May 03, 2008
We’re continuing with the fourth part of our interview with LACO’s Composer-in-Residence Uri Caine, who will be performing on solo piano at Amoeba Records, 6400 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood on Wednesday evening, May 7th, at 7:00 PM.
Uri: The Mahler recording was made 10 or 11 years ago. Since then, I’ve continued to play improvised music, but I’ve also had the chance to work with classical groups. One of the projects, The Goldberg Variations, involved playing with some musicians from the Concerto Koln (on baroque instruments, recorders, lutes, etc.). Later, they commissioned me to write a piece for them. They weren’t improvisers, so I thought I would try to arrange the Diabelli Variations, orchestrate it for this group, and then improvise with the music. It would be different than the Goldberg Variations, where each variation had a different ensemble with a different style, emphasizing variety. I wanted it to be more like a piano concerto.
That piece was a turning point, and it opened the door to commissions and invitations to play with other classical ensembles. Eventually, I performed it with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. So, at the point when I was commissioned by LACO, I already had some experience working with orchestras. I think that’s probably how I got to Los Angeles around the same time. Jeffrey Kahane told me that his son Gabe turned him on to my music by giving him a CD (probably one of my older projects). When I met Jeff, I felt an immediate rapport. It was a pleasure to know I would be working with such a wonderful musician.
Bob: What a marvelous niche you’ve found for yourself, being able to compose, to play jazz music in small groups, and also to play with larger classical ensembles. And it doesn’t seem to be very crowded…
Uri: Well, maybe. There are obviously so many amazing musicians playing and composing today. But, there are a lot of different factors involved in determining who gets to play where, when, and with whom. Sometimes it is just the kindness of strangers. To be invited by LACO to compose this music, to play with them, and then, at the same time, to get a call from the Jazz Bakery and have them say, “Well, fine, if you’re going to be here, then you can bring your trio here, too.”
Bob: The best of all worlds…
Uri: As I’m going through this, it’s a continuous process of education, trying to discover what needs to be done to get to the next level. That type of endless study is very attractive to me. There are a lot of people obsessed with making themselves better musicians, in so many different ways. For some people, this means locking themselves in a practice room; for others, it means studying African percussion; for still others, studying very specific things in electronics. I saw that there is a whole musical world, and then worlds within worlds, and that there is something endless about it.
Bob: That’s part of the excitement…
Uri: The work that it takes, and the people that you meet, are a big part of it. I mean, music can be a very solitary thing, but also a very social thing. It’s not like being a novelist, and locking yourself up in your room for six years to write your novel, and then, people either read it or they don’t. There’s a much more active social element to music.
Bob: I made the assumption a bit ago that this niche you are in was not very crowded. I got the sense that maybe you think it’s more crowded than I realize, which simply means that I don’t have much exposure. Are there very many other people that you see doing the same kinds of things you’re doing?
Uri: There is a long history of improvisation in classical music. There is also a long tradition of jazz musicians who have taken classical music as a basis for their improvisations.
I think that there are many composers, especially younger ones, who are less “I’m a composer, and here is my music,” and more like, “I’m a composer; I have a group; there’s improvisation in my group; and we deal with all these different elements.” There is always a hunger for something new, or some new combination. I don’t like the word “crossover,” because that implies they’re doing it for commercial reasons. But what’s really happening is…
Bob: Maybe they’re doing it for creative reasons.
Uri: Yes, they’re creative and curious. Sometimes it’s just happenstance. They hear something and they say, “What is that?!” Even if it’s not within their musical world, they can pursue it and make it their own. I have heard some great music from younger musicians who are making that effort to combine some of these different elements.
Things change. For instance, at Curtis: when I was young, Curtis was a very conservative environment. It’s still a very straight-ahead classical environment, but I was just asked, a couple months ago, to have a master class in improvisation at Curtis.
Bob: Impressive!
Uri: And the students in the class, 18, 19 years old, were eager; great musicians, and they can already improvise. So, a change of consciousness may be happening; things may not be quite as separated as they might have been.
Generally, we have a better level of acceptance in Europe, although things have changed here in the US, too. I’m thinking, though, of how much I play in Italy, or Germany. Classical music is important to them, and to the extent that I am trying to transform in into something else, they understand what I am trying to do. It doesn’t mean that they love it all the time, but the idea of doing it is more acceptable.
Our interview with Uri Caine will conclude in our fifth and final installment.