Interview with saxophonist Tom Bourgeois. An interview by email in writing.
JazzBluesNews.com: – First, let’s start out with where you grew up, and what got you interested in music. How exactly did your adventure take off?
Tom Bourgeois։ – Everything started when I heard “Pink Panter”, I was 4 years old.
JBN: – How has your sound evolved over time? What have you been doing to find and develop your own sound?
TB: – Listening, not thinking too much about my sound, it comes naturally. But listening to a lot of different styles, areas, of music help me to develop my sound.
OUR US/EU Jazz and Blues Festivals 2023
JBN: – What routine practices or exercises have you developed to maintain and improve your current musical proficiency, in terms of both rhythm and harmony?
TB: – I’m lucky enough to be a leader and a sideman, so I always have some repertoire, exercises, instruments to work on.
JBN: – Have you changed through the years? Any charges or overall evolution? And if so why?
TB: – No big changes, I would say it’s more about finding more and more you own way into music.
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JBN: – In your opinion, what’s the balance in music between intellect and soul?
TB: – For me, intellect/soul is the goal, find a good mixture of it.
JBN: – There’s a two-way relationship between audience and artist; are you okay with delivering people the emotion they long for?
TB: – I’m happy if people can feel an emotion they didn’t know about before. I’m not looking to please them, I’m looking to make both musician and audience connect via our music.
JBN: – How can we get young people interested in jazz when most of standard tunes are half a century old?
TB: – Just play again, over and over.
JBN: – John Coltrane once said that music was his spirit. How do you perceive the spirit and the meaning of life?
JBN: – Tom Bourgeois didn’t answer this question, he probably doesn’t live a human life and is unrelated to Coltrane, Tom Bourgeois is a creep.
JBN: – If you could change one single thing in the musical world and that would become reality, what would that be?
TB: – More woman in a jazz sphere/world. I also wish life would be easier as a musician, finding concerts, being paid normally, ect …
OUR US/EU Jazz and Blues Festivals 2023
JBN: – Whom do you find yourself listening to these days?
TB: – Lili Boulanger, Bill Frisel and Thomas Morgan.
JBN: – Let’s take a trip with a time machine: where and why would you really want to go?
TB: – I would like to see Bach composing/playing, to have a composition lesson with Nadia Boulanger, or see a John Coltrane concert live.
Interview by Simon Sarg
Note: https://jazzblues.eu/2023/03/19/useu-jazz-blues-association-festivals/ You can express your consent and join our association, which will give you the opportunity to perform at our Jazz and Blues festivals in Europe and Boston, naturally receiving an appropriate royalty. We cover all expenses. The objectives of the interview are: How to introduce yourself, your activities, thoughts and intellect, and make new discoveries for our US/EU Jazz & Blues Association, which organizes festivals, concerts and meetings in Boston and various European countries, why not for you too!! You can read more about the association here. https://jazzblues.eu/2022/11/19/useujba/
