On the eve of his Australian tour, Ben talks to Jazz Australia

“The genuine article, a determined crossbreeder of styles whose music is inventive and often surprising. In the era of the postmodern piano trio, Winkelman’s already claimed his place at the table.” Cadence (USA)

JK: How long have you been living in New York?
BW: I’ve been living in New York for a little over five years. I moved here hoping to learn, develop my playing and get inspired by being in a larger and more competitive music scene. There are other cities that have interesting jazz scenes, but New York is in a category of its own for the sheer quantity of musicians playing at a very high level. Jazz is very much a living art form here, and I think for most jazz musicians New York is still considered the main centre for this music. I’ve had a lot of new input to think about since moving here.

JK:What do you find inspiring?
BW: There are a lot of great musicians doing creative and interesting things, sometimes the mind boggles at how much inspiring music there is to see here. For my first six months here the main thing I did was go to see live music every night. There was an especially good run of piano players in my first few months here when I saw Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, Jason Moran, Aaron Parks, Tigran Hamasyan, Robert Glasper, Ariacne Trujillo and a few others all in the space of about a week. So that’s a nice thing about New York, there’s always a lot to see that inspires.

I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration from seeing some great Latin musicians here, especially the Pedro Martinez Quartet, who I used to see play regularly at a Cuban restaurant. It’s kind of amazing that you can see such an incredibly high standard of playing at a restaurant here.

JK: What are the drawbacks?
BW: It’s far from Australia! I haven’t done as well as I’d hoped at keeping a foot in both countries. There’s a lot I miss about Australia, family more than anything but also there are a lot of musicians I miss playing with and hearing. I miss certain cultural nuances and the relaxed pace of life. There’s a lot that I love and miss about the Australian music scene. It is generally more difficult to live in New York as a musician, the competition is pretty fierce. Sometimes the relentless pace of the city can get a bit overwhelming, but generally I like it.

JK: How has this influenced your playing?
BW: About six months after moving here I started playing for a black church. I’ve been playing there every Sunday for the last four and a half years, and learning about gospel music on the job. I think some of that musical language has started to seep into my playing and writing. It’s very emotionally expressive music, I’m trying to bring more of that into my jazz playing.

Since living here I feel more pressure to be on top of my game, regardless of the situation. I’ve had gigs here playing at restaurants where there’s only four people in the room, but one of them is Maria Schneider or Uri Caine. You just don’t know who could be listening, so I try to always treat the situation seriously, whatever it is. Not that it should matter if the people listening are famous musicians or not, but it does seem to add some extra incentive to play well.

JK: What style of music can audiences expect to hear?
BW: I play my own compositions on my trio gigs, they’re contemporary jazz pieces but with some other influences included. Some of my pieces draw on other musical experiences I’ve had filtered through a jazz perspective: playing and listening to Cuban and Brazilian music, playing for a black church, studying classical music. Through the writing I’m trying to develop a personal approach to the piano trio format. I’d say for the audience it’s a fairly diverse listening experience. It’s going to be a real treat for me to tour with Ben Vanderwal and Sam Anning again, I feel a special chemistry with these two wonderful musicians, I can hardly wait.

Piano – Ben Winkelman | Drums – Ben Vanderwal |Bass – Sam Anning

Australian tour in March with Ben Vanderwal and Sam Anning to launch The Knife.
ben winkelman tourThe Street Theatre, 15 Childers St, Canberra City West
Saturday 19th March @ 8pm
www.thestreet.org.au

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