The Free Jazz Collective: Stephen Gauci

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

What is your greatest joy in improvised music?

My greatest joy in improvised music, and music in general, is FREEDOM. When I’m playing music, the freedom is absolute. Like a bird, I am free. Unbound.
What quality do you most admire in the musicians you perform with?

I admire FREEDOM in any musician/human being. To be clear; Only a free human being can perform free music. It’s just that simple. In NYC I have met only a small handful of musicians that I would say are free human beings. Freedom is rare and precious.
Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most?

I don’t play favorites with dead people. Life, and music, are for the living. My favorite musicians are the ones that are alive today. Anyone alive, is superior to anyone dead. The worst living musician is superior to the greatest dead musician (because they are DEAD).

Only academics worship the dead.

Jazz musicians have a morbid fascination and habit of digging up dead bodies and rubbing up against them, in the hopes of attaining some kind of “magic”... selfish concept as usual.

I am not one of those.
If you could resurrect a musician to perform with, who would it be?

Again, I would never wish to resurrect anyone. Let the dead rest please.

It is a scathing indictment against the jazz establishment/industry/academia (and they are all one and the same now, joined at the hip. There is no jazz outside of academia), that so much emphasis is put on the dead. Dead people, and dead music. Even their selected “jazz stars” are expected to bow down before the dead. These kids appear on the cover of downbeat, and five minutes later they’re making “tribute” recordings to dead people. This is because the industry/academia, that made them a “star”, actually has no confidence in them.
What would you still like to achieve musically in your life?

I would like to be an example of how a truly free artist/human being can exist in this world. I was brought up to be a selfless, generous individual (mandatory qualities for freedom).

Unfortunately, I’ve found that it is not possible to be a kind, generous, selfless person, let alone be a free human being, within the jazz tradition. So I stand alone and apart from any tradition (hence; “gaucimusic”).

I hope to clear a path through the “forest”, so others have an example of how to exist as a free, creative human being in this world.
Are you interested in popular music and - if yes - what music/artist do you particularly like?

I have no interest whatsoever in popular music. If you look at “popular” people in general, they are mostly frauds. Who was the most popular kid in your high school? Probably an idiot. Donald Trump is VASTLY popular. So was Hitler. I put jazz “stardom” in the same category as “pop” musicians. But they are even more ridiculous, as their puffed up “stardom” is dependent on a small pool of 12 year old downbeat readers and summer family festival goers. Who cares. Or as Miles put it “SO WHAT”.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I still have a temper. I could do without that.
Which of your albums are you most proud of?

I’m proud of everything released on “gaucimusic recordings” (over 60 releases in the past three years). The label is a grand statement of artistic freedom. I put out the music, when and how it demands to be. No one has any power to shut me down. Total freedom. I neither ask, nor need permission from anyone.
Once an album of yours is released, do you still listen to it? And how often?

In general, I never listen to my recordings once released. Recordings are for people that are not fortunate enough to be able to hear the music live.

When I was a child in the suburbs, I listened to lots of recordings. I live in NYC now, with great musicians growing between the cracks in the sidewalk.

Besides, I’m too busy creating TODAY’S music, to listen to my old stuff.
Which album (from any musician) have you listened to the most in your life?

Hmmm.. not exactly sure. But I’ve listened to A LOT of Coltrane in the past.

I’m really not one of these “my apartment is filled with jazz recordings” cats...

I am not, nor do I care to be, a “jazz scholar”. I would never take a “blindfold test”. That’s kiddie stuff.

I just create stuff… not a popular proposition in jazz these days. I’m a performer, not a record collector.
What are you listening to at the moment?

I’m listening to my colleagues here in NYC! All music is local. It really is…
What artist outside music inspires you.

Van Gogh. Not because of his art (which of course is great.. although bastardized. I mean, does anyone really think he meant for his work to be plastered on coffee mugs?).

I admire Van Gogh, because he exposed the lie at the heart of all art traditions.

He was rejected because he was a) very religious, b) very poor c) very “strange”. NOT because he was “mentally ill”. The art industry drove him to that. They only wanted curly french mustaches, and rich guys painting water lilies and screwing their 15 year old models at that time. Someone like Van Gogh, a truly free/spiritual human being could never ever be accepted into the established arts community at that time, or in this time. He would embarrass all the other artists/middle (money) men…

We all know that’s the truth about Van Gogh.

And being a LEGALLY DEAF (yes, that is correct) musician myself, I understand exactly how lame people can be that way. If there is anything “strange” about an artist (that can’t be somehow written off as “hip” or “eccentric”)... the establishment will have nothing to do with that person. I know the “funny looks” one gets from personal experience. The arts community is only open to THEIR APPROVED eccentricities.

If you’re “strangeness” falls outside of that… well, you're shit outa luck.

Unless you're gauci and you make YOUR OWN luck.

Stephen Gauci on the Free Jazz Blog:

The Free Jazz Collective

Sunday, August 11, 2024

Stephen Gauci - Sunday Interview

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