CC: Well, when I first heard Bud play, on my dad’s seventy-eight RPM vinyl, I was too young to play the piano that way. I was like four years old or something like that, but I do remember the spirit of his playing, and the “bubble-iness” of his piano playing attracting me and I just liked it. I kept listening to him, but it wasn’t until I was in my teens, that I able to play the piano a little bit technically better, that I would return to Bud’s music and begin to transcribe some of his solos and get really interested in his compositions, too. He’s mostly known as an innovator of jazz piano—bebop style piano—but, you know, he was a fantastic composer and I got into that aspect of Bud’s playing, too. One of the things I did as a practice thing, was I used to transcribe some of Bud’s piano playing note-for-note and I would try to play the notes. Then I would play the notes, but it still wouldn’t sound like Bud. I knew something was missing from the phrasing or the rhythm or whatever. What I did was set up my stereo speakers right in back of my ears so that I had a volume level that was sort of equal to the piano that was sitting in front of me in my practice room. I’d put on the Bud solo that I had just transcribed and play right along with the record. I was trying to get it so that my playing would just kind of exactly duplicate what was coming off the record. Bud’s playing was just completely innovative and interesting to me—everything he did was so spirited…and so creative.
JI: After you played with Miles’ Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way, you created a freer ensemble with Anthony Braxton, Barry Altschul and Dave Holland. Could you talk about the kind of understanding that’s necessary for musicians to explore beyond the realm of the forms and structures, chord changes and melodies that we’re instructed to do as we begin—and what directions people need to take to have the understanding to do that.
CC: The way it seemed to me was that, during the sixties, there was a section of artists that would get interested in breaking the rules. And I guess artists of all time start to get interested in breaking rules because when rules become dictates and keep you from creating what you want to create, they’re something you want to break. There’s two ways of breaking them. One way is to just ignore them and go on your way and not let it bother you. The other way of breaking them, which seemed to be more popular in the sixties, was to rebel—you know, like to assert it the other way. And I think that some of the free music that was being played was not only just a need to break rules or try new things, but it was also an assertion that we have the right to do this, do you know what I mean? And I was definitely a part of that movement, without a doubt, and so when Dave Holland and I hooked up in Miles’ band we shared like minds on that idea. Then we formed out first trio and began to experiment by freely improvising—basically the modus operandi of Circle was to freely improvise. We would have nothing set, we would have no songs set and we would go on the stage and play a complete concert–by just improvising.
JI: What kinds of challenges did you experience upon joining Miles’ band.
CC: The main challenge was to step into a hot-seat that had developed over six or seven years with Tony Williams, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, as one of the great, great groups of jazz in live performance. You know, you can experience a lot of live tapes of that band. Live At The Plugged Nickel is a real good one, actually. But, you know the band’s development and approach of each piece that they were playing was pretty out there, and it was a pretty big challenge to step in there and try and make some sense. Tony was still playing with Miles, he was in his last six months of his tenure and was full-blown in the freedom with which he was approaching the music, and it was a challenge to try and fit in. But, Miles was really encouraging and told me to just play right here, and I did. It was very rewarding.
Copyright © 2006 Jazz Improv Magazine. This is an excerpt from the full interview that appears in Jazz Improv ® Magazine, Volume 5, No. 3. To subscribe to Jazz Improv Magazine: 1-888-472-0670.
(Article continued in Jazz Improv Magazine Volume 5, Number 3)
