Interview

RJ: How would you describe your new band's overall vibe?

SH: It's difficult to describe, but I think one of the things that stands out is that we're moving forward in the music, on our own terms. We all really have a sense of ownership in the music now. It doesn't matter what happened before us, and it doesn't matter what's going to happen after us.

Right now, we're going to create music that we choose to create that's filled with each of our personal influences musically. That's the general energy. It's very fresh sounding and very optimistic.

RJ: Several artists of our generation are doing a lot of positive things in terms of trying to move the music forward.

SH: It's a healthy time for the music. Actually, the industry is suffering considerably, but as a result, the industry-suffering musicians, they tend to just say, "Well, I'm going to do whatever I want then, it doesn't make a difference. I'm not going to get a big record deal or anything like that if I play standards, so why don't I just write and create my own music?" And you're seeing that attitude prevailing more and more these days, which is great!

I think creatively in terms of new voices, and that sense of reckless abandonment is really an essential part of the tradition of jazz. You're seeing that happening now, more and more.

It's like people get those two phrases mixed up - the tradition of jazz and the history of jazz. I always like to say that Charlie Parker and whoever - Louis Armstrong, people like that - they're not the tradition of jazz. They're the history of jazz. The tradition of jazz is spontaneity, it's creativity, it's the expression of the individual voice within the sound of the community. That's the tradition of jazz. The other thing is the history of jazz.

So, when you have people who are just regurgitating sounds from the past, in my opinion they're actually working outside of the tradition of the music. It's sort of a contradiction. It's like [saying] I'm going to be more of a traditionalist. But if you're a traditionalist, that means you're going to be pushing buttons and trying to find something new.

It's dangerous to have this mentality of jazz that only the greats from the past are great. We have to always recognize the potential in one another. The new Miles Davis is probably among us right now, but may not be getting that attention because we're so focused on Kind of Blue. It's an awesome record, but you know, it's funny.

Another goal with my record is [that] I wanted to make a record that I wanted to listen to. I like having music that grooves. I like having music that sounds like it was written in this decade. That's really important to me.

RJ: What do you think about how the music has been able to reach the Black community?

SH: It kind of depends on where you're playing. There are certain areas of the county where you'll go and you'll see more African Americans than the population of the audience. But in general, there's a lack of African Americans coming out to see jazz. And I'm a musician who almost never blames the audience for anything. I really feel that it's our responsibility to reach that audience if that's what we choose to do.

There are a lot of outstanding factors. I think historically, when the music was taken out of Harlem and you put these high price tags on the music, African Americans at that time didn't have that kind of money. So, culturally it was sort of taken away from that community from a historical context.

Nowadays, when you look at African American culture as a whole, and some of the arts and things of that nature, it really is a culture that keeps moving forward. It's not a culture of preservationists. In European tradition, they're preservationists. If it's something's great, they're going to hold it, put the money behind it, and it's going to be around for the next two million years. African Americans tend to create something and master it, and then they just let it go and move on to the next thing.

When you look at how R&B is developed, and how hip hop is developed, jazz seems to be stagnating a little bit. And once the musicians start really moving the music forward, as I think a lot of us are starting to do now, where we're making music that sounds like it was created in this decade for crying out loud [laughing]...and it doesn't sound like music that we created in the '50s, or something, then you're going to have more African Americans coming out to see the music, because I think it will be more directly related to their immediate environment. That's just my theory.

RJ: That's an interesting theory.

SH: I don't blame them [African Americans]. A lot of African Americans, when they think of jazz, they're all over Kenny G. Boney James, oh my god, he's a star in the Black community, which is unbelievable to me.

But I understand. They're playing music with a little more R&B influence, which is a more popular music right now, which people tend to like. There's no reason why we can't have that without compromising our integrity in terms of harmony and our quest for greatness. If there was anything that I'm really proud of with this new record, it's that I feel like I've found that balance.

RJ: Cassandra Wilson was just in town. I know the two of you have worked together in the past. Her rendition of Abbey Lincoln's song "Throw It Away" is beautiful.

SH: Lincoln is one of my all-time favorites. What an original voice and mentality. She's really of her era. I heard her music in the past, and I could hear the time period. But when I hear her music now, it's music that's reflective of the issues of today.

You asked about African Americans... I mean, what do we expect if we're not playing music that is connected to the problems that people are suffering from today?

Years ago, she said something to me that I'll always remember. She said the problem that we're having out here right now is that everyone's trying to play jazz. I wrote that down on a piece of paper and left it on my music stand. Before I practiced, I would always see that and think about it. She's absolutely right. There's this definition of what jazz is, and everyone is trying to fit into that definition.

In a social context, I think we're just having a battle of generations right now. It's something that's reflected in other areas of our society besides the jazz community. It's a difficult thing to say, because a lot of people will interpret it the wrong way.

The issue of the baby boomer generation is affecting our generation. We're getting out of college and there aren't jobs. I'm not blaming the baby boomers. I'm just sort making, hopefully, an objective observation about what I think are some of the issues.

So, not only do we have problems getting jobs because a lot of the baby boomers haven't retired yet, [but] also they're going to deplete the Social Security fund along with George Bush. I'm sorry... Anyway, I want to get off that.

But then musically what happens is [that], because the baby boomers are of that age where they have the means to go to concerts, they're our primary audience. They want to hear music from their childhood, from those great musicals that they loved, so there's pressure on young musicians to play those standards in that manner. I think the balance of generations in our society is slightly off right now.

It's up to us to bring a younger audience out. But again, it's all connected. A lot of the younger people don't have jobs right now. They don't have a ton of money to come to a jazz club and hear 45 minutes of music. Not to mention that there are so many more things competing for their dollar besides a 45-minute performance.