M.J Stevens

Can you introduce you to the french public ? (Who are you ? When did you start playing music ?).
I was born in NYC in 1951 and started playing piano at the age of 6. I never remember a time when I did not want to play the piano. I have always loved the wound of the piano.  My first musical experiences after piano lessons was playing Farfisa organ in rock n roll bands all through the 60s's....Beatles, Animals, Yardbirds, etc. At age 17 I heard jazz for the first time and by the time I was 20 I had quit college to study and play jazz music. The music has such a powerful effect on me. I traveled around and settled back into NYC in 1980. IN 1988 I started a band called the Mosaic Sextet which featured such musicians as Dave Douglas, Mark Feldman, Joe Fonda, Harvey Sorgen, Michael Rabinowitz and myself. This group became somewhat of an underground legend in New York and one of my first CD releases was entitled "Today This Moment" by the Mosaic Sextet on Konnex Records. This CD has gone out of print but will be re-released next year along with unreleased material by GM Recordings.  in the early 90s Joe Fonda and myself started the Fonda/Stevens Group which originally featured Mark Whitecage, Herb Robertson, Harvey Sorgen, Joe and myself.....and now functions as a quartet with Harvey, Joe, myself and either Herb Robertson or Paul Smnoker on trumpet.

Many creative pianists say that Cecil Taylor influenced them in their playing. What about you ? Who are the musicians (particularly pianists) who influenced you in your playing ?
Well Cecil Taylor of course is a huge influence on my perceptions of sound and the sonic possibilities of the piano and of music. But actually it was more Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, Chic Corea and Herbie Hancock who are my deeper musical influences from the point of view of harmony, melody, and rhythm.  The importance of Cecil is that he showed me something about music that was completely new.....a way to play and hear music that I have never even imagined.... Something that I felt when I heard Schonberg's music for the first time....the sounds I experienced were completely unworldly....like a dream or a nightmare....and they changed the way I think about music forever.

In 1984, you started playing with Mark Whitecage. Is your meeting with Mark important for you and could you explain to us why ? Could you speak to us about your recording « Short Stories » in 1997 with Mark ?
Clearly Mark Whitecage has played an important part in my musical development. We played music together for 15 years and just recently stopped playing together as he is now working on his own projects. Mark is a virtuoso improvisor, and playing with him brought me closer to a different musical aesthetic: one less concerned with wrong notes and right notes and more concerned with the immediacy of the moment. I would say that the basic difference between myself and Mark has to do with the fact that I am a very strong composer and have certain specific ideas in mind for each composition whereas Mark does not rely on compositions as a matter of course. He prefers to deal with spontaneous composition - improvisation.  So our relationship was one in which we both were able to gain from each other. I brought a strong sense of written composition to our projects and I learned from Mark the fundamental concepts and aesthetic involved in spontaneous free improvisation. The CD Short Stories is actually a recording of a live concert performed several years ago which involved Mark and I performing a series of short compositions that I wrote which were designed to allow for very open improvisations. I feel the project was very successful and was happy to release this CD to the public. 

You have numerous very different formations - different by the influence, the music, the origins of the musicians. Is it a goal for you to be open at all these influences and is it necessary for you and your music ?
I do have many different musical interests. I started playing classical piano when I was quite young (for a short time only), than performed in rock n roll bands on Farfisa organ from the age of 12 until the age of 18. Finally I began at age 20 my interest and life's work learning and performing jazz music (a music which has many different sides, angles and faces). So now that I am reaching the grand old age of 49 (next March) I can sit back and just as easily enjoy a Beatles CD or a Joni Mitchell CD as I can enjoy Bartok or Miles Davis or John Coltrane or Bach.  So, yes, there are different musical sides to my personality. However the groups that I perform with and create have as much to do with musical issues as they do with economic issues. What I mean is not only do I create a musical group because I have certain musical ideas I want to express, but I also create many projects because in this day and age the jazz marketplace demands that an artist keep re-inventing himself and selling new ideas ie: new projects, bands, etc. So, for example, I have toured the last three years with the Fonda/Stevens Group seven times in Europe. This year Joe and I sat down and decided we needed to create a new project to market, so that the presenters we are dealing with don't get tired of hiring the Fonda/Stevens Group over and over. Hence the new group "Conference Call".  Of course I was already speaking with Gebhard Ullmann about starting a project, and the music we are making is very satisfying for me (the group also includes Matt Wilson on drums and will be touring April 2000). There is no artistic compromise. However it seems that it is not possible to keep one band working over a long period of time in the same way that, for example, Coltrane worked with his quartet in the 60's, or Miles worked with his Quintet, etc.

You speak about your interest for composition. Could you tell us how you approach this work ?
Composition for me is as much a part of my musical expression as performance. Maybe, in some ways, I would consider composition my primary form of musical expression. My process is very interconnected with playing the piano. Usually I will sit at the piano and start playing sounds, voicings, different harmonies, unusual keys, looking for something new...something vital...something compelling. It can be anything but once I find that sound my imagination is kindled and I begin to compose. On occasion I have used computers and midi keyboards with sequencers as part of my compositional process, but somehow that does not feel as direct or emotional to me.  Of course, this is not a value judgement, merely my own personal way of doing things.

What aspect of your work as a musician do you prefer ?
I love to play the piano. I love to finish a composition. That is an extremely satisfying experience, maybe as close as I will ever come as a man to giving birth. Of course I love to hear my music performed and this becomes very exciting when the music is written for many performers. As I get older I become less and less interested in the stereotypical method in which jazz seems to have settled itself into.....the concept of one soloist followed by the next with repeated choruses ad infinitum.  I think the music needs to move into a more daring place, one where the musicians utilize the endless and infinite possibilities that always exist in music as in life. Certainly certain restraints can and should be imposed, but still there must also be an option for freedom, even in spite of these musical restraints. That is the music that I have been working on, particularly in the Fonda/Stevens Group. A balance of order and freedom.  And, that is what I particularly enjoy playing and listening to.

The Fonda/Stevens Group has been founded for several years. Can you tell us the story of the formation ? What do you think about its « evolution »  and possibilities of new evolutions ?
The title of the most recent Fonda/Stevens Group CD "Evolution" on Leo Records, refers to the Evolution of the music that Joe Fonda and I have playing together for the past 15 or more years. We began playing together with Mark Whitecage in a group called "Liquid Time" whose original members included Dave Douglas on trumpet. We later were founding members of the "Mosaic Sextet" which was a NYC based sextet featuring Mark Feldman on violin, Dave Douglas on trumpet, Harvey Sorgen on drums and Michael Rabinowitz on bassoon. In 1990 that group dissolved and in about 1993 we started the Fonda/Stevens Group with Mark Whitecage, Harvey Sorgen, Herb Robertson, Joe Fonda and myself. At the present time the group is functioning as a quartet with either Herb Robertson or Paul Smoker on trumpet.

I like very much your recording Equinox with Dominic Duval and Tomas Ulrich. How is born this project ? What do you think of the specifies of the trio ? Isn't it a way of working better your instruments ? Isn't it one of the most experimental of your projects ?
The Equinox Trio Project is another evolutionary project. Dominic and I have been playing music together since about 1986 in various formations and we had been talking about going into the studio to do a new recording. We both decided to do a trio project with cellist Tomas Ulrich, and have in essence a very acoustic group with no amplification (cello,bass and piano). The studio date was completely improvised, which is the basic musical concept behind this trio. I absolutely prefer to perform on the piano completely acoustically, no mics, no amps, no speakers.......so this group allows me to do that. It is one of my most experimental projects, along the lines of the duo project with Mark Feldman ("Haiku" released on Leo Records)

The Brooklyn Jazz Composers Orchestra is celebrating its fourth year of existence. You'll release your first CD in the Fall of 1999. Could you tell us something about this project ?
Unfortunately I have been traveling so much in the last 3 years that I had to put the BJCO aside for the moment. I am hoping that the recording project will come through. So far the record company has kept postponing the recording, so we are in a holding pattern. However, this project is a direct outgrowth of the BMI Jazz Composer's Workshop which is a free (no cost) composition workshop sponsored by BMI and open to all jazz composers by audition. It is particularly geared towards big band composition, and this is where I started writing big band music

You play with Ullmann. What do think about all these European musicians who come in New York to play with American creative players ? In your mind, do they give to you new ideas for improvisation. ?
I am very interested in performing with musicians from other countries, cultures, interests, influences, etc. I think that the future of music will be determined by a coalescing of many different ideas from various cultures and peoples into a new and very powerful idea, energy, force, etc. I believe that music is a spiritual force on this planet, and that the next wave of music will be globally influenced. So my decision to pursue projects with musicians from other countries is a very conscious one. I will be performing in October, 99 with Jiri Stivin, a very great Czech improvisor and composer. I am hoping to collaborate with Juerg Solothurnmann, who is a Swiss saxophonist in the year 2000. I recently performed with several German musicians in New York City in a collaborative project that we are hoping to record and tour with in the future. And, of course, I am involved in a quartet with German saxophonist and multi instrumentalist Gebhard Ullmann. Of course there is an exchange of ideas in all these projects. That is the most interesting facet of the interchange. And seeing what grows from these new ideas. We need to move jazz music (or improvised music - whatever you want to call it) into a new place for the millennium. I believe the answer will be found in a multi-cultural platform.

What are your projects for 2000 ?
I am working on a special quartet project for the Spring of the year 2000 featuring my partner Joe Fonda on bass, Gebhard Ullmann on sax, Matt Wilson on drums and myself on piano. We will be touring Europe in April, and the repertoire consists entirely of music composed by each member of the band. There is also a choreography project in the works and hopefully I will be commissioned to compose some music for dance/theatre in Virginia. The Fonda/Stevens Group is planning an October 2000 tour with Herb Robertson on trumpet and Harvey Sorgen on drums. I am hoping to release my first solo piano CD in the year 2000. My trio project with Dominic Duval on bass and Tomas Ulrich on cello (the Equinox Trio) should be performing in Europe for the first time in March, 2000 (Hopefully Bordeaux and other parts of France). Well that's some of what is going on.

Interview by Sabine Moig

Discographie

- The Mosaic Sextet - Today, this Moment - Konnex Records - 1994
- The Lily White Band - From Truth to Fiction - KFW - 1994

Stevens/Siegel/Ferguson :
- One of a Kid - Imaginary Jazz - 1995
- Points of View - Imaginary Jazz - 1997
- Panorama - Imaginary Jazz - 1999

The Fonda/Stevens Group :
- The Wish - Music & Arts - 1996
- Parallel Lines - Music & Arts - 1997
- Live from Brugge - DeWerf Records - 1997
- Evolution - Leo Records - 1998

with Dominic Duval :
- The Equinox trio - Equinox - Leo Records - 1999