John Coltrane Interviews

John Coltrane interview. USA 1958.

A 1958 interview with John Coltrane by August Blume




This previously unreleased full recording (from June 15, 1958) has been made available in conjunction with the Slought Foundation "Coltrane." initiative. An excerpted transcription, "An Interview with John Coltrane" by August Blume, was first published in The Jazz Review 2, no. 1 (January 1959): 25. Recorded at Blume's home in Baltimore, Maryland prior to that evening's performance of the Miles Davis Quintet (with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones) at The Crystal Caverns, Washington, D.C.




Opening November 15, 2003, Slought Foundation, Philadelphia will present a two-month exhibition and series of events revisiting the work of John Coltrane through archival material and contemporary art. Philadelphia's rich jazz heritage provides an ideal backdrop for this tribute, which includes archival material pertaining to Coltrane's life and artistic practice (e.g. original photographs, recordings, and posters), and work by conceptual artists that, since the 1960s, have executed homages to Coltrane's oeuvre.

John Coltrane interview. Sweden 1960.

Interview conducted by Karl-Erik Lindgren and engineers from Swedish Radio, at “Konserthuset”, Stockholm, Sweden, March 22, 1960

Miles Davis (tpt); John Coltrane (ts); Wynton Kelly (p); Paul Chambers (b); Jimmy Cobb (d); Norman Granz (ann); Carl-Erik Lindgren (interviewer)

First concert
1	Introduction (Norman Granz)
	"Thank you. And now I'd like to introduce the musicians of the next group, and it's a group I'm very proud to be presenting in their first appearance in Europe. Start off with the drummer, Jimmy Cobbs... On piano is Wynton Kelly... The bassist is Paul Chambers... On tenor saxophone, John Coltrane... And here he is, Miles Davis..."
2	Band warming up
3	So What (M. Davis)
4	Fran Dance (M. Davis)
5	Walkin' (R. Carpenter)
6	The Theme (M. Davis)
Second concert
7	Band warming up
	Kelly and Chambers tuning; Davis snaps off tempo
8	So What (M. Davis)
9	On Green Dolphin Street (N. Washington-B. Kaper)
10	All Blues (M. Davis)
11	The Theme (M. Davis)
Interview
12	John Coltrane Interview (Carl-Erik Lindgren)
	Supposedly Coltrane was interviewed between the two concerts; interview divided into two tracks on Dragon LP

 

John Coltrane interview. Japan 1966.

Recorded by Kaname Kawachi, July 9, 1966

Peace on Earth - John Coltrane in Japan 1966

by Eric Hoffman

On July 18^th, 1966, John Coltrane arrived in Tokyo International Airport. With him was bassist Jimmy Garrison, tenor saxophonist Pharaoh Sanders, drummer Rashied Ali and pianist (and wife) Alice Coltrane. His reputation preceded him. Several thousand Japanese fans surrounded the plane shortly after touchdown, chanting and singing. Upon exiting, Garrison asked Coltrane if he knew if some ‘big shot’ was on the plane with them. It was then that they spotted the giant banner reading WELCOME JOHN COLTRANE QUINTET. In Japan, Coltrane sold around 30,000 copies of each of his recordings, equivalent to that of the United States, at that time a country with nearly twice the population. A red carpet awaited the musicians, and limousines; schoolgirls handed them bouquets of flowers. They were treated like royalty.



The admiration for Coltrane’s music in both Japan and the United States and elsewhere is in part due to its religious or spiritual quality. Listeners had perceived this quality in Coltrane’s music since the early 1960’s; it was his 1964 recording A Love Supreme with its overt spiritual connotations that somehow validated this perception. As one Japanese jazz musician observed, Coltrane’s "music is like a religious ceremony." The day after the arrival of the Quintet, Coltrane was ushered into a press conference where he was asked what he would like to be in ten years. Coltrane replied without hesitation, "a saint." This reply was, in part, a product of the era’s idealism, this being the year the Beatles discovered Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar, whom Coltrane had discovered five years prior through tenor saxophonist Yuseef Lateef. Coltrane was then deeply interested in Indian music’s emphasis on melody and rhythm, yet his interest in the East did not end with music; he was also reading Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi (recommended by tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins) and Krishnamurti's Commentaries on Living (recommended by pianist Bill Evans).

Upon his arrival in Japan, Coltrane was well into what most critics and listeners came to regard, after the dust had settled, as a spiritual quest. Some say this quest had started two years earlier when he had a self-proclaimed "vision of God" during meditation, and heard a "universal music" which he then spent the rest of his fiercely determined career, beginning with A Love Supreme, trying to capture. One reason for this fierce determination to capture the music of his "divine vision" (which he was beginning to hear echoes of in Western, Eastern and African music) was possibly due to Coltrane’s impending mortality, illustrated in the photographs drummer Rashied Ali took of Coltrane while in Japan, and only discovered after Coltrane’s death of liver cancer the following year. Garrison: "About half of these pictures showed Trane holding his hand over his liver, like he was trying to stop the pain he must have been feeling all by himself." However, it can be argued that this period was rather a sudden speeding up of his spiritual journey begun long before in the small town of Hamlet, North Carolina, where Coltrane was born on September 23, 1926.

John Coltrane interview. USA 1966.

 

"I want to be the force which is truly for good." - John Coltrane in 1966, as told Frank Kofsky

One afternoon in November 1966, Frank Kofsky took the train out to Long Island. He was about to spend the day with John Coltrane. Kofsky brought his tape recorder and what we get to hear is the conversation the two men had as they drove through town and made a few stops along the way.

Coltrane had moved to Huntington, New York with his wife Alice and their children in 1964. They lived in a modest house on a quiet, tree-lined street. It was a home to raise a family. Coltrane had just turned 40. He would die from liver cancer less than a year later.

During this episode Coltrane talks about moving to the country, setting up to practice, connecting with the sound of an instrument, Malcolm X, music as means of expressing that state of society, and how he wanted to change the world.

More Choice Coltrane
"I keep a horn on the piano and I have a horn in my bedroom."
"Music, being expression of the human heart or the human being itself, does express just what is happening."
"In any situation that we find in our lives, when there’s something we feel should be better, we must exert effort to try and make it better."

Interviews with Michiel de Ruyter. 1961-1965.

 

"After the final after the ovations which were abruptly broken off, a large part of the audience was completely silent (...) because it was enchanted by this music, and the spell was first developed touch was there to talk again. How this was achieved hypnosis? I do not know. Of course, one can analyze, technically, in retrospect, a fairly meaningless anyway hassle. But it is the task of the critic to the reader to make clear what was to hear jazz. (...) It is up to the task of the critic to qualify heard, to put into perspective, but the jazz of these Coltrane Quartet is elusive, just above the top of the pyramid. And yet, this music was the most beautiful music. I feel that I know. "

 

It is a declaration of love De Ruyter to the music of Coltrane, the musician that he, after Ellington, was perhaps dearest. He was in fact the prototype of the great twentieth century artist who starts from the tradition, and it will then hold both ontworstelt. The iron consistency with which Coltrane put each new step, continued to follow the jazz historian De Ruyter well, while the unfolding adventure curious De Ruyter continued to speak. The fact that both Coltrane's career as De Ruyter's life work (Jazz History) were degraded by liver cancer, is deplorable. The fact that the radio series was stabbing at Coltrane, is a tragic irony. Some parts, mainly Ruyter's commentaries, are in Dutch.

• Interview MdR  John Coltrane 19 november 1961
• Interview MdR  John Coltrane 1 december 1962
• Interview MdR  John Coltrane 26 october 1963
• Interview MdR  John Coltrane 27 july 1965

Source : JazzArchiev NL

Further Reading

http://www.criticalimprov.com/article/view/1312/1914

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Grant Green interview by Ed Hamilton

Blue Note Records has had their share of guitarists: Kenny Burrell, Thornel Schwartz, George Benson, yet when album sessions had to be counted, Grant Green was nonpareil in having recorded almost 3 times as many as all put together...100 albums recorded from 1961 to 1972. Hands down or hands on---he was Blue Note’s House Guitarist...from 1961 his first session with Lou Donaldson who discovered him in St. Louis, to his last Lighthouse session in 1972, Grant Green had recorded 100 sessions for Blue Note: sessions with Lou Donaldson, Duke Pearson, Big John Patton, Bobby Hutcherson, Herbie Hancock, Lee Morgan, Yusef Lateef, Donald Byrd, Hank Mobley, Stanley Turrentine, Harold Vick, Art Blakey. And these are just to name a few.



In 1972, Grant had a weeklong gig at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach. George Butler was Blue Note’s new executive producer. I went 3 times and we talked about a live session that was pending that week by Butler. I enjoyed 3 nights of rehearsals with Grant and his group that included Wilton Felder on Fender, Claude Bartee on tenor, Shelton Laster on organ, Gary Coleman on vibes, Bobbye Hall on congas and Greg Williams on drums.

I was offered the opportunity to MC a part of this 2 disc album the night of the session. I had a ball--- the session was astoundingly a magnificent live recording July 17, 1972---Grant’s last Lighthouse recording (His previous was Grant Green Alive at the Lighthouse in 1970).



Opening night, Grant and I reflected on his Blue Note career from the start after Lou Donaldson heard him in East St. louis in 1960, brought him to Alfred Lion of Blue Note who signed him to his first recording Here Tis with Lou Donaldson, and as leader on Grant’s First Stand.


ED: How do you stream the music through your fingers?
Grant: I strive to get that natural feeling. That’s what I strive for to get that natural feeling and to be able to play anything. Always play the best I can.
His Pop interpretations include Beatles “A Day in A Life,” Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” to the traditional “Go Down Moses/Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho”..Dionne Warwick’s “Never Walk This Way” to James Brown’s “Make It Funky.”




I noticed you took a J5 (Jackson Five) tune and turned it inside out. Too bad the 5 wasn’t here. 

Grant: See I dig that ED--that’s a challenge for me brother.



It's no challenge it’s just all there for you to do...

Grant: I've played everything and to take tunes like that..it’s just beautiful man, I just get a charge out of that..I think that we are possibly going to do a live recording here at the Lighthouse. The last week on Friday and Saturday..



Got to have the folks out here for that.

Grant: Yeah we got to have a lot of folks out here for that. We was just talking about it with Producer George Butler.

How long have you been playing?

Grant: Man I’m in my 22nd year with Blue note.



Your 22nd year---I’m gonna give you a play.

Grant: Right I’m in my 22nd year man and it’s getting better and better. (He just finished a film score for the movie Iron City.)



How would you describe the music that you are playing now? ‘cause right after your second set, I said some of it was reminiscent of your blues self with Horace Parlan, Al Harewood, Yusef, Ben Dixon...Blues in Maude’s Flat..

Grant: Hey man--you gone way back on me man..



Yeah that's part of you too..

Grant: Yeah man that’s the roots. That was Yusef Lateef, Al Harewood, Horace Parlan and that was a beautiful date man. Jack McDuff and myself. We really got into a thing---and Horace Parlan. That's right. And I’m planning to do the date here live. We gonna try to get a winner.



Are you playing all the music the way you really like to play it now? Because throughout all the years you've been with Blue Note, there hasn't been a guy at Blue Note like George Butler to produce you. And for those who don’t know George Butler, he's the new producer for Blue Note.
What has new producer George Butler contributed to your music? (All the years at Blue Note, there hasn’t been a person to produce Grant like George Butler.) Describe what George Butler has done for you.



Grant: George has taken a lot of jazz artists and made them appeal to the majority of people. We were appealing to a minority of people and now he’s kinda got us a vast well rounded audience where he takes artists like myself and groom us into playing the numbers like the latest album--Visions. We were very successsful with Visions---and this one looks good. The Shades of Green with the Wade Marcus big band. And these are the kind of things I think are the ways to get everyone--- even the kids who like the Jackson 5. They like that. And an album should be well rounded. I try and strive to get that natural feeling and play anything.



Like I said, you turned it out.

Grant: I got some young kids in Detroit who simply just nut up.

Detroit’s home?

Grant: Definitely.



Are there some types of new idioms inside your head that you want to play? Is there a certain definite type of music you haven’t played yet? 

Grant: Yes. Oh yes. I got some more stuff in my head that I’m laying dead to play. And you know quite naturally, you do everything in degrees---in small degrees and you’ll get around to it thru the years. I got a whole lot of music up there man. I got a lot of good experience. I’ve played with everybody.



You are a veteran, brother.

Grant: Definitely. I’m a pro---I’ve played with everybody and got good experience and you can’t beat that.
Ed, How long you been in the business?



Well I’ve been a music lover since I was living in Cleveland---since 1950 and on the air for 8 yrs.

Grant: I want to see how much time you got in on me man.
EDH: You see there aren’t many out there communicating and trying to get to musicians like yourself who've been out there. My thing is, I appreciate music and I take my tape with me and I get out there, I grab the person like a Grant Green. I missed you last time, so I said I’m gonna catch you this time opening night here at the Lighthouse. And I did. So you can get more exposure so that those who aren't exposed to Grant Green will definitely get exposed to Grant Green.
Grant: I want all the people to come out and to buy the record Shades of Green.



Got anything to do with the green shades you wear?

Grant: That’s me. It’s all green and I put my soul in it. I got some green soul in there.

You seem to function funkily well with organ, bass, drums, yourself and a tenor man. Do you like this makeup?

Grant: I like it. It’s good for me. I got Claude Bartee on tenor, Shelton Laster organ, Greg Williams on drums, Wilton Felder bass, Bobby Hall congas, Gary Coleman on vibes and we are also at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach.



We’ve been talking with Grant Green--- a vibrant veteran guitarist and anytime he’s in L.A., he’s always welcome...

In 1979, after playing his last gig at the Lighthouse, Grant was driving back to New York pulling a trailer with a Hammond B 3 and had a heart attack. It was January 31, 1979. He’d just spent 10 weeks in the hospital after a stroke. The doctors found a blockage and told Grant without an operation he wouldn’t last a month. So he told his manager to give him his clothes. He left and went out to California for his last Lighthouse gig.




While he was doing the Lighthouse gig, George Benson told him: “You’re a better guitar player than me, it’s not right, Grant. But they have made me greater than you. I can’t go around saying I’m the number 1 jazz guitar player and I know you are No. 1.”




At the 2009 Montreal Jazz Festival, George and I reminisced about Grant and his guitar that George was rumored to have found.
 
I asked George, ‘You still got Grant Green's guitar? Because I interviewed Grant on his last recording Live at the Lighthouse (Blue Note, 1972). And I heard you got it.’
 
George replied, “Is that right, man? Yeah, I was there for that gig at the Lighthouse. Grant drove all the way out and picked me up. Yes I do. I have the one that was made for him by D'Aquisto, the foremost acoustic- electric guitar maker. Not too long ago, he passed away. I became good friends with him before he died. And I came across Grant's guitar in a store and I had to have it, man.”



You can also add some Green Soul to your ears with Grant Green Alive, Grant Green Live At the Lighthouse, Feelin’ the Spirit, The Way I Feel, Natural Soul, Idle Moments, Rough and Tumble, Live At Club Mozambique, Up At Mintons (Grant’s first recording w/Stanley Turrentine and Horace Parlan), Search for the New Land (w/Lee Morgan).
As I wrote in the liners Blues For Lou---Grant Green was indeed Blue Note’s House Guitarist---and everybody at Blue Note came to the House of Grant Green to record ‘cause he truly played his heart out with a lot of Green Soul and everybody wanted to feel that spirit of Green---

Grant Green.

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Grant Green's Work (December 5, 2014)
Joe Pass Interview 1974 (November 6, 2015) Away from the Big Cities: Morton Feldman interviewed by Jean-Yves Bosseur (November 3, 2015) Terry Riley Interview (October 20, 2015) 300 essential names in modern guitar through 300 interviews (October 9, 2015) Interview with Attila Zoller 1/3 (April 10, 2015) Iannis Xenakis Interview Palais de Mari (March 17, 2015) Whispering in the Leaves an interview with Chris Watson (February 24, 2015) Interview with Robert Fripp and Joe Strummer in Musician (February 6, 2015) Johnny Smith Interview (December 19, 2014) Glenn Gould Interviews Glenn Gould about Glenn Gould (December 12, 2014)
Marc Ducret Interview with Nate Chinen (December 11, 2014) Marc Ribot interview by Efren del Valle (December 4, 2014) Harry Partch Interview 1950 A New Note in music (December 1, 2014) Tal Farlow Interview (November 28, 2014) Jim Hall Interview 1996 (November 2, 2014) Hubert Sumlin Interview by Elliott Sharp (October 15, 2014) Interview with Wes Montgomery in Crescendo 1965 (October 9, 2014)
Interview with Wes Montgomery in Crescendo 1968 (October 9, 2014) Michel Henritzi interviewed Otomo Yoshihide (October 2, 2014)

 

Joe Pass Interview 1974

Did I read somewhere that you started out on a Spanish guitar?

No, I started on a Harmony guitar, an acoustic model with steel strings. I began on simple chords like most everybody, and then I studied for a year on the Nick Lucas book. After that I got on to the Carcassi classical method for a while because the pieces in it were a lot better. They had a lot of movement in them, more chord changes and sophistication than the books of chords I'd come across. So I think that developed some sense of harmony in me.



Did you come from a musical family, Joe?

No, my father worked in the steel mills.



Was guitar playing easy for you in the beginning?

I guess it came sort of easy for me; I have certain difficulties, not a lot. But you've got to remember that I grew up playing the guitar. I started when I was nine, and by the time I was nine and a half or ten, I was doing seven or eight hours' practice every day. I did two hours' practice at six o'clock in the morning before I went to school, and another two hours as soon as I got home from school in the afternoon. Then I did four hours at night before I went to bed.



I did that until I was fourteen or fifteen. I didn't like it - I hated it, but my father was very firm about it; he saw a little something happening, so he figured he'd just push. I don't remember too much how I felt about it except that I'd rather be outside playing ball and things. I never could ride a bike, like even today I can't do these things. But, I know how I learned, and what I practised. Like, for instance, somebody would play the guitar on the Sunday morning radio programme, any guitarist - maybe Vincente Gomez or somebody, and my father would say, 'Get the guitar Joe, and copy it.' And I'd sit there and try, and he'd say, 'Did you get it?' and I'd not got it ,cause I don't know what I'm doing. Then he'd say, 'OK, learn this song,' and he'd whistle a tune and I'd find the notes, and then he'd say, 'Fill it up; don't leave any spaces.' That meant to do all the runs in between the phrases of melody.



Then I had a couple of music books; the Nick Lucas and Carcassi, like I said, and every day I had to start from the beginning and go through them. And then he'd also bring home piano music, anything . . . like, once he brought home the Flight of The Bumble Bee and said, 'Play it.' That was the way I learnt to play, by actually playing a lot and filling in all the spaces and not leaving gaps in the music. And then he would say, 'Play me a song - make it up.' He might do this every day. He didn't know anything about music, he didn't play an instrument; but he wanted us to become something more than a steel-worker like himself. For instance, he had the idea that my brother who was eight or nine was going to be a writer, so he had him write stories every day, books of stories; he'd say, 'Make up a story and write.'



But I think it's important to start young, at nine, eight or seven. I really believe that, because for me, I was open to everything and whatever happened on the instrument became part of my music. So I think you have to push children if you see talent and if they show interest. You've got to be firm about it, not exactly like my father - he was super-firm. Mind you, he deserves all the credit for how I play today.



Did you learn scales?

Yes (demonstrating about a dozen scales all over the fingerboard, and playing with impeccable technique)



Out of a book?

No, my father would say, 'Play a scale,' and I'd play one and he'd say, 'What about the rest? There must be one above,' so we'd figure them out. I'd start the scale on the root of the chord and I'd go as far as my hand would reach without going out of position, say, five frets, and then I'd go all the way back. So when ! practised I'd start right away on scales. As well as the usual ones, I'd play whole tone scales, diminished, dominant sevenths, and chromatic scales. Every chord form, all the way up, and this took an hour.



Another thing I'd do which is something I get my pupils on, is make up scale patterns. You do this so that the head and the fingers are doing the same thing. You continue making up these lines for as long as you can without making a mistake, and if you do make a mistake then you go back over it. I think one of the things about speed is . . . people say, 'He sounds fast and clean': it's not really as fast as you think, it's because your fingers and your head know where they're going. This is subconscious of course. You should be able to hum along with whatever you're playing. I don't sing out loud, but it's there in the head; you have to have a melodic thought.



Do you think that learning the way you did was a great help when it came to playing jazz?

Well yes, I think that I started to get a feeling for the instrument. I think that you have to have the instrument in your hand till it feels like an extension of yourself, and for me holding the guitar for seven hours a day and going (plays more scales) - and hating it, did just that.



What was the first professional band you worked with?

Locally I worked with a small group - guitar, guitar bass, and violin; we played at parties and dances. That was when I was fourteen, I worked weekends to help support the family. Sometimes I made more money than my father; we used to make five dollars a night.



Did you get influenced by any particular guitarists?

Django Reinhardt; I listened to him first, then Charlie Christian. Then I heard all the others - Tal Farlow, and Barney, Jimmy Raney - all those from the 'forties. I think the big influences as far as jazz guitar is concerned are Django, Charlie and Wes. These were the three big influences, players who actually added another dimension to the instrument.



You've said that you were more influenced by tenor players.

Yes, but at one point I sort of drifted towards listening to pianists, Bud Powell, AI Haig and Art Tatum. I remember when Art Tatum had a trio with Tiny Grimes. I thought Wow!' I listened to Tiny, but it was the piano - that was the one. And then I listened to a lot of horn players - Charlie Parker, Dizzy, Stan Getz and Coleman Hawkins, and I got more influenced by horn players than anyone else.



But one wouldn't recognise any resemblance between your playing and Django's,

Well I never copied him. I don't remember that I copied any guitar player note-for-note. But I remember copying Charlie Parker note for note.



Looking back on the Bop age, what do you think about it now?

I think there are still a lot of people playing it; I think it's lost its label, but basically, jazz players who've come up from that era are still playing it, and it's still influencing a great deal of new players too. There seems to be resurgence of straight-ahead jazz all over just now; which is good.



To get things in perspective, as far as your records are concerned, your first record 'Sounds Of Synanon' was important in that it marked the end of your troubles; what set you off on the road to Synanon?



It all started when I split from home. I got the opportunity to go on the road and I went off with groups and trios. And I got introduced to drinking and all that. I was rebelling really and although I wasn't influenced by knowing that other jazz players were onto it, there was a point where there was a definite identifying with that, because it was part of the whole scene.



It's just part of the environment and still is; but that doesn't mean that you have got to get caught up in it. But I thought that was the way to go, and I went from one thing to another and that's how I got started. I got heavily involved and people were saying, 'You'd better cool it, you'd better stop.' But I mean - I couldn't hear anything they said. Everybody, people close to me, my family; I didn't hear them; you never do.



Well, after a certain number of years everybody that gets involved starts to realise and see that this is not it, so you look for a way out and the difficult thing is that you can't find that way out, and it can be right there in front of you but you can't utilise it; you can't do anything about it. Well, I'd been through a lot of other places looking for a way out; you see, you have to be ready for it or you won't get out. So I was ready and I was looking for years. And in one of the places I was in I heard about this self-help group place and it's funny because I didn't plan on going there I just sort of stumbled on it while I was in Los Angeles. I even ended up in the same town, and there it was. So maybe it was an accident, but I'd planned at the back of my mind to find a way out. But that's how I got to it; I just walked up to the door and said, 'Here I am.'



I was there for two and a half years. I didn't do a lot of playing then. In fact, when I got there the guitar had absolutely no meaning for me and they said, 'OK, the guitar, put it in the corner and forget it!' Like, you don't play the guitar, because that's something that stands in your way. So I didn't play the guitar for a long time, I did other things, like straighten out my head and my person. Later, I maybe played the guitar on Saturday and then perhaps Friday and Saturday.

But the most I feel I've accomplished has been after that scene. Using drugs didn't help me to play, all it did was to hang me up for about fifteen years.



On that first record. 'Sounds of Synanon'. what guitar did you use?

It was a solid-bodied guitar donated to the Foundation. It was a Fender, but I had to use it as I didn't have one. I had to get used to it though because solid guitars are generally very fast, the neck is fast. Without an amplifier there's no tone at all, but you can really skate on it. Before that I'd used a Martin round-hole fitted with a De Armond pickup. I used that for years and then I used all the various Gibsons. Those guitars I consider good for road work because they take a lot of punishment and although they have no tone un-amplified, they have a better tone than a solid body, much better.



I have a solid-body now which I use for rock dates, if I get a call for that kind of pseudo rock. I do it as a gig but I don't like to do a lot of it and I don't get called on a lot because they know I'm not a rock player. But I have the tools and I sort of try to do it. What I feel is, rock generally has a lot of jazz flavour.



Regardless of the guitar, do you always use the same kind of pick?

Always the same kind. It's half a pick really, a pick broken in two. It's a medium-thin gauge, not soft, but firm. But I use my fingers a great deal too; and pick and fingers, or thumb and fingers. It's not quite as fast with the fingers though.



What does it depend on?

It depends on the feeling of the group I'm with. Like, if it's a hard group I have to use a pick because I can't get percussive enough with the fingers. And it depends on how fast we're playing; there's a certain point where the fingers can't move as fast as a pick, although I think if someone started doing it from the beginning, say, jazz guitar just with the fingers, I think they would find it the best way to play. I think contact with your instrument with your hand is better than a pick. So I use a small pick, at least, it's fairly close; I'm always touching the strings. I'd use fingers and thumb for playing ballads, but then again, if it's not a vocalist, and not very soft I'd use a pick and fingers. The pick always plays one string. I use a pick if I'm playing with horns and say, a loud rhythm section. But a lot depends on the kind of feeling I'm trying to get. Sometimes I just use my thumb because it has a really nice warm sound and so that works a lot for me. And if I'm playing with pick and fingers, I'll sometimes use my little finger as well. A great deal of playing is with the left hand; people often think you're picking everything, but you're not.



This is a long trip for you isn't it?

Yes, twelve weeks, and I'm a little tired. I haven't been out for more than five or six weeks in the States, and that's really a lot for me. You know, to me, music is important, it's the way I make my living and I like it and I enjoy playing. But it's not the most important thing in my life - that's my family.

Source: Guitar Magazine June 1974

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Away from the Big Cities: Morton Feldman interviewed by Jean-Yves Bosseur (November 3, 2015)
Terry Riley Interview (October 20, 2015)
300 essential names in modern guitar through 300 interviews (October 9, 2015)
Interview with Attila Zoller 1/3 (April 10, 2015)
Iannis Xenakis Interview Palais de Mari (March 17, 2015)
Whispering in the Leaves an interview with Chris Watson (February 24, 2015)
Interview with Robert Fripp and Joe Strummer in Musician (February 6, 2015)
Johnny Smith Interview (December 19, 2014)
Glenn Gould Interviews Glenn Gould about Glenn Gould (December 12, 2014)
Marc Ducret Interview with Nate Chinen (December 11, 2014)
Marc Ribot interview by Efren del Valle (December 4, 2014)
Harry Partch Interview 1950 A New Note in music (December 1, 2014)
Tal Farlow Interview (November 28, 2014)
Jim Hall Interview 1996 (November 2, 2014)
Hubert Sumlin Interview by Elliott Sharp (October 15, 2014)
Interview with Wes Montgomery in Crescendo 1965 (October 9, 2014)
Interview with Wes Montgomery in Crescendo 1968 (October 9, 2014)
Michel Henritzi interviewed Otomo Yoshihide (October 2, 2014)

Interview with Attila Zoller 3/3

What else did you do in the 1970s?

AZ: Let me see. I started to go up to Vermont at the same time that I was at the Half Note. 

Where?

AZ: Vermont. I'm sorry. That's my faulty language. I never learned (English), and I'm dying. Anyway, at that time I got the idea to move to Vermont. I'm a skier. I was divorced. I was in a bad way. I lost my family, my three-year-old daughter, everything, when we got divorced. I was kind of stranded in New York because they moved to St. Thomas, you know. My personal life was messed up, so I was not good, you know. That was the scene then. But I did very important things in those days because I set up the Vermont Jazz Center. I didn't know how it was going to come out. I tell them I'm going to do some teaching there and put some concerts on. But the idea came a little later when I saw that in Vermont actually there was nothing (regarding Jazz). We were in one of the three United States "survival sites": Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. (Laughs) There was no Jazz at all! I thought, "That's impossible. We'll do something about that." So I started to put some concerts on at the local nightclub. It was like a restaurant: the Mole's Eye Cafe. It was down in the cellar. 

Did anyone come to join you from New York?

AZ: Oh, yes! Oh, yeah. I mean, I tried to engage everybody that I knew. Like George Mraz is also a ski nut. He likes to ski. He came up first here, and then some others came, like Claire Arenius. That was the first trio that played there in Vermont with George and Claire. And then I got Fred Hersch; he played one weekend. He played there with George Mraz and me. We played in a trio; I have a tape of us. Every weekend, I played with one or another there. I tried to make the people come to the restaurant. We played first for 20 people. 

Did you keep your home in New York?

AZ: Yes. I just bought a house to get away from the scene there and just relax out there. And then when I saw the potential, I expected I'd need a house. It just was a camp, actually, with no basement. And I built it into a huge mansion. After a few years, of course, I lost it. I couldn't keep up the mortgage. My home there now is on the same land. I just sold part of the land with the house and built another house. 

What else happened to you in the 1980s?

AZ: It wasn't like the '70s. It was much better. Ah man, there were students and the school that we began. Already, in one year from '81 and '82, three students came up nice, you know. And the teachers had the work, you know. We had very good support. I have a whole list of who was there - Lee Konitz, Roland Hanna and a lot of people. But the Vermont Jazz Center is known already. Another recording that I did in 1980 involved a solo album named Conjunction (1979) on Enja Records. Two of my other Enja albums came out on CD recently, Overcome and Common Cause. The 1980s went uphill for me. 

Did you stay in Vermont in the 1980s?

AZ: Ya. In the 80s then, things started to grow already with the money, and I worked. And then I got to be really big. I started thinking to myself that I didn't have to live in New York to do my jobs in Europe. You see, in Europe I am in a different - how do you call it? - environment. The people think differently about me in Europe than they do here. Over there, you are an artist; here, you are a musician. 

Do you have more of a following in Europe?

AZ: Oh, yeah. I don't know about the numbers. I am in the (European) promoter's eye. I didn't disappear. What I am doing on guitar is not ignored there; here, it is ignored. That's why I tried to play something popular then. In my forty years here (in New York), I have learned something. I am not just for business here, you know. I am not at all for business. I am just for music here and I wanted to find out how it works, and that was nice. There are different aspects that I learned here - different motifs, different ways of playing Jazz. But I have only artistic ambitions and not financial ambitions. 

Has it been hard for you to make a living?

AZ: No! I don't like making certain types of music just for the money's sake. That is an "in" thing to make a hit. I like to do some original stuff that people like. And if they like it, I like it too. I like when other people like it, but I don't care if they don't like it when I play in certain places the wrong (popular) music. If it's not my music, I'd rather not play that any more. Anyway, that is the problem: to make financially also a good living with music. But you play the right music for the people, right? But if you feel it's not what the people want to hear, that is no good. That's how it works. I don't complain. I don't have the least reason to complain. I'm seventy. I was almost seventy when I made my solo album. On June thirteenth (1997), I was seventy. 

You're playing as well as ever.

AZ: I'm playing better! I tell you, I'm not trying to sell anything. I talked to Tommy Flanagan and he's making an album now. He said, "I want to do a standards album now because I never sounded so good before." 

 Could you tell me about your guitar inventions, like the bi-directional pick-up?

AZ: It involved a lot of research for sounds. Every pick-up looks almost the same inside, you know. The difference is also important - where everything is and how it's laid down and how it's built. I mean, there has to be a solid piece on the end. All kinds of things. The pickup has a flat sound; you can do anything you want with it. It's a flex response pickup. For example, if you want a different sound, you would do the orchestra way, which I discovered. But you don't have to discover all of that to make a pick-up. 

 Have you designed electronic instruments too?

AZ: No, I have no knowledge about electronics. I made the first pick-up also for vibraphone for Gary Burton. I did the work with him. He bought a pick-up. Shortly after that, somebody else came out with a better pick-up. It was easier to work with. With the electronic part, they saw what I did and said, "Oh, if it works like that, then it could work this way too." They tried it; it worked. The pick-ups are direct for the notes in that each note is a wire coming out. They can do that now because they know that aluminum is a magnet. The aluminum notes are responding to magnetism. So that's what I did - a difference in the pick-up. I found a pick-up factory in Germany who would do this: Shadow Electronics. They produced then that AZ-48 Design. It was called "48" because I was 48 years old at that time. I wanted to make the electronics easy. 

I see that you were honored at the American Guitar Museum.

AZ: Oh yes. There were 50 guitar players there, such as Jim Hall, Peter Bernstein, Abercrombie and Scofield. (Laughs) There was about every guitar player over there; it was like a convention, you know. And of course, a lot of the younger cats were there - Russell Malone. That was for me as a guitar player, of course. The fellow put it on there, because I'm sick, to cheer me up or something. It was a surprise party; I didn't know. He said I could try nice, expensive guitars - $50,000 guitars. I thought, "I ought to try that!" So when I went there, there was only one guitar there. I thought, "What is this? This is the wrong place." I thought it was a chance to try the guitars. I thought I could take them down and play them. Anyway, it was a big surprise. Even Herbie Mann was there. (Laughs) Joe Lovano was there - lots of musicians. 

Have you been sick?

AZ: Yes, I'm full of morphine. A little too much, you know. (Laughs) I have colon cancer, yes. It's down in the fourth stage already. I'm losing weight. You know, you'll have to excuse my language because I am now feeling that I am drunk or something. So that just makes me kind of drowsy and like I'm drunk, you know. I'm still full of engagements. Like tomorrow I have a concert to play at. I don't know yet if I'll make it or not; I'm trying to make my mind up. Up until 1990 to 1992, things were very good with steady growth. Then in '94, I had a gall bladder operation, and the whole mess started. 

Did they find out you had cancer then?

AZ: No. At that time it was just my gall bladder. I shouldn't have done it. I did it, and then a year later, I got the diagnosis with cancer in November. Then they made the operation. In '94, I had a record named for the doctor. It was called When It's Time (Enja). That's what I said: "When it's time. Don't worry. You don't think I'll die now. When it's time!" It's a beautiful ballad on that record. 

You recorded with Jimmy Raney (L&R Records) in the early 1980s.

AZ: We made two records. One was made in '79, and two records were made in 1980 because there were both concerts. One was in a big concert hall - the Jahrhundert Halle, or the Century Hall - with 2000 people in Frankfurt. It was a big festival, and one concert featured three spontaneous improvisations over themes with no pre-arranged playing. It's not so easy. We recorded it, and it came out. It's going to be an album for the next fifty years, you know. It was very good; we played with a symphony. Anyway, we made two records from that with Jimmy Raney called Jim and I because all of the three LP's came out on one double-CD. Then Common Cause is already on two other records - on the end of Conjunction and the end of the album Common Cause. The end is two pieces of the solo. After that, I had nothing else but the new Enja record, which is When It's Time with Lee Konitz, Larry Willis, Yoron Israel and Santi Debriano. Also, I did Thingin (HatArt) with Lee together, which became noticed. It already had good reviews. It was the record of the month in Germany. It is almost uncategorized. It is very special, very good music. I mean, before I go, with that album, it's nice to know that something is cooking. January 9, 1998 - Jackson Heights, NY

Cadence Jazz Magazine
 Taken & Transcribed by Bill Donaldson.
 See their website at www.cadencebuilding.com

 SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY

1964: Jazz Und Lyrik (Philips)
1965: Zo-Ko-So (MPS) with Martial Solal, Hans Koller
1965: The Horizon Beyond (Emarcy/Act) with Don Friedman, Barre Phillips, Daniel Humair
1965: The Big Beat with Claus Doldinger Group
1966: Katz und Maus (Saba)
1966: Metamorphosis (Prestige) with Don Friedman
1968: Zo-Ko-Ma (MPS) with Lee Konitz & Albert Magelsdorff
1969: Gypsy Cry (Embryo Records)
1971: A Path Through the Haze (MPS) with Masahiko Sato
1979: The K & K in New York (L & R) with Koller, George Mraz
1979: Jim and I (L & R Music/Records) with Jimmy Raney
1979: Common Cause with Ron Carter & Joe Chambers
1979: Conjunction (Enja)
1982: Dream Bells (Enja)
1986: Overcome (Enja Records)
1986: Memories Of Pannonia (Enja Records) with Mickael Formanek & Daniel Humair
1992: Live Highlights (Bhakti)
1994: When It's Time (Enja Records) with Santi Debriano, Yoron Israel, Lee Konitz & Larry Willis
1995: Thingin (Hatology) with Don Friedman & Lee Konitz
1997: Lasting Love (Acoustic Music Records) solo guitar
1997-98: The Last Recording (Enja)
1998: Trinity (L+R) with Hans Koller & Roland Hanna

Interview 1

Interview 2

Interview 3

Jim Hall Attila Zoller 1992 Workshop
Attila Zoller by Tom Karol 

How Did I Become A Living Legend by Jimmy Raney