Author RADHIKA PHILIP Reveals Creative Process of
Jazz Musicians Through Collection of Interviews in New Book,
Being Here: Conversations on Creating Music,
Available October 14 Through Radhio
Featured Artists Include Bill Frisell, Brian Blade, Jason Moran, Robert Glasper, Vijay Iyer and Maria Schneider, Among Others
Stream audio excerpts from interviews featured in the book:
"This
work, expressing the living aesthetic of some of the most vital
musicians of our time, is so important now because the corporations are
trying to erase any trace of serious music from a planet they want to
own completely."
- Amiri Baraka
Anyone who loves jazz has undergone a similar awakening at some point in their lives. For Radhika Philip
it came about a decade ago, when she followed a yen for live music into
the West Village club Smalls to see pianist Jason Lindner's trio. While
she had a handful of jazz records at home, scattered classics by the
usual suspects - Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Charlie
Parker - the experience of seeing contemporary creative music in an
intimate setting proved to be transformative.
"It
was the music, of course, but it was also the intensity of the
interaction on stage," Philip recalls of that night. "The expression on
people's faces as they made music together - the bliss in the discovery,
and the intimate and focused ways in which they communicated with each
other - I'd never seen anything like that before. It completely blew my
mind."
For
most people it would have been enough to follow that profound encounter
with more of the same, to simply become another devoted listener and
advocate of jazz and its creators. But Philip decided to go further,
embarking on a decade-long series of interviews with some of New York's
most renowned and influential artists in order to come to a deeper
understanding of the music and of those who build their lives around it.
Being Here, set for release on October 14 through Radhio, compiles 25 of those interviews, featuring candid, insightful conversations with such modern jazz greats as Andy
Bey, David Binney, Brian Blade, Jane Ira Bloom, Uri Caine, Steve
Coleman, Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, Robert Glasper, Billy Hart, Vijay
Iyer, Jason Moran, Gregoire Maret, Ben Monder, Thomas Morgan, Butch
Morris, Greg Osby, William Parker, Chris Potter, Dafnis Prieto, Maria
Schneider, Henry Threadgill, Mark Turner and Kenny Wollesen.
The focus of her inquiry is the relationship between form and freedom -
the parameters, musical and relational, that frame their
improvisations.
Born
in Bombay, India, Philip moved to the United States to study
anthropology, first at Smith College and later at Columbia University.
She has brought this education to her examination of New York City's
intricately interwoven jazz community, adding a layer of insight beyond
that which even the most ardent club devotee could offer. "The questions
I asked were anthropologically informed," she explains. "What meaning
do people give to what they do? What do they value? What are their
practices? All of that speaks to what culture is."
Her own upbringing has also informed her attraction to jazz lifestyle and the perspective she brings to bear on it in Being Here.
"I've always been a nonconformist in how I express and conduct myself,"
she explains, "but I grew up in an India that values adherence to
tradition and conservatism. So finding a world of people who value doing
things differently and focus on developing the personal voice to the
highest degree possible, resonated with me." As she delved deeper, their
stories became even more compelling to Philip as she realized that
"these very musicians who are committed to the personal voice are
equally committed to the creation of the collective expression. They
work as partners during an improvisational performance, constantly
negotiating the balance between individual and collective expression to
find what best serves the music in the moment."
Born
into a society structured by caste and religion and making her living
in the corporate world, Philip's anthropological radar was set off by a
community that is fluid and non-hierarchical, where a musician might be a
leader one day and a sideman the next. "For a musician to play in
different situations with different people, he has to be open to, if not
actively searching for, change," she says. "He has to be flexible and
creative and willing to push himself to contribute something meaningful,
no matter the music. The fact that creative jazz musicians set
themselves up for this night after night is a remarkable thing."
Radhika
followed that freedom from hierarchy in structuring her book, which
doesn't divide its subjects into neat categories by style or generation
or subject. Instead, it replicates the multi-generational interactions
of the jazz world by finding other connections with which to move from
one artist to the next. Bill Frisell is followed by frequent
collaborator Kenny Wollesen, who leads into one of his mentors, Butch
Morris; others are linked by shared affiliations or interests.
The one thing all of the subjects, and the author herself, share in common is the city of New York, where many of
them live and all have created significant work. "I've lived in New
York for 25 years," Philip says. "It's a city with so many subterranean
art scenes, andI've always wanted to document one of its creative communities, to pay homage I guess, to the city and its artists. I also wanted to better understand the ways in which this urban center is important, or not, to an art form. When I walked into jazz, that initial idea founds its most meaningful context for me, and became a compulsion."
Philip
may have been a novice to the jazz scene, but her enthusiasm, incisive
questions, and obvious passion for the music led to her quick acceptance
into the musicians' inner circles, with one conversation leading to
recommendations and introductions for the next. "The musicians were very
accessible," she says. "They were open, and
so made it easy for me. Their generosity, and the friendships that have
come out of this, have been phenomenal. It's been a huge gift and I
couldn't be more thankful."
The title, Being Here,
is in part a recognition of the city's role in linking artists. But it
also reaches a more meaningful truth about their creative process - not
to mention the lively and enlightening conversations to be found within
its pages.
"My
being in New York enabled me to have this experience," Radhika says.
"So the title refers to the musicians and why they need to be here, why
the city is relevant to the music. That's how it started for me, but
it's also about improvisation and the art of being entirely present in
the moment. Ultimately, that way of being is what deepens human experiences and relationships."
| Being Here - Radhika Philip |
The Interviews by Chapter:
1. Bill Frisell
2. Kenny Wollesen
3. Butch Morris
4. William Parker
5. Henry Threadgill
6. Dafnis Prieto
7. Billy Hart
8. Brian Blade
9. Greg Osby
10. Jason Moran
11. Woody Shaw Jr. III
12. Robert Glasper
13. Vijay Iyer
14. Mark Turner
15. Steve Coleman
16. Gregoire Maret
17. Maria Schneider
18. Ben Monder
19. Dave Douglas
20. Uri Caine
21. David Binney
22. Thomas Morgan
23. Chris Potter
24. Jane Ira Bloom
25. Andy Bey
Radhika Philip· Being Here
Radhio · Release Date: October 14, 2013
For more information on Radhika Philip, please visit: radhio.org
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DL Media · 610-667-0501
Amy Miller · amy@dlmediamusic.com
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