that mission were my primary focus. For example, I’m more interested in improvisation, and can’t really read charts unless they are graphical and/or open to some degree of interpretation. I have been playing with a tuning which sounds good to my ears and has become flexible for what I want, on the same beaten-up old violin for a while. I know the feeling of it very very well, and could probably identify it blindfolded. I know what I can make my hands do, and try to maintain and develop those skills. Maybe one day I would be able to go back and study what I had missed, but in the meantime there is way more playing I have to do.
Nobuyasu Furuya: It is mainly a question of listening, and doing it by being aware, the work of musicians like Gato Barbieri, Sunny Murray, Archie Shepp, Mototeru Takagi, Jeanne Lee etc. As long as it is done in a concordant way with its spirit, it never belongs to the past, but exists atemporal. This is for me the significance of playing free jazz, which will keep it in the spirit of its origin. Nothing has to be transferred or transmitted formally from the past, but this spirit recognised as existent.
Andre Vida: Having met and played with many of these figures – I am not interested in recreating their approaches but find many of them fascinating people with distinctly different approaches to sound, communication, and life.
6. Can your direction in music be understood as a contamination from a certain country or city? Can you talk about local currents and sensibilities? In which direction can it go?
Nobuyasu Furuya: I see free jazz becoming rather a kind of fashion and a hype for shallow musicians who want to follow commercial strategies. This mystical unheard category is now going through an awful trifling revival on the contemporary music market. A lot of musicians who have nothing to do with free jazz, desire to call themselves as players of free jazz, without making any contribution to the free jazz action itself. I see no hope and no future for it in the large-scale society and music market. There remain true great masters, maybe very few in the world, and these people are dying slowly by slowly. But this is implicit in the process of music development, so it might emerge something different and interesting, or it may not, either. Let it die, let it come. If not, let’s forget about the music.
C. Spencer Yeh: Well, even in its current orthodox forms, composers and players are incorporating influences gleaned from their own personal experiences, while still keeping a dialogue with the history so far. This is just what I observed, and I think in the end, looking at another relatively modern form –rock music– and how modern developments are both praised and reviled, that’s just a consequence of living. New species of plant and animal emerge even amongst the centuries-old growth. Perhaps it’s not the art that’s the problem, but what people sometimes try to do in exploiting/controlling it. Can’t make everyone happy! I’d say in terms of my own playing, it’s certainly a contamination of a lot of European practices and developments of free jazz, which were then bounced from both the U.S. and Japan and back to Europe. I know that’s a very general statement to make. Local currents and sensibilities, that’s even tougher to summarize and address right now. There are gestural and sensual aspects of all these forms being practiced that I appreciate – I’m not trying to play them all in an orthodox manner, but I’d hope I’d be able to interact with many players from many different directions. Isn’t that the idea, not only talking the old talk with your closest friends, but also meeting and engaging with new people, and developing new slang?
Andre Vida: Not sure – don’t think so! Lets organize a snowball fight amongst the different Berlin music scenes in Februar. We can call it Das Schneewittchen Festival.
...how do you picture the future of Free Jazz, in which direction can it go?
Andre Vida: Someone is sitting at a desk sculpting the meaning to accommodate the beautiful jpegs for the artist of the month. In Berlin that artist hears a far off cry, "Schatzy!!!!" He looks up. A snowball hits him in the face.
Interview: Marta Jecu
home:
Andre Vida: http://www.vidatone.com/
Nobuyasu Furuya: http://zurnazen.exblog.jp/
C. Spencer Yeh: http://www.dronedisco.com/
this thing is dedicated to mr. igor vlasov:
foto: igor vlasov by hair-e
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