Lara Solnicki: Congratulations on the new album Jason. You and
the album’s co-leader, violinist Jason Anick have been making music together since
adolescence, and now you are teaching together at Berklee in Boston. That is
quite a journey. Did you guys always have a sense that your
paths would move somewhat in parallel? As teenagers did you
share the same goals and interests?
Jason Yeager: Thank you! Both Jason Anick and I are really proud of
the project, and excited that it's now out on Inner Circle Music. I can't
say I could have necessarily predicted that our paths would intertwine in quite
this way, but it is true that from the start we've had a great rapport as
musicians and friends. We first met in high school, at a jam session in Natick,
MA, and were both pretty green musically, just starting to absorb jazz language
and explore improvisation. We may have met at a couple more sessions after that
and played together informally, but the first real gig I remember is a few
years later, while we were each in college. Jason called me to play with
his group in Framingham, MA, and I just remember being astounded at how much he
had developed musically since we first met...he was doing things on violin I
really hadn't heard before. Shortly after we'd each graduated, he called me to
record on his album "Tipping Point," on several of
his truly incredible compositions--they're accessible melodically, but they
have these long, captivating forms and mysterious harmonic elements that really
take the listener on a journey. Even if the initial theme comes back at the
end, it always feels transformed, and as a listener/player I feel
transported.
Shortly after the "Tipping Point" sessions, I was hired to
teach piano at Berklee. Getting the job was unrelated to my friendship
with Jason, but
it certainly facilitated our making more music together, since I live in
New York and he was living in Boston. I think what unites us (hence, "United") is a desire to explore
various melodic, harmonic, and textural patterns in the music without losing
sight of telling a story, of being melodic. There's also a lot of mutual
admiration for each other's composing--we enjoy playing each other's tunes!
Most of all, perhaps, we share a love for the spontaneity and interaction that
comes with improvisation--some of my favorite moments on our recording are on
the duo tracks, "Stillness" and "All Blues," where we kept
things very open and conversational.
Lara: You define the album
as “jazz without borders”. You manage to sound really natural as you draw elements from different idioms,
including straight- ahead and post-bop jazz, the Beatles and world music.
Your chemistry is really apparent! What’s your explanation for
this?
Jason: I think Jason Anick coined that term, "jazz without borders." We're both interested in a lot of different kinds of music, and as improvisers feel that nothing is preventing us from engaging with other idioms creatively. For his part, just playing the violin and mandolin--two instruments not often associated with jazz, certainly not modern jazz--gives Jason a window into many other genres and musical traditions.
I spent a semester of college living in Argentina, studying international relations at the time, but also taking some Argentine folk music classes as well. I got really into that music, and was particularly fond of the "chacarera," which is not just a rhythm but also a song form and dance. On my tune "La Segunda," I play with the chacarera groove in a darker and more complex harmonic context that you might associate with jazz or neo-classical music, but melodically the song retains a folk-like approachability. Jason Anick did a great arrangement of George Harrison's "Something," which we have been playing live for years. On the record we do it with Mike Connors and Greg Loughman, two stalwarts of the Boston scene who have been part of Jason's quartet for a long time.
Lara: Tell us some detailed info about the songs.
Jason: There are six originals and four covers/arrangements. I wrote four tunes and Jason wrote two, while Jason selected the cover tunes/arrangements. We wrote our originals independently, but in the case of "Harlem Hoedown," I was writing specifically with Jason in mind. We had a duo concert in 2014 at the Berklee Performance Center and I wanted to write something for that, something with kind of a bluegrass/roots vibe, and "Harlem Hoedown" is what came out. The way we orchestrated it on the recording, with Jerry Leake's incredible percussion, it has a sort of West African feeling, but I think the melody still hints at its bluegrass roots. In any case, that duo concert in 2014 went well and prompted us to start thinking about doing an album together.
Jason Anick wrote "Well Red" in honor of Joshua
Redman, and specifically for this recording, with these musicians in mind. It's
actually now a finalist in the International Songwriting Competition!
"Sweet Pea" is my tribute to Billy Strayhorn, and I wrote it just
before the recording session. As soon as I wrote it I knew Jason's violin would sound beautiful
stating the theme, so we had to include it on the record. The other originals we
did--his "Bird's Eye View," my "La Segunda" and "Achi"--we had been playing
together for years and felt that we already had a strong connection to those
pieces.
The covers were selected by Jason--two by the late Polish violinist
Zbigniew Seifert, one by Miles Davis, and one by George Harrison. Jason picked Seifert's
"Turbulent Plover" because he thought it'd make a nice vehicle for
special guest saxophonist George Garzone, and the results bear
that out! George is just amazing on that tune.
Lara: How did you get interested in music? Who are some important mentors?
Jason: I grew up in Framingham, MA, about 20 miles west of Boston. My uncle sent me a keyboard when I was about three or four--I had to sit in my high chair to reach it--and I would mess around picking out little movie themes (with Dad's help!), or just improvising. My family background is Jewish and Irish primarily, and my parents love telling this embarrassing story where I said to them, maybe around age seven or so, "Mom and Dad, check out my Irish music! Check out my Jewish music!" And I would play these little made-up songs that to me, and to them I guess, sounded like music from those traditions.
I formally started piano lessons at age 7, and quickly began coming up with my own music. When I grew restless with strictly classical piano lessons, my parents found Dan Loschen, an incredible teacher and jazz/classical pianist. For the first time I was "allowed" to improvise (although I had been doing it on my own for a long time), and was introduced to recordings of Monk, Miles, Coltrane, Bill Evans, and many others. My next two important mentors were pianist Kyle Aho and bassist/educator Bob Sinicrope, the founder/director of the jazz program at Milton Academy, where I went to high school. Then it was off to a double degree program at Tufts University and New England Conservatory (NEC), which allowed me to simultaneously pursue my academic interests (international relations) and musical passion (jazz performance). That was a hectic and challenging yet profoundly inspiring time! I studied primarily with Danilo Perez and Fred Hersch, also working with Frank Carlberg, Jerry Bergonzi, Ran Blake, Jerry Leake and others.
Lara: Who are the other musicians on the album?
Jason: Mike Connors (drums) and Greg Loughman (bass) are both very creative musical interlocutors as well as rock-solid accompanists. They have great time and groove and are also able to master complex music quickly. They've been part of Jason Anick's Quartet for years, and I've played with them in that band and in other settings. There was no question that they would be integral parts of the record. We also really wanted to feature some of our Berklee colleagues, who are all musicians we really admire. John Lockwood (bass) is one of the top-call musicians in the Boston area, and his work with Jerry Leake (percussion) --a master of West African and Indian classical rhythmic systems--on my compositions "La Segunda" and "Harlem Hoedown" is exemplary. Jerry Leake was also my professor at NEC, so we have known each other about ten years or more. He's one of the most vibrant and creative improvisers and teachers I know.
Trumpeter Jason Palmer, who appears on “Well Red” and “Harlem Hoedown,” is lynchpin of the Boston jazz scene and one of the most original and compelling improvisers playing anywhere today. He's played in bands led by Greg Osby, Mark Turner, and many others, and is also a fellow NEC alum and colleague at Berklee. He's got several outstanding records under his own name as well. He astounded us in the studio; take after take, he would produce a completely new, exuberant, emotionally compelling solo on the trumpet, really mining each tune for everything it could offer musically.
We also had two virtuosic powerhouse saxophone players join us on one piece each: George Garzone, a legendary tenor saxophonist and longtime Berklee professor who needs no introduction, and Clay Lyons, a young alto saxophonist and Berklee alum. George was a teacher of mine at NEC too, and Clay has been a friend ever since we collaborated on Jason Anick's prior record, "Tipping Point."
Lara: You mentioned that the album was recorded at Berklee with a grant. How did this come about?
Jason: Thanks! We're really happy with how it came out sounding. The grant came about through Berklee's Office of Faculty Development, which offers a recording grant to faculty. If you're awarded the grant, you get a certain amount of time in the college's recording studios. The college also just recently built a new building with some incredible studios. So Jason and I applied and were lucky enough to be provided with about two days of studio time, which was enough for us to track the entire record. Mark Wessel, an incredible engineer and also a Music Production & Engineering professor at Berklee, recorded the music. We later had it mixed and mastered by Dave Darlington at Bass Hit Studios.
Lara: How and when did you meet Greg Osby and join Inner Circle Music? How many albums have you released on our label?
Jason: After graduating college I recorded my first album, "Ruminations" and moved to New York, almost simultaneously, and got connected to Greg Osby through our label-mate and incredible vocalist/composer Aubrey Johnson. I actually recall Aubrey introducing me to Greg on the street in Boston briefly in 2009 or 2010, but the real introduction came later, towards the end of 2010, after I had just finished recording Ruminations. Aubrey thought Greg would dig my music, and agreed to pass along a track or two to him. We then spoke on the phone and he invited me to join the label and release my first record. I’ve now released three albums on Inner Circle Music: “Ruminations” (2011), “Affirmation” (2014), and now “United.” I'm proud to be associated with this incredibly talented roster of creative musicians that Greg’s put together! It’s inspiring and humbling to be included in such a forward-thinking, diverse group of creative artists.
The "United" EPK
Jason Yeager's website
Jason Anick's website
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