Roscoe Mitchell: People are looking for something
different now, in a way. Imean people are coming more back to wanting to get out
there and be involvedin some real art. It's an interesting period.
Lazaro Vega: So you just finished a month of touring in Europe, is that right?
Mitchell: Yeah, just about. I started off with four concerts in Spain withthe
Note Factory: we started out in Seville, then (?) Grenoble, Barcelona and
Madrid. Then I joined up with the Art Ensemble. We did this tour that Lester
(Bowie) set up before he died, The Art Ensemble of Africa. We did several
concerts in Spain, Italy and Turkey. So I just got back from that. I was just on
the phone with this percussionist because I'm getting my concert together for
Chicago on June 2nd and 3rd at the Hot House. (Note: Mitchell later told me -
May 30, 2000 -- he heard a percussionist in Europe who was working with various
widths and lengths of PVC type piping to create sound resonators for all of his
percussion and bell set ups. Mitchell may have been alluding to that person in
this conversation).
Vega: It looks like you're working with large forms and ensembles there.
Mitchell: Yeah, I've got few different pieces going down. I have my piano piece,
"8-8-88," we're going to perform it there. And then I'm doing a piece
called "Concerto Grosso" which is for five strings, percussion, and
the three soloists are flute, oboe and bassoon. Then I'm also doing a piece with
my daughter and a poet, Martha Stahl from here (Note: Madison, Wisconsin). She's
a dancer and will have one other dancer with her. Then on the second half I'm
doing pieces with drummer Vincent Davis and bassist Harrison Bankhead. So it's
an exciting event, I'm trying to get it all organized now. Then I'll have Wendy
Nelson of Kali Mom Productions come down and shoot that (Note: videotape) too,
so I'll have footage of that, also.
Vega: I'm not familiar with Martha Stahl.
Mitchell: She's from around here. We've worked together a long time. She's a
very good poet and writer. I've done a few things with her around here. The year
I was honored as Jazz Person of the Year by the Isthmus Jazz Festival we did
this large project called "The Light Eternal." We set a piece by her
to two bass players, synthesizer, sopranino, this one woman Judy Dunaway who
plays, like, balloons and so on and so forth. I don't remember exactly, but it
was a nice piece that we did. And we also did "Prelude," that low
piece I did with Varton Manoogian on violin, Peggy (sp)Choi, dance, and also
Dane Richeson and myself playing percussion. Tom (sp) Garolnick, too: he's the
guy who's out in New Mexico who has hooked up his horn in another kind of way so
he can play all these different sounds. It was nice. We had a goodtime.
Vega: So is this concert you're doing at Hot House in the arena of the music you
create with your ensemble Space?
Mitchell: It's going to consist of some things that are written, too. Of course
the piano piece is totally notated. The "Concerto Grosso" has improv
but it's like a fixed improv or "scored improv" is what I call it:
Because the improv sections are on these cards. (Note: the musicians choose
which cards they want to play in what order and for how long). With the
poet and dance it will be an improvised piece on my part and I'll improvise to
the poem and the dance. The pieces that I do with Harrison and Vincent will be
improv pieces based on different concepts that I'm going to put together for the
concert. Um-hum.
Vega: I read in the Delmark Records "Rhythm and News" newsletter that
you're going to be on the Chicago Jazz Festival a couple of times this year.
Mitchell: That's right. I'm doing September 2nd with the Note Factory and then
September 3rd, do you remember when Lester was in Chicago and they commissioned
him to do that piece for Louis Armstrong? They're going to do that piece again,
and (The Jazz Institute of Chicago) was asking me if I wanted to play on that
piece. And I told them; of course, yes I'd want to do that.
Vega: Wasn't that Malachi Thompson's big band?
Mitchell: I think it was made up of several different people, and they brought
in some people, too, because I think Jon Faddis was on there. There were other
people that were doing pieces at that time. I don't know which instrumentation
they're going to use this time for that piece.
Vega: I'm sorry we haven't spoken more often, but I did have a chance to hear
you this winter at the University of Chicago concert tribute to Lester Bowie
that Kahil El'Zabar put together, and you were still playing the "Le Dreher
Suite" (see "In Walked Buckner" Delmark DE 510).
Mitchell: That was really beautiful what Joel Brandon (Note: he whistles) did on
that. He's an incredible musician, man. And we played "'Til Autumn,"
which is a piece I'd written last year.
Vega: You were working on that material when you played in at Kerrytown Concert
House in Ann Arbor last time, too. I'm sorry I missed you at the Detroit/Montreux
Jazz Festival with A. Spencer Barefield last August.
Mitchell: That was great, man, and plus I saw Kim Heron. He was there. People
that I hadn't seen for a long time and stuff. That's always nice. Vega: With the
Note Factory in September, is that going to be the same instrumentation as on
the ECM record "Nine to Get Ready"?
Mitchell: The only person that won't be on there will be George Lewis. He did
the recording, but George is doing his own stuff, too. So Spencer (guitarist) is
the logical guy for that. That's who I've been working with, Spencer and Hugh
Ragin.
Vega: Well, hopefully more and more people will become aware of the Chicago jazz
scene in the next few years.
Mitchell: Hopefully more of that will get ironed out as we go into this next
period, because there definitely seems a renewed interest in the music out
there, I mean, amongst a lot of people I see at talk to. I'm riding on
that one. It seems like this is probably one of the best periods for me for
learning. Not to mention it takes awhile just to learn how to learn, you know
what I mean? It's a very exciting period musically.
Vega: Did you hear about Cecil Taylor coming into Chicago? He played at Symphony
Center this winter.
Mitchell: Oh no, I didn't hear about that.
Vega: It was supposed to be a trio, but they were snowed in, so it was solo. It
was beautiful.
Mitchell: Yeah, yeah: he's a hell of a musician. He's always had his own way of
putting his music together and everything. I think these are the people who are
going to (pause) survive (laughs) the whole thing, are the people who really
developed their own concept in the music, because it's really much easier to be
yourself than somebody else. So it seems like all of these people now are
just coming back to the top again. Because you listen to the records, you put
them on, and they sound just as fresh as they were when they were recorded.
Vega: Sure, Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Braxton and even Sun Ra are like that.
But Cecil's solo thing was incredible. The more time I spend listening to
improvisational music, you can tell he's playing areas of exploration that are
very apparent: it's not just free. There are structures and certain techniques
he'll use until they're developed to the point where he feels like moving on.
Mitchell: That's right. That's right. I mean, what really helps improvisors is
that they know something about composition. Because you can't really just walk
on the stage with a couple of measures (laughs) and the concert's an hour long.
You can't really do that! You know, so, I think it really helps you if you know
how composition is put together and stuff like that. It helps you become a
stronger improvisor. There're all kinds of exciting things happening. That's
what I'm seeing as I go along. Time is definitely going on by: none of us are
getting any younger, that's for sure.
Lazaro Vega is jazz director at Blue Lake Public Radio, www.bluelake.org.