“This music is the music that inspired me to be a musician.”
Ingrid James interviews PW Farrell (bass player/composer/educator) for his upcoming show
Pat, can you tell us a little about how you got to this point in your career and who is most responsible for helping you get here?
Well, where do I start? When I was 5 years old my parents insisted that I learn piano. I didnt know it at the time but I was already drawn to the improvising/creative side of music. I would sit down to practise and very quickly abandon what my teacher had told me to practise, and instead create my own little musical pieces.
After piano I learned drums but I had no real desire to practise until I later started learning bass from a teacher who really captured my imagination. That person, Anthony Dawkins, tapped into a spiritual aspect of my personality that was searching at the time for a deeper meaning in all things. He introduced me to a book called “Zen in the Art of Archery” which I read immediately and quickly realised that practising one’s instrument could be part of a deep spiritual practise. And all this happened at a time when other teachers in school were frustrated with my lack of application and attendance.
Not long after that I was introduced to the music of Weather Report and my whole world changed. I was attending boarding school at the time and I had a hard time falling asleep. I remember listening to Weather Report for hours on end and as I would slowly approach sleep I would experience episodes of vivid synaesthesia where the texture and pitches of the music would trigger vivid visualisations of interrelated landscaped and textures. Weather Report for me was a doorway into multiple musical worlds, the most obvious being the musical lineages preceding it (Jazz) and those it birthed (Jazz Fusion).
What is it about this music that matters most to you?
The spirit of the music we are presenting at Jazz Fusion: The Music of Hancock/Zawinul/Corea + beyond is that of honest expression. It is important to remember that Jazz Fusion came after Modal Jazz, a music which deliberately rebelled against the “paint by numbers” chord tone approach which had become so pervasive in Bebop Jazz. This drive for deeper emotional impact in compositions and improvisation should carry over into Jazz Fusion. Some musicians have lost their way in the Jazz Fusion world and forgotten that in the beginning, virtuosity was only a footnote, the headline to this music was The Search.
Jazz Fusion should not have a singular sound or aesthetic. It should rather be a philosophy, a statement by the Jazz musician seeking to express themselves honestly, in the time that they are actually living and creating on this planet.
For me, Weather Report, the band created by Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul, represents what Jazz Fusion music should be. An inclusive, eclectic music built upon the jazz language and improvising aesthetic. It is expansive and emotive and utilises outside influences as nescessary in search of something greater than the sum of its parts. Herbie Hancock infused Meters style 16th note funk with the jazz language with his band The Headhunters. Chick Corea fused elements from latin music with Light as a Feather. Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter mastered the art of extended composition and utilising modern instruments and production in their orchestrations. Joe Zawinul introduced many rhythms from world musics (increasingly so in his later project “The Zawinul Syndicate”) but he is possibly most notable for pioneering the use of synthesisers and expanding the use of that instrument in his orchestrations. We will also present some post-Weather Report music from Tribal Tech, a band which spawned directly from the aesthetic Weather Report created.
What should your audience @ Doo-Bop be expecting?
I can’t speak for the other musicians but for me I can say this music is the music that inspired me to be a musician. Specifically Weather Report (Wayne Shorter/Joe Zawinul) and Jaco Pastorius. So from me the audience can expect completely honest, carefree music-ing.