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Two Zoller Moments
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Back in the summer of 1994 I attended a jazz workshop in Vermont run by Attila Zoller, a jazz guitarist who pioneered free music on the guitar and helped jazz students for decades. He died in 1998 at the age of 71.
I really didn't know Zoller much after just a week in Vermont with him (and Jim Hall, Jack Wilkins and several other jazz instructors) but I experienced a couple of unforgettable Zoller moments.
The first occurred when drumming instructor Matt Wilson and a bunch of students, including me, were having a great time improvising very free but thematic crazy loud music in the main dining hall about 2:00 am. Suddenly, 67-year old groggy gray-haired Attila appeared at the other end of the dining hall about 80 feet away.
You should know that in addition to being from Hungary, playing free jazz, rooming with Ornette Coleman, gigging with Jim Hall, discovering, encouraging and promoting teenage Pat Matheny, jamming nightly until dawn in New York city, helping numerous jazz students and speaking a form of Hungarian-accented hipster jazz English, Attila had a reputation for being a part-time curmudgeon with a big heart.
Attila could get pissed, no doubt, as some students witnessed in his classes during the week.
So, back in the dining hall around 2 am in the midst of us playing instruments (and furniture and kitchen equipment) while singing and occasionally shouting, Attila appeared.
We woke him with our cacophony.
We froze, waiting for his strangely accented wrath.
"You guys woke me up!" he shouted. We gasped. Attila continued, "It sounds cool! I wanna get in on it!"
What a cool 67 year old curmudgeon! We exhaled with relief and laughed.
My second indelible Attila story is my favorite and one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed.
As people drove off on the final day, a German guitar student and I stood outside on a dirt road by the dorms and chatted. Attila walked up and asked if we handed in our anonymous evaluation/feedback forms about the week-long workshop.
"Yes," I answered.
"No," replied the German, "but I have it right here," as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out the folded white form scribbled with his criticisms and suggestions.
If the German had simply handed it to Attila without saying anything more, we would have exchanged idle chatter and uneventfully gone our separate ways. But with a profound lapse of judgment, the German added, "Oh, um, disregard what I wrote at the end," as Attila reached for and took the folded paper.
I knew trouble was brewing and alertly watched the scene unfold like an exceptionally good sitcom setup -- you have a rough idea what's going to happen but are powerless to stop it and watch for the thrill of surprise. I wasn't disappointed.
"What?...Disregard what?" asked Attila, who then unfolded the 8 ½" x 11" sheet in order to read and understand what the heck the German was talking about. With the feedback form's anonymity obliterated, neither the witness protection program nor Interpol could've helped the German.
"Oh, um, just disregard my suggestion at the end," the German nervously repeated with feigned casualness as he fidgeted, apparently realizing his blunder.
In halting English, Attila-the-tactless then read aloud the German's criticism: "You… should… have… more… modern …jazz… instruction …and… not…so…much… emphasis… on… traditional… jazz."
Startled by the criticism, Attila shook for a split second, abruptly looked up, leaned forward until his face was about a foot and a half from the German's and yelled, "First you gotta learn the basics motherfucker!!!"
I laughed hysterically. The German laughed, too. Then so did Attila, who then heartily shook the German's hand as we all continued to laugh.
"First you gotta learn the basics motherfucker!!!" Talk about in your face with zero tact. I'll never forget it. It's been a great source of belly laughs for years.
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61 day ago
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Recently added more live recordings to my website
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DOWNLOAD LIVE SHOW recordings
http://www.johnwilliamgordon.com/non...
I recorded these tracks on my little Edirol recorder during our SXSW (South by Southwest) shows. We drove to Austin, TX from California to play in SXSW and played shows on the way there and back.
Electric guitar - John William Gordon
Acoustic Bass - Gabe Davis
Drums - Rick Rivera
In the Elephant Room in Austin, Texas, our tunes were shorter than other gigs to accomodate the 50 minute limit, as we shared the bill with other bands. We played at 9 pm and had a great time! Kudos to my drummer and bassist for covering a few botches on my part. We were tired but loved it.
I made the mistake of carrying my drummer’s 40 lb hardware bag on top of my bassist’s heavy bass cabinet. Even together, the load seemed like a breeze weight-wise, but after lugging it down the venue’s stairs, through the venue and into the back room, my forearms were pumped as if I just went rock climbing! We had to play in an hour and I massaged my forearms and held them up in the air trying to get them back to normal. It worked ok, but I didn’t feel as facile on the guitar until the next day. Doh! I won’t do that again.
At The Lost Leaf in Phoenix, Arizona, we created a tuned completely from scratch live (free playing), and I named the tune "Found Leaf." Basically, Eric Dahl, the owner of The Lost Leaf was so cool (booking us twice, letting us crash at his house, taking us out to dinner), I wanted to create a little art piece for him in his club. "Found Leaf" is it. It’s mellow, rusty, rough and odd in different places. Gabe Davis, my bassist, Rick Rivera, my drummer, and I didn’t have any preconceived ideas about it, except I said it would be for the owner, Eric Dahl, about 10 seconds before we started.
Our show at Mia's Lounge in Flagstaff, AZ was my favorite. In our exhausted state, which sometimes boosts improvisation and listening, we lost ourselves in the music and made up long intros to our tunes right on the spot.
Check out the recordings on my website. The link's listed at the top of this post.
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61 day ago
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My booking is improving
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I posted a while back how I dreaded booking and was so bad at it. Well, I've improved. I went to the NARIP (national association of recording industry professionals) last Oct or Nov in Burbank after a booker in L.A. who had once booked us invited all his clients to hear him and other professional promoters, managers and bookers talk at a NARIP seminar.
I'll admit I had a bad attitude and dragged myself there, knowing that I really needed to improve my booking but expecting to watch people offer to "do lunch" all day. I soon realized, though, that these people really love music, are mostly straightforward and very hard working.
I learned all sorts of very practical stuff that's helped, but the biggest thing was reorienting my attitude. One panelist said, "unfortunately, networking is really how most of the business gets done," but the moderator interrupted and said, "it's not 'unfortunate,' it's fortunate, since we get to meet interesting people." She clearly likes the relationship part of the business, and I couldn't help but notice how her positive view of humanity delighted her, yet she didn't seem to be a Polly Anna and had an obvious tough side.
I realized I had a bad attitude. Rather than prejudge bookers as schmoozer do-lunchers, I decided to drop my adversarial point of view and think about them openly as my fellow human travelers. Whew, this has taken 95% of the dred out of booking. And I've since enjoyed talking and corresponding with most but not all the bookers on my mini-tour I'm planning to SXSW.
I also thought how I must not try to over-impress anyone but instead focus on stating my desire in a straightforward simple way, as if I'm composing or soloing, and listen to them clearly. They are all very busy, swamped even, so I try to help them by being succinct (not like here  ).
So for the South by Southwest gig coming up, I'm booking a mini-tour for the first time and have had a great time with most of the bookers. Most have been very helpful, even directing me to other venues when theirs were booked (this led to 3 gigs).
I like it best, though, when the booker is a musician. They seem to be the most responsive and understanding, but I'm biased, of course.
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165 day ago
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7 September 2008 at 6:00 PM |
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Where
Cafe Royale
800 Post St. @ Leavenworth
San Francisco, California
USA
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Details
My trio will play all original compositions, including some spontaneously made-up (a.k.a., "free) segments.
No cover charge.
Cafe Royale is a very comfy neighborhood cafe in San Francisco. Along with the nice downstairs area it has a perimeter upstairs area to watch and listen from above.
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