Shane Parish - Sunday Interview

Photo by Petra Cvelbar

1. What is your greatest joy in improvised music?

A lot of my time is spent composing and arranging, researching and developing. Most of my improvising is saved for the live performance. So, when I am performing a concert or recording in an improvised setting, it is a moment of discovery for me, where I learn what resources I have available to me in the heat of battle. I allow myself to let go and enjoy the ride, listen and trust intuition, observing the tools that I have fashioned over so many years of devotion.

2. What quality do you most admire in the musicians you perform with?

Naturalness, sensitivity, personality, emotional intelligence. I admire their dynamic range. The ability to work with pin drop silence and space, and the means to conjure tremendous force when necessary. The sensitivity to follow where the collective muse is taking us, without forcing it to move one way or another in a contrived way.  

3. Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most?

The obvious choice is John Coltrane. I admire his curiosity, rigor, breadth, beauty and evolution.

4. If you could resurrect a musician to perform with, who would it be?

I would love to play a freely improvised duo with Eric Dolphy.

5. What would you still like to achieve musically in your life?

Total fluency in improvised pan-tonal polyrhythmic counterpoint.

6. Are you interested in popular music and - if yes - what music/artist do you particularly like.

I love all music. Any interest in music is a positive.  I like some Lana Del Ray quite a bit.

7. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I would have started singing at a much younger age.

8. Which of your albums are you most proud of?

Repertoire, Liverpool, Undertaker Please Drive Slow, the Ahleuchatistas albums Expansion & The Same and the Other.

9. Once an album of yours is released, do you still listen to it? And how often?

Typically no. But, in recent years, I have listened to my own albums to prepare for concerts. So I’ve spent long hours listening to Repertoire, Four Guitars Live, and Expansion, in preparation for performances with the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet, Ahleuchatistas, and solo.

10. Which album (from any musician) have you listened to the most in your life?

Who knows? If we count my teenage years, probably The Mind Is A Terrible Thing to Taste by Ministry, or Animals by Pink Floyd, or Repeater by Fugazi.

11. What are you listening to at the moment?

I’m currently listening to Explorations by The Bill Evans Trio.  

12. What artist outside music inspires you?

Bruce Lee. About five years ago, I read all of his journals. Throughout his writings, I replaced the word “combat“ with “music” and felt like I received a lot of wisdom about improvisation.

Shane Parish on the Free Jazz Blog:

• Jazz em Agosto 2024 (Part 1/3)
• Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville - May 2024, Victoriaville, Canada
• More Soul and Fire
• Bill Orcutt - Music for Four Guitars (PALILALIA, 2022)
• Guitar - Duos (Part 1): Leading tones, sympathetic harmonies, and unobservable mysteries
• Wendy Eisenberg and Shane Parish - Nervous Systems (Verses Records, 2020) ***½
• Solo Guitar: Shane Parish and Ross Hammond
• Ahleuchatistas - Arrebato (International Anthem, 2015) ****