A Conversation with Eddie Gomez – HuffPost 1.18.12

Mike Ragogna: Eddie, how the heck are you?

Eddie Gomez: I’m doing fine, Mike. How are you?

MR: Great. Now, your new album with Chick Corea and Paul Motian, Further Exploraitons, is a kind of tribute project to Bill Evans. You all played with Bill before, right?

EG: That’s actually not the case, though most people assume that. When I joined Bill, Paul had already left. Having said that, Paul would come in on occasion and sit in with us. As far as any kind of real long-term playing, Paul and I never really played together much. It was just kind of him sitting in and such. By the time I joined the trio, he had moved on to do other projects and work on his own music. Lately, as you may know, he was really essentially involved in his own projects and his own music. That’s essentially what he did.

MR: And it was sad to hear about Paul’s passing.

EG: Oh, it’s terrible. I have a picture of when we worked together and he looks like the healthiest guy on the planet. His demeanor was always jovial, good-natured and happy. If he was suffering through anything — and I don’t think he was at that time — but if he was at the beginning of something, then we certainly couldn’t tell. Onstage he was still just pure magic.

MR: Well, he will be missed by many.

EG: Yes, he will.

MR: Let’s change gears and jump into talking about Further Explorations. Can you give us a little background as to why you guys recorded a project like this?

EG: Well, very simply, Chick called Paul and myself and said that he had this idea — Chick could never be accused of not having great ideas and concepts — and this was something that he had always wanted to do that he finally just pulled the trigger on. The purpose was, of course, to dedicate an homage to Bill Evans who was one of his idols. He wanted me and Paul for rather obvious reasons, and was able to get us because it worked with both of our schedules. We generally don’t like doing things like this with other musicians or pianists, but Chick is a musical creature and is someone that could pull off a project that wasn’t tried or tawdry. It would be something that we could be proud of. We also liked that Further Explorations implied that we were taking Bill Evans music beyond where it had been; his music was just the starting point from which we would try to go to other places. It’s really just a trip based on Bill’s feeling, sound and art. So, when Chick called me, it was really easy to say yes to this project.

MR: I also wanted to mention that I loved your work on Chick Corea solo works such asThe Leprechaun and The Mad Hatter, a couple of the more melodic fusion records of the ’70s.

EG: Yeah, there were a few of them — the two that you just mentioned, Friends, which won a Grammy, Three Quartets, and some others. Those albums mark special notches in Chick’s belt along with so many of his other records from other projects and bands. All of these albums, including the ones that I’m on, really stand out for him. So, I’m really proud of that because it sort of includes my body of work. Chick and I go back even before we started recording together because we used to get together when we were still teenagers, really. I was about 16 and he was a couple of years older, and we would get together once a week and just rehearse stuff. I knew Chick from the Julliard days. I didn’t go to Julliard, I was still in high school and I would just go up to rehearse. We were friends and aware of each other for a while. There was a connection there even before we started to record with each other.

MR: Nice. Now, this is a live album that you guys pulled from some of your nights at The Blue Note last year, right?

EG: That’s right.

MR: One of the things that I love about this album is that I feel that jazz musicians often shine most in live performances, and with this album, you capture some of that magic.

EG: You know, I tend to favor live recording, though I do like studio recording. They really are two very different animals. Live recording is more akin to going to the theater and catching that moment that was evanescent, that you would never hear or see again unless it’s recorded. Studio recording is more like film when you can do things over, tweak things, layer things. They’re just two different methods. I do love live recordings because they capture the essence of what spontaneous, creative, improvised music is all about.

MR: What would you say the ratio of improvisation to “set” music is when you play live with Chick?

EG: Well, in general, it’s about 70% improvisation when I play. With Chick and Paul, it was probably closer to 99% because to them, that was the whole point to get the creative juices flowing. Basically, if we had anything in front of us, it was a sheet of just notes or a melody. From then on, we would just go. Sometimes we didn’t even have that, we would just go off the top of our heads. Usually, we were heading in a certain direction because of a theme that we were working with. There was a lot of so-called free playing where we just listened to each other. With Paul, it was so natural because that’s where he came from musically; he breathed that. He was a perfect partner for that kind of playing, and I would like to think that it was reciprocated from his side because he was the master of making music out of thin air.

MR: Speaking of coming out of thin air, “Song Number One” makes an appearance for the first time anywhere on this album. Can you tell us the story behind this song?

EG: That was kind of a melody that was unearthed, like Schubert’s 8th Symphony or something. This one was actually finished though. I remember this piece because Bill was working on it when I was still around and I would sort of try and play it myself. We never actually played it together. I remember listening to him sort of sculpting it, and I don’t think we ever performed it live or anything. Then Chick found it somehow and he kind of approached it from a different angle than I did. Anyway, we did perform it. We found something but we really weren’t sure what part of the animal it was from, you know? (laughs) But you know what animal it is, and where it should be.

MR: Now, because this song was found so many years after it was started and you guys have sort of made it your own based on your interpretation of Bill’s starting point, would you consider this song to be co-written by you, Chick and Bill? Where do you draw the line with something like that?

EG: It really is very easy to figure out, this is clearly a piece written by Bill Evans. When you find a manuscript of Mozart’s, that music is Mozart’s and no one else’s. This is clearly Bill’s music, but maybe there are little parts that aren’t quite clear or totally finished. We just went into that song the same way we did every other song — with the intent of being honest, musical, and getting as much emotion out of the music as we could. And the emotion was already there. Great music already has a lot of emotion out on the page. It takes some pretty horrible musicians to take that great emotion out of a piece of music or literature. This song was already beautiful, we just approached it with as much honesty and grace as we could to make sure that the emotion was what Bill intended. It also wasn’t just about Bill, it was about putting us as an overlay to Bill’s music in a respectful way.

MR: How would you describe Bill’s contribution to music?

EG: I’d say it was huge. He was a pianist, and pianists are kind of the orchestra of jazz music. Pianists have a particular kind of influence as do drummers, horn players, bass players, etc. We all have our particular role and we infuse the music and the art form in our own particular ways. The great pianists over the years, like Fats Waller, or Count Basie, or Bud Powell, have contributed tremendous amounts, and it seeps into the pop world as well. Bill was not only one of the pianists whose music got out there, he really changed things in a harmonic and emotional way that separated the music before and after his time. You can hear it in people like Herbie Hancock, who was just coming up, and even Chick, who was obviously influenced by him. Again, I don’t think this is just true for pianists. I think the whole art of this music crosses over into many areas and genres. I never felt like there was one note that Bill played that didn’t mean something. I was lucky, I got to perform with Miles Davis as well, and I never heard a note that didn’t go right to your heart. Whether it was a ballad or something fast, it just penetrated your being. There were no wasted notes with either of them. You could say the same about several others as well. They were just so profoundly expressive.

MR: Chick Corea’s song, “Bill Evans,” also appears on this project.

EG: Well, Chick as we all know, is an amazing composer and he’s amazing for not only the music he puts out, but how prolific it is. His body of work is so diverse and amazing. He’s like a filmmaker. He really thinks about each individual project and it’s carved out in such a way that makes it very special. So, when he writes a piece of music, he’s thinking about honoring that project. Obviously, his love and respect for Bill is present throughout the project and, of course, in the music he wrote.

MR: The song that ends the album titled is “Puccini’s Walk.” Can you tell us a little bit about that song?

EG: Well, Puccini was one of the great composers of the 19th Century. He and Verdi are probably the most well-known. Anyway, the way I got to that song was that the first pooch I had was named Puccini. So, I wrote him a little tune, which he later recognized. Whenever I sang the first verse, it was time to go out for a walk. It’s as simple as that. (laughs)

MR: (laugh) I wanna go back and talk about something you mentioned before. You said that you worked with Miles Davis for a while, do you have any stories from working with him you can share?

EG: The first one that comes to mind is when I played with Miles in Chicago. We had played together several times all over the US, and we were playing in a place called The Plugged Nickel. After the first weekend, I thought we were doing pretty well just because of the feel of how things were going. On the last night after everyone left, he approached me and gave me a punch to my stomach that almost brought me to my knees. The thing is that he always traveled with his boxing trainer; he loved boxing and went to the gym just about every day. He didn’t even say anything when he hit me. I don’t know if I would describe it as a love tap or what to call it, but he had done this to some of the other members of the band as well. (laughs) I didn’t take it as a negative thing or anything. I just kind of took it as a form of male bonding or something. I kept my feet and I didn’t cough up any blood or anything. (laughs)

MR: (laughs) Wow. I also wanted to chat with you about your new solo album called Per Sempre.

EG: That’s right. The title is Italian and translates to “forever” in English. I recorded it about a year or so ago in Italy. It’s a lot my originals and some other originals from guys in the band. It’s currently available through my website.

MR: Eddie, from all your years of experience, do you have any tips or advice for new artists?

EG: If you don’t love something enough and have the passion, desire, and focus not to be deterred by society and the people that are not going to inspire you, then you may not make it. You kind of have to be undeterred and single-minded about what you’re doing , especially in the arts, because there isn’t a lot of support for it. You have to just move straight ahead, love it a lot, and do it as much as you can. And you have to actually do it. This isn’t the kind of thing that you can learn from a book. There are lots of books about this industry, and they can be very helpful, but you have to do it and keep loving it. That’s what separates the special ones from the rest of the folks out there.

MR: How do you feel about the state of jazz right now?

EG: You know, there are a lot of very talented musicians out there right now. The problem is with your environment. You have to foster an environment where things can be nurtured and grow. That environment is not so great right now. I hope that someday, it’ll return to that sort of environment like it was 20 or 30 years ago. I hate to sound like the old guy saying, “Back in my day, …” But there were way more clubs so there were a lot more places to explore and play. I think you have to kind of create these places as well. I am starting to see it more and more though. I see it in the musicians in the park and the streets of New York when it’s warm out. There are some extremely talented players as well, and it’s great, but that’s not enough. What we need is subsidy like they have in European countries. It’s not just jazz that’s suffering either, it’s all of the arts. Overall, I would say that the state of jazz could be healthier. There are a lot of great musicians out there, but my fear is that jazz is going to become some sort of musicological novelty music rather than a sustainable art form.

MR: Eddie, I want to thank you so much for coming by and talking with us.

EG: Thank you so much for having me, Mike.

Transcribed by Evan Martin