Simon Barker Image courtesy of artistFine Music caught up with Simon and asked him a number of questions about this intriguing journey.

FM: How did your admiration and fascination with Kim Seok-Chul begin?

SB: I’d been traveling to Korea since a 1994 tour with Mark Isaacs. In the years following Mark’s tour I began to develop opportunities to perform there with groups such as the Matt McMahon trio and Band Of Five names, as well as several Korean groups that I played in. During this time I was playing a lot with Phil Slater, Matt McMahon, Carl Dewhurst, and Scott Tinkler and the music they were developing required me to rethink my own approach to playing the drumset. I was also thinking about approaching the drums in a way that reflected the diverse cultural experiences I was having while touring in Asia.

In 2000-2001 I spent a lot of time in Korea studying with a great young traditional drummer named Kang Sun Il. Sun Il opened me up to a range of musical, conceptual, and physical concepts associated with drumming that were completely new to me. While on a break at one of Sun Il’s lessons, he played a recording of Kim Seok-Chul which completely blew my mind. In his music I could hear a rhythmic vocabulary that offered answers to all sorts of musical questions I was asking myself. It was also the most exciting drumming I’d heard since hearing the great jazz drummers for the first time. In the following months I tried to gather as much information as I could about his music but found it very difficult to get any information at all.

FM: Your odyssey to find Kim Seok-Chul took over seven years and numerous trips to Korea. What kept you searching?

SB: Well I was traveling there primarily to perform (usually twice a year if I could pull the tours together) and would use any spare time I had to find out about his music. If I had been an academic on a research trip it may have all been much easier but the way it turned out was really exciting…little bits of information here and there over several years.

FM: Can you explain the moment when you finally met Kim Seok-Chul and what this has meant to you both musically and spiritually?

SB: Very intense! It was a private ritual his family were holding to help Kim Seok-Chul in the final days of his life. He was carried in by his family and looked very frail but when he spoke and played for us it was incredible. He had the energy of a much younger man and his love of music and playing was extraordinary (at that time he had not played drums for months, perhaps years, due to illness). Korean rituals are very loud, with very intensive singing and drumming being played for many hours (or days) at a time. When we met Kim Seok-Chul, it was one of those surreal, swirling experiences where everything around you is new. It was an unforgettable moment and I treasure the fact that it was documented. I’m still not sure what the experience meant musically but the fact that Kim Seok-Chul was happy to offer a kind of drum lesson to a stranger in the final hours of his life was inspiring and humbling. The whole experience was completely overwhelming and I’m grateful to him for his generosity and enthusiasm at such a sensitive time.

FM: The documentary has been very well received, especially at film festivals around the world. Can you tell us about the work of the filmmaker Emma Franz and the success of the project?

SB: As well as being a filmmaker, Emma is a great singer who has been doing gigs around the world for 20 years. We first met when she came to Sydney to play in 1995 and have been friends ever since. When Emma decided to get into filmmaking it was very inspiring as she had very clear ideas of what she wanted everything to be.

The film has screened at numerous festivals around the world, winning Best Documentary at the Durban International Film Festival, an AFI award for best sound in a documentary as well as gaining official selection at HotDocs, SilverDocs and many other prestigious international festivals. In 2010 it premiered as a cinematic release in theatres around Korea which was really exciting. It’s a huge achievement by Emma as this was her first film.

FM: As well as a Q@A with Emma and yourself on the night  you are also playing as part of Matt McMahon’s Paths & Streams Project. Can you tell us about this?

SB: Matt is one Australia’s great musicians and this a fantastic project that celebrates musicians that have influenced him. The band features James Muller, Phil Slater, Brett Hirst, and a string quartet performing Matt’s arrangements of music by a variety of Australian artists.

FM: How do you see this year’s Jazzgroove Festival shaping up given that this is now in its third year running.

SB: Last year was huge and it looks like this year will be even bigger! It’s very exciting to see a musician-run cooperative producing an international standard festival. The festival offers listeners a chance to hear so many great bands producing new music. Go Jazzgroove!

One of the highlights of the festival will be a gala night at the Tom Mann Theatre on Saturday 14 January which will open with a screening of Emma Franz’s superb   documentary Intangible Asset No 82 about drummer Simon Barker’s odyssey to Korea in search of Shaman, Kim Seok-Chul, considered by Simon to be one of the world’s greatest improvisers.

In January of 2012 the Sydney based Jazzgroove Association stages its third annual Jazzgroove Summer Festival, a unique event on the Australian music calendar in that it is a festival almost entirely run and organised by musicians themselves. The 2012 festival has taken another giant step forward, expanding to embrace a variety of new venues and a more centralised location in Surry Hills. The three day festival will feature club shows, pub shows, workshops and free kids concerts at Redfern Town Hall, a free outdoor acoustic concert in Prince Alfred Park and a festival gala night at the Tom Mann Theatre.

Once again the festival will spotlight the incredible pool of both young and established jazz talent in Sydney and from around the country. The 2012 roster features artists including the Gian Slater Trio with Christopher Hale and Nathan Slater, the Coffin Brothers, the James Muller Trio with Ben Vanderwal, The Cooking Club, Adam Ponting, The MFW, the Chuck Yates Trio, 20th Century Dog, the Waples Bros with Jackson Harrison, Mango Ballroom, the Mike Rivett Quintet, the Warwick Alder Quintet, Abel Cross & The Neo-Bop Quintet, the Cope Street Parade, Song Fwaa, the A.C.R.O.N.Y.M Orchestra, the Alister Spence Trio, the Zac Hurren Trio, the Glorious Sousaphonics, the Sun Chasers Collective, World According To James and La-Lah.

The 2012 Jazzgroove Summer Festival runs from Friday 13 to Sunday 15 January 2012
A full program is listed at www.jazzgroove.com

Article provided courtesy of Chris Ruhle – 2MBS Fine Music Magazine

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