Buy
Itunes-note
Amazon
Bandcamp
Gary Husband is a household name for every jazz, fusion and even pop fans today. There are very few people today that can play drums in a heavy setting and can amazingly interpret the music of Allan Holdsworth. He has appeared on monumental recordings of music history and has created a dazzling new record himself. On top of that, he is the backbone of the most interesting pop-jazz bands of our times, Level 42. Gary has been working on a new recording, interpreting the music of John McLaughlin as well as appearing on the new Gongzilla records. He will be performing in New York this summer for a few exclusive shows. This is what Gary had to tell us .
AL: You play two quite distinct instruments at a very high level. How did this happen?
GH: I guess it is quite rare when a musician specializes on two instruments to the point where both are his or her main instruments. For me, long before drums came along I was studying, very seriously, classical theory and classical piano. I guess the way I play, and hear piano is directly inspired by a lot of that classical background, and a lot of that material. The jazzier, more improvisational side I did not study. No taking down of solos, and no real in depth study of a lot of conventional jazz methods. I developed this, I guess, from listening, and the inspiration I got from musicians and records. I really wanted to follow my heart, and what I heard. As I heard or felt things I developed them. I still work like that, so perhaps, (and I’m glad to say) the kind of lines or harmonic approaches I end up using are not really derivative of anybody in particular except just many influences and inspirations that I’ve had in the past, and still do have. It’s been a very organic process that way. On my next album, “Aspire – Gary Husband & Friends” I play some acoustic guitar! So I guess that’s going to throw people now, too!!
AL: You’ve recently interpreted Allan Holdsworth’s music. Interpreting is a lot different from covering and you have captured Allan with playing Allan.
GH: Thank you! Thanks for listening. Well, all those versions, really, come from just a process of listening in, looking to see what lot of the bare bones of Allan’s melodies would suggest to me. Just a lot of imagination, and a hell of a lot of application!!!! Wow! I worked really hard on that one. I guess what came out at the end was a selection of interpretations, some very much expanded upon, and very rearranged … some even recomposed really … and then some which are closer to Allan’s definitive versions. Even the selections that remain closer to the originals though, in form, are all dramatically re-harmonized. Guitar harmony does not translate well at all into piano harmony. Got to start right at the beginning.
AL: You are working on a similar treatment of John McLaughlin’s music?
GH: It’ll be a similar type of approach, although John’s music is often so much more literal in a sense, than Allan’s. In spite of that though, the interpretations will take on a life and form of their own, as they did with the first album. Luckily, John is very supportive of this idea!! He was very taken with the last album, and I feel very proud of that. He’s a very big inspiration.
AL: Do you easily switch back between the drums and piano or do you have perform with each for a period of time to get into the groove?
GH: It really depends. I cannot say. I guess it works out to be half the time involved in piano, keyboards and writing, and the other half for drums. I hardly think about it. Actually though, I’d like to work on this idea for solo concerts where I have some drums set up around the piano and, with the use maybe of a sequencer, I can be involved with both in the same setting. That’d be great. It takes some intense planning though, as I want it to be real – not some kind of novelty circus approach.
AL: What music are you most proud of? There’s lots to choose from.
GH: That’s very nice of you to say, although … hmmm, I don’t know. A lot of the Allan Holdsworth records I am kind of proud of. There was a lot of development that took place for me as a drummer since I had 100% freedom in the approach. I was able to really compose drum parts for his pieces while he suggested nothing! It’s great to be left to your own imagination and have somebody trust you. The quality control was not always that much on these records as far as my own playing is concerned. Usually thought out, and recorded very quickly. I could have done far better in terms of the actual playing. I’m proud of the ideas though, and I guess I think I have a clear identity as a drummer. I like that thought. I think it with the piano thing too. It’s nice. Other things? Steve Topping – Time & Distance or What It Is or the new one coming up, Late Flower. He’s a great one, at the moment not recognized. It’ll change. I like what a lot of what happened with my trio, (the New Trio) in terms of the imagination and the arrangement side. I enjoyed my time with that little group. Every concert was pretty memorable, very different from the last one, and just always very creative.
AL: Was there stuff you heard growing up that pushed you in a certain direction?
GH: Well, in terms of the old days, I guess everyone was just copping the records. Including me! Big time. All the big band stuff from the U.S., the jazz and fusion stuff. England, as you will know, is much more culturally diverse now anyway – there are lots of things happening … but really not too much out of the area of more dance oriented things or pop. I hear very little improvisational development, or harmony. Bjork, with Vince Mendoza scoring, will do it for me though! I don’t know. I find I am inspired constantly through life’s adventures anyway – just through living. In the old days I was inspired by a lot of pop, classical, jazz and fusion, rock. As well as this you had bands like The Police, where people were actually playing. It’s a little different these days, in that way. I feel more than ever bit of a maverick. For my own survival! I guess I always did anyway.
AL: Tell us about your work with Gongzilla.
GH: Gongzilla is a group I first recorded with on an album a few years back named “Thrive”. I did a recent one with them, coming out now, “The East Village Sessions”. It’s pretty good. Not my finest hour behind the drums (!) but I’m seldom happy with my performances anyway. Got some good things though. They will not allow click tracks though, so … there’s no repairing anything, and it’s all done just as it comes! I like this approach, and I don’t like it!
AL: Any advice for those out there who may also want to become drummers and pianists simultaneously?
GH: Well, I’d say don’t force it! If you feel like you have a bit of a split personality, like me, then I guess you go for it. I mean, I suffer, in terms of marketing, and people’s marketing demands. It’s not an easy ride to be selling yourself as a dual instrumentalist, but it’s very necessary for me as I can’t do without one or the other of them. I guess that makes me a true Gemini, but one has got to do what one is going to do! And mean it!
Latest album
Latest NEWS
SUBSCRIBE
Please Subscribe your mail to get notification from AbstractLogix.
Facebook-f
Twitter
Instagram
Youtube
Copyright © 2021 ABSTRACT LOGIX
Facebook-f
Twitter
Instagram
Youtube
Copyright © 2021 ABSTRACT LOGIX
Buy
Itunes-note
Amazon
Bandcamp
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Latest album
Latest NEWS
SUBSCRIBE
Please Subscribe your mail to get notification from AbstractLogix.
Facebook-f
Twitter
Instagram
Youtube
Copyright © 2021 ABSTRACT LOGIX
Facebook-f
Twitter
Instagram
Youtube
Copyright © 2021 ABSTRACT LOGIX
Buy
Itunes-note
Amazon
Bandcamp
On the eve of the release of his new album Larger Than Life, we sat down with bassist, improvisor, and composer Gary Willis to discuss his collaborators on the project, his process, and the results.
Q: Given the vast geographic disparity, how did this record come together — were you all in the same room or did you take a more modular approach? What were the advantages of your chosen approach and how did it elevate and enrich the material?
Gary Willis: It did make it difficult…since it turned out to be a five-year thing. I took the opportunity to go to Los Angeles in 2010 because Gergo was going to be there, so he and I and Kinsey got things started. Then in 2011, when Gergo moved into Barcelona, I immediately booked studio time and we spent a day just jamming.
Afterwards for a lot of the songs I’d write things and send them to Kinsey in L.A. and he’d record with [saxophonist] Steve Tavaglione. Then he’d send me things he and Tav did. So there were files going back and forth all the time. So parts of it were like a collaborative improvisation in a way.
As late as last year, I had this tune “Beast Mode,” and I knew the three of us couldn’t get together. But Gergo was going to be in L.A., so I sent a version he and Kinsey could improvise over. As a duo they nailed it in one take and I added my part later…
Before Gergo and I went into the studio to record duo, we booked a rehearsal studio with the intention to prepare some things in advance. Immediately we came up with what became “Vendetta.” After that, we said, “We’re wasting our time here: Let’s do what we do here in the studio – just let it happen live.”
Q: With improvisation being central to this music, how do you see your role as composer and bandleader?
GW: Two of the 4 of the songs that were composed before we recorded them are mine, so those two are “traditional” with melodies and solo sections, etc. The other 8 songs got their start with improvisation so my first role is to determine what should be preserved from what turned out to be several hours of raw, improvised material. One thing I’ve learned from composing this way is that an inspired drum performance is the heart of the whole process. Without question, Gergo’s playing is inspiring throughout. So the main challenge is to make sure that if there’s a part of the music that needs composition, that it lives up to the level of inspiration that Gergo or the group has reached at that moment.
Q: Will you try to re-learn this sort of hybrid material and play it live?
GW: We’re gonna try. It’s cool to go back and check out – to visit what had just happened in the moment and recreate…
Q: I’d be curious to know more about how you see the bass’s role in this music — you aren’t strictly in a supporting capacity, but neither are you out front as a lead instrument the whole time…
GW: To me, music that communicates well is everyone playing with their imagination… you imagine different roles for yourself, sometimes you belong out front, other times it’s a supporting role. That’s the other thing about jamming with Gergo and Kinsey is they have this ability to jam compositionally — it’s not just about soloing…
We haven’t played together that much, but it’s just something that happens when you get the right musicians together. You don’t have to talk about it — actually, the more you discuss, the less in the moment you are when it happens.
The title track started out as a trio jam with me and Gergo and Kinsey where I brought in an initial bass part. It was originally a seventeen-minute thing. Kinsey managed to whittle it down to eight minutes. I found some things he played and turned those into melodies, wrote some myself, and it developed over time into its own thing.
Q: Was the bass the last thing that went down?
GW: On six of them, Gergo and I started out jamming…I’d play melodies there, and some of those became the songs. Other times I’d do kind of a placeholder — knowing it wouldn’t be the final melody, but it would be taking up the space where I knew I wanted to write something like that…
Q: Does being in Barcelona make it easier or harder to make a recording like this? Is it easier to have a global presence being based in Europe?
GW: If this was a traditional studio-based recording with everyone in the same room, playing at the same time then yes it would be a problem. But everyone involved contributed in a way that doesn’t make you think there was any distances or time zones involved.
I stopped thinking geographical a long time ago so I really have no idea if I have a global presence. Living in Europe, I’m sure there are some opportunities that have come my way that wouldn’t have been there if I had stayed in the US.
Q: Tell us about your use of Claudia Bardagí’s wordless vocals throughout the album.
GW: One of the things that defines a melody is its sing-ability. But for me lyrics really confine how well you can identify with a piece of music. Claudia’s singing added a real human quality to the melodies and she was able to keep their abstract nature by not using lyrics.
Q: And the last track was recorded live…
GW: Yeah, we’ve added it as a bonus. It’s a good example of us improvising together. We were invited to play at the 80th birthday celebration of Joe Zawinul in Budapest, so we worked “Corner Pocket” into Kinsey’s “This Is That”.
Q: The artwork by Rafael Sarmento seems to be a big part of this new project. Did the collaboration with him come before or after the music was cut? What drew you to him?
GW: It happened afterwards. Once all the titles were settled they started to give me a kind of a vague idea about the artwork. At the same time I got introduced to him from a friend of a friend. When I saw his work, there was an immediate connection and we started emailing about it. I explained some of the visuals I was imagining for some of the songs, and he came up with some on his own. As we started working more closely, he gave the whole thing a concrete identity.
Q: Does that mean this is programmatic music? The music definitely has a cinematic quality to it.
GW: I guess it could be… depends on your imagination. I mean the music came first…but that’s how I like listen to music: With my imagination. I want to lead people in that direction, if I get a chance to.
Q: So, what would you say is the common thread connecting these performances, these songs?
GW: The obvious thread is me and Gergo and Kinsey playing but also I’m hopeful that a sense of imagination, a sense of humor and like you said, a cinematic quality can be found throughout.
Latest album
Latest NEWS
SUBSCRIBE
Please Subscribe your mail to get notification from AbstractLogix.
Facebook-f
Twitter
Instagram
Youtube
Copyright © 2021 ABSTRACT LOGIX
Facebook-f
Twitter
Instagram
Youtube
Copyright © 2021 ABSTRACT LOGIX