Interview with Tim Green pt.3

Part 3- what music was being played in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in the late 70's; picking up first work in New Orleans; pressure to take up tenor and playing with Irma Thomas; when his career direction started to emerge; Gulfstream, The Stick Band and work in other little groups; Kalaamu Ya Salaam suggests Tim to Ellis Marsalis; comparisons between past and present audiences and the acceptance of original music; car and piano restoration, the value of self-reliance.

Tim Green Interview pt.3

Interview with Tim Green, Part 2

Part 2- Musicians' awareness of the importance of heir own work; when the decision to come to New Orleans was made; the pain associated with learning an instrument and the desire and drive to get past that; beginnings in playing music with others; desire for formal studies and starting at Berklee, 1978; problems with Berklee; meeting the 'passport' to New Orleans; serendipitous winning of trophy at the St. Patrick's Day parade in the French Quarter; deep lessons for a negligent saxophone teacher.

Tim Green Interview part 2

Interview with saxophonist, Tim Green Part 1

Tim Green is one of the most interesting saxophonists that you can hear in New Orleans.  Occasinally he travels but most of his career has been within the city.  Over the years he has played with many of the greats that people associate most with the city- Walter "Wolfman" Washington, Irma Thomas, Cyrille Neville, Mem Shannon and many legendary others.  

His affection goes out most to original, creative, music projects.  He is interested in so much music and has brought himself to a place where he can insert very creative ideas in almost any context without breaing the balance or excitement.  He was a large figure in many explorational bands from, Gulfstream and the Stick Band in the 80's, to Michael Ray, Naked On The Floor, and James Singleton, Dennis Gonzalez, and others like  Fred Wesley in the 90's.  

Tim has a very deep linguistic or conversationalist playing style that really has its best place on stages for live audiences.  Where the musical "moment" happens is where he strives to be and his best work is there.  For that reason, you won't find records under his name.  His genius and where it resides really emerge in this relaxed, and probably pretty rare, interview. 

Part 1- Tim's start in music; intense musical awareness starting at age 4; growing up in Connecticut; starting an "underground" radio station; meeting many greats; start on soprano saxophone; hearing and meeting established greats in new York and Boston-McCoy Tyner, Mingus, George Adams, Stan Getz, Blue Oyster Cult, Earth, Wind and Fire, Tower of Power; early interest in 'Ethnic' music and friendships with musicians in other communities around Bridgport; meeting Grover Washington Jr and advice given.

Tim Green Interview Part 1

Interview with songwriter, Luke Allen, of The Happy Talk Band. part 2

Luke Allen is the leader of an interesting local New Orleans group, The Happy Talk Band.  He writes in a style unlike anyone else in town.  He has a generous, though un-imposing, personality and this comes through well in his songs.  In this conversation he explains a lot of where he came from and uncovers some connections between his life travels and New Orleans residency and how those things impact his songwriting.

The interview was conducted where he felt at home, Markey's Bar in the Bywater.  There is background noise from the conversationalists and jukebox but it provides a nice backdrop for Luke's lively conversation.

Part 2- Playing with Bailey and relationship with The Morning 40 Federation; gaining a following and seeing people in the audience starting to know his songs; Checkpoint Charlie's, Hi-Ho Lounge, Matador, Circle Bar, Kelly Keller; how he chose the kind of music to go behind his songs; the stylistic influences on his sound; his difficulties with recording and playing live; the band's recording history; working with Mike West; interest in other types of writing and the impact on his songwriting; his writing process; audience response to The Happy Talk Band; desired future directions in music; being a bartender and his views of the profession; his views on New Orleans and changes over the years; what he's liked in music in New Orleans and what he's liked about the city.

Luke Allen Interview Pt.2

Interview with songwriter, Luke Allen, of The Happy Talk Band. part 1

Luke Allen is the leader of an interesting local New Orleans group, The Happy Talk Band.  He writes in a style unlike anyone else in town.  He has a generous, though un-imposing, personality and this comes through well in his songs.  In this conversation he explains a lot of where he came from and uncovers some connections between his life travels and New Orleans residency and how those things impact his songwriting.

The interview was conducted where he felt at home, Markey's Bar in the Bywater.  There is background noise from the conversationalists and jukebox but it provides a nice backdrop for Luke's lively conversation.

Part 1- Where he came from, Salinas, Santa Cruz; how he came to New Orleans and why;  how he started writing his own material; where the dark themed songs come from; playing music before Happy Talk; how The Happy Talk Band formed; how the band name came about.

Luke Allen Interview Pt.1

Interview with Hart Mcnee- Flautist/Saxophonist

Hart Mcnee was a very interesting local musical figure.  He died a couple of years ago but while alive he left quite a mark on all of us, friends, family or musical comrades.  He was from Chicago originally but he had moved at a fairly young age to San Francisco. Initially he was staying with his friend, the iconic guitarist Mike Bloomfield (an early hero of this site's author.)  Hart played all over the San Francisco blues scene primarily on baritone sax but especially known was his stint with Boz Scaggs.  He was also with Albert Collins, Otis Rush who he recorded with and others.  He had come from Chicago and knew many key bluesmen.  He was even driving Magic Sam home for a while.  His prime instrument for his own expression was flute and he will be remembered by all of us New Orleans friends as hugging that singularly marked bass flute.  

Hart was a close friend and I wish that I had gotten to interview him but this may be even better.  Here another really close friend, the film-maker, actor, and screenwriter Henry Griffin got a really vibrant interview with Hart not long before he died.  This interview was conducted May 8, 2006.

I'll never forget hearing his flute sound coming out of Cafe Istanbul on Frenchmen St early in the 90's.  A lot filtering through the doorways that particular summer was unremarkable but here was this very vocal, very driven, bluesy but un-cliched, large flute sound drifting onto the streets.  I could feel instantly that his phrases were bold and exploratory but immediately honest at the most human level and, peeking in the door, I just hoped that I would get a chance to play with this guy.  I was lucky and we fell in big from interest in blues and the same sorts of jazz musicians.  I was real amazed to find that he knew Bloomfield and others and I think he thought it was cool that anyone knew about that stuff.  over the years I got to play with him in many of my own projects and many others.  What fun! And I was proud of the fact that he liked my guitar playing because he openly detested most guitarists work.

Hart was a good deal older than a lot of us playing with him at that time and there was a lot about our wilder drives and things that we weren't aware of that he helped us to understand.  His honesty about where he was at and where he had been at helped clarify a lot of things.  At the same time, he wasn't what would be called mellow.  His drives and personality were loaded with obsession, vibrancy, unquestioning compulsive pushes towards everything that he may have found that he had an urge for.  But mainly, he had a drive for beauty and I think it made his death a lot simpler than it could have been.

All of this and much more comes out in this honest but humor filled interview.  I'll leave it in one part if you are interested in life, hang in until the end...

Hart Mcnee interview

- almost buying a gun twice; adventures in the army after attempting to dodge the draft, his sharpshooting abilities compared to Lee Harvey Oswald and the resulting suspicions; working with missiles and phobias entering into the picture; beginnings in music; getting a radio and being appalled by what the music of the day seemed to be; suddenly becoming aware of blues on the left hand side of the dial and wanting to be those artists; starting on tenor sax; how he got to be a professional musician; advice on how to get better in music; drugs and coming away from heroin addiction and drinking; cancer diagnosis and what's involved; whether phobias pass after being diagnosed with terminal disease; how he chose songs for his recordings; interest in Orixa songs, voodoo and involvements in ceremonies; the impact on his playing; the question of the healing power of music; his views of what happens after death; belief in the soul and the soul as a verb; what he would have done if he could've done it all over again; what would be the heaven of Hart's dreams.

Hart Mcnee Interview

Follow up interview Pt.2- with Piety St. Studios founder/engineer/producer/musician/composer, Mark Bingham

Part 2- How Piety St Studios started; paradox of a successful studio starting in 2001;...still using analog; how the studio gained wide renown; Cash Money; Vida Blue; changes in musical styles since the Boiler Room- collage/mashup/jazz; Kidd Jordan; about offending people with music; Lukas Ligeti; bringing the spirit world in; John Swenson's book; transcending style; unspoken, secret language amongst musicians; changes in new orleans culture; the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival's problems with artist relations; the changes on Frenchmen St; the Williamsburg-ing of The Bywater; deep wishes; the rise of the cool St. Claude music scene- Allways Lounge; what he's currently interested in locally and what's going through the studio now; looking for a happy ending to the way things are in relation to recording now.

Follow up interview Pt.1- with Piety St. Studios founder/engineer/producer/musician/composer, Mark Bingham

  Here is a second, concluding interview with a big contributor the current face of New Orleans music.  Mark is a good talker and pretty free with colorful stories about artists and the machine that keeps them "out there." This talk has quite a different flavor from the first interview.

Part 1- Initial move to New Orleans; meeting and doing work with WWOZ; acquiring studio gear for New Orleans; first studio recordings:John Cleary, Bunchy, Mike Ward, Amadee Castanell, John Mooney; how the Boiler Room came about; cheap acquisition of 2.25 inch tape machines; differences in recording spaces; who was recorded at the Boiler Room; Lump and Ben Ellman; Delfeayo Marsalis; Glenn Patscha, Johnny Vidacovich; What changed since the days of the Boiler Room; the other studios in New Orleans in the 90's; angry studio customers and mistaken blame; the kinds of work Mark has to do in the studio; why the Boiler Room folded.

A second interview with composer, Dr. James P. Walsh Pt.5(conclusion)

Part 5- What to do with all this information and experiences from training and Columbia experience- COMPOSE!; Ricard Strauss; derivation of  hyper regions from hyper-tonality and movements of the tone row; Pat Carpenter's observations on those discoveries, new problems and the re-insertion of feeling and emotion; conflicts of aims that arose at Columbia- Musicology or Composition; Walsh's approach to teaching composition and how that differs from Columbia; helping to realize students' wildest creative fantasies; difficulties that arise in teaching composition; what is the current language in music?; musical sleepwalkers and other types of musicians; reflections on Viennese music culture and comparisons with New Orleans music culture; how Walsh is working now; interest in techno and DJ's and what that suggests.

2nd Interview with James P. Walsh(conclusion)

A second interview with composer, Dr. James P. Walsh Pt.4

Part 4- Mario Davidovsky; Importance of performance of compositions to Walsh, Monod, Schoenberg; Art and money and religion; music for your 'tribe' and academic music; power of suggestion over the listeners appreciation of aesthetic experience; societal viewpoints on institutionally taught composers as opposed to self-taught; prize winning fugues from the Paris Conservatory; the fragmented schools of academic music; are Coherence Creating Scenarios a fiction?; hair-brained, crackpot, music theories; interest in why people don't like music; how Walsh became involved with Jacques-Louis Monod's singular text on (Schoenberg's ) music; perfect summary of the end of Western civilization; realizing the deep beauty behind Monod's analytical tome and the invented language to describe what was happening in the music- hypothetical octave, partitioning of the tritone and much, much more; evolution in music and why Monod believed that the musical idea as he understood it was such a development; generation of music from central idea; difference between music that is complex and music that is complicated; pre-compositional material; Jacques and pro-compositional material.

2nd interview with Dr. james P. Walsh part.4

A second interview with composer, Dr. James P. Walsh Pt.3

Part 3- Influence of music pedagogy on music practice; music architecture manuals; historical roadblocks caused by building permanent monuments to yourself; more on Pat Carpenter; How Schoenberg's music was disseminated despite unpopularity; the problem with style designators; organic unity as the way artists think; Pat Carpenter directing Walsh to Monod; changes in music atmosphere at Columbia through electronic music; The malibu Dolphins and being back in the New York punk scene; Willie Bobo Shaw; Wayne Kramer; authentic standpoint; the Guild of Composers and real first exposure to Monod's music.

2nd James Walsh Interview part 3

A second interview with composer, Dr. James P. Walsh Pt.2

Part 2- Who is Jacques-Louis Monod?; Anti-semitism at Julliard?; Fixed "Do", moveable clefs and the advantages in score reading; music in the middle-ages, iso-rhythmic motets, and music where intellect was valued; rejection of comparative literature; how musical pieces are true compared to fiction which is false; truth and falsity in music; fake and real in Treme- depicting yourself; encounter with Pat Carpenter and form and analysis; organic unity, grund gestalt, and how the composer "thinks" the piece; Pat Carpenter's background; what the importance of Schoenberg was at Columbia, "The Musical Idea"; the growth of music history in the 20th century; Vienna in the early 20th century and delusional philosophies; the rise of St. Cecilia societies.

2nd james walsh interview pt.2

A second interview with composer, Dr. James P. Walsh

This interview continues where Walsh's last interview left off.  See below for other introductory information. Here Jimbo goes deeply into the later experiences that formed his ideas and paints some prtraits of some rather large musical figures that he has been around over the years.

Part 1- Starting Columbia and the tough undergraduate music program there at that time; loving the challenge of it; the shock of studies with Edward Lippman; Jacques Louis Monod; the influence of Paul Henry Lang on the faculty of the time and "preservation of standards"; Richard Taruskin; what the program entailed; problems with "band"

2nd interview with Jimbo Walsh pt.1

A conversation on the current New Orleans music scene with Mark Bingham, Helen Gillet, Michael Dominici, and Jonathan Freilich

WWOZ radio DJ, Michael Dominici had the idea to take some of what has been happening in these interviews and take it onto WWOZ during his radio show.  There were time constraints that didn't allow us, with our summer schedules, to do this live so we pre-recorded it on May 28th,2011. Mark Bingham allowed us to do the interview at Piety St. Studios so we sat down for about an hour and discussed a few things pertaining to recording, time perception, thinking of music for now, anachronistic music, and observations on a few other musicians around the scene including Quintron, Ratty Scurvics, Clint Maedgen and others.  Other things were touched on too. The conversation ranges from light and humorous to a tinkering with quasi-meta-musico-profundums.

This will probably be quite edited for WWOZ radio broadcast so here is an opportunity to hear it in its entirety.  

Michael Dominici is a DJ, a very aware listener and New Orleans lover and culture observer.  Cellist,Helen Gillethas been an active professional musician around New Orleans for many years now. Mark Bingham is a renowned record producer, composer, engineer, song writer etc.  

Helen and Mark have both been individually interviewed for this series at an earlier time. Both are available from this site on the interviews page.

4way discussion of current New Orleans music scene

Interview with composer/ Open Ears Music Series Curator, Jeff Albert Pt. 5

Jeff Albert is more than a musician.  Like a few others interviewed here he has contributed to the New Orleans music scene through the Tuesday Open Ears series at the Blue Nile.  The series allows an open forum for a wide variety of musical performance.  It is a rare night where one can witness any sort of musical exploration. Through improving the breadth of what is presented he has contributed to  the formation  of musical groups and associations of musicians that otherwise would not have a place to develop their playing and ideas.  It also brings in adventurous groups from outside New Orleans.  Jeff has developed his own expression and his self- understanding steadily over the years.  He has learned a great deal from his own associations with musicians and gigs and he shares a lot about those experiences here.  There is also interesting information about the trombone and electronic music.

More on Jeff and the Open Ears Music Series can be found at www.openearsmusic.org

Part 5- Communication with audiences; the different subjects involved in his writing; experience playing with drummer, Hamid Drake; playing with drummer, Marcello Bennetti; thoughts on European improvisational styles.

jeff Albert interview pt.5

Interview with trombonist/ electronic composer, Jeff Albert, pt.4

Jeff Albert is more than a musician.  Like a few others interviewed here he has contributed to the New Orleans music scene through the Tuesday Open Ears series at the Blue Nile.  The series allows an open forum for a wide variety of musical performance.  It is a rare night where one can witness any sort of musical exploration. Through improving the breadth of what is presented he has contributed to  the formation  of musical groups and associations of musicians that otherwise would not have a place to develop their playing and ideas.  It also brings in adventurous groups from outside New Orleans.  Jeff has developed his own expression and his self- understanding steadily over the years.  He has learned a great deal from his own associations with musicians and gigs and he shares a lot about those experiences here.  There is also interesting information about the trombone and electronic music.

Part 4- Electronic music and current Ph.D work at LSU; influence of electronic music on his acoustic/ trombone improvisations; music concrete; stockhausen; childrens' perceptions of electronic and creative music; subject of dissertation; programming a computer to improvise; how Jeff listens to music and how that has changed over time.

jeff albert interview pt.4

Interview with trombonist/ composer Jeff Albert Part 3

Jeff Albert is more than a musician.  Like a few others interviewed here he has contributed to the New Orleans music scene through the Tuesday Open Ears series at the Blue Nile.  The series allows an open forum for a wide variety of musical performance.  It is a rare night where one can witness any sort of musical exploration. Through improving the breadth of what is presented he has contributed to  the formation  of musical groups and associations of musicians that otherwise would not have a place to develop their playing and ideas.  It also brings in adventurous groups from outside New Orleans.  Jeff has developed his own expression and his self- understanding steadily over the years.  He has learned a great deal from his own associations with musicians and gigs and he shares a lot about those experiences here.  There is also interesting information about the trombone and electronic music.

More on Jeff and the Open Ears Music Series can be found at www.openearsmusic.org

Part 3- The Albert-Ankrum project; The Naked Orchestra; Davis Rogan and Peter and the Wolf; meeting other creative players on the new orleans music scene; the impact of playing with Michael Ray and diversity of style; the differences between the academic perspective and music in "the real world;" more on Chicago music and relationship with Jeb Bishop; the performance venue vacuum that allowed for the Open Ears series to start; whether anything has happened as a result of Open Ears- (here he really delves into the series); what is necessary to make a creative music venue successful.

Jeff Albert Interview pt.3

Interview with Jeff Albert, Trombonist and curator of the Open Ears Series. Part 2

Jeff Albert is more than a musician.  Like a few others interviewed here he has contributed to the New Orleans music scene through the Tuesday Open Ears series at the Blue Nile.  The series allows an open forum for a wide variety of musical performance.  It is a rare night where one can witness any sort of musical exploration. Through improving the breadth of what is presented he has contributed to  the formation  of musical groups and associations of musicians that otherwise would not have a place to develop their playing and ideas.  It also brings in adventurous groups from outside New Orleans.  Jeff has developed his own expression and his self- understanding steadily over the years.  He has learned a great deal from his own associations with musicians and gigs and he shares a lot about those experiences here.  There is also interesting information about the trombone and electronic music.

More on Jeff and the Open Ears Music Series can be found at www.openearsmusic.org

Part 2- musical aspirations as a starting trombone student; becoming conscious of jazz music; decision to be a musician and go to Loyola University over University of North Texas; J.J. Johnson; Clint Maedgen, Coltrane Live in Japan; studies with Dick Erb; early rewarding professional gig experience in horn sections; Pedro Cruz and latin music scene experiences; the feeling of being a professional musician and enjoyment of the lifestyle; urge for self-expression bubbling to the surface; comfort with computers and meeting John Worthington, the computer guru; becoming aware of the greater relative power of emotional playing; UNO for a masters degree and improving composition; learning strengths and limitations.

Jeff Albert Interview part 2

Interview with Jeff Albert, Trombonist and curator of the Open Ears Series. Part 1

Jeff Albert is more than a musician.  Like a few others interviewed here he has contributed to the New Orleans music scene through the Tuesday Open Ears series at the Blue Nile.  The series allows an open forum for a wide variety of musical performance.  It is a rare night where one can witness any sort of musical exploration. Through improving the breadth of what is presented he has contributed to  the formation  of musical groups and associations of musicians that otherwise would not have a place to develop their playing and ideas.  It also brings in adventurous groups from outside New Orleans.  Jeff has developed his own expression and his self- understanding steadily over the years.  He has learned a great deal from his own associations with musicians and gigs and he shares a lot about those experiences here.  There is also interesting information about the trombone and electronic music.

More on Jeff and the Open Ears Music Series can be found at www.openearsmusic.org

Part 1- How the open ears series came about, what it is, whether it is still doing what he wants, what it's relationship is to the reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina; influences of Chicago improvising musicians and how he formed alliances with those musicians; improvisation itself, what the relation is to jazz; tradition and lineage in improvisational music; early biographical information -growing up in Lafayette; starting trombone in band class and the pros and cons of that level of music education.

Jeff Albert Interview pt.1

Interview with Rex Gregory pt. 4

Rex Gregory is an extremely talented, but also very disciplined, instrumentalist.  He plays with a wide variety of people around town in a number of styles, many of them not fixed genres.  Part of this comes from a great talent for getting with the "conversational" style that emerges when groups of players get together to improvise.  Basically, he's quick!  He's also young (27.)  He plays flute, all the saxes, and clarinet and last year he released his first album as a leader, An End To Oblivion.  He is very comfortable dealing with ideas both "intellectual" and  in music. He enthusiastically tackles areas where he has no understanding and he is quite well read as a result.  If you check his blog at http://rexgregory.blogspot.com/ you can see he writes confidently too whether you are in agreement with his opinions or not.  I felt this was an entertaining interview because Rex is comfortable with shooting off opinions.  His website is at http://rexgregory.com/  The last section of this interview got into some very interesting areas that show a lot of the inner symbolic possibilities that are available in the basic elements of music.

This is the most conversational interview to date.

This conversation happened outdoors so there is some wind noise. On the other hand it seems comfortable and you get the sounds of the Marigny on a pleasant late spring day.

Part 4- Rex really gets down to business here;  what he means, what his process was in his writing for the album, and what the connection is between his thoughts and the actual construction of the pieces of music.  A very interesting section occurs here where he completely breaks down the meaning of a number of gestures in one of his pieces of music.  He also discusses whether and how he is communicating his ideas with audiences and where he is going now.  Rex revealed something generously here and despite the technical depth, this segment has a nice blend of seriousness with humor. 

rex gregory interview pt.4