Presents interviews with over thirty rock and jazz musicians, including Keith Richards, Dr. John, Wynton Marsalis, Joe Henderson, Frank Zappa, and Brian Eno
A collection of interviews with 30 outspoken musicians.Back in 1980, after a stint with a daily newspaper and with an alternative weekly I also published, I left my hometown Milwaukee for the Big Apple. I've been working as a freelance writer ever since, contributing articles, interviews and record reviews to a number of national music magazines including Jazz Times, Down Beat, Guitar Player, Guitar World, Modern Drummer, Bass Player as well as a whole slew of publications in Italy, Germany and Japan.
"Rockers, Jazzbos & Visionaries" is a kind of summing up of 'my fabulous career' up to this point. It's a collection of interviews with highly outspoken and colorful personalities who come from different musical disciplines but share a single-minded commitment to their art. I've done over 3,000 interviews over the past 20 years, so choosing just 30 was quite a challenge. I decided to divide them up into three sections.The Rockers section contains candid interviews with people like Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Carlos Santana, Dr. John and Bootsy Collins. The Jazz section includes interviews with Branford and Wynton Marsalis, David Murray, John McLaughlin and one hilarious exchange with the king of the Hammond B-3 organ, Jimmy Smith. The Visionaries section includes interviews with enigmatic and avant folks whose idiosyncratic work defies category, including the likes of Brian Eno, John Zorn, Milford Graves and Frank Zappa.
Although each of these interviews was done in a particular moment in time for a specific magazine, having them all together in one collection is not only personally gratifying but also points out some striking similarities between musicians in different idioms. For instance...and I never thought I would be making this comparison, but...I find a real connection between Keith Richards and Wynton Marsalis. They're both purists in their own way, strongly committed to carrying on a particular tradition and equally outspoken about what is and what isn't happening within their respective idioms.
These are all Q&A inteviews. I liked that idea because I wanted to preserve the particular poetry and cadence and humor inherent in each individual's speech patterns and storytelling. I think the Dr. John, Bootsy Collins and Jimmy Smith interviews highlight this point rather well. Finally, it was my hope that there might be some kind of cross-referencing, cross-fertilization thing going on here...that someone who perhaps picked up this book to read about Stevie Ray Vaughan, for instance, might come away with some eye-opening knowledge about David Murray or John Zorn or Joe Henderson. It1s the kind of thing that used to happen (about 20-30 years ago) with radio and concerts. In my formative years back in Milwaukee, I remember being able to turn on the FM dial and hear Frank Zappa followed by Muddy Waters followed by Rahsaan Roland Kirk followed by The Beatles. That simply does not happen anymore in this age of intensive specializatioin and compartmentalization with the radio waves. Also, there was an element of this kind of cross-fertilization in the concert programming of my formative years. You used to be able to go to a Steve Miller concert, for example, and be exposed to the likes of the Cannonball Adderley Sextet and the Mahavishnu Orchestra on the opening bill. Life-changing stuff...but no more.
So check it out. Hear what these important thinkers and communicators and swingers and rockers and inspired outcasts have to say. And enjoy.
