Gai Bryant is the epitome of the modern jazz musician. While maintaining a firm grip on the music’s rich tradition, the Tasmanian-based saxophonist has also sought to explore other traditions and meld them with jazz improvisation and composition.
Since the late 1990s, Gai has spent considerable time studying and touring in north-east Asia, particularly South Korea. Her latest album 2 Degrees East is a series of musical postcards from her adventures and features French horn player Genevieve Campbell as well as prominent jazz identities, including pianist Paul MacNamara and Lloyd Swanton on bass.
She spoke to Peter Jordan about global beats and the challenge of weaving together different styles.
You have just returned from northern Europe, playing at the Pori Jazz Festival in Finland with Russian pianist Arkadiy Figlin and his trio, and in Stockholm with Swedish jazz guitarist Jerry Haglund. What were those experiences like?
It’s always great to play with someone of Arkadiy’s experience. He has a great touch on the piano, is a thoughtful accompanist and I felt very privileged that Pori gave me an opportunity to play with him. I will have opportunities to play with Arkadiy again as he lives in New York and I frequently visit NYC to study with Jim McNeely. Guitarist Jerry Haglund and I met up at an advanced improvisers’ camp in 2001. It is always fun to play with Jerry as he is a fine musician and we get a chance to catch up as friends.
Did you get a chance to hear any of the other acts at Pori?
I did hear a few other acts at Pori. One in particular, the Carling Family, are excellent exponents of traditional jazz. All members were fantastic instrumentalists and their enjoyment was infectious. I am amazed at how many unknown, talented musicians are out there. It’s very humbling to meet and play with people of outstanding ability.
We are increasingly hearing talented musicians from northern Europe. Are the jazz scenes in Finland and Sweden in a healthy state?
As I was only passing through it’s very hard to answer that question. Often when you live somewhere the reality of getting work is very different from your first impressions as a visitor. At Pori, I played with musicians who were living in USA and had come to Europe for work. In Stockholm I visited and played at a few small restaurant/clubs and my impression was that the local scene was quite healthy yet musicians and groups needed to look for work in places like Estonia, Amsterdam, Finland to make a living. Their advantage is being within driving distance to other countries and taking advantage of established festival circuits.
The jazz cafes in Stockholm regularly host jazz groups of all varieties. The Glen Miller Café is so small you are almost standing on someone’s table, however, neither the audience nor the band were fazed by the lack of space. I found the atmosphere respectful even though people talked quietly and sometimes came up to have a chat with me while we were performing. They obviously love live music and it was a joy for me to see people interact socially at a live music performance. I certainly never felt like we were being treated as part of the furniture or something to be talked over. It was definitely more relaxed than the no talking policies here and in the States.
How difficult is it for Australian musicians to get gigs in these countries?
Outside of festivals I think you need to have someone on the ground to make the initial contact. It allows club owners to have a local person to talk and negotiate with in their own language. Practical job-hunting considerations like sending your CD to prospective employers are the same everywhere. Once networks are created it’s easier to organize future performances and build on your existing contacts.
Fortunately, I was greatly assisted by the Australian Embassy in Stockholm and DFAT [Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade]. The Embassy included me in an Australian design promotion taking place that week. Jerry Haglund, my colleague in Sweden, was able to organise other gigs through his contacts. I have been invited to go back next year to build on the successes of this trip. I’m grateful that Jerry is there to do the groundwork.
Your latest album is 2 Degrees East and is something of a sonic travelogue. Is there a uniting theme to the pieces? What were you aiming to achieve?
With 2 Degrees East I wanted to highlight my compositions. Since meeting and playing with Jim McNeely my focus has been to become a more skilled composer/arranger. To that end I wanted to stretch myself by creating pieces that didn’t follow a “head-solo-solo-head” format. Some of the tunes have several different solo sections, some have two distinct melodic sections and some start with one melodic idea yet end with another over the same harmonic material and so on. The challenge for me was to make each composition/arrangement a complete entity in itself while allowing me to try different things. That’s what I admire in the compositions of Wayne Shorter, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Holland, Terrence Blanchard and many others. They create strong pieces that stand on their own.
As the composer of all the tracks are you happy with the results?
Overall I was happy as I achieved what I’d set out to do. The writing for this project stretched my skills and taught me a great deal. It’s whetted my appetite to do more and to write and arrange for big band. Naturally I’d like the pieces to keep evolving and for all the soloists including myself to have time to stretch out, develop and interact as we would in a smaller setting. Being able to play together and write tunes that feature a particular soloist will facilitate this. We’ve just done a CD launch in Sydney for SIMA and it was great to hear everyone developing lengthy solos through the material. I can now hear where the forms could stretch to take solos in different directions. In fact the biggest challenge in having any ensemble performing original work is finding opportunities to perform!
You have had an ongoing association with the music of other cultures, particularly Korea and India. In 2003 you formed the band Temple Dogs to perform material from these sources. Can you say something about the ease or otherwise of melding jazz improvisation with music from these traditions?
Temple Dogs will be one of the projects I want to focus on in 2006. I’ve tried a few different ways of melding traditional melodies with modern harmony and it hasn’t always been successful. Recently, I started thinking about doing this in a much less structured way, which I think will yield the results I want. Some composing and arranging will still be required but more important will be finding a stable ensemble to explore the material. Doing anything well has a degree of challenge. The main obstacle to overcome in composing for Temple Dogs is to keep the original character of the traditional melodies whilst enabling the improvised sections to visit a few different places. I don’t want to tack a folk melody onto the front and/or rear of a harmonic progression that has nothing to do with the original piece. I’d like the improvisations to reflect the melodic and rhythmic material already there.
2 Degrees East in released on your own label. What are your observations about the issues of distribution, sales and marketing of independent music in Australia?
Distribution and sales rely on having good marketing targeted to your audience. Marketing is a huge problem for jazz as it receives minimal coverage via reviews in major newspapers and broadcasting opportunities on radio. The internet is providing an outlet for musicians to get around this problem, however, people still have to know you exist to start searching. Following the example of other musicians I decided to set up my own site to help sell my CDs, scores and parts. It will be up February or March 2006 under my name. Meanwhile people wishing to buy CDs can contact Birdland: www.birdland.com.au or Pinnacles Music: www.pinnaclesmusic.com
You have also written and performed the soundtrack for a documentary on Douglas Mawson’s Antarctic expedition, which features recently discovered footage by Frank Hurley. How did you get involved with the project and what are the challenges of writing a soundtrack?
The National Archives Office in Hobart had come across some unseen footage of Douglas Mawson’s 1911-1914 expedition. The footage was so old that the original soundtrack had been lost, which provided me with an opportunity to write some music for it. I used four students from the Contemporary Music Department of the Conservatorium of Music and myself as the ensemble. We had almost no time or budget, which meant the material had to be simple and easy to get together while reflecting the level of activity on the film. We recorded in a morning, mixed and edited in an afternoon, giving the DVD a homegrown feel that worked in the context of the footage. The ensemble performed the soundtrack live with the footage on two occasions, which was a great experience. I would love to write for something with a bigger budget and less time constraints in the future.
What other projects do you have in the works?
Temple Dogs, big band composing/arranging and getting some gigs for the septet. The other project that I’ve wanted to do for a while now is to arrange some Monk tunes for a quartet, featuring soprano sax, trombone, bass and drums. As a stroke of serendipity Australian pianist, Fiona Bicket, is visiting me this Christmas and we will be playing some Monk tunes together at the summer festival in Hobart. Fiona has twice been a finalist in the Thelonius Monk Piano Competition and studied playing Monk compositions with Walter Davis Junior. I’m expecting to learn a lot from her use of inner voicings, which I’d like to adapt for my ensemble arrangements.
Can you think of an album that you have heard recently – apart from yours, of course – that you would want to recommend?
Albums that I’ve recently bought and really like are:
Tim Berne’s Hard Cell – Feign
Wayne Shorter – Beyond the Sound Barrier
Brad Mehldau’s Largo (not a recent acquisition but a goodie)
