Here is a short extract of a 2 hour interview with Jonathan Harvey by legendary filmmaker Barrie Gavin.
The full version DVD is available exclusively as part of Sargasso’s limited box-set edition celebrating Harvey’s 70th birthday. This is the only in-depth video interview with the composer around, giving an invaluable insight into the artist’s music, thoughts and spirituality. As well as the DVD and 2 CDs each box is numbered and signed by Harvey himself. Enjoy…

Daniel Biro

… and I am about to become a Dad for the first time (better late than never) so my recent concerns have been more about potential first names and the great breastfeeding vs. bottle debate than music. You know you’ve been caught up in the whole ‘baby thing’ when you start looking at what model buggies people are pushing in the street… Which, by the way, are as numerous as Tony Blair’s excuses to justify the Iraqi war. Some friends generously gave us one ahead of time: four wheels and a metal frame plus endless accessories to clip on, unfold, strap under, bend over, hook on… we’ve had this thing for a month now and we still can’t figure out how to open it or close it. Maybe the baby will work it out…

Anyway, as a prelude to the long sleep depravation season that awaits me, I’ve been reading ‘Miles Beyond’, Paul Tingen’s excellent biography of Miles Davis’ electric period, as well as re-listening to all that fabulous music. Albums like ‘Agartha’, ‘Dark Magus’, ‘Jack Johnson’ amaze me more and more. But why? After all, one could argue that they are just a bunch of good improvisors who got together under Miles’ authority and ‘played stuff’ that was later edited by Teo Macero into more or less coherent tracks. That may well be true but would be completely missing the point. Or points. Three points in particular: the phenomenal grooves those guys played*, the textural approach (rather than harmonic/melodic), and the ‘on the spot’ creative energy between whoever happened to be in the room at the time.

Miles was trying to capture those elusive and the unpredictable precious moments when ‘it all comes together’. Call it alchemy, chemistry, Miles was constantly searching for an ephemeral state of grace. For this he was prepared to sacrifice the certainty of the written score and to risk for the whole experiment to fail or to be boring. He also wanted the listener to join in with the search. Eventually the search became almost more important than ‘getting there’.

Very little was said or prepared. Miles channelled and squeezed each individual musician’s experience and background with just a few signposts. He knew what to do get them to react, often by purposely creating tension in the band (there are some hilarious examples of this in the book) so that, no matter what, things would never be comfortable. Risk, risk, risk.

Miles’ music of that period is not only still relevant today but it is vital! A lot of people still don’t get it. Misguided criticism of those recordings still abound usually by those who think it all went terribly wrong after ‘Kind of Blue’. As always, purists are the death of creativity. I therefore urge any musician/artist to read this book, invest time to listen to the music and try to understand and learn some of the creative methods that Davis used to bring these thrilling sounds into existence.

Why is any of this important? The past decade’s key word has been ’security’. Airport security, banking security, internet security and, the way things are going, we can look forward to more and more of it. Everything around us is being used against us ‘for our own safety’. Fear has become the weapon of choice for the arrogant, the greedy and the incompetent. Life has become more and more secure and less and less free.

Have music and art gone the same way? How safe are artists today? Even what looks dangerous is more often than not just superficial sensationalism. Trying hard to upset people is in itself not very interesting. The real shock today would be for a musician to play a C Major chord for a couple of hours**. To reclaim the humanity and integrity of the creative act. To risk everything for one moment of pure beauty. To accept to be an outsider for the sake of truth. That’s what Miles did. That’s all true artists should do. More than ever today we need to be reminded of what it’s like. Risk, risk, risk is the only place for an artist to be.

Happy new year.

* why so many contemporary composers are so averse to/scared of /unable to play real grooves is a topic for another post…

** my late jazz teacher Roger Grosjean used to say about musicians who played over-complicatedly: “If you dropped a C Major chord on that guy’s foot he’d be a cripple for the rest of his life”.

Here is a 6 min extract from the Sargasso:C ‘Sound Alchemists’ concert which took place on Nov 23rd 2009 at London’s Kings Place. Amazing encounter between 3 master improvisors. The concert was also there to launch their latest Sargasso CD release ‘Crystalline Strata’. Out now. Enjoy