How did your experience in classical performance affect your jazz playing, interpretation of music, and your outlook on music as a career? 

Well, I suppose, obviously when you’ve studied that kind of music you deal with technique, phrasing… You learn how to read by going down that road. I also learned that I didn’t want to do that… by A/B’ing that with playing jazz and improvising and composing… I thought, well, I’m having a lot more fun being more of a significant part of the music-making.

How did studying the bass change the way you look at improvisation and composition?  

I can’t really remember when I first started playing the bass, if my ear started going towards the bass first or if that happened after I started playing bass. The trumpet came first, so the whole bass thing was sort of an afterthought. We were just talking about Drew [Gress], and he tells me that he likes the bass lines that I write. So, I definitely think in that way when I write. It’s definitely impacted the way I hear.

Your lines have very interesting shapes.  How do you conceive of them, in practice, in performance, away from your instrument?  Have you always heard them in your mind before developing a system that allows you to articulate them,  or has your linear language and conception been a process of discovery resulting from a certain method of practice? 

I think part of that comes from—this gets back to the studying classical trumpet issue—I used to work out of etude books that had interesting intervallic shapes to them. I think that impacted how I hear a little bit. I used to live above a musician, and I would play out of his book by this French composer named [Marcel Beech], and he would say to me, wow, I gotta get those etudes. I guess they have this suggestion of the improviser’s world, with some of the shapes and intervals. But beyond that, I don’t really practice specific things regarding those shapes. I mostly go for shapes, but I’m not necessarily hearing those specifics all the time. I had some influence from Steve Coleman as well, and he would talk about that, where a lot of people do have that tendency, to just play in a linear way, which can be a little bland. At least, that’s what he would impart. So, that was some encouragement to explore things like wider intervals.

What effect did playing with Steve Coleman’s ensemble have on your musical and/or non-musical life?

I liked that type of music before I got in his band. I grew up in the Bay Area and I went and heard Tower of Power several times. So I liked rhythmic music growing up as a kid. Then when I heard Steve’s music I probably heard it the same way most people hear it, as just sort of odd meter funk, you know, and I didn’t really know more of the specifics of his music. Before I started playing with him, I was a student at the Banff workshop, and he taught there, so we all got a little introduction to his music. So, I started to learn that there were a lot more specifics to his music. That music sort of got into my ears the way it gets into anybody’s ears because it’s so strong and has such a distinct sound to it. I also respected his band leading because he didn’t say a whole lot. I liked that. He pretty much expects you to take care of business.

That’s interesting, because a lot of his pieces seem to have very strong intellectual concepts behind them. Did he ever bring those things up in rehearsals? 

Well he has all of his abstract associations with music that are really interesting, but my theory is that that’s not getting to the root of the way he makes music, or perhaps just the way he made music when he was younger. But yeah, he’s drawing from a lot of other sources to generate material. You know, astrological things and all this kind of stuff. I don’t know that he always thought that way. I think he’s a very traditional musician in a lot of ways. I mean, there’s nothing he can’t do. He’s an incredible reader, he has incredible ears, he understands the traditional system of harmony and all kind of stuff. But in terms of other influences, well, his music has so much to do with counterpoint, so I really got into that whole idea of how many voices converse in music.

Did he ever have you guys play any improvisational exercises?

No, it was basically like you’d just try to learn that music. I never felt that I in any way, shape, or form mastered that music. It certainly made me better at trying to hear that kind of thing. Steve is able to hear peripherally. When he’s playing, he can hear all of the parts and how they come together, and the moment someone plays something wrong he’ll stop and say, “No, it’s right here.” He did take this Henry Threadgill idea and implemented it in his music, which is basically that you have these sets of intervals, and you would only improvise using those intervals. When I was playing in his band he was starting to use that, which was really interesting to play in that way, because it really slowed you down. In other words, you’d play over a structure, and you’d write in, minor third, major third, minor second, and you could only use those intervals. So they’re almost like intervallic changes, even though you could depart from that, too. But that was a kind of zone that you were trying to stay in. Anything to slow you down is good.

What advice would you give young students graduating from school and entering the real world of music? Particularly, NYC?

I think the tendency and inclination is to really be concerned about making it. Especially nowadays, because I think it’s probably more challenging than it’s ever been in a lot of ways. But I only say that because a lot of times people take their eye off the ball, so to speak, and they spend more time on the business part of this whole realm and less just working on music and practicing. I would just say to try your best to take it slower and stay on that organic path of working on your music, making it better, naturally meeting people, and not falling prey to the temptation of you know, “I gotta do my thing.” I understand it, and it totally makes sense to me, but I’ve come across a fair amount of students that I really think need to spend more time on their music and less on this goal-oriented idea of, “I need to be successful making my music.” But, that’s easier said than done. Obviously, it’s a hard road in terms of supporting yourself, so now’s a good time to really start thinking about how to budget your money and things like that, and get really structured in that way. It’s extremely difficult, but if you’re on top of that stuff it becomes much more doable to do it in the long run.

Broccoli or asparagus?

Broccoli.

How important do you think NYC is? Would you recommend anybody go there for some period of time?

I would say everybody should have a taste of living in New York. That’s not just jazz players. It’s an incredible city. But certainly for improvisers, to immerse yourself there in a period… But [Seattle] is great in another way. It’s hard to have this in New York. It’s great to have this opportunity where there’s not so many things happening and you can really spend some quality time nurturing your music. You can do that in New York, too, but it’s just challenging.

How do you approach practicing and playing changes?

Ultimately, you want to get any music into your ears. That’s the bottom line. But you can use your abilities to extract information by looking at chord changes. You can use that as a tool to add to that process of moving it into your ears. I would say the same thing about any sort of rhythmic structure or form. You’re just trying to get it into your body. Working on voice leading, you know, simple things like that to start the process of trying to connect things. You start with the root movement and get that in your ears and go from there.

How do you find that your own composition and the study of composition in general influences your improvisation?

Composition is the organization of something, but not in real time. It just opens up more possibilities for you as an improviser. So when you consider it all to be the same thing, you know, improvisation as composition in real time, then these are things that are structured not in the moment and a lot of the time it pushes the envelope for what could happen when you make music. It’s all sound. You’re trying to get as many sounds in your ears as possible.

Do you ever have to deal with stage fright?

When I was younger. I’m more anxious when I’m playing with people I’m not comfortable playing with. That’s the only time I might have a little anxiety, you know, because maybe we don’t quite speak the same language. I’ll definitely have a couple drinks before I play. That always relaxes me. But even if I didn’t, I’d be fine to play. I just prefer to relax my left brain a little bit. Once you don’t have any more time to practice, it’s time to just let it be. Because that’s it. All the work has been done, and it is what it is. That’s when I’m the most comfortable. But preparing for it, it’s all about putting yourself inside of the music as much as you can.

Do you still practice every day?

Of course, yeah. It’s hard to find the time, of course, now that I have a baby and everything. I have to do a lot of prioritizing. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized I just need to work on music. Especially if I have gigs coming up, the majority of my practicing is spent working on music. Whether it’s music I have to play, or standards, or maybe it’s a tune I’m trying to get closer to. So it’s realizing that you have limited time and figuring out how to make the most out of that time. For me, just working on some music and improvising on it is the best use of my time.

Do you ever perform standards?

Yeah, with certain people. If I play with the right people, it’s a lot of fun. Fred Hersch and Ravi Coltrane are two guys I play standards with a lot.

When you perform standards, do you take a specific approach?

No, it’s just like I’m playing anything else. You start from the beginning and try not to have any preconceptions about what you want to do with it. Same thing with anything you’re playing.

Do you ever play standards out of time, or with different feels?

I prefer that any ideas like that be improvised. You know, if we start a tune and someone starts playing it rubato, then it’s like, OK! And we follow.

Who are your favorite free improvisers?

Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden… Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor… You know, the usual suspects.

How about people that you like to play with?

Tim Berne, Tom Rainey…

What is it about their playing that you like?

They aren’t afraid. They have a certain confidence. It’s about the way they listen, the way they can process things in different ways. They aren’t predictable, and never do it the same way all the time. Tom is one of the greats. I just did a record with this sax player named Michael Attias, and we did the whole thing in one day, which is common nowadays in New York, but extremely taxing. At the end of the day, we had time for one more thing, so Michael asked Tom if he had it in him to redo this tune that had a drum intro. Tom says, you know, “I’ll do my best,” and I’m thinking to myself, well, I’m sure he’s really tired right now, so maybe this won’t be the best take. But he found this absolutely brilliant intro that was nothing like he had done all day. I was just blown away.

Do you have an opinion on whether or not a freely improvised piece of music has the potential to be as “successful” as a great composed piece of music?

You know the answer to that question. It’s pretty obvious, right?

While all of the IMPfest festivities were happening, we were lucky enough to get a moment to ask George Garzone a couple questions about his experiences and influences in music.  This is valuable information for young musicians who hope to one day find success in the music business.

IMP: What does your practice routine consist of and how has it evolved and been refined over the years?

George Garzone: I still practice the same things I did when I was at Berklee; longtones, even eighth-notes, sound projection, and chromatic and intervallic studies.

IMP: What advice would you give young musicians graduating from school and entering the real music world?  

GG: Practice and practice harder than when you were at school. You are in the real world now. You are no longer protected by the school environment.

IMP: Coltrane aside, who/what are your biggest influences and inspirations?  

GG: There’s Joe Lovano; we grew up together musically from Berklee on. He is a big mentor for me. And also Frank Tiberi. He was one of the teachers for Lovano, Jerry Bergonzi, Michael Brecker, and myself.

IMP: What have you learned from 40 years of playing with the Fringe? How has the band grown and evolved over the years?

GG: Learning what freedom really means when you play, that’s what the Fringe is about. When you play with the Fringe, it’s like a reflection of yourself. We have been through everything together — up, down, sideways — they survived it all. They are like the Rolling Stones of jazz.  

IMP: How do you synthesize all of your influences (we heard you’ve been influenced by Schoenberg and Stravinsky) and incorporate them in your playing or composition? How do you approach your own composition?

GG: When you deal with openness, you need to be open and stay open. You hear other composers and improvisers and hopefully they lead you to your own sound. But that’s up to you to figure out. You cannot depend on other people to do the work for you.

IMP: What, in your opinion, makes Coltrane such an influential and captivating musical figure?

GG: Coltrane is the supreme musical being of modern music. There will never be anyone that can surpass the musical expression that he had put forward. Every musician will agree with this statement. 

We interviewed the members of Operation ID before their show at IMPfest about their experiences as some of the founding members of IMP. We think it’s important to know where you come from so that you can grow in the right direction.

Operation ID is composed of Jared Borkowski, Ivan Arteaga, Evan Woodle, and David Balatero. 

IMP: So I just wanted to ask you guys about the beginnings of IMP. Like what was your first thought when starting IMP? I heard it was Jared’s idea. 

Jared: Uh, I don’t know if it was my idea — I don’t remember how the idea came about. But basically as soon as the idea was there, I just felt like we should get It going. The idea was that, if something is happening and we make it seem more official and seem more organized then people will think it’s official and organized and it’ll make it bigger and better. That’s kind of what it did. And also just the potential of reaching more people by being a part of an organization that’s already firmly established and getting support from them and potentially money from them.

IMP: Like from the school [of music]?

Jared: Yeah, from the school. Exactly.

IMP: So did you have the idea of it being a festival or just an RSO?

Jared:  I think pretty much right away after the idea of having the group, like having the Improvised Music Project, having an RSO, we were like, what’s an RSO — what are we going to do that’s different? What is our RSO going to do? And so the festival was kind of automatic, yeah. It was like, well, we should do a festival once a year.

Evan:  And at first we didn’t have anything really regular happening, right? No showcase…it was just the fest.

Jared: The first thing, the first year, was just leading up to the festival.

Evan: Like the whole first year was just figuring out what it was going to be.

Jared: The first year was dealing with actually registering it. And we had a few huge meetings where anybody who was interested would come and the basement was filled up with music students and then it just turned into “Well, we’ve got to do something by the end of the year so let’s make this festival happen.” And that was one of [Operation ID’s] first shows, too.

IMP:  Were there a lot of jazz students involved?

Jared: It was mostly the jazz department. Well, pretty much only.

Ivan: At one of the first meetings, it was like all the jazz students at the first meeting. It was during combo time or something. There were five or so people that had gotten together and put some ideas together and made a little presentation thing and tried to get people excited and/or involved.

IMP: Were there a lot of people involved in the first year, or was it just a couple — a handful of people?

David: I feel like everybody got kind of pulled in. But not many people survived…

Jared: What I remember is that tons of people were showing up and wanted to get involved and then it petered off really quickly.

David: I remember specifically a, like, thirty person meeting in room 35 or something. Just hella people.

Jared: Oh yeah, for sure. Like thirty people, easily. And then it turned into, like, six people or something.

David: Then we were, like, oh crap, we have to do some work. All the people left.

Ivan: The first year that IMP came into existence was also the first year that Lucid opened. There were lots of jam sessions and groups, and David [Pierre-Louie] came to one of the big combo days or meetings or something, and was all excited about pairing with the School of Music.

Ivan: The first festival was only three nights.

Evan: Like all student groups.

IMP: Did people come out to it?

Jared: Oh yeah, it was totally attended. It was awesome.

David: Was that when we played at Café on the Ave?

Jared: We played at Café on the Ave, yeah.

Evan: With Chemical Clock and Melodious Thunk.

IMP: Woah! Who was in that?

Evan: Steven Bell, Schott MacPherson, Jarred Katz, Mark Hunter.

IMP: Just the funkiest crew of all time.

Ivan: They played standards.

Evan: They played Thelonious Monk tunes.

IMP: But they’re so funky.

[Operation ID is playing the card game Dominion.]

IMP: Is this a ritual or something?

David: This time.

IMP: Has the IMP reached the potential that you thought it would or has it surpassed it?

Jared: I’m really impressed with what’s happened to it for sure. Yeah, just getting it going. And then the deal was basically, when you’re not a student anymore, you’re not supposed to be a part of it. You’re supposed to pass it on. So I’m super impressed with how much stuff is happening. So I wouldn’t say that it has exceeded or not met expectations — well, maybe actually exceeded. I would say it exceeded my expectations. And now that I see it, it’s just going to grow from here.

IMP: Hopefully. As long as there are motivated people. I wanted to ask about DXArts. And Ivan, I know that you’re kind of involved with them, and I wanted to see about their involvement this year versus past years, if any at all.

Ivan: This year is the first year that DXArts has had anything to do with IMP. And that is mainly because of the relationship that has now been built between Cuong [Vu] and Richard [Karpen] and the DXArts program. Because before, the DXArts program was its own thing and Richard was the head of it. And basically this is the first year, and it’s mainly because of the Vu-Karpen project. So the Vu-Karpen project is the DXArts program and the School of Music put together. Josh Parmenter is the whole technical side of the Vu-Karpen project. So Josh is supported and funded by the DXArts program. And all of the sound gear that we’re using for the festival is mostly DXArts’ stuff and some of the School of Music stuff. So this year, the ability to spread the reach and the caliber of all of this stuff is largely because of the fact that there’s a relationship between IMP and School of Music, and the School of Music and DXArts. And that big connection is Richard Karpen and his willingness to put those departments behind the IMP.

IMP: That was it, unless you guys have any more thoughts.

Jared: It’s a funny thing about the beginning. I never really think about that very much. I think at the time, it seemed like a school requirement, like, almost like an assignment. Like a project that needs to get done by the end of the year because we know it’s possible. Because, why the hell don’t we have an RSO? This is ridiculous. So it just seemed mandatory in a way.

This past Friday, the first IMPfest show of the season attracted groups passing by the theater, drawn by the thumping bass of Aaron Otheim’s keyboards and the wailing saxophone trio of George Garzone, Brian van Pelt, and Eric Vanderbilt-Matthews. The usual crowd of students, parents, professors, teachers, and friends filed in one by one as well, nearly filling the Hughes Penthouse Theater. And as soon as Bad Luck started up, everyone held their breath. Once it was over, Bad Luck’s new EP was selling like hotcakes.

Next up is Ralph Alessi with UW jazz students. With such a varied background in music — having studied classical trumpet as well as jazz bass — Ralph Alessi is an inspiring musician to say the least. It would be regrettable to miss a performance by this master. 

Another group not to miss that night is Smallface, a piano and cello duo, consisting of local musical heavyweights Aaron Otheim and David Balatero. Listen to some of their performance from last year’s IMPfest here. 

Also performing will be The Sequoia Ensemble, a group originally created to play for last year’s IMPfest. With new music and fresh faces, it is bound to be a beautiful performance. To get an idea of what they sound like, listen to their performance from last year. 

We at the IMP sincerely hope to see you out at the show. It’s bound to be an incredible performance by all.

— IMP

That’s right! You heard it here first. Your favorite minimalistic, avant-garde, electro-pop, noise-cluster, synth-rock, free-jazz, experimental, dance-prog band is releasing their first single, which is sure to be a chart-topper. You may have heard them perform it live before, but now you can have Trapped to listen to whenever you want!

Operation ID has been a band-about-town for the past couple years, with raucous performances all over Seattle and the West Coast. Here is a video from a past performance at the local venue The Josephine. You can find some more videos from performances and rehearsals, along with fun interviews with band members on their Vimeo page. 

If are drawn to them either by their antics or their music, come to their show on May 11th. You will also be able to see Ted Poor, Tom Collier, and Dan Dean perform with UW jazz students. It’s bound to be burning. 

— IMP

One of our favorite Seattle bands, Bad Luck, will be releasing their highly anticipated EP Bloodroot for their performance at IMPfest. 

Hot on the heals of their 2011 double-album Two, drummer Chris Icasiano and saxophonist Neil Welch have created a 22 minute sonic manifesto. Bloodroot is their most ambitious recorded piece to date, culling up the gravelly saxophone wails and deep drum beats they’ve come to be known for. But Bad Luck continues to explore conventional and unconventional territories in their music. In Bloodroot, heavy-looped chords abruptly cut off, replaced by creaking moans, clicks and clamors. Panicked improvisations become replaced by beautiful, subtle melodies. As one of Seattle’s most creative touring projects, BadLuck continues to evolve with every show.

Following their performance, Bad Luck will journey down the West Coast and perform all the way down to LA. If you love Bad Luck as much as we do, then you may want to pack up your car and follow them down. It would undoubtedly be a week of incredible music and unspeakable fun. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to do that, so if you go, tell us about it! 

Bloodroot will be available on the Table & Chairs store TOMORROW, May 4th, 2012. Buy it online, or buy it in person and receive a fabulous poster along with your download card. 

We hope to see you at the Hughes Penthouse Theater tomorrow at 7:30!

The year has flown by, and IMPfest IV is now upon us! The festival begins tomorrow with a performance by jazz legend George Garzone. Bad Luck and Burn List are also on the bill for the night. Not only will this show be out of this world to see (and hear), but Bad Luck will be releasing their newest EP Bloodroot at the show. Next week, Operation ID will be releasing a single of their own entitled Trapped. Be there on May 4th and the 11th to get these great recordings first!