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| Photo by Deneka Peniston |
- What is your greatest joy in improvised music?
Connecting with spirits through sound in the moment! - What quality do you most admire in the musicians you perform with?
What they all have in common is a deep musical and spiritual engagement in their practices, they are composers and collaborators that are curious to experience new vibrations, new ways of sounding and being. - Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most?
This is tough to give just one answer but I’d say Thelonious Monk still for me communicates a genius that figured out how to communicate the very thing he wanted to say. I think we forget how difficult that is. So many of us spend a lifetime figuring out who we are in relation to our artistic selves. Monk seemed to just know on the deepest of levels. So he figured out a way that sounded like nothing else although the connections to jazz piano history were there. I remember learning that after Monk lost his (racist) cabaret card, he squirreled away for 6 years and just composed what he heard. - If you could resurrect a musician to perform with, who would it be?
The first person that comes to mind is the great Eric Dolphy! I used to dream about sparring with him, singing wide intervallic leaps with him. He is the reason why bass clarinet is one of my favorite instruments. It would have been a dream to hang on the beach, listen to the birds and play off of them with him. - What would you still like to achieve musically in your life?
I have written a few large scale works that I want performed on big stages, like Carnegie Hall. I have a choral work called Black Women’s Music, a piece abour my mother for Nonet, a large scale work on the 45th President called Mutations for Justice and I’m currently developing two works on national trauma and pain. - Are you interested in popular music and - if yes - what music/artist do you particularly like?
I love all music, as long as it moves me. That’s always been my barometer. Tough to choose one, yet I’d go PJ Harvey. Her writing, her guitar playing, her SINGING and the way she expresses her thoughts in her work is mindblowing. I’ve been a fan since the 90’s and finally heard her live in 2017. INCREDIBLE to hear then and know that all sound and approach is real. - If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
To still have my parents on the planet. I’m sure I’d be a very different person if they were still here. - Which of your albums are you most proud of?
I dig all of the work I’ve put into the world because they are all coming from a specific space, trying to say specific things. No two albums sound alike. Yet the album that seemed to pull it all together for me was the FreeSong Suite in 2009 from the Fay Victor Ensemble. We recorded that record as a series of three suites in real time. The focus that required and how much work the band put into traveling through worlds. It was the album where the ideas I’d been experimenting and toying with began to gel. - Once an album of yours is released, do you still listen to it? And how often?
Usually I will but it could be years later. Lol!
- Which album (from any musician) have you listened to the most in your life?
Probably All N’ All by Earth Wind and Fire. The songs 'Fantasy' and 'Serpentine Fire' had me particularly obsessed. - What are you listening to at the moment?
Working on compositions of others at the moment, not too much time to listen to other sounds! - What artist outside music inspires you?
Right now I’m deeply inspired by the artist/social justice advocate Amanda Seales and the scholar Dr. Yaba Blay. I’m inspired by how both of these deep thinkers center Blackness in their art and public facing platforms. I am constantly learning and shaking my head in agreement when I tune into what they have to say.
Fay Victor on the Free Jazz Blog:
2 comments:
her new Herbie Nichols record is one of the best things I've heard this year
@zebtron, many thanks for pointing out this record. i was not aware of this project, but it is an absolute stunner.
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