Keyboard Magazine - March 2008 - (Page 32) LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES artistic renegade at the top of his game, continually on the move. “I knew ‘Cherokee’ was going to be in 7/4, and what I wanted to do was basically just blow,” he says. “’Caravan’ I knew would have the percussion part, and then there are some more pianistic, technical things like ‘Mirror,’ but actually now, live, the music is so much different from the record. I wish I had recorded it last week when I was playing in Boston.” Terrasson is as comfortable improvising on standards from the Great American Songbook as he is navigating the popular song. On ’01’s A Paris, he pays homage to his French lineage and the songs from his childhood. On ’02’s Smile, he sees no blasphemy in the marriage of Bud Powell, Spike Lee, and Stevie Wonder. Duke Ellington may have said ‘There’s only two kinds of music — good and bad,’ but Jacky Terrasson preaches it, record after record. “I don’t really care where the material is from,” Terrasson continues. “If there’s a nice melody, if I like the form, if the chords are cool — basically, I play what I like. That’s what jazz musicians do. They improvise on familiar material.” For a seasoned pro who’s used to the interplay of a band and the feedback of an audience, the solitude of recording solo posed it’s own unique challenges as well. “It’s a strange feeling, being in this big room and playing for nobody, staring at your belly button,” he confides. “It’s not very natural. If I had to do it again, I would do it live, over a week or two in different halls, different places. Hopefully, I’d have a good piano every time. I’d record everything, and keep the ‘best of.’” BREAKING ALL THE RULES “All my heroes, even the pianists I admire the most, are the ones that broke the rules,” Terrasson tells me. “Herbie Hancock and Ahmad Jamal. Ahmad would say ‘I’m not gonna play s**t for six bars,’ and in those six bars, you just heard everything.” Other musical influences include Keith Jarrett and Cecil Taylor. “Keith was going wild, extracting sounds out of the instrument that nobody had before. I love so many of his records. His recent double album Radiance — that’s a masterpiece. Also, Facing You is beautiful. “And it took me years to appreciate Cecil Taylor,” he continues, “until I listened maybe five years ago to Silent Tongues and I was like ‘Wow, this is wild. This is from the gut. I love it.’” Terrasson’s sense of playfulness and adventure are especially evident in his solo playing, where tempos shift and colors collide. Who are some of the pianists that showed him these kinds of possibilities that solo playing affords? “Thelonious Monk’s Piano Solo,” Terrasson says. “Amazing. I mean boom. That’s church, man. It’s so big. It’s all there. Also, Art Tatum and Duke Ellington. That was some of my first solo listening.” Terrasson also cites pianists Paul Bley and Tete Montoliu as influences who imparted a reckless sense of abandon and personality in their solo work. MAKE YOUR OWN HISTORY Terrasson’s musical identity has been forged from the unflinching belief that you can’t recreate the past. You can only be yourself, and follow your own individual voice. “When you’re growing up, you try to learn the vocabulary, and the way to do it, so to speak,” he continues. “I transcribed a bunch of Bill Evans and Bud Powell, and I love those guys. But I knew, even if I wanted to play like that, I couldn’t. Because that was then. The reason they played like that was because they felt in the moment. So I think it’s great to allow the essence of these guys to affect your music, but if you keep copying, you’ll just get very good at copying.” Mirror showcases Terrasson’s formidable pianistic arsenal, a fierce physical command of the instrument coupled with an expansive harmonic vocabulary. He credits his early classical training with helping to foster his musical freedom. “I’m still thankful to my classical teachers for spending so much time on sound,” he says. “And this had almost nothing to do with music. Playing a note 20 times, continuously hearing ‘No, start over.’ Learning that it’s all about the weight in your arm. And studying some Debussy and Ravel passages, where there’s basically only one or two ways of doing something, and you have to cross hands and use weird fingerings. I like to use those techniques sometimes in my improvisations, changing the notes. I think it’s good to have learned that.” Repertoire is another area that Terrasson sees as a possible stumbling block in achieving musical independence. “I want to be as free as I can when I’m performing,” he continues. The less baggage you have — if nothing’s in the way, hopefully the inspiration will go straight from your brain into your fingers. That’s really what I’m looking for. Being a medium. And that’s why eventually I’m going to stop, for some time, playing standards. Because that too can get in the way. “I’d like to be able to sit down at the piano, without any idea of what I’m going to do for 20 minutes, let’s say, and just go. Total improvisation, no chords in mind, no melody. And that’s extremely difficult.” NO REST FOR THE INSPIRED In addition to touring solo in support of Mirror, Terrasson will continue to push musical boundaries on a variety of upcoming projects, including a European duo tour with multi-instrumentalist Michel Portal, and the recording of his next, still unnamed record. “The new record will focus on melody, rhythm, and form,” he says. “There are a lot of grooves, and pretty melodies. If I can put it together, it will be just originals. I have 15 new tunes that are ready to be recorded. And I’m convinced that two or three are just begging for lyrics. I’m too afraid to sing myself, but I’m sure with the right words, they would have even more musical weight and emotion.” Jacky moves from the Steinway to his computer rig, starting a Brazilian-tinged pattern of sampled guitar and drums in his digital audio workstation. He quickly jumps back to the piano, playing along with the prerecorded track. The piano melody, almost childlike in its construction, floats effortlessly over the sequence. It’s a startling musical mix of yesterday and tomorrow. Beyond categorization, like everything he does. Terrasson looks forward to experimenting further. He won’t be resting on his past achievements. There’s too much more to do. “What you want to do in your life is learn new things,” he tells me. “I think by hearing these new approaches and sounds, you grow.” Jon Regen is a New York Citybased pianist, singer, and songwriter, and a frequent contributor to Keyboard. His latest album Let It Go features Andy Summers of The Police and Martha Wainwright. You can find out more about Jon Regen at www.jonregen.com and www.myspace.com/jonregen. 32 keyboard 03-2008 http://www.jonregen.com http://www.myspace.com/jonregen
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