April19, 2007 by Sergio at www.elintruso.com

I think the best place to begin is your recent European gigs with Human Feel. What was the response?

>People were really into the shows. I think many have never heard Kurt play that open or ‘free’ before because he almost never does that with any other group. In addition we were also playing some places that normally don’t have too much “avant” jazz and improv, so they were surprised to hear Chris, Andrew and myself as well. Plus the band rocked it pretty hard each night, generating a lot of energy - we made a lot of new fans.

 

Do you find any difference between the audience here in The United States and those overseas?

>I find a difference more from venue to venue, the vibe of the place more affecting the feel of the evening. Our audiences are a pretty consistent group these days, whether it is in Japan or Canada. They are also a relatively young and curious audience, there to hear something new or at least different, which couldn’t make me happier.

 

Do you have a favorite place or club that you love performing at?

>Bimhuis in Amsterdam is the new favorite of my posse. Everything from the food, hotel, hang, sound, venue – totally happening.

 

What was the concept behind Galore?

>Just to get back together after ten years and make a new disc, nothing more than that. We did a few shows 2 years ago and were like “we gotta do this again...” We have such a history together- it was great to record at Brooklyn Recording, do the mix together, and then to release it on Chris Speed’s new label Skirl. The whole thing is about family and doing what we want, when we want.

 

In what aspects did the band evolution from it’s first album of the band to Galore and what did it lose?

>We lost our sometimes difficult kid egos and insecurities that would flare up years ago as a band and mess up the music – now we just flame at each other occasionally;) What we all have realized now is how important it is to us to take this music on road and keep it alive, which means more recordings and tours.

 

You’re a drummer and a band leader. How does that work?

>Do my absolute best not to be a ‘pain in the ass’ leader. I just want to be buried in the band and make music as a single entity. That’s the way I started and I could care less about the leader aspect. The only justification for leading is to allow me to get first chance at writing and arranging the songs, then let the band make it theirs.

Since you’ve played with so many people as a sideman, what are some of the philosophies you adhere to when you are a band leader these days?

>If improvisation is the main part of the music, the less one says the better of course. Songs are worth turning inside and out to find what’s there, so then there’s a lot of talking and reaching for the unheard. Just be cool to others, treat people the way you like to be treated. It’s emotional music, sometimes it gets messy, try to recover gracefully.

Lets talk about Dogs of Great Indifference, without fear I can affirm with no mistake that this is the best work of your career. Do you feel this way? Do you agree?

>Wow, I don’t know. It sounds a little dumb but I really like each of the AlasNoAxis cd’s for completely different reasons, so it’s hard for me to chose which one of my kids is best;) I know the fans tend to favor one over another, which means we are doing our job right, but it’s a sin to keep making the same cd over and over again. “Dogs” was just us trying be as live as possible in the studio, no overdubs, and allowing the tunes to stretch out in a way that seemed natural to us in that moment.

 

Where there any goals you or the band wanted to achieve when making the cd.?

>I am only trying to write music that I would want to listen to, sounds like a simple idea, but goes against my jazz/music school conditioning some days... I write all the songs on differently tuned guitars that I don’t really know to play and sing the melodies at the top of my lungs, with made up fake lyrics, in the privacy of my apartment in Brooklyn. Therapeutic catharsis.

 

Did you write all the material with each individual musician in mind?

>Oh yeah, obviously I love my band and their sounds, and we are all old friends. I know however that they are always searching for something that’s new to them, so I’m never sure how the music will sound until that first rehearsal. I like the idea of a demo when you know exactly how something should be but I love to see what happens when you toss the melodies, rhythms and harmonies at them without saying anything. It’s a different process each time we do this, evolving...

That’s an amazing cast. How did you put it together?

>I met Hilmar at a party with a bunch of Icelanders in Boston. He brought Chris, Skuli and I together to Iceland to record his first cd, which was never released because we couldn’t find a label. We outgrew the music soon after but that started our relationship as the four of us. When Stefan Winter asked me to record my first cd for him I immediately thought of this combination. The funny thing is we sent him this old quartet recording 10 years before when he was running JMT records... he denies ever having heard it:)

Would you like to describe to us the members of AlasNoAxis as persons. I know that all of them are excellent musicians.

>I’ll try, I haven’t done this before.

Hilmar: He lived with us in Brooklyn for a year once and we always missed playing afterwards. He’s a married man with two children living in Iceland. Extremely talented composer as well (check out the TYFT band on Skirl). Searching for all things interesting and fun. Great cook.

Skuli: Always a big musical inspiration, he tricked me into buying a laptop and start programming. When he released his solo cd on Extreme 10 years ago, it just freaked everybody out in the neighborhood and for me raised the bar really high for making a solo recording. It’s just bass overdubbed but sounds like an orchestra from heaven/hell. A very soft spoken and culturally curious man as well.

Chris: We having been playing together since we were 14 years old, kicking each other’s ass musically as well as personally for over 25 years. A very honest musician and a most dependable friend. His tenor sound is completely his own, the perfect singer for AlasNoAxis.

 

Let talk about the drums. Do you have a main kit?

>I have one drum set, a 1989 Sonor Hi-Lite. I bought it because Jack DeJohnette played one, who I was really into at that time. Big mistake, I had no idea how to get a sound out of it. I worked for months on it in a basement in a village in Germany, but I fell in love with it, now it’s the only kit I want to play. I play different drums every night on the road outside of New York, but there is nothing like that Sonor kit......and I love UFIP cymbals from Italy – they crack, they break, oddball stuff, awesome.

 

Are you always in control?

>That’s a great question:)))

Did you find yourself playing things you didn’t expect?

>Oh. I do my best to always play what I hear, even if it’s a gesture or a movement that produces randomness, so there are always surprises – which you have to take note of because that is when your inner music is letting itself be known. I can’t force those moments but I can watch for them and see later what can be done with them in terms of vocabulary, composition, etc. For me, this idea of improvisation is just instant composition, for better and worse;)

As follow up, what relevant differences and distinctions do you believe exist between your method and style in comparison to the other drummers?

>I have been doing a lot of teaching the past years, and I have been working on trying to distill an approach to music and drums that has nothing to do with instrumental skill but only the musical ideas that are found in all styles and non-styles of playing. For example, drums and guitar suffer from serious technical sportsperson-like abuse, which can be fun, of course, but that has nothing to do with what I consider music. The technique only is there to serve the bigger musical picture – again, sounds pretty damn obvious but genius technique is the kiss of death to most students until they go through an identity crisis when they realize they are not hearing a note of what they play (a great realization actually), then they find the what and the why of their music. That’s all I am trying to do as well, and everyday I ask myself those questions, which is my form of self teaching/realization.

 

I know that you have upcoming performances with Uri Caine Ensemble-Plays Mozart, Can you tell me a little more about the group and how you got involved with them?

>Some years ago Uri asked me to play these Mahler project gigs and even though some people would find the musical approach totally heinous, it’s just too much fun to say no to. Uri is a monster musician, most chilled bandleader ever and you’re on stage with great musicians trying to improvise in and out of a sextet reduction of Mahler’s whole sixth symphony- it’s preposterous yet possible. The classical audiences seem to love when we destroy and reassemble their beloved musical themes. So you can imagine the chaos when we take Mozart out for a beating and have Nguyen Le blow some over the top solo on Symphony #41 – As Chris Speed said, it’s sounds like Brian May with Queen. Sweet.

Have you ever thought about playing with a symphony orchestra or playing other percussion instruments?

>I did all that when I was in high school – marimba solo competitions, timpani in a huge orchestra. It was fun but I gave it up to pursue jazz harmony, composition and poor piano skills.

 

A symphony musician once said that all musicians copy, that there are no original musicians before everything that will ever be played before. What do you think about that statement?

>Too much coffee and too many cigarettes will produce statements like this. That’s what happens when you focus too much on the what and not enough on the why and how. After the 70’s, I think we’ve heard all the sounds by now, but we haven’t heard all the combinations and subtleties – variation is key, recombining the known to make something new, and it will certainly have it’s own identity and inspire other creations, but the composer has to go few levels deeper to do this and the listener has to have curiosity and the patience to notice and actually listen to it.

 

Are there any other musicians that you plan to work with or any other projects coming up?

>There is always a new project or concept on board, there’s not enough time to do it all. Plans include Trio with Kieran Daly on electric mandolin and Nate Wooley on trumpet. Trio with Ikue Mori and Briggan Krauss. Trio with Andrew D’Angelo and Trevor Dunn. A new Pachora and another Tyft cd.... other cool things I shouldn’t say anything about yet. Also just making time to write for another AlasNoAxis cd and tour again in 2008.

Let’s go back in the time. How did you get started? Who were your initial inspirations?

>Jamming with a Jackson Five record on plastic buckets when I was four. Then with Blondie and Pat Benetar when I was ten. Led Zeppelin at twelve, the Police at fifteen. I joined a Swing big band of all 14-16 year olds in Seattle that played parties and weddings, etc. That’s where I met Chris Speed, and Andrew D’Angelo. Everybody just a few years older than myself inspired me to keep going after what I wanted - record swapping, playing, exchanging information and what we were into and trying to do. I teach the same way, it works well. Nothing has changed since high school in that way.

 

Were you good student in all subjects?

>Yes, except for sports and fitness, which I am figuring out now at the gym. The math logic has paid off very well in terms of scheduling flights, travel, and building my laptop instrument with Reaktor.

 

Did you go to Berklee College, right? How was that experience?

>Yes, there were so many musicians to play with there, that’s all we did for 3-4 years. I met all my European friends I still work with at Berklee, did gigs, played recitals, learned how to book a tour and ate many pizza slices and steak subs. After my first year at Berklee, I went back to Seattle to just practice and absorb what I had amassed in that first year. I drove a car and delivered packages during the day, and played at night in the basement of the university. When I went back to Berklee the next year, I lived with Chris and Andrew and that started Human Feel. Going to music college this time around wasn’t so interesting, except for the liberal arts courses and teachers, but we practiced a lot and played as much as possible with everyone there, which was Berklee’s strength. AlasNoAxis is an all college graduate band – our parents all wanted us to have degrees.

 

Let me indulge you in a word game. I’ll toss out a brunch of names and words and you tell me the first things that comes to mind…

Buddy Rich or Max Roach?

>Elvin Jones. Paul Motian. Jack DeJohnette. Jeff Watts. Joey Baron.

Garage Rock…

>Nirvana saved me from a free/jazz overdose.

Pachora…

>I miss playing with them. One of a kind band for sure. Named after I made Indian pakoras one night, substituting a Turkish “C” for the “k” - sorry.

Satoko Fujii…

>Japan! Green Tea anything, bar food, Tare Panda, hot springs – we mainly tour Japan with her. She has made her own scene over there, which is not easy to do.

Laurie Anderson…

>Has experienced more of life than I will ever know, and she will not stop. One of the most sweet, charming people I’ve ever met.

We were on the road on 9/11 in Chicago and after things settled down we took a long walk on the riverside in Chicago – it was completely deserted. Everyone spent the day around the TV’s in cafes and bars watching the replays over and over. We were supposed to play that night, all other events in town were cancelled, but Laurie figured what is the point of music, and us for that matter, if not for a moment like this. She was right... it was completely packed with people sitting in aisles – everyone needed a break from the television and shock of that day. It seemed people came to hear a spokesperson on behalf of New York deliver a message through words and music, which she is to many people. She only had to cut one line from a song because it was too inappropriate for that night. That was a happy, sad, and heavy evening.

Your most memorable performance experience…

>When I was 13 and did a big drum solo at my junior high school and a hundred girls started screaming – yes. Now you understand the damage.

Money or Glory?

>To enjoy the glory you need a lot of money to fly everyone to a beach in Portugal for a week long party.

Seattle…

>Absolutely beautiful and kind of boring – there’s nothing for me there anymore, but you never know. I really love my neighborhood in Brooklyn, when I am there to enjoy it. Somehow it caught up with the best of what Europe has to offer in food, drink, and hanging out in cafes.

Parents…

>They totally supported me - Dad bought me a drum set because he knew I needed one but didn’t pay rent - Mom didn’t like that very much. They trusted me to figure out my destiny even though they weren’t totally sure what I was doing. Not to get too heavy but my Dad passed away some years ago and I was talking about this with a friend yesterday whose Mom died from cancer – after you experience something like death that close to you, it really clarifies the point that this life is random, temporary, perhaps sadly very short, and death makes all other issues, worries, and insecurities seem really super small – try to relax and enjoy what you have. My Dad did serious manual labor in airplane cargo bays for over 30 years and worked at least 50 hours a week. I am flying in an airplane right this minute deciding which wine to drink, and earn my living by playing a drum set. It doesn’t even make sense to compare, but I feel damn lucky.

Last Question: What do you imagine, What would be said of your music in a 100 years or more?

>Is the direct to spinal cord digital download of “AlasNoAxis” still available?

January 2005 for Coquetel Molotov by Ana Garcia

Whatever happened to Human Feel? What kind of stuff would you say influenced you at the time?

>The band never broke up, we just put the group on hold (around 1994) after many years of playing together to play with other projects, and pursue other personal desires. We actually got back together two years ago to play two shows in NY and it sounded better than ever. One of the reasons we put the band on hold was that we were too tired of ramming our heads into walls trying to get gigs for the group – our names weren’t big enough to get promoters outside of the US to take a chance. Over the past 10 years that has changed, so the plan is to write some new music and tour Europe with Human Feel in October/November this year.

>When Human Feel started, we were checking Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, Steve Coleman, and Thelonius Monk, just to name a few. However, this band was my first chance to work on and develop original music, so from day one, writing songs and developing ‘our’ sound was most important.

You have had a great departure in terms of style and form and so forth from the Human Feel albums to your current solo projects. What kind of feedback have you gotten from your audience, how have they changed over the years and where do you see yourself going next?

>I am happy to see AlasNoAxis has a pretty large fan base, many of whom are previous and/or recent Human Feel fans. At least with the latest cd ‘Habyor’, most of the compliments I receive are in favor of the fact that the band is playing mostly songs without any long improvisations. I like listening to long improvs and solos but like many of us, I equally love the singer/songwriter approach to music , which was the focus of the last cd in a voiceless way. I am currently at home writing new music for the band, trying to extend the song idea while looking for a way to express my inklings of what melody, harmony and rhythm could sound like. I also would like to record an all improv cd with this band as well, sometime soon.

What is your process in your compositions nowadays? It sound like the whole band is involved in the process but, harmonically and in terms of style, it is quite exquisite and personal, so it also feels like there is one main head behind it all.

>Basically, I write the songs and then get together with the band and work them out as a group. I have been playing with Skuli, Chris, and Hilmar for over ten years and they are obviously some my favorite instrumentalists, arrangers, composers, as well as friends. I need as much musical input from them as possible and I compose with their potential sounds and possibilities in mind. I just want first shot at writing the material.

Are you thinking about introducing samplers, sound generators or that type of stuff used in electronic music at all in the future?

>We already have used those instruments to improvise with and color the music on the last two AlasNoAxis cd’s. I have other projects that are only sampler based, trying to make laptops and such respond in a improvisational setting using various controllers - trying to reduce the lag time between idea and reaction. The trio of Hilmar’s ‘TYFT’ with Andrew D’Angelo is a good venue for us improvising shamelessly between our acoustic instruments and electronics. I have also been playing in duo with Briggan Krauss (alto sax, laptop) and also with Skuli.

Are you trying to reach more people today or have you come to a point where you are not worried? Your music used to be more challenging for both musician and audiences.

>Good question. I can only make music with my friends that feels right to us regardless of how popular/unpopular, in/out, or easy/difficult it might be to an audience. The goal is to be honest with myself and make music that 1) is what I want to listen to and 2)what I believe to be the best music I could produce at that time, regardless of how it is categorized or viewed afterwards. I know some people find a band like AlasNoAxis too simple from what they have come to expect from me over the years, so I would just recommend checking out other projects I am involved with. All the different music I want to play will not fit in just one band, which naturally gives each group an identity and sound that sets it apart from the others. >Do you do other types of artistic expression besides music?No, at least not yet, music is too much already. Does cooking count?

What are your earliest music memories?

>Jamming on a ‘guitar’ my dad made for me from the cardboard box of a toilet seat. Also rocking out with a Jackson 5 cardboard cutout ep from the back of a cereal box in the 70’s, playing my cardboard box drumset with broiler pan-on-the-plunger cymbal. Obviously cardboard was an important influence.

What is your motivation? Does it vary? What was your motivation when you started playing?

>I like waking up everyday staring into a musical question mark. It’s not always easy but it keeps me searching for something new everyday. It’s so hard for me to nail down a reason of why I play, I have come to accept the fact as long as I love it, I’ll do it. I really like the exchange and the bond that is created between the musicians and the audience. I started playing because I was searching for something to identify and express myself with, in a way that felt the most natural – I wasn’t so great at sports.

How has each main project of yours been important for you?

>As I mentioned earlier, it was the music we wanted to make at that time, which is an important reason enough to do it in the first place. I have always enjoyed being in bands and collectives, which seems to be the only way to create music that transcends the sum of it’s parts.>How have you grown as an artist?One example is that after I started lived in NY for a few years, I started to focus on what is artistically important to me as an individual versus constantly trying to make sense of and fit in with a social/musical/media scene that changes on a daily basis. My playing and writing has a sense of clarity and exactness that it didn’t have before. Growing older seems to be the key.

I was discussing with my brother about you and he says it very simple “Jim Black is the drummer of our time” - I agree. What are some of your thoughts about that?

>That’s awkward to comment on. Thanks for the compliment but there are many of us out here. I am only trying to play/make sense out of all the music I have been and yet to be exposed to.

It seems that rock is present as your musical background- is it? How so?

>All I did was listen to classic rock until I was 13 and played in two rock bands. Then a 15 year old friend infected me with jazz and free improvisation and I joined a semi-pro swing big band of all 14-16 year olds. Then I had to figure out how to marry them together inside of myself where they weren’t a conflict, which I am still working on.

What do you think about on stage?

>Hopefully I am just listening and responding to the music in that exact moment while we are playing it, so there is no room for other random, chattering thoughts. I am aware of the energy in the room and of the audience, and those elements force me to listen even deeper to create something spontaneous and in the moment on stage, whether or not we are improvising. It can sometimes be an embarrassing process to go that deep inside yourself in front of others, but I guess that is what they have come to see and hear. I often feel awkward and self conscious during the applause.

What led you to choose drums and percussion? What other instruments do you play?

>My father used to say I was always beating on pots and pans, so drums and percussion fit well with that idea. I actually never thought about not playing them - weird. I write most of the music for AlasNoAxis on baritone guitar with different tunings but I couldn’t take a solo on it if you paid me. I’m better at piano and melodica. I also love to mess around with electronics and have spent almost a year designing a program for my laptop and drum pad to use for improvising.

In your travels, what other places are you feeling - environmentally or the aspect of people and culture?

>Portugal is very important for me to spend time in for the culture, speed of life, the colors and the nature. Iceland also for the same reasons, although they are almost opposite in these regards. Japan, Italy, India, France – just to name a few. I have always loved traveling and, secretly, the ignorance at times that comes with arriving someplace where nothing is making literal sense - a temporary numbing of the intellect.

Has traveling as a musician made you give up certain things in life? If so, please elaborate.

>Besides regular sleep, diet, and exercise sometimes, no. I think when I was younger and in school, things felt like more like that. There will always be some sort of sacrifice for what you get in return. I still like living in Brooklyn very much, but I also get to leave as well. I have made friends all over the planet, and I am lucky to come home to close friends and loved ones. Life on the road can alternate between ‘lifestyles of the rich and famous’ and hell. I am still digging this lifestyle.

Musically, collaborative, production, what new things have you discovered?

>That’s a little large of a question, no? :) I have discovered I have spent too much time on this laptop today...

Who are some of important artists for you that have taught you musically and personally? How?

>Again, too many people I could mention. Besides the great heros of rock and jazz, Bill Frisell and Paul Motian come to mind first, I think because seeing them live for the first time in ‘88 really shook me up musically. Frisell for making sense to me out of the 40 years of improvised music I was trying to assimilate at the time, and Motian for simply playing music which happens to be on a drumset. Mainly though, my friends and bands are my constant source of inspiration and influence – through their humanity and artistry.

February 2001 for All About Jazz by Allen Huotari

ALL ABOUT JAZZ: Would you please tell the AAJ readers about where you were born, raised, and what your earliest musical memories are? What led you to choose drums and percussion as instrument(s) of choice?

JIM BLACK: I was hatched in Daily City, California and spent my childhood migrating between Seattle and the San Francisco area, depending on where was father was working within the United Airlines system as a ramp serviceman.

Early musical memories- I remember being 4 years old, jamming for days on a guitar that my father made for me out of a cardboard toilet seat cover box - complete with rubber bands attached as strings. Also playing my drumset which consisted of dumped out plastic toy buckets, more cardboard boxes, and the ‘cymbal ‘- a plunger with a blanket covering the handle where I would place my mother's circular electric broiler pan drippings catcher. I would beat on for hours, playing with my collection of cardboard cutout records from the back of Post Sugar Crisp and Alpha Bits boxes, featuring the works of a group called The Sugar Bears and the Jackson Five (?!) I want to see how the contract read between Motown and Post cereal...

When I was eight, we finally settled in Seattle for good and a couple of years later I got my first snare drum to play in my elementary school band, the tenor sax being my second choice had the music store run out of snare drum rentals. Choosing the drums was pretty much a no-brainer for me...it simply was and is to this day really fun to play. The first drumset showed up a year later under the Xmas tree and I was hooked. During these times my father started cranking Gene Krupa with Benny Goodman on the stereo at home to impress me and subtly terrorize my mom. Both my parents totally supported my musical activities and encouraged me to practice and take lessons.

Our family eventually moved to the then small city of Bellevue, WA, where I spent my junior high and high school years submerged in music programs. My junior high drummer-competitor-friend Pat Kylen got me into Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, the Who, the Doors, and Rush as we would have double drumset freejams like the Grateful Dead in his basement. Because of this move to Bellevue, I was able to hook up with a big band of 12-18 year olds called "HB Radke and Friends", which at 14 years gave me my first professional experiences such as getting yelled at on stage for dragging, and being paid tens of dollars playing for weddings, hotel functions and on local TV shows as something "cute". It was also invaluable to have my ass kicked on stage by musicians way more experienced than me, which is an alternative yet effective way to learn how to play in short period of time. This also was the band where I met Chris Speed, Andrew D'Angelo, Brad Shepik, and John Silverman -  and almost twenty years later…still talking and playing together.

I was fortunate to have friends with more experience than myself around to expose me to new music. I remember Silverman taking me to see Ornette Coleman's Prime Time, which was so beyond me at that time but it seemed just too cool with Jamaladeen Tacuma on bass and Ornette in something that looked like an orange dress. Another trumpet playing friend, Damon Bacheller, who played me my first Miles and Weather Report, encouraged me to go to Berklee in Boston and to take music on as a career.

AAJ: Was there any pivotal moment where you decided (or discovered) that you simply had to become a professional musician? Please elaborate.

JB: As far as making a profession out of playing, because of these early gigging experiences, I realized that it was wasn't so hard to make a buck playing music...it just meant that you would probably have to play all the time in many different situations where the music was secondary to money - which still seemed more attractive than breaking my back everyday like my dad working in airline cargo pits. So I decided to let my instincts guide me into this strange and semi-dysfunctional relationship of music and how to make a living with it.

In hindsight, I'm glad the "what ifs" and the "riskiness" didn't deter me from pursuing music - too often the general feeling of fear in this society kills so many dreams and ambitions. I think as older experienced players and humans, we literally owe it to people younger and less experienced than us to give support, inspiration and information where and when we can - to pass it on the way we got it.

AAJ: You've taught at Berklee and your upcoming schedule shows teaching at Banff. When you are teaching, is there any one fundamental message or principle that you try to communicate to your students? i.e., if there is one thing you want your students to learn and walk away with, what would it be?

JB: Have an open mind, keep an open mind...and look deep inside yourself to uncover those inherently unique, creative ideas and impulses that are buried inside each of us, and then cultivate, nurture and give form to these ideas in whatever ways possible.

AAJ: You've studied privately with Joe Hunt, Jeff Hamilton, and Jeff Watts. What have you learned from these gentlemen that has provided you with the most guidance or had the most impact on your career?

JB: The learning process for me has been a cumulative experience from the beginning to the ongoing present. Every one of my instructors, band leaders, sidepersons, etc. have helped me grow musically - adding in those missing pieces of this ever evolving musical puzzle and can continue to inspire and influence years after the actual experience.

I never was a model student - I tended to take what I needed and try to figure the rest on my own - it seemed more creative and natural for me this way. So whole courses of study and complete methods, or even weekly lessons felt a bit like unnecessary homework for me. That is not to say I didn't work for countless hours on my lessons and learning the instrument - just that at some point I had to take issue with the absoluteness of practicing drum lessons by myself and would essentially play hookey with them by spending more time jamming with records and my friends...which to me was more like the real-time application of my study. (What good was the ability to play fast broken triplets between my hi-hat, bass drum, and 5th tom-tom, while standing on my head BUT not be able to keep time on a simple Latin tune with my band...let alone just listen and think about playing musically first.)

Maybe it's in the nature of the instrument, with all the limbs moving and things to hit that gives drum pedagogy a license to gaze at it's own technical navel, but nowadays there are more instruction books and teachers who are approaching drums with an "it's music first approach"  - I was saved by Bob Moses' "Drum Wisdom" book when I started college, because it dealt with concepts and possibilities that transcended the actual instrument - great advice for any player.

So a single lesson with Jeff Watts meant the world to me  - illuminating all the things I wondered about how he approached his unique way of terrorizing the kit with Wynton Marsalis' quartet in the 80's. A week in a jazz camp with Jeff Hamilton, where he passed on some brush beats Philly Joe Jones had showed him - which I absorbed and naturally mutated into my own way of playing traditional jazz brushes. Joe Hunt simply listening to me play fast time and remarking that "something didn't sound quite right" and if we could figure out what it was...Ian Froman, currently living in NY and playing in the international scene, helping me weekly at Berklee by asking me if I could approach everything that I played "in a different way..."  - getting me to open my own creative valves.

Then add in all the gigs, road trips, head trips, crazy travel, hanging and rapping with freaky and beautiful friends and strangers, and getting the opportunity to listen to so many inspired and inspiring concerts - which are equally important to anyone's education. When do you stop learning?…

AAJ: How often do you practice/rehearse and for how long? Do you ever force yourself to practice/rehearse when you really don't feel like it? If so, how do you motivate yourself?

JB: As far as the bands I play in, we will rehearse as long as necessary to get the written material under our grip - which can take anywhere from 20 minutes at a sound check to four 5 hour rehearsals for a complex record date. I would recommend learning to read, hear, and interpret written music for the ability to process a lot of complicated written material in a short amount of time - it allows you to walk onto many different gigs and get to making music faster. After that, it's about interaction, improvisation and the playing together that make the music take shape and become valuable.

These days most of the actual playing of my instrument takes place in front of an audience, but there periods where I go back and practice alone to develop technically and conceptually. There is always a way to practice or work on music and composition anywhere you are - especially if you are stuck on a train for six hours a day on tour. Most of my musical epiphanies happen while nowhere near the drums. As far as motivation - if there is a place you envision yourself arriving at musically, compositionally, or in regards to improvising, then the only way to achieve this to make a conscious effort to move toward it - the desire should be there - if there is no desire, then why do it? Do something else, whether it be cooking or talking walks, until the desire for movement and growth returns. As I get older, I have found it easier to allow my musical activities to blend together with the curiosity, creativity and exploration of my daily life - to not separate the music part from the human part. I love the jump cut nature of daily life with all it's interruptions, distractions, and unexpected turns - all of which I have to allow to be part of the musical process - a telephone call ruins new creative thought, then, crazy taxi ride to gig, boom, now you are stage and have to go deep into the music, then...social time! ...yakking away, boom, distracted by interesting music blaring from the stereo speakers at the club...my attention is constantly shifting and having to pick up in the same spot another time...mostly, this feels comfortable and natural.

AAJ: Clearly many factors can contribute to inspiring a musician: the music of others, visual stimuli (literature, cinema, sculpture, painting, nature), working with interesting peers, maybe even food. Is there any one catalytic element that seems to provide you with the most inspiration?

JB: Staying awake and aware of my own conditionings, socially and musically. I'm happy to say that after all these years of conditioning to be a "proper" musician and to think in a type of Orwellian "musicthink", I am relatively free of my past mental trappings which inhibited my abilities as a composer, as a player, and even the simple enjoyment of being able to listen to music without pre or post judging it as "serious/valid" or not. I remember coming to terms with this about six years ago - afterwards, playing started to feel like as if I was a kid again jamming in my bedroom to records - very liberating. Addressing my fears and insecurities about playing the drums, performing, and my feeling of being obligated to compose in a certain way...reckoning with my ego and ambitions in regards to money, success, business, the scene, and these whack ideas which creep into your head about "what you are supposed to be" and "what you are supposed to achieve before you die"...eek.

Real life and music have never been more integrated and seamless to me...it feels casual. I continue to play and work hard because I love being creative. Music alone, for me, is inspiring enough just as is - I still absolutely love to listen to it - any of it - and this drives me on.

AAJ: Aside from musicians you regularly collaborate with (e.g., Berne, Eskelin,

Douglas, Speed, etc.) who would you cite as your influences? Please

elaborate. As quick follow up, is drummer/composer/improviser Chris Cutler

an influence/inspiration?

JB: I like to allow myself to be influenced by anyone or anything that gives me feeds me creative ideas. I don't mean to sound like I'm dodging a question, but this more true now than ever before. This week, a visit to the Kunsthaus Wien to see the painting and city planning works of Hundertwasser - you talk about inspiring...for me he is the definition of what 'integrity' is in regards to one's art and self...the sound of Cartman's voice, singing songs in an episode of South Park, is lodged in my brain, too. Also this week, performing with Ellery Eskelin and Andrea Parkins - listening to them night after night on stage playing solo, gracefully kicking ass - wonderful...also Tricky's new EP where track four contains a special message for the Polygram label...yeah.

I have never seen Chris Cutler live and only know one recording with himself and Fred Frith playing duo in Verona...which was really fun to listen to, even though I couldn't tell who was doing what.

AAJ: What do you feel you've learned from working with Bloodcount, Tiny Bell Trio, Ellery Eskelin/Andrea Parkins, and Uri Caine's Mahler Project that you could NOT have learned anywhere else?

JB: This last part (“that you could NOT have learned anywhere else”) doesn't make sense to me, because eventually something would have taught me those lessons...

Playing with many different bands has become essential to my growth as a musician.

The musical knowledge from one situation influences the next, and so on. This seems obvious enough but I love how it can radically influence and change my musical ideas, push my physical abilities as a drummer, and the way in which it continually opens my ears to new perceptions. In a soundbite style: playing with Berne's Bloodcount forced me to express myself quietly, sending me searching for other sounds and textures.....Ellery Eskelin's music left me stranded on a number of conceptual islands, which I had to figure how to get off.....Ben Monder's music helped me overcome my uneasiness with complex time signatures and forms....the list goes on, and hopefully never stops.

AAJ: Since you composed the pieces on AlasNoAxis specifically for this band, could you please describe what unique or specific qualities each of the musicians in AlasNoAxis brings to the band?

JB: In a nutshell - Chris Speed for his sound. Period. Hilmar Jensson for his shameless abilities as a guitarist and sound sculptor, as well as his sensitivity. Skuli Sverrisson for his low frequency oscillation exploration and his thirst for sounds not yet unearthed.

AAJ: If one of these musicians were to depart, would AlasNoAxis cease to exist or would it simply evolve/mutate?

JB: Evolve, possibly - - - mutate, for sure - - - cease to exist? We have barely done a week of gigs...I'm not going there yet.

AAJ: One of the most refreshing (others might say surprising if not shocking) aspects of AlasNoAxis is the significant "rock" content. Although some may dismiss this as simply the Seattle factor, it would seem (at least to me) to transcend this reference. What rock bands are inspirational to you and why?

JB: That "rock" sound is a sound that I love, one I haven't had the opportunity to explore yet in my regular musical activities. The idea of a "Seattle factor" is reaching a little, but I used to play in guitar rock bands back there in high school and college - so it's presence is an undeniable part of my musical background (always seething at surface.) I also wrote most of the music for this band on the guitar, so there you have it. I also like the aggressive nature of the sound - distortion makes me feel good.

Some of my current favorite bands are Melt Banana, Blonde Redhead, Sonic Youth, Beck, and Radiohead, all for different reasons, but the main one being that I really like to just listen to their music. I loved Nirvana (Kurt's voice still freaks me out...), as well as My Bloody Valentine. Others in the scene that move me would be Björk, Tricky, Busta Rhymes, Stereolab and the Flaming Lips, to name a few.

I also admire the collective and co-operative nature of these bands - and being a member of more than one myself, I can identify with these attitudes. Truly collective bands in the 'jazz' world are rare, but can work. The jazz scene tends to promote individual names and band leaders versus collective group names and identities. Fortunately, I am starting to see larger audiences develop that care first about actually listening to music regardless of what category or camp it is in or from, thereby helping to blur the lines between the scenes drawn by the promoters, media, record stores, and many musicians. The collectives in jazz that survive are no different than in the indie/rock world - it takes commitment and personal investment. Everyone has to put their own individual ego second and respect and work with all of the member’s ideas and opinions….someone in the band has to run with the business ball and get gigs...disagreements and resolutions are normal and expected - but the invaluable music, that could not have been produced in any other way, is worth the collective effort.

In terms of their influence on my writing - I still hear these bands as a particular type of sound which breeds something different in my ear, after it joins in the mix with all the other hundred bits of sound flying around in there mutating. The simple ideas of balance and variation are key in getting them organized back into tangible form - which is the fun part for me creatively. I know it's finished when I listen to a piece and actually like it.

AAJ: What aspect of making AlasNoAxis was the most fun? What was the most difficult? What have you learned that you will carry forward to the next recording?

JB: Most fun: recording in the snow covered woods in upstate New York, with some deer watching us rock out through a large glass window that looked into the converted barn that we recorded in.

Most difficult: The eternally developing technique of trying to verbally coax my musical desires out of a band as a leader-  without squishing the improvisational talents of the members. They totally dealt.

AAJ: As follow up, what areas of your own playing/composing do you feel need improvement?

JB: It's not so much about improving - only moving sideways to something different...The question for me would be how to keep moving deeper into what unique thing I alone can bring out of myself as a writer...and then develop a relationship with it.

AAJ: I see from your homepage that you and Skuli Sverrisson plan to include G3 Powerbook in the "instrumentation" for AlasNoAxis. What is your interest or objective in using the computer? i.e., Are you interested in using the computer as an instrument? As another musician to interact with? Both? Neither?

JB: Hmm, where to start? As of today, I want the laptop to be an extension of what I hear in terms of timbre and texture when I play drums and percussion. It's like having an unlimited palette of colors and sounds that still fall subject to one's own take on improvisation, composition and most importantly for me, taste. I have always loved electronics and the computer provides a limitless 'playland' to explore and experiment. I don't plan on being a laptop and sound sculpting master, like some of my favorites - Jim O'Rourke, Pita, Oval, Pansonic, Ryoji Ikeda, Stilluppsteypa, Microstoria, Anthony Burr, Skuli Sverrisson...but I would like to take my twenty-something years of musical experience and translate my ideas into sound, using this medium. I am currently performing laptop duos with alto saxophone/bass clarinet shredder Andrew D'Angelo in New York, where there is no preparation, only taking our improvisational impulses and having to find the appropriate sound and way to get it out of laptop using various programs and sound processors. It can be musically crass and vulgar...it can be kinda heavy and serious, but the laptop has an immediately accessible, innocent, and creative impulse=reaction quality to it...which allows anyone without technical and instrumental skills, but with lots of ideas, to get up on stage and play music...kinda like the drums?!

AAJ: Could you please provide details on your other quartet, Beat Table?

JB: At this time, that idea is mutating into a pretty different future project, so aside from an improv gig, there is no news. There are so many people to play with! It's more of an issue of time and the thoroughness I want to approach my projects with...

AAJ: How did you come to work with Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura?

JB: I met them at a party...they made delicious vegetarian sushi rolls, I was turned on. The beauty of playing with them was having not heard them play before we started recording cd's together. I really admire their commitment to their musical beliefs in spite of living in such musically conservative 'jazz' scene - although they are helping to change that.

AAJ: What musicians would you most like to work with that you've never worked with before?

JB: Well, there's so many musicians that I would... Björk. Pretty unique huh?

AAJ: What recording(s) as a side man do you wish more people would be exposed to? Why?

JB: Interesting question - without thinking, I would say Chris Speed's Yeah No recordings. We worked hard as a band producing all of those discs and I think there are some really original ideas and music on those discs that could stand to be heard more, the recordings as well as live shows. We still have yet to perform in Europe...fans over there tell me the cd's are very hard to get. I think it's a matter of time, continuing to build our audience, here and overseas, making our presence known to the media and working hard to get it out there on the road...just like every band, everywhere.

AAJ: What's the funniest or most embarrassing thing that's happened to you while performing or recording?

JB: Recording my first cd ever, in Seattle, when I was nineteen. It was a new age album, when 'new age' was the rage, where the leader dug the fact I could badly emulate a drum machine (go figure). The studio was in a hollowed out small hillside, close to a waterfront, constructed of wood on the inside. This wood contained termites and was due for it's regular bug bombing. During a take, while trying to ever so deftly reproduce the stiffness of a 1986 cheesy drum machine pattern, a termite fell down from the black abyss above me in the drum booth. Five minutes later both the drums and myself were covered in small vibrating termites - bouncing off the cymbals, etc. When a very, very large one finally landed on my snare drum with a loud 'pap'  - I just lost it...screaming out of the booth. One good bug bombing and a chocolate shake later, I felt better, as I inhaled the freshly poisoned air of the studio, as I brushed and picked (yuck) maybe 60 or so dead insects off and out of the kit.

AAJ: What projects can All About Jazz expect to hear from you in 2001 - 2002?

JB: On the horizon is another AlasNoAxis cd to be recorded in Iceland in May, and released by September or October...Pachora just signed with Winter and Winter also, so plans for another cd are in the works for late spring...check our websites if you want to know the latest info - www.jimblack.com and www.pachora.com.

AAJ: To conclude, a purely hypothetical question: if you were to cook dinner for the staff of AAJ (or could take them to dinner) what would you serve (or where would you take them)?

JB: Because of the French trip/tip I have been on lately, I would serve up a petite but satisfying three-course French meal.

As a starter - a slightly broiled round of goat cheese, sprinkled with fresh herbs and served on a bed of baby lettuce greens with a side of poached figs in red wine, accompanied by sourdough toast points, finished with a drizzle of fruity olive oil and fresh cracked pepper.

As a main course - a vegetable plate consisting of fresh baby carrots and French green beans, drizzled with a white wine and dijon mustard vinaigrette, two fresh steamed artichoke hearts with a sauté of mixed forest mushrooms, garlic and parsley spooned on top, and rounded out with a small portion of traditional potatoes gratin.

For dessert - individual apple tarte tatin, served with crème fraîche.

For the wine, a '96 or '97 Haut-Médoc Cru Bourgeois, from Chateau D' Arsac (a surprising sherry color and dark berry taste)

Espresso, a tiny piece of dark chocolate (85% cocoa) and a good calvados brandy...and then…a nap...

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