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Some personal tidbits from JA :)

February 2, 2006

 

Q. Some insights into your musical origins: How do you describe your style? Is it something you created deliberately, or did it just occur? How did you get started in music? What elements got you interested in the art form called jazz? Who were your mentors? What are your realizations now that you're in the thick of it? 

A. This calls for an excerpt straight off of the Johnny A. website. Here goes!

I play improvisational guitar, the style where you deliberately step out of what you usually do, into a state where you discover problems, clues, pathways and new possibilities. I am constantly engaged with artistic issues, regarding time, articulation, the shaping of notes and harmonies and all the growing pains a creative artist must deal with. My childhood home had abundant amounts of vinyl strewn about, and I remember hearing exciting music as far back as I can remember, such as 50s Elvis Sun and RCA Records, Frank Sinatra in his Capitol years, and later being absorbed into the 60s milieu of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Cream and the advent of British Blues, Carlos Santana and Woodstock, and the venerable B.B. King. I also used to go to the Thomas Jefferson Library of the United States Information Service, where I borrowed records by Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, and the Modern Jazz Quartet. As my listening habits evolved, I discovered Antonio Carlos Jobim, Ella Fitzgerald, Claus Ogerman, Stan Getz, Stevie Wonder, Ravi Shankar, entire institutions of 70s jazz eclecticism like Circle, the early RTF, Weather Report, Lifetime and Mahavishnu, Keith Jarrett, Mwandishi, Headhunters, ECM, and so forth. A very large bag indeed, or so I imagined. But the most influential turning points happened sometime in my freshman year in college, when I "discovered" for myself the albums "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane and "In A Silent Way" by Miles Davis, which permanently changed the way I wanted to learn and play music. I'm constantly involved with all manner of musical searching; but those two main cats are enduring inspirations and guideposts.

Much of my jazz playing today is self-taught which I've learnt, as any language, by assimilation and iteration; by listening to recordings and live performances, being blown away, woodshedding, deriving personal conclusions. I've had the privilege of studying with jazz educators like Dr. Joseph Howard and the late Prof. Fred Robles in the University of the Philippines. There, I also attended workshops with visiting dignitaries such as Stephane Grappelli's guitarist, Ike Isaacs (he's also the guitarist on the original version of "Cry Me A River" by Julie London); as well as the musicologist Erhard Karkoshka from whom I learned the concept of group improvisation, and the composer-scholar Chou Wen-Chung (also the literary executor of the late, great Edgard Varese). And then, I derive a great deal from the gifted musicians in my country whom I work with. For me, each gig on stage and in the recording booth is a lesson that works towards my own growth as an artist. Every note I flub tells me I'm on to something, just as valuable as every inspired note taking me where I want to go. That's the mysticism and liberation of jazz, as profound as it can be.

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