Surprise your pig (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} xnoybis) wrote,@ 2006-07-26 03:50:00 |
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An interview with John McLaughlin
John Mclaughlin is my favourite musician of all time. Here're some excerpts from an interview:
"I feel very strongly about playing more than notes with the people, particuarly in jazz music or Indian music or any music that deals with improvisation. I have always felt that improvisation is like the most honest kind of music in the sense that if you're spontaneous then you're being yourself. Because you can only be yourself spontaneously, and you can only be spontaneous with other people. I mean, I used to run into Paul Motian in the Sufi center in the late '60s and early '70s and we'd see Hazrat Inyat Khan speaking and this guy is a very, very high person. And he would stand up in front of the 40 or 50 people there who were into him and he'd just be looking out at people in the audience without saying anything for about three or four minutes, which is a long time if you're waiting for somebody to speak. But he'd be like in the ozone but in a very special way, waiting for the words to come and being totally real and totally spontaneous with the people. And this is really beautiful to see. In fact, it's the most natural state of human beings. Anyway, that's kind of an analogy to what I feel about music, which is to say we're really ourselves most naturally when we're being spontaneous with each other, which is the best way to be in life anyways. You know, when you have a family, everybody is spontaneous with each other and sometimes a little brutally honest, but nevertheless it's spontaneous so it cannot really be bad. And that is really my philosophical foundation, if you like, about how groups should be. And maybe this is why I always want great players. I need stimulation, I need them to kick my ass, as it were, and provoke me in some way that will push me to a place that I don't know, that I've never been before. "
"Yeah, but you know...I was struggling in my 20s. I was really struggling because I couldn't find any guitar player that really spoke to me. The only people that really spoke to me were people like Miles and Coltrane and Bill Evans and their drummers. And by this time, of course, it was like late '64-65...this was some period, man. I mean, don't forget when Kind of Blue came out...that was '59 and that swept me away. Of course, Milestones was before that. And then Trane came out with his thing and Miles kept doing his thing. Cannonball and Trane were both in Miles' band, then Cannonball got his band together with his brother Nat. And these guys were all killing! For me, at that time, it was just normal. It was the music that was happening at that time. But when I look back at it now I see it was like a phenomenal period for jazz and for music in general. Man, just think of all that was going on in the early '60s, and I was caught up right in the middle of it. I mean, I loved to listen to Wes Montgomery and Tal Farlow, but that was the old school. What can I tell you' And I always used to wonder why Miles and Trane didn't have guitar players. Why not, you know' I used to wonder, "Why isn't there somebody out there doing it on guitar like these guys are doing it on saxophones and trumpets'" So I was trapped in this frustrating place. And you know, when you're a guitar player and you listen to Coltrane all the time and you're hearing him ripping up and down his instrument, playing those sheets of sound...and you're hearing Miles, of course, playing gorgeous melodies like always...just trying to get a conception for my own instrument that was anywhere near that level was tough. And in the meantime, I'm dropping acid and I finally figured out, "Well, I've got to find a way to alter my state of consciousness without chemicals." And that's another trip...trying to get your life together and be strong in a natural way. It was rough, it was very rough. You know, I tried lot of different things. I joined some meditation group and even before that it was the Theosophical Society in London. But you know, the only good thing about that was they had a good library and I found some good books in there that opened me up to some new ideas. Then I started doing yoga and started doing meditation and became a member of some group in London, but it just wasn't happening for me. So I just quit that right away and continued (my search). And I just kept doing yoga until I became a disciple of Sri Chinmoy. I was already in New York by that time. But by early '68, before I came over, I'd finished the whole studio scene. I just couldn't deal with it anymore and I was just back to my poverty-stricken days but at least happy about not having to go and deal with Tom Jones and Petula Clark"
"I'm looking for new forms, trying to find something new. And of course, we can go on forever looking for new forms. Fortunately in music you can go on forever. And I will die looking for new forms. But that's the way I'm made, so I just accept it like that. Maybe growing up with the background that I had...you know I'm trying to be a jazzman, I'm into Trane and Miles, I'm hearing all this great music -- A Love Supreme and Miles in Europe where he's playing all these standards. And then, of course, in my early days when I was a teenager I was so crazy about flamenco music that I wanted to be a flamenco guitar player. Meanwhile, I'm playing r&b with Georgie Fame, and that's cool because when you hear Charles Mingus that's r&b too. You take the r&b out of jazz, you don't have any jazz. And I'm also into Rahsaan Roland Kirk, whom I had the great fortune to play with in London. Rahsaan was totally jazz but he was so funky and had such a blues thing too. That's why I love Mingus and Monk, because you could feel the blues so deeply in their music. So I'm a young guitarist in love with jazz but in the meantime I'm trying to survive by playing tunes by James Brown, who I love also, I gotta tellya. I love that music. But I was being pulled every which way by all these movements, all these different kinds of music -- jazz, flamenco, r&b, blues -- so in the end I was just a big melting pot where they all kind of mix up. And you know, that's what I am. I'm just a big mix of all these cultural influences tied up with my own restlessness. Anyway, who can figure out what we are."
"My parents were divorced when I was seven. They split. And they tried to get together quite a few years later, and I was already 12 or 13 by this time and playing guitar. My mother allowed me the chance to study piano when I was about eight years old and that was really great. She was wonderful, my mother. She was just one of my greatest inspirations. What she did for me I will never be able to describe. Anyway, one day my father was back and they were trying to, like, get it together. I must've been 13. So it was just me and him in living room and one point he says to me, "So what do you want to do when you grow up'" And I said, "I'm gonna be a musician." And he said, "No, a real job." I mean, what a moron this guy is, what an idiot! I mean, he doesn't know anything. And that was a real clincher for me."
"BM: Speaking of re-education, I don't know if you know about the Pat Martino story. (Martino suffered a brain aneurysm in 1980 which robbed him of his memory, forcing him to relearn the guitar from scratch).
BM: Well, he's finally back on top of his game, but it's taken him 10 years to get there.
JM: Yeah, I heard him play recently. He's killing.
BM: Yeah, and there was a period of time when he was struggling and of course he had to relearn the instrument. He woke up from surgery and had no memory of guitar whatsoever.
JM: Unbelievable!
BM: And then he very meticulously began relearning his instrument.
JM: I know, it's phenomenal. It's like a real victory of the spirit, that's all I can say."
John Mclaughlin is my favourite musician of all time. Here're some excerpts from an interview:
"I feel very strongly about playing more than notes with the people, particuarly in jazz music or Indian music or any music that deals with improvisation. I have always felt that improvisation is like the most honest kind of music in the sense that if you're spontaneous then you're being yourself. Because you can only be yourself spontaneously, and you can only be spontaneous with other people. I mean, I used to run into Paul Motian in the Sufi center in the late '60s and early '70s and we'd see Hazrat Inyat Khan speaking and this guy is a very, very high person. And he would stand up in front of the 40 or 50 people there who were into him and he'd just be looking out at people in the audience without saying anything for about three or four minutes, which is a long time if you're waiting for somebody to speak. But he'd be like in the ozone but in a very special way, waiting for the words to come and being totally real and totally spontaneous with the people. And this is really beautiful to see. In fact, it's the most natural state of human beings. Anyway, that's kind of an analogy to what I feel about music, which is to say we're really ourselves most naturally when we're being spontaneous with each other, which is the best way to be in life anyways. You know, when you have a family, everybody is spontaneous with each other and sometimes a little brutally honest, but nevertheless it's spontaneous so it cannot really be bad. And that is really my philosophical foundation, if you like, about how groups should be. And maybe this is why I always want great players. I need stimulation, I need them to kick my ass, as it were, and provoke me in some way that will push me to a place that I don't know, that I've never been before. "
"Yeah, but you know...I was struggling in my 20s. I was really struggling because I couldn't find any guitar player that really spoke to me. The only people that really spoke to me were people like Miles and Coltrane and Bill Evans and their drummers. And by this time, of course, it was like late '64-65...this was some period, man. I mean, don't forget when Kind of Blue came out...that was '59 and that swept me away. Of course, Milestones was before that. And then Trane came out with his thing and Miles kept doing his thing. Cannonball and Trane were both in Miles' band, then Cannonball got his band together with his brother Nat. And these guys were all killing! For me, at that time, it was just normal. It was the music that was happening at that time. But when I look back at it now I see it was like a phenomenal period for jazz and for music in general. Man, just think of all that was going on in the early '60s, and I was caught up right in the middle of it. I mean, I loved to listen to Wes Montgomery and Tal Farlow, but that was the old school. What can I tell you' And I always used to wonder why Miles and Trane didn't have guitar players. Why not, you know' I used to wonder, "Why isn't there somebody out there doing it on guitar like these guys are doing it on saxophones and trumpets'" So I was trapped in this frustrating place. And you know, when you're a guitar player and you listen to Coltrane all the time and you're hearing him ripping up and down his instrument, playing those sheets of sound...and you're hearing Miles, of course, playing gorgeous melodies like always...just trying to get a conception for my own instrument that was anywhere near that level was tough. And in the meantime, I'm dropping acid and I finally figured out, "Well, I've got to find a way to alter my state of consciousness without chemicals." And that's another trip...trying to get your life together and be strong in a natural way. It was rough, it was very rough. You know, I tried lot of different things. I joined some meditation group and even before that it was the Theosophical Society in London. But you know, the only good thing about that was they had a good library and I found some good books in there that opened me up to some new ideas. Then I started doing yoga and started doing meditation and became a member of some group in London, but it just wasn't happening for me. So I just quit that right away and continued (my search). And I just kept doing yoga until I became a disciple of Sri Chinmoy. I was already in New York by that time. But by early '68, before I came over, I'd finished the whole studio scene. I just couldn't deal with it anymore and I was just back to my poverty-stricken days but at least happy about not having to go and deal with Tom Jones and Petula Clark"
"I'm looking for new forms, trying to find something new. And of course, we can go on forever looking for new forms. Fortunately in music you can go on forever. And I will die looking for new forms. But that's the way I'm made, so I just accept it like that. Maybe growing up with the background that I had...you know I'm trying to be a jazzman, I'm into Trane and Miles, I'm hearing all this great music -- A Love Supreme and Miles in Europe where he's playing all these standards. And then, of course, in my early days when I was a teenager I was so crazy about flamenco music that I wanted to be a flamenco guitar player. Meanwhile, I'm playing r&b with Georgie Fame, and that's cool because when you hear Charles Mingus that's r&b too. You take the r&b out of jazz, you don't have any jazz. And I'm also into Rahsaan Roland Kirk, whom I had the great fortune to play with in London. Rahsaan was totally jazz but he was so funky and had such a blues thing too. That's why I love Mingus and Monk, because you could feel the blues so deeply in their music. So I'm a young guitarist in love with jazz but in the meantime I'm trying to survive by playing tunes by James Brown, who I love also, I gotta tellya. I love that music. But I was being pulled every which way by all these movements, all these different kinds of music -- jazz, flamenco, r&b, blues -- so in the end I was just a big melting pot where they all kind of mix up. And you know, that's what I am. I'm just a big mix of all these cultural influences tied up with my own restlessness. Anyway, who can figure out what we are."
"My parents were divorced when I was seven. They split. And they tried to get together quite a few years later, and I was already 12 or 13 by this time and playing guitar. My mother allowed me the chance to study piano when I was about eight years old and that was really great. She was wonderful, my mother. She was just one of my greatest inspirations. What she did for me I will never be able to describe. Anyway, one day my father was back and they were trying to, like, get it together. I must've been 13. So it was just me and him in living room and one point he says to me, "So what do you want to do when you grow up'" And I said, "I'm gonna be a musician." And he said, "No, a real job." I mean, what a moron this guy is, what an idiot! I mean, he doesn't know anything. And that was a real clincher for me."
"BM: Speaking of re-education, I don't know if you know about the Pat Martino story. (Martino suffered a brain aneurysm in 1980 which robbed him of his memory, forcing him to relearn the guitar from scratch).
BM: Well, he's finally back on top of his game, but it's taken him 10 years to get there.
JM: Yeah, I heard him play recently. He's killing.
BM: Yeah, and there was a period of time when he was struggling and of course he had to relearn the instrument. He woke up from surgery and had no memory of guitar whatsoever.
JM: Unbelievable!
BM: And then he very meticulously began relearning his instrument.
JM: I know, it's phenomenal. It's like a real victory of the spirit, that's all I can say."
