There has been
a lot of talk about a certain young pianist who is playing with Kate Ceberano, gigging in New York and in various line ups in Melbourne, and who has received such accolades as:
“…boy genius Aaron Choulai” Rhythms Magazine
“…a significant signpost at the beginning of a long and illustrious career…it is certainly a milestone for Australian jazz” Paul Grabowsky
But who is Aaron? It is probably the latter quote that is most revealing, not so much in terms of its content, but rather its source. It was Paul Grabowsky who took Aaron under his wing as the teenager began to develop into an exciting jazz prospect during his days at the Victorian College of the Arts secondary and tertiary establishments.
Let us go a step back, where is he from? The answer…Papua New Guinea. Aaron has Chinese, Polish, Papuan and Australian ancestry…is this relevant?
Well, besides being exposed to a wide range of music such as traditional Motuan mourning chants, his playing is that of someone beyond his years which suggests that Aaron himself is beyond his years, and growing up in Papua New Guinea and moving to Melbourne at the age of 10 would give a youngster a unique insight into the intricacies of life that would spill into his playing. You see, Aaron does not have an academic approach to music, his approach is a humble capitulation to the melody and groove of the tune that control him instead of vice versa. This is what makes him so good.
His origins and Paul Grabowsky’s input do not entirely explain the story, so we agreed to hang out in order for me to find out just a little bit more about the young Mr Choulai.
It was a stunning day in Melbourne and having negotiated a tight inner city parking spot we met for our daily fixes of caffeine at the local cafe.
JOTS – What music do you listen to?
AC – Right now I’m listening to California – Mr Bungle, Radiohead…ah what other records…
JOTS – What’s the first record you bought?
AC – …The Police, NWA, when I was about 8, it was great, the first jazz record I bought was Headhunters, I played that album over and over and over again…
JOTS – Were you into fusion or did you just like the groove?
AC – No, I just liked the groove element, I could relate to it a lot more, and I just started playing the piano, but when I was young I listened to a lot of Melbourne bands like the Hoodangers and Ish Ish, and I was really digging Jarrett and Bill Evans and that whole piano trip as well, and then when I got a little older I started listening to hip hop and lots of drum and bass I suppose…um…even bands like the Velvet Underground, which I really liked and the Ramones…
JOTS – What did you like about the Velvet Underground, probably one of the most simplistic bands of all time, one of my favourite bands as well?
AC – They’re great, just the sheer nerve of it I reckon, I don’t think any of them really knew how to play their instruments, but they sound so raw and it’s just so groovy, you know. When I listen to it and I listen to the old Howlin’ Wolf records or Muddy Waters, it sounds the same you know, the same kind of rawness, except its very white …I dig it; that’s the other thing I find appealing, that whole kind of white rock thing…
JOTS – Tell me how the whole New York trip came about?
AC – I was playing at Bennetts Lane in 2003 when the Rolling Stones were in town and Tim Ries was on tour with the Stones, he’s a sax player from New York, and came to the gig and saw me, he was here for about a week and we did some playing, um…and I didn’t hear from him for a month after that, then I got an email asking if I’d go to New York and do some gigs with him… he was putting a new band together. And so I went to New York and played at the Jazz Gallery, and Clarence Penn and James Genus were in the band and we just decided to go into the studio one day and record some of the tunes I had, and um so Tim came along and Scott went, the trumpet player, and then you know it was about a week before I was supposed to leave to come back to school and I shopped the record around with some labels and Sunnyside were interested with that and a few more records, and came back here, finished up school and then straight back to New York and started working really hard. I came back about six/eight months ago, cause I got offered a job with Kate Ceberano as musical director, and the money’s great, and I’ve kinda been living between both countries for a while and will probably do that, I reckon, for the rest of the year and then head back to the States.
JOTS – Do you enjoy that, the nomadic lifestyle?
AC – Ah yeah, I think so, for sure, life’s too interesting to stay still…you know.
JOTS – How did you find New York?
AC – When friends used to ask me that when I lived there I used to say, its like, there were three things a day that would happen that would make me just want to leave, and get the hell out of there, you know it is America and that whole political situation and the city as well is so rude and so inhospitable and really, really tough, you know it’s not a happy place, but also there would be three things that would make me just never want to leave that would happen every day as well, it is the centre of the universe, it is the most incredible city in the whole world, um…and that’s why it’s great as well because it’s not easy and its not predictable and it’s not just all roses, it’s not like Paris, Paris is physically beautiful and Italy, the scenery is great and you’re sitting in the sun and drinking coffee and blah blah blah…New York’s not like that, that stuff don’t happen…
JOTS – You get run down by taxis…
AC – That’s right, and you’ve gotta watch out you’re not shot…
JOTS – You have been described as not being flamboyant, what do you think people mean by that and what does it mean to you?
AC – I think um, I’m assuming they are talking about technique and um chops, I don’t think I’m that sort of player really, so they’re quite correct…that’s partly because I don’t have the facilities as some pianists do, some have just an incredible amount of technique and I don’t have that, but I don’t hear music like that and my technique is sufficient for what I do, in the way Monk’s was, you know Monk didn’t mean to play like Bud Powell cause that’s not how he heard music, I don’t think I need to play like Joe Chindamo cause that’s not how I hear music.
JOTS – How do you respond to reviews such as: “…boy genius Aaron Choulai”, “…a significant signpost at the beginning of a long and illustrious career…it is certainly a milestone for Australian jazz”…
AC – Ha, you know, you can’t read too much into that sort stuff, if you do you’d go insane because for every great review, and great thing someone has to say about you, someone’s gonna say something bad as well, so you know it’s not as if you can believe the good and not the bad. The way I deal with it is not to believe any of it, it’s totally irrelevant…
JOTS – What do you think impressed Tim Ries most about your playing?
AC – I think it was partly, because to him I would sound very different from a lot of New York pianists, cause if you grow up on the other side of the world that’s what’s gonna happen, and I think partly as well we just got along personally and that’s half the thing about playing with someone, you could be playing with the greatest musician in the world but if they’re a pain you don’t want to play with them, if you get along with the person and they’re a good player then it’s like, you know, it’s on.
JOTS – You have 4 projects going on at present, why do you involve yourself in so many projects at a time?
AC – A lot of what I do is compose, it’s also a large part of growing up in Melbourne you don’t really go out and play standards like in New York, there isn’t a culture of jam sessions here, so I guess as a composer within this idiom, as opposed to a classical composer, where you know it’d be hard to have different orchestras and choirs etc, its real easy for me to have a whole bunch of different groups, a combination of different instruments that I can compose for, um and its much more fun for me as well because I end up playing music that’s my own which I really like, I mean I love playing other people’s music as well but I don’t want to make a career of it. And also there are so many musicians around and you just want to work with all of them in different contexts, you know see how someone sounds in this setting and that settings etc.
JOTS – Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
AC – I’m working on an electronic album that will take the next couple of years because I want to get the production really perfect…When I say electronic I mean electronic production techniques, still live playing but much more focus on production. I want to make a go of New York and really continue where I’ve left off. There’s also a larger piece that I’m working on for the Australian Arts Orchestra which deals with a lot of Papua music which will take me quite a while to finish. Um…next five years…
JOTS – You’ll be 27 years old… how old are you?
AC – No, no, I’ll be…I’ve just turned 23…
JOTS – You’ll be 28…
AC – Ooh, that’s old [laughs].
JOTS – You’ll be retired, working on your super fund…
AC – That’s what I’ll be doing, I’ll be wheeling myself down to social security to collect my pension [laughs]. No, New York will be the main focus.
Abridged interview courtesy of Jazzonthestreet.com. For full interview and more visit www.jazzonthestreet.com
