tnycjr201305

Photo by Bill Bernstein
INTERVIEW
Drummer Will Calhoun’s playing is vivid. It’s clear and
forceful; you always know he’s there. So when big names
need a big beat, they call Calhoun; in addition to his many
years as the fire underneath rock band Living Colour, the
Bronx-based Calhoun has laid it down for Pharoah Sanders,
Wayne Shorter, rapper Yasiin Bey (when he was still known
as Mos Def) and Malian vocalist Oumou Sangare. In
between Living Colour dates last month, Calhoun spoke to
The New York City Jazz Record about his wide-ranging
fifth jazz album as a leader, Life in This World.
The New York City Jazz Record: I really like the new
album title.
Will Calhoun: There’s a lot of things going on in my
career and what I’m doing. How I’m experiencing
myself as an artist. I’m kind of pigeonholed a little bit
in the press for being a rock guy, [because I was]
introduced to the industry by Living Colour. But Mali
and Africa in general, but mostly Mali and Senegal and
Mauritania and Morocco are places where I’ve studied
and researched music. And that music has influenced
me a great deal in playing everything. So Life in This
World really is an experience of the world that I’m in
and putting it, sort of, in a jazz narrative with this
record. I wanted to bring my Bronx history: hip-hop -
whether folks hear it in there or not - drum-and-bass,
reggae, growing up in a Caribbean community. My
first professional gig, at the age of 19, with Harry
Belafonte. What that experience was like. Working
with Harry and working with unbelievable South
African musicians. That was my first contact, really,
with musicians from Africa. And that was my first
experience with each singer or musician being able to
play at least eight instruments. So Life in This World is
where I am now and the experiences that I’ve had.
TNYCJR: “Naima”, uniquely, gets a Brazilian groove.
WC: Very well stated. It’s a baiao. I wanted to try
something not on the kit. I’m very influenced by that
country. Less samba and more from maracatu. More
the north, more in the Bahia and the Recife area. But
still, yes, I’m a huge fan of that culture and the country
and of course if you’re a drummer or an acoustic guitar
player that country can become paradise for you as a
musician. But yeah, it is a Brazilian influence, that is
correct. I love all of [John] Coltrane’s music. “Naima”,
to me, just has such a universal melody to it. Whether
you’re playing straightahead jazz, or with hand drums,
or in the choir. I’ve heard it done many ways, with
many different types of musicians and I wanted to put
a little bit of a Brazilian twist on it and feel, without
insulting [Coltrane’s] music.
TNYCJR: And am I hearing some Latin stuff also on
[Thelonious Monk’s] “Evidence”?
WC: That six that I’m playing there is Malian actually.
6 May 2013 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD
Will
Calhoun
by Brad Farberman
And it’s interesting when you go to some of these
rhythms, because a lot of the cascaras and a lot of the
claves and these things that left the continent and went
to Central and South America actually come from a lot
of these areas of Mali, of Senegal. I was with a Dogon
family for a little while. I was just out in the bush and
I stopped at this place to eat and this guy had a very
old, crusty boombox and he put this cassette in and the
drums destroyed me. And I was like, “What is that?”
He said, “Oh, it’s just old Dogon music.” It was taped
over, like, an Earth, Wind & Fire or Jackson 5 tape - I
don’t know how he got the tape, but he obviously
taped over it - but the drumming was insane. And on
this cassette, you hear these kinds of claves, these
kinds of cascara patterns and I was asking him how old
these patterns were in the culture. They were laughing
at me, ’cause I liked all the old stuff. I liked the hunter’s
music. All the things that aren’t popular, that are only
played for a certain purpose. So they kinda got a kick
out of me diggin’ that stuff. ’Cause you have to be
initiated to play that music. So that was the attraction.
But that six, it does sound very Latin, but historically
it’s coming from a Manding style.
TNYCJR: It’s so interesting how all these rhythms and
all these different musical elements get dispersed
around the world.
WC: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wish I had the time and the
money to really get a team together and a film crew
and a whole plane full of people and go over and really
start to comb through this stuff at that level. But my
sort of smaller level has just been so amazing to
experience. Older balafon players telling me why [Jimi
Hendrix’] Band of Gypsys meant more to them than
the Experience band. And I’m saying, “Well, what’s the
reason?” and they started to play me Manding music
that sounded so much like what Jimi was doing with
the Band of Gypsys that they thought Jimi was trying
to get to that. And then who knows with Jimi; maybe
he was! [laughs] But this 80-something-year-old man
played me so many traditional songs that sounded like
“Power of Soul” and sounded like “Machine Gun”. Of
course not exactly like the same licks, but if you hear
the movements in the music, it’s spine-tingling to have
that experience and then go back and listen to [Hendrix]
and realize, “Whoa, there’s a relationship there,
whether Jimi realized it or not.”
TNYCJR: Ron Carter appears on two tracks from Life
in This World. “Etcetera”, in particular, I felt was really
spontaneous-sounding.
WC: First of all, it was an honor. Second of all, I’ve
done a few jingles with Ron. He won’t remember it,
because Ron was such a professional. He used to just
come in and read the music down and leave. [laughs]
He won’t remember me playing on most of the jingles
we did together; I was just happy to be in the same
room with Ron. But yeah, Ron’s a master. When you
hear that sound, it just brings you back.
The “Etcetera” thing was interesting because I
love this track and on Wayne Shorter’s original version,
Joe Chambers is playing drums and there’s a solo in
the section after the piano and saxophone solo. And I
was just talking down the arrangement and Ron, he
didn’t want any music before this recording, he didn’t
want to hear anything, he just said, “I’ll just come and
do it.” I said, “Okay, fine.” He showed up, we talked
about it and I said, “Well, you know, there’s a solo, it’s
an open drum solo.” And he said, “You know, I think I
wanna play with you in that section”. And I said,
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