TAKE 5 with JON McCASLIN

In these TAKE FIVE interviews, I hope to offer some perspectives from musicians around the world and direct you to some incredible sounds. I plan on offering some longer form interviews with much more discussion too, separate from these short vignettes.

Jon McCaslin is a dear friend of mine. We’ve had a lot of crazy adventures through the years. We were students together at the University of Toronto. One thing that connects us is our love of Canadian jazz music in particular. We’ve had dozens of conversations about radio shows, concerts, and recordings that we love.

I could talk about Jon all day. I love his playing and I love his mind. He makes everyone he plays with sound better. Jon curates an outstanding blog here from which you can hear more of his ideas and music.

http://jonmccaslinjazzdrummer.blogspot.ca/

https://cellarlive.com/products/jon-mccaslin-sunalta

TAKE FIVE WITH JON McCASLIN

1) You’ve lived all over Canada and you are a real historian of jazz music in this country. Who are some of your major influences from across this country?

I began my Jazz education while growing up in Regina, Saskatchewan during the early 90s then spent time living and studying in Montreal (McGill University), Toronto (University of Toronto), at the Banff Centre and (briefly) in New York City. I now call Calgary home. I’ve been very fortunate to have had many mentors and Canadian Jazz musicians that I’ve looked up to over the years; many teachers that I studied with on an on-going basis, musicians that I would listen to, watch and maybe even play with and others that I never met or even heard live, but still inspired me and I appreciated their recorded legacy and contribution to the Canadian Jazz scene.

So in no particular order…

Andre White; Chris McCann; Dave Laing; Michel Lambert; Bob McLaren; Terry Clarke; Ted Warren; Kevin Dean; Gordon Foote; Paul Read; Mike Downes; Phil Dwyer; PJ Perry; Kelly Jefferson; Brad Turner; Don Thompson; Mike Murley; John Stetch; Kevin Turcotte; Hugh Fraser; Brian Hurley; Barry Elmes; Tilden Webb; Mike Rud; Jodi Proznick; Jerry Fuller; David Braid; Claude Ranger.

2) Is there a Canadian jazz sound and if so what is it?

This has always been a tough question for me to answer. Undeniably there have always been GREAT things happening in our country Jazz-wise but it is a BIG country after all and I find it a bit hard to distinguish one or more defining musical elements that point to a uniquely “Canadian” Jazz sound from coast to coast in comparison to, say, an American or European Jazz sound (maybe this is sort of similar to the West vs. East Coast style debates to the South of us however I’m not denying that there are definitely things that are different and make us unique either!)

I guess a big part of this question is asking ourselves: “What do we, collectively, as Canadian Jazz artists do differently and have done differently in the past that make us unique as a community?” Given the size and diversity of our country, I don’t feel this is a question easily answered.

For me what IS really significant is that many Canadian Jazz musicians, in very various centres over the years, have been pursuing this art form for a great deal of time now and have done so with a high degree of musical/artistic integrity and purpose. Perhaps it’s not always recognized as such in the mainstream media and we don’t have the sheer numbers such as a place as New York but I don’t think this takes away from the significance of what’s been going here either.

The very fact that Canadians have even been making real “Jazz” sounds for some time now is actually more of a significance to me than the actual definition of a “Canadian Jazz Sound”. Maybe there is a “Canadian” Jazz sound but I have an inclination that every Jazz scene in the world is in fact defined more by certain musicians within those communities themselves who are prolific enough to influence others around them as well as the collaborations that happens between those musicians. To me, this is what is really important, that people are actually doing something…regardless if we can actually define or label what sounds come from that experience (or if those sounds are indeed even different than others!)

Perhaps another way of framing this discussion is: “Does our scene define us or do we define our scene?” In my opinion, I lean towards the latter.

In any case, what’s most important to me is that there even is a scene in the first place (ie. a collective of people doing the work) and I feel that there has always been a great number of Jazz musicians across Canada that have dedicated themselves to this art form and to doing it well. My main concern, no matter “where” the music is coming from or “what” it is, is whether or not the music is even good or not!

I’m not saying that this isn’t a valid question in the first place or worthy of a discussion over pints at the Duke of York as I feel that the trajectory of Canadian Jazz music has certainly been different than that of, say, the United States, I also feel that one also has to be careful when it comes to making generalizations about the general style or “sound” of an artistic community (albeit one spread out over such a large geographic distance!)

3) In your opinion, what are 3 or 4 essential recordings that a young drummer ought to listen to when starting out?

Well, there are too many Lol but here’s four that I often find myself going back to and recommending to students:

John Coltrane “Blue Train” (Philly Joe Jones – drums)

Kenny Clarke “Meets the Detroit Jazzmen” (Kenny Clarke – drums)

Clifford Brown “Study in Brown” (Max Roach – drums)

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers “Live at Birdland” Vol. 1 & 2 (Art Blakey – drums)

 

4) You’ve researched a lot about how drummers conceptualize melody. Could you describe your own approaches to composing?

My doctoral research through the University of Toronto dealt primarily with how various Jazz drummers use the concept of melody while actually playing the drums in performance, but I have also spent a great deal of time writing and arranging music of my own over the years as well as thinking about the uniqueness of being a drummer/composer. I feel that this is a very important aspect of being a Jazz drummer in today’s age.

It’s no secret that there has always been a great legacy of drummers who composed music (ie. Max Roach, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Paul Motian, etc.) and of course it’s very common these days for drummers to write music but it wasn’t until I heard Barry Elmes around 1995/96 and his original concept as expressed through his band Time Warp and his own quintet that I realized that this was something that I really needed to consider and develop as well. I started my first attempts at composing shortly after hearing Barry play and after many horrid attempts finally started to produce some meaningful work around 1997. I still play many of those compositions today.

My current approach and thoughts with regards to composing music goes something like this:

– I initially spend a lot of time noodling around on the piano or the vibraphone, looking for “meaningful melodic ideas” that I could possibly use later.

– I write every idea down on a piece of manuscript or in a notebook and prefer an “everything” is useful “somewhere” at “sometime” approach. It’s important not to judge too harshly any ideas that present themselves otherwise nothing would ever get written! For example: I recently resurrected a short minor melodic motif that I scribbled down on a piece of paper while in Banff 20 years ago and finally put it together as a coherent, working tune this year.

– All my composing is done at a keyboard. I own a nice stand-up piano that sits in my living room but also really enjoying my Yamaha Reface CP mini-keyboard these days as well as the Akai LPK25 which plugs into my iPhone, runs on Garage Band and is great for travelling.

– Once I have the semblance of a tune going on paper I’ll transfer what I have to my computer in score form using Sibelius. Being able to listen to the computer play ideas back to me is always very helpful.

– I’ll often print off several versions of the composition-in-progress on paper once its been created with Sibelius, tape the pages together, making it “presentable”, put it on display on my work desk and then play the tune over and over again, like hundreds of times, making further notes and corrections as I go along with a pen and highlighter marker. At this point it’s all about fine tuning and editing. My recycling bin gets a real workout when I am writing music!

– As soon as I can, I get real musicians to play through the piece and workshop it. I generally lean on the pianist’s advice for any harmonic tweeks that might be necessary and any other comments that the other musicians might have.

– Note-taking is very important to me. I don’t go anywhere without a nice pen and my Moleskine pocket notebook. I constantly write down specific notes and rhythms that come to me as well as broad conceptual ideas for tunes. If I hear an idea that I like while listening to other music, I take a note of that too and save/steal it for later!

– I also keep a running list of titles, which often serve to inspire and contextualize my composition ideas. I personally think it’s important to always write “about” something, no matter how abstract…

– I’ve also recently been using a pocket-sized Sony digital dictaphone to record ideas while I’m on the go. I’ll sing an idea into the recorder and then try to transcribe it later. My current teacher, Alan Jones, has really encouraged me to sing everything I play and write.

– I really like Steve Lacy’s idea of writing and practicing as being a form of musical “research”, an on-going process of self-reflection and discovery (like we’re all these little sonic mad scientists running around in lab coats…)

– I tend to write melodies first and then deal with harmony second (although not always necessarily!) but this often gets me into trouble harmonically Lol. I am constantly trying to expand my working understanding of functional harmony and more piano lessons are on the horizon (I recently heard some old home recordings of Paul Motian practicing the piano and playing through his tunes and thought this was pretty amazing…)

– I enjoy taking pre-existing chord progressions, writing my own melodic solutions over these and trying to create my own unique “vibe” using those forms (ie. musical contrafacts). Bird, Diz, Monk and many others did a lot of this, so can I!

– I tend to write simple themes and structures and aim to create creative and interesting “platforms” for musicians to improvise over.

– Several of my compositional influences include Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter, Duke Ellington and all the great bebop composers. I’m always trying to make the composition and arrangement one and the same so that the tune, no matter how simple or complex, requires some kind of inherent musical device within it to make it work and, ultimately, make it unique. Many Jazz composers have done this but Horace Silver really sticks out in my mind, in this regards.

– I consider writing a beautiful ballad to be one of the most difficult things to do.

– I’m currently writing and arranging music towards my next big recording project, a straight-ahead Jazz album of original music for septet (four horns and rhythm section). I really admire ensembles that are bigger than a small group but smaller than a big band (ie. The Birth of the Cool, Art Pepper +11, Blues & the Abstract Truth, McCoy Tyner’s Tender Moments and everything recorded by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers using three horns). Plus it’s fun to have so many sonic colours and textures to work with and different soloists to play with.

– I am a very slow composer/arranger but the results are generally very fulfilling and worth the work, time and patience required!

5) Where is the best food in your hometown?

There used to be a killer Thai restaurant down the street, in my neighbourhood of Crescent Heights in Calgary, called Bangkoknoi that I really enjoyed but it’s gone now (!) My wife and I frequent The Nash in Inglewood quite often and enjoy dining in the bar which has a very hip vibe. However, since it’s now summertime I’ll often find myself barbecuing in the backyard and I enjoy grilling a nice ribeye from my local butcher.