The Free Jazz Collective: Jack Wright

Jack Wright with Ben Bennett

What is your greatest joy in improvised music?

Performing or playing a session interactively with friends--no structure, concept, or notion of what would be good music. Only the relation between us is involved. And I know I am at the height when I start laughing in the middle of playing.
What quality do you most admire in the musicians you perform with?

The need to enter into total enjoyment of what they are doing, whether the audience “gets it” or not. But if playing free is their way of having fun, then people almost always join in. Incidentally, that is why free playing is not avant-garde—it is too much fun, so it is a strange kind of seriousness.
Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most?

Iannis Xenakis
If you could resurrect a musician to perform with, who would it be?

I would not do that to them; they have given us a gift for us to build upon as we choose.
What would you still like to achieve musically in your life?

Ever since I stopped trying to be accepted as a professional musician, thirty years ago, I have not thought in terms of achievement. It was a great emancipation that I would recommend. To truly live one's life takes the place of achieving anything. If what I and my friends do is art, then it reaches no goals and achieves nothing.
Are you interested in popular music and - if yes - what music/artist do you particularly like?

Yes, but the artists are mostly unknown, or they don't call themselves artists, or I don't care about the names. Anyway, there’s no ranking of them: non-western village music, sixties R and B, Soul, Rock, and early Punk, and today, Playboi Carti comes to mind—playful and always fresh.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I just don't think that way. I guess I like myself and sometimes get upset but get past it. There's no point in trying to be a better person; there is no such thing as “better.”
Which of your albums are you most proud of?

I'm not proud of anything I have done musically. Or ashamed either!
Once an album of yours is released, do you still listen to it? And how often?

I record most sessions and performances in order to make judgments, and often enjoy, but the recording quality must be high. I only "release" for the purpose of touring, to give people a chance to decide whether to come, or to persuade promoters to book a gig. Free playing is a performance music; the recordings might lead you to want to hear the musicians perform, but only those who are hungry for experience will come. Others who come leave quickly. Recorded music is so available today that hardly anyone actually needs it.
Which album (from any musician) have you listened to the most in your life?

Maybe Eric Dolphy, but this is a quantitative question. You can hear someone once and that can be a total experience that changes your life. For me, that was a certain moment in Coltrane’s Love Supreme. I fell on the floor at that moment, 1974, I think.
What are you listening to at the moment?

I pretty much only listen to other people’s music when I’m in the car on tour in the US, and I’m not there now! But also I listen to other sets when I’m performing.
What artist outside music inspires you?

Mr. Nobody, whose art is beyond expression. “They” are outside the outside.

Jack Wright on the Free Jazz Blog:

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Special Note: Jack Wright is be in Greece to talk about his book "The Free Musics", which was recently translated to Greek by Free Jazz Blog writer Fotis Nikolakopoulos.

Presentation of the book "The Free Musics - The improvisational side of jazz in America from the counterculture of the 60's to today" and discussion with the author of the book and musician-improviser Jack Wright. Foreword by the translator of the book, Fotis .

Tonight at To Pikap in Thessaloniki. More info here.

The Free Jazz Collective

Sunday, October 20, 2024

Jack Wright - Sunday Interview

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