SIMPLY IN THEIR WORDS (Installment Uno)
GERRY HEMINGWAY
This is the first of what I hope will be a regular series of "simply in their words" series of interviews with some of the musicians from the improvised, jazz and new music genres that are making a real mark on the landscape. I don't want to add ANY additional text to these musicians' responses, as my words would only clutter what it is they're trying to convey to the readers.
First on the agenda is someone who has been very close to my ears for almost two decades now; percussionist, composer, improviser-extraordinaire, and most recently, a song-writer (!!), Gerry Hemingway. This is an e-mail interview that I'd conducted with Gerry at the end of January 2003.
Tom Sękowski: Are there any duo/trio/quartet/group scenarios that occurred simply by chance that have turned into long-term working relationships? If so, which ones have been too short lived, and which ones of these short-lived ones do you wish you had made a recording of?
Gerry Hemingway: Generally speaking, most of the improvised groups/combinations that have come together over the years originally had some ingredient of chance. The now 12 year old trio with Georg Graewe and Ernst Reijseger evolved out of a larger project and was at first a quartet with Radu Malfatti, but when Radu could not make a gig, the trio "discovered" itself as a trio. The duo with John Butcher came out of John seeking help on a solo tour in the US, which I offered on condition that we book a few duos as well. One thing led to another and we have established a working duo, which we continue (we are working on second CD). And so it has gone with many of the improvised music projects I am involved in...
Regarding the short-lived experiences. Hmmmm, not much has gotten by me, that hasn't been developed to some degree, either by me or by others. I would like to do the duo with Cecil [Taylor] again, that definitely could go further. Also enjoyed playing in a trio with Reggie Workman and Sam Rivers which shows up on Reggie's record for the now defunct Postcards label "Cerebral Caverns". I would like to do more with Evan Parker, we had a nice trio together with Mark Dresser, and also the same holds true for a trio I did with Mark Dresser and Joe Lovano. A dream not likely to happen would be to do a trio with Mark Dresser and Sonny Rollins.
TS: Sun Ra always hated to play in small bands. He liked to surround himself with dozens of musicians, so that (for the most part) he could drown out the sound of his own piano.
GH: Is this true? When did he say this? It sure never sounded that way based on the music that was created.
TS: Until his untimely passing in 1993, Sun Ra recorded no more than 2 or 3 solo records. Why are solo percussion records so crucial to you? Do you use them as marks in your musical growth?
GH: Solo recordings and performances are an area of my work that among other things have served as a kind of a laboratory for clarifying and refining my musical concepts and ideas. This was most true when I put together the first solo recording, "Solo Works" which was developed and produced at a fallow period of musical opportunities, shortly after I had moved to NYC in 1979. In other words, it was one of the only periods in my musical journey where I made a living doing something other than music - construction in this case - which was in place of playing musical work I was not interested in. Those pieces and the ones that I developed, performed and recorded in the early 80's (released on "Tubworks") emerged out of a concerted effort to codify my personal musical vocabulary into a flexible musical language that served my compositional vision. However more recently my interests as a percussionist and a composer have found more or less equal levels of development in my work as an improviser, a teacher, a composer of more thorough-composed work, where I have been forced to clarify, and re-clarify my musical raison d'ętre. The "Song" project did this even more so, since my desire was to challenge myself to dig deeper inside myself for new and compelling musical creation, which is what the solo work was and still is all about.
TS: When I'd talked to you back in 1997 or 98, you had just learned (and were quite upset) that HatArt left only "Down to the Wire" as the only in-print recorded output of perhaps the world's finest, most thought-provoking and otherwise brilliant quintet. Did you ever learn why Werner X. Uehlinger decided to delete the other three [Gerry Hemingway] quintet records? Was there an outcry over this issue from your fan base? Are there any plans for the near future for the quintet to be re-born? Recordings? Concerts?
GH: Thank you for such strong words of support to what was a wonderful run we had with a very stimulating combination of musicians. I have at this point unconfirmed news that Werner intends to put the quintet recordings back into print as 4 CD box set. [We don't have confirmation of a release date for this box-set.] He didn't delete any of the recordings, he just ran out of stock and chose (understandably, given his large catalog) not to immediately reprint. I continue to get regular emails regarding these recordings from interested listeners, so I hope this upcoming re-release will stimulate renewed interest in the quintet. Meanwhile you can read on my quintet page of my site (www.gerryhemingway.com) about a new quintet that I have formed with a very similar instrumentation to the 90's quintet. We performed and recorded brand new repertoire in Lisbon this past October and I will be mixing editing and looking for a home for this recording in April and May of this year.
TS: While we're on the topic of record labels, what happened to Pedro de Freitas and his Sound Aspects imprint that released the quintet's debut recording back in mid 80' "Outerbridge Crossing"?
GH: From what I have heard he accrued so much debt that he had to extract himself completely from the business of recordings. I have no precise details but nobody I know who recorded for him has been able to successfully contact him regarding any leftover stock or to recover masters. I have not tried so far.
TS: Tell me a little bit more about the process of recording "Songs". Whose idea was it?
GH: It was my idea long before I was urged on by the manifesto of "Between the Lines" which suggested to me a real investigation of categorical boundary crossing. I am grateful that Between The Lines offered the invitation to challenge my own musical possibilities. [more about what you ask can be found in the posted interview on my web site, www.gerryhemingway.com - page "songs"]. This project went through numerous changes of form before it was completed in the winter of 2002, and I wonder if I would have generated this project without BTL gently reminding me that I had a deadline (which I delayed 3 times!!!).
TS: Why did you decide to record / compose for a vocalist?
GH: There are many reasons, one of which was that I wanted to try a more direct approach to the subject matter I had been exploring with instrumental music for some time.
TS: Do you see this as a touring ensemble?
GH: Not the whole personnel of the record but a paired-down version that could play festivals. The first live performance of this project will take place on March 30th at Joe's Pub in NYC. [see site page for details]. I hope to book this project in the 2003-4 season in Europe and maybe in Canada and/or the US.
TS: Do you have any favourite (for personal or professional reasons) festivals...ones where you'll never decline to perform at...ones that you always look forward to coming back to?
GH: It's not too likely I will ever decline an invitation from a festival, and I am not so inclined to pick favorites, as most of the festival producers with whom I have a relation work very hard for their festivals to succeed and to continue, and I have nothing but respect for the time and energy they put into the presentation of interesting music. I try when financially feasible to support some of the festivals who have little financial/commercial support, such as the Guelph festival in Ontario [Canada] which I recently played a benefit for.
TS: How did you maintain BassDrumBone for a quarter of a century as a working ensemble?
GH: BassDrumBone is a collective band, so I can not say that I alone have kept it going. I would say that the band continues, now more than ever (2003 will be a busy year for the trio, three short Euro tours), because we are old friends that continue to enjoy each others company, not to mention musical growth, and the chemistry that ignited the band in the late seventies is still very much in evidence today.
TS: Tell me how your duo with Cecil Taylor came about? What did you learn from that performance? Is there a recording of this show?
GH: It came about because Hugo de Craen, who has been curating De Singel in Antwerp, suggested producing the duo, based on an interview I did where I stated that it was a project I wanted to see happen some day. Before that offer we had tried to pull off another desire of mine to do a big band production, with the NDR big band and an African rhythm section featuring Habib Faye (of Youssou N'Dour's band) on bass. But we could not rally the funds to pull it off. The duo was wonderful and yes there is a magnificent recording of it, and I hope to find a home for it some day. Anyone you know interested?? And I would like to do more with Cecil, I just haven't been able to give it my attention.
TS: Can you describe some of the compositions that you're working on at this moment? When will they see the light of day?
GH: All of my focus until the end of this month [February] is on completing the first draft of "Sideband: Concerto for Three Improvisers and Orchestra", which will be premiered at Cal Arts on March 8th of this year. It will be my second orchestral work. I will likely seek funding for a third and maybe some day get all three released on CD. I also plan to give a lot of focus to my collaboration with video artist Beth Warshafsky whose past work together I plan to post on my site sometime soon.
TS: Is it still easier for you to attract audiences in Europe as opposed to North America? If so, why do you think most of the adventurous types live in Europe?
GH: I find no difference in the audiences, and I can say that having toured significantly in the US in the past five years. The difference is in the development of festivals with many different kinds of programming, which Europe, more or less, still holds the lead. More lately though, I have played less packed houses in Europe, for some of the more challenging projects, which would suggest that audiences are fickle everywhere, or the economy does not afford this form of input, or that audiences are more often following the corporate lead, drawn to whatever trend is being pumped by the glossy press and broadcast media.
TS: Looking back over time, is there any single project that you feel was not worthwhile? ...where you might've invested your time more wisely?
GH: In that fallow period I mentioned earlier, BassDrumBone (then called Oahspe) temporarily explored being a quartet with the addition of guitarist Allan Jaffe. The reason for this idea was to create something different than Barry Altschul's trio, which both Ray and Mark were members of, and which ostensibly rendered our trio dormant at the time (79-83). Allan and I labored over trying to book this group up and down the East coast college concert circuit, and hundreds of phone calls, faxes, demo tape-promo packages and thousands of dollars of invested money we yielded, one, count'em one! gig. But in a way, I learned a lot, and as dismal as that outcome was, I don't regret what happened. It oddly kept the trio alive for instance.
TS: Is there any particular musician with whom you've not yet collaborated? Are you working on collaborating with this individual?
GH: Well there are a few duos in development that I hope to develop further. A duo with Hamid Drake, which has occurred twice so far at Guelph and Victoriaville [Canada], and which we hope to go into the studio and record. Nobody comes to mind at the moment that I have not yet worked with, other than exploring some r & b players in relation to the Song project.
TS: What forthcoming recordings can we look forward to in the near future? Out of a multitude of your recent releases, which one in particular would you recommend to our readers and why?
GH: Songs [Between The Lines], is a major work. If you have any interest in my work of the past 25 years, I urge you to find it and buy it, you will not regret it. Upcoming in May 2003 is another major release of my present working quartet with Ellery Eskelin, Ray Anderson and Mark Dresser, called "Devil's Paradise" which will be released on the Portuguese Clean Feed label. Eventually, there will be new quintet recording to look out.
TS: Finally, I wanted to get your thoughts / comments on the state of improvised music as you see it, wherever you tour around the globe.
GH: I think improvised music continues to thrive and offer the world a very powerful concert experience, the kind of which can form some kind of an antidote to such an insane world for which the human condition seems all but ignored. I think the pool of players who have devoted all or a good part of their musical career to the development of this musical path, have not stopped searching and investigating the unique way in which we communicate with each other and to our audiences through this medium. And that keeps this form vital and engaging.
Gerry Hemingway's web-site (Everything Gerry: tours, recordings, photos, distributors, etc.)
Recent or Selected Recommended Gerry Hemingway recordings:
Gerry Hemingway "Songs" (2002)
Gerry Hemingway Quintet "Outerbridge Crossing" (1987)
Gerry Hemingway Quintet "Demon Chaser" (1994)
Gerry Hemingway "Electro-Acoustic Solo Works 1984-95" (1996)
Gerry Hemingway "Perfect World" (1996)
Gerry Hemingway Quartet "Johnny's Corner Song" (1998)
Gerry Hemingway Quintet "Waltzes, Two-Steps & Other Matters of the Heart" (1999)
Marilyn Crispell / Barry Guy / Gerry Hemingway "Cascades" (1995)
Georg Graewe / Ernst Reijseger / Gerry Hemingway "Flex 27" (1994)
Georg Graewe / Ernst Reijseger / Gerry Hemingway "Counterfactuals" (2001)
Michael Wintsch / Gerry Hemingway / Banz Oester "Open Songs" (2002)
John Butcher / Gerry Hemingway "Shooters and Bowlers" (2001)
Michel Wintsch / Martin Schütz / Gerry Hemingway "Wintsch / Schütz / Hemingway" (1995)
Interview conducted by Tom Sękowski
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