# In a memorable interview: Roswell Rudd continues his world music … Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/12/23/in-a-memorable-interview-roswell-rudd-continues-his-world-music-video/
- Published: 2017-12-23T18:35:42+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Trombonist Roswell Rudd, who had been suffering from cancer, died Dec. 21. He 
was 82. In tribute, DownBeat is reposting a recent interview, which was written 
by Bill Milkowski and originally posted Dec. 1, 2017. **

**[And Please see here …](http://jazzblues.eu/2017/11/29/a-celebration-of-the-great-trombone-innovator-roswell-rudd-video/)**

**‘My Ears Have Been My Guide’**

Trombonist-composer and intrepid improviser Roswell Rudd has been on a musical path
for more than 60 years. Born in Sharon, Connecticut, on Nov. 17, 1935, he attended
Yale University, where he joined a boisterous trad jazz band dubbed Eli’s Chosen
Six. The band’s self-titled debut was released on Columbia Records in 1957.

After moving to New York City, he fell into a burgeoning free-jazz scene and eventually
recorded with the likes of Buell Neidlinger, Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy, Dennis Charles
and Archie Shepp, all of whom appear on the 1961 Candid album _New York City R&B_.

From 1960 to 1962 he played with pianist Herbie Nichols, who became an important
mentor for Rudd. And from 1961 to 1964, Rudd co-led a quartet with drummer Charles
and bassist Henry Grimes that exclusively played the music of Thelonious Monk.

Shepp became a key collaborator through the ’60s as Rudd appeared on the saxophonist’s
Impulse! albums _Four For Trane_ (1961), _Live In San Francisco_ (1966) and _Mama
Too Tight_ (1966). The trombonist also joined saxophonist John Tchicai, bassist 
Lewis Worrell and drummer Milford Graves in the New York Art Quartet in 1964 and
played on the soundtrack for the 1964 film _New York Eye and Ear Control_ with Tchicai,
Don Cherry, Albert Ayler, Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray.

Through the ’70s, Rudd collaborated with such forward-thinking European jazz artists
as the Dutch pianist Misha Mengelberg, Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava and Dutch drummer
Han Bennink and also recorded frequently with pianist Carla Bley.

In the ’80s, he appeared on Hal Willner’s 1984 concept album _That’s The Way I Feel
Now: A Tribute To Thelonious Monk_ and recorded with the rock group NRBQ (1989’s
_Wild Weekend_). In 1999, Rudd reunited with Steve Lacy on the Verve album _Monk’s
Dream_ and with the New York Art Quartet on _35 Reunion_.

In 2000, he reunited with Shepp at the Jazz Standard for the 2001 Verve album _Live
In New York_. That same year, Rudd and his producer and partner Verna Gillis went
to Mali, which resulted in a cross-cultural collaboration with kora player Toumani
Diabate on the 2003 Sunnyside album _MALIcool_.

Rudd continued his world music trailblazing for Sunnyside with 2005’s _Blue Mongol_,
recorded with Mongolian Buryat Band, and 2007’s _El Spiritu Jibaro_, a collaboration
with the great Puerto Rican _cuatro_ player Yomo Toro. Rudd’s 2009 Sunnyside release,
_Trombone Tribe_, was his answer to J.J. Johnson’s Brass Orchestra or Slide Hampton’s
World of Trombones.

In the past couple of years, Rudd has continued his open-eared experimentation by
collaborating with folk singer Heather Masse on 2016’s _August Love Song_ (Red House
Records) and with keyboardist Jamie Saft on _Strength & Power_ (RareNoise Records).

Rudd’s new album is _Embrace_ (RareNoise), a collection of standards recorded with
pianist Lafayette Harris, bassist Ken Filiano and vocalist Fay Victor.

Rudd was diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer in 2013 and started another round
of radiation in 2017. He is currently receiving medical care at his home in Kerhonkson,
New York.

**Roswell, what can you say about your 82nd birthday party at Dizzy’s the other 
night?**

Well, I would say a lot of it is just beyond words. It was an outpouring of love,
sounds and sights … people really turning out and enjoying themselves. And what 
a wonderful musical director—Steven Bernstein of Sexmob fame. He really knows how
to do that.

**He’s got a real intuitive sense of arranging spontaneously on the bandstand.**

Oh yeah. It’s telepathy.

**How did it feel seeing Archie Shepp up there performing?**

Oh, you have no idea. It’s been quite a while since we shared the stage. When I 
think about music or feel music or I have an idea about music, he comes to mind.

**I noticed that a few players, including Bernstein and Steve Swell, mentioned that
Shepp album _Live in San Francisco_ from 1966 as a big turning point in their lives.
Do you have any memories of those days and recording that album?**

That was my first time in San Francisco, and I think that [was true] for the rest
of the band, too. That place that we played, it was like a Wild West bar when we
got there—sawdust on the floor, kind of like the Five Spot before it became the 
Five Spot, you know?

And as soon as we started to play, people started to come, until the place was overflowing
every night. We were hired to play for a week and it turned out to be three weeks.
And it became a club —tables and chairs and waiters and all of that stuff seemed
to evolve right out of the music.

**Was it a smooth transition for you to go from playing Dixieland jazz for an audience
of drunken college students to playing free-jazz with folks like Cecil Taylor and
Archie Shepp a few years later?**

There had to be a transition in terms of harmonic theory. But as far as the spirit,
I’m coming from Dixieland, other people coming from collective improvisation … I
never knew the difference.

**Isn’t that same spirit of collective improvisation apparent in Dixieland jazz?**

Oh yeah, and with the college band we took that aspect of it, those last choruses,
those backgrounds or whatever they were … we took those to the sky.

**Were you mostly self-taught on trombone?**

Yes, but I also had some good teachers … not at Yale, unfortunately, but on Dixwell
Avenue in New Haven and down in New York. So I was busy geographically as well as
musically—[going] around [to] get some teaching.

**Was Steve Lacy in that college band?**

Occasionally. But I had known him for some time before.

**How did you come to form that group with him where you focused on Monk’s music?**

That was Steve’s idea and it was perfect timing; just what I needed. And you know,
that’s a great repertoire. Steve and I had about 60 songs and each one was a world
unto itself. And oh boy, we dug into it.

The thing is, when you start to listen to Monk you just go deeper and deeper and
it’s hard to stop. I never did stop listening to Monk. I’m still learning that music.
So there was plenty going on there. By 1963, Steve went to Europe and John Tchicai
came to America … time for the New York Art Quartet!

**The other night at Dizzy’s, I really enjoyed seeing the Trombone Tribe.**

Every time I hear it, I hear something else. Because those musical personalities
have a way of going deeper and creating more and more.

**I love how distinctive each of the players is, from Ray Anderson to Art Baron,
Steve Swell, Deborah Weisz and Josh Roseman. They each have their own very strong
individual thing.**

That’s exactly right.

**In the last 15 years or so, beginning with _MALIcool_, you’ve been very ambitious
about pushing into different musical territories. You seem eager to take on new 
musical challenges over time.**

Well, I’ve been very fortunate to know Verna Gillis and to travel in some of her
earlier footsteps as an ethnomusicologist and producer. And she’s discovered some
new places, too. And with me, I don’t know why it is but I’ve been able to find 
a part for myself in all of those situations.

**That beautiful album that you did recently with Heather Masse, _August Love Song_,
was another interesting musical turn.**

That required some earlier background, which I explored with Sheila Jordan and some
other singers back in the ’60s. I was loving my experience with singers.

**And that brings us up to Fay Victor, another wonderful singer, who is on the new
album, _Embrace_.**

Oh man! Fay and Lafayette [Harris], myself and Ken [Filiano] … we’ve been spending
some time together over the last couple of years, not even thinking about recording,
really, but maybe thinking about sounding good, finding our own way with it and 
coming out and playing for people.

And I guess we managed to do all of that and make a record, too! We’re four musical
personalities that go together, whatever we’re playing, you know?

**Fay sounds so soulful on this new record.**

Fay is an instrument, a voice, a personality, a spirit … all of those and more. 
There’s something in her voice now, which I heard at that concert the other night
that I hadn’t heard before. And that’s what kept me interested in Fay. Every time
I had heard her, there was some kind of a new element in there.

**That must’ve been your method all along for you—hearing new things in Cecil and
Shepp and John Tchicai and Lacy. Just keeping your ears open.**

Wide open. It’s been my ears that have been my guide.

**That’s well put. I understand that you’ve been ill. You weren’t able to play the
other night at your birthday tribute. Can you talk about your current state of health?
Do you feel that you will ever play again?**

Well, I feel as long as I can go on, eventually I will be able to play again. But
I have some physical things to surmount before that’s possible. And all I can say
is, I’ll stay on the case.

**Yeah man, and everyone’s sending love and healing vibes your way.**

They sure did on Thursday night at Dizzy’s. Boy, that was such a lift!

**Definitely. If music is, indeed, a healing force …**

That was a perfect example. I still feel it and I’m still riding on it.

![Image](https://i1.wp.com/downbeat.com/images/news/_full/Steven_Berstein_PhotoFrankStewart.
JPG?w=660)

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