Stories about Thollem (and everyone else) [2/2] ~ The Free Jazz Collective

Thollem. Photo by ACVilla

By David Cristol

See part 1 here.

Listening to music

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. It depends on how involved I am on any given project, which is pretty much all the time. Because of our travels, I have the great fortune to hear a lot of music that I might not otherwise be exposed to, as well as a lot of live settings, and this is an important part of my life and musical development. An indelible memory is listening to records at the library when I was a kid, and I had a pretty eclectic record collection as well.

Interests and influences

I am more influenced by elements outside of music than by music made by others. Also, very curious about popular science, ancient archeology, quantum physics, astronomy... Everything between the birth canal and the eventuality of death – so they say. I very much love working with artists of other disciplines, and learn a lot when interacting! One of the great benefits of being an artist is that there is always the potential to assimilate all of our experiences and interests.

Photo by ACVilla

A sense of fun

I'm glad you hear a sense of fun in my music. At the very least, fun is a real-life experience just as are all the “serious” topics, emotions, approaches. I think, “does humor belong in music?” is a serious question, though I don't normally necessarily intend for my music to be humorous. I love music and I love making music with others, it’s where I find joy and relief from suffering, and want to spread this to others. That said, it is also because of how serious I do take it. When we stop to look at life from the human perspective we see constant contradictions underlying it all. For me the little revolutions and the big revolution HAS to include more joy, but at the same time it HAS to include more justice, which is deadly serious.

Shared values

Fortunately, in my line of work, there are endless colleagues I enjoy being and working with. This doesn't mean that I shy away from disagreements or challenging situations, in fact I am constantly finding – or putting – myself into challenging situations. Growth comes through both the abrasive nature of life as well as the joy we share. Generally, musicians and artists have pretty similar political views, at least in my circles. The pandemic and vaccines created a bit of a divide, for sure. It is important to work with people that share similar viewpoints, especially in this moment in time, because our values come through in our expression, and we are living in such a politically perilous moment. I would always hope, however, that nuance in disagreements can be a way to learn and grow. There are certainly people who work harder towards social issues and justice than others and there’s definitely a lot of performative actions with little substance. But this goes with all of humanity. We are all trying to navigate this crazy thing we call life, and it’s not easy for anyone. That said, I would never work with a MAGA supporter, partly because I can’t imagine we would have enough in common to want to create together but also because I wouldn’t want to validate their political beliefs by association.

Improvisation, composition and “comprovisation”

I came up with the “comprovisation” term and put it in some credits, but I don’t think of it as original. It's both an efficient and playful way to describe my approach to music. Where does composition stop and improvisation begin? In some ways I prefer it to the term improvisation, because I think most improvised music is actually quite composed, at least in the sense that in almost every situation, there are preconceived ideas of how musicians will approach their instruments and how they will interact with each other. But of course, it’s not very helpful in the long run if it’s not a common term, and it’s especially unhelpful if the goal is to reach out into the society at large. So, I don’t really use it that often.

A composition is something with a set of parameters that creates an outcome that is distinguishable from any other, no matter how slight. Improvisation is constantly happening in every aspect of the world. Sometimes I use the term instant composition, either for creative or bureaucratic reasons. Certainly, it's a shame that more emphasis is placed on composition by institutions financially. Though I came out of the hyper-composed world of classical music, and have degrees in composition, I believe improvised music has pushed the boundaries equally or even more so. And it was also an integral aspect of the development of classical music for centuries.

Solo piano

My solo piano work is the result of my lifelong practice. When I was young I dreamt of re-establishing the concept of composer/performer that used to be such an important part of what we call classical music. George Antheil was kind of my hero for a while, and then I began to realize that this was alive and well in the overall scope of jazz. Somewhere along the way it all merged for me, composition and improvisation, European concert music and black American music. I have a bunch of recordings out there, most recently Infinite-Sum Game on ESP-Disk’ which is a concert recording in Palermo in 2023.

Synthesizers and electronics

I am primarily inspired by exploring the possibilities of a particular instrument. I was dedicated to the piano for most of my life and didn’t record with an electric rig until about twelve years ago. I decided to take the leap and ended up owning about thirty different rigs. Synthesizers, samplers and mechanical instruments with pedals. Since I live on the road I owned only one at a time, so I was buying, exploring, recording, and selling, then buying a different one and so on. I’ve been working with the Korg Wavestate for about five years now – I’ve had about eight of them with other instruments in between – and have been working a lot utilizing my own recordings as sample sources which developed out of The Light Is Real , for which Terry and I recorded vocal improvisations virtually. His files were corrupted, so I chopped them up, imported them into the Wavestate and played them back through the keyboard with effects. Terry loved it and that gave me the idea to do this with samples from all five of the trio albums with Nels, William Parker, Michael Wimberly and Pauline Oliveros. ESP-Disk' released the first two Worlds in A Life volumes. Live in Dublin / WFMU Live will be coming out on a Limerick-based label in June.

Song and other writing

Most people who know my work do not know that I'm also a singer-songwriter. It definitely hasn't been my emphasis, but I have been writing songs since I was a very young. I'm the lead singer of Tsigoti, as well as with the Hand To Man Band (Mike Watt, John Dieterich and Tim Barnes) and on solo albums such as Machine in the Ghost and Hot Pursuit of Happiness' This Day's Called Tuesday, both on the Personal Archives label from Iowa and on a brand new album I'm self-releasing on Bandcamp called Oligarch Super Villains. Most of my songs are socio-policital commentary, anti-war, and philosophy, but I'm starting to work on an autobiographical album called Godammit Tommy! which is centered on my upbringing in the SF Bay Area and the political and cultural happenings, drawing parallels to the dynamics of our time now. Other than that, I have been published as a writer, most recently for a publication out of the UK called The Land, about experiencing the transition from the Valley Of Heart's Delight to Silicon Valley as a teenager. Over the last decade I have been the sole music writer for First American Art Magazine which is devoted to native artists of the Americas, as well as Essays on Deep Listening (for Pauline Oliveros), Blue Moon Magazine out of Prague, and ThreeFold Press out of Detroit.

Vision Festival and the New York scene

The common ground is the world of sound and our shared humanity. The beauty of freely improvised music is that everyone is coming at it with the idea that we are entering into a known/unknown territory, where exploration and connection with each other is key. William Parker and I first met in Detroit when I opened up for his trio at the old Bohemian National Home and we continued our friendship over the years. He had contributed a composition to Estamos Ensemble, a group of U.S. and Mexican musicians I put together, and eventually I asked if he would like to play with me and Nels Cline. I used to play a lot in New York but I haven’t so much in the last few years, mostly because I’m no longer traveling around the country in our van. It was a thrill to record with Karl Berger[1935-2023]. We were talking about a follow-up recording before he died. A great honor, and I cherish this one recording we made. I also have a couple of albums with Michael Snow, another dearly departed. One was recorded at the Philly Museum of Art to open his retrospective show, and was released by Edgetone Records, and the other one is part of my Astral Traveling Sessions that we recorded at Array in Toronto and published on Astral Spirits as part of a 25-album series of collaborations with many different musicians in 2019 and released during the pandemic.

Photo by ACVilla

It was great playing at the 2024 edition of the Vision Festival. I was able to attend the entirety of the fest. The first night was in honor of William who performed with a variety of his projects and ensembles, and I played on the last night, which also included the Sun Ra Arkestra and Marshall Allen for his 100th birthday celebration! I performed a solo piano set as well as Worlds in A Life along with live video art by ACVilla.

Upcoming projects

This month a duo album is coming out with Carlo Mascolo, a trombonist from Puglia as well as a new Hot Pursuit of Happiness – my solo songs project – album. This album is pretty political. In March I have a duo album with the Uruguayan contrabassist Alvaro Rosso. These are comprovisations based on the structures I devised originally for my duo with Stefano Scodanibbio. We have a concert in Lisbon March 20th. In April will also see the release of Omnileliomatic II with the SIO. We will be celebrating this with a concert in Catania and another in Palermo organized by Curva Minore, the organization founded by Lelio Gianneto. I will also be playing duo concerts with Maria Merlino , a wonderful saxophonist from Messina to celebrate our duo album on Setola di Maiale. The label is run by Stefano Giust, a great drummer whom I originally met in a trio with Edoardo Marraffa . We call ourselves Magimc. Other releases coming out include my first heavy metal album with a band called Akklamation from the Navajo Nation. I got to know them through Diné [the name Navajos call themselves] musician Michael Begay whom I’ve been collaborating with for several years. In September I will be directing the second installment of the Southwest Collaborative Music Convergence which brings together over twenty musicians for three days of collaborations. Everyone is invited as individuals and we play three large ensemble concerts at night as well as smaller groupings, panel discussions, and educational programs. I am also working with Cork Marcheschi, a visual artist and founding member of the 1960s experimental rock band 50-Foot Hose for the next Thollem/Cline trio album. Cork has built an array of mechanical noisemakers and Nels and I will be playing in response to these!

Further meditations

We live in an increasingly perilous moment in time. I believe the arts have an integral role to play in re-envisioning our relationship with each other and the planet. I would encourage everyone to be more curious about what’s happening in smaller pockets, places outside of the cultural meccas, and in your own home town. In all of my travels I have had the privilege to experience artists and communities in small cities and rural areas which are all too often ignored by the larger publications, festivals and audiences. I’ve always thought of counter-culture as something that is truly counter to the anti-values of so much of mainstream culture. I’m afraid to say however, that much of that has been lost to previous eras. The world of improvised and experimental music has adopted many of the same tactics and dynamics of consumerist society: There has been an accumulation of wealth in power. We have our own 1%, as well as cult of personality and celebrity worship, and as a result many beautiful artists are left behind. It should always be about the work itself, not about where you come from, and especially not what resources you have to throw at publicists. I know dynamics are difficult in our world and there are many pressures, and I am not suggesting that those who have the attention are not deserving it, but it seems to me that there should be more curiosity for what is happening in the more obscure parts of the world.

https://www.thollem.com/

https://thollem.bandcamp.com/

Upcoming albums (2025)

Oligarch Super Villains Thollem’s Hot Pursuit Of Happiness (January)
Quattro Frecce e Buonanotte Duo with Carlo Mascolo on Muzic Plus (January)
Shatter and Conquer Thollem’s Hot Pursuit Of Happiness (February)
Memories of Ourselves Duo with Alvaro Rosso on Setola di Maiale (March)
OmniLelioMatic II with the Sicilian Improvisers Orchestra on Setola di Maiale (April)
Untitled trio with Jacopo Andreini and Charles Ferris on Bandcamp (May)
Worlds in A Life Live (Solo Sextet) on Fort Evil Fruit
Ohms with Akklamation (Heavy Metal band from the Navajo Nation) on TBA

Live in 2025

Mar 7 (Urbana, IL) @ University of Illinois - Workshop with Improvisers Exchange Ensemble
Mar 8 (Urbana, IL) @ University of Illinois - 'Stories About People And Everyone Else' (with ACVilla)
Mar 9 (Chicago, IL) @ The Hungry Brain - Trio with Matt Lux and Avreeayl Ra
Mar 12 (Detroit, MI) @ Trinosophes - Solo Piano
Mar 20 (Lisbon, PT) @ Casa do Comum - Duo with Alvaro Rosso (release concert for Memories Of Ourselves) and 'Stories About People And Everyone Else' (With ACVilla)
Mar 27 (Strasbourg, FR) @ Conservatoire de Strasbourg Workshop plus concert with Tom Mays and Jean-Daniel Hege
Mar 31 (Zurich, CH) @ XENIX Thollem/ACVilla's 'Stories About People And Everyone Else'
Apr 3 - 5 (Bologna, IT) @ Centro di Ricerca Interdisciplinary Sulla Voce - residency in collaboration with Francesco Venturi
Apr 6 (Bologna, IT) @ Centro di Ricerca Interdisciplinary Sulla Voce - duo with Francesco Venturi
Apr 10 (Catania, IT) @ Zo with the Sicilian Improvisers Orchestra
Apr 11 (Palermo, IT) Sala Perriera Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa by Curva Minore - with the Sicilian Improvisers Orchestra
Apr 12 (Palermo, IT) @ Sala Perriera Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa by Curva Minore - Duo with Maria Merlino for the release on Setola di Maiale
Sep 18 - 20 (Flagstaff, AZ) @ Coconino Center for the Arts co-Directing the Southwest Collaborative Music Convergence along with Interference Series