Interviews

Nicole Zuraitis caresses notes, bends them to blue, and keeps it gauzy and breathable: this is the new CD Hive Mind by the New York City songwriter-pianist. Her syncopation sizzles in The Inscription and the keys burn up while getting down to a gritty soul. Her cover of Jolene is astounding, heartbreaking, raw, and like a thousand points of sunlight. On this track, the piano is lovely and brilliant and added to the subtly thumping drums, makes this song a genuine standout.

To consider jazz in a political light even the history behind the term jazzâ itself (debatably pejorative) is, to some, the only true context. This becomes one of many ways in which to regard the 1972 shooting death of trumpet player Lee Morgan by his common-law wife Helen. The factors at play in this on-stage tragedy included love, jealousy and hate; addiction; artistry; and a culture of racial divisiveness.

Art director, illustrator and author Graham Marsh and author Glyn Callingham collaborated on the 1991 (re-released 2002) Album Cover Art: The Ultimate BLUE NOTE Collection. The authors give a fascinating historical context of the subject, and their detailed descriptions of the design sensibility of the day includes a discussion of advertising graphics (particularly related to fashion), which all serves as the Blue Note’s own liner notes.

Coming from a classical background and hearing Clifford Brown play it emphasized his trumpet brilliance, his technique and his articulation, similar to the study of articulation in classical and I found it fascinating. He set the bar so high. Every day I try to achieve the brilliance of Clifford.

I really wanted to play the drums but my mother said “absolutely no drums in this house” (there were several siblings who made “enough noise”). So one day my older brother came home from school with a shiny new trombone because he had joined the band and I knew that I had to have one too! I didn’t really know what it was but I didn’t stop asking until I got one. Growing up with an older brother, I had to have everything he had and in this case it was a trombone!

One of the challenges can be defining the heart of the song. There are so many rewards… exchanging ideas and building on them together, when one person’s focus is waning, the other can inspire with a new idea.

There are two ways to deal with racism in music. One is to channel your anger into the music and be a reporter of your culture. Often you are preaching to the choir. If the person who is a racist is not a fan of your music, then your anger is not going to matter to them. If a racist likes your music, I have a feeling they can turn it off.

In the fall of 2015, I was talking to my co-author, Dave Lisik, about the fact that the band’s 50th anniversary was approaching. I said that somebody should put together a web site that featured the band’s history, personnel, discography, photos, etc.

Dave said, “Why just a web site? We should put together a book with all of that in it.” I was in the middle of finishing up another book project and thought there was no way I would have the energy to jump right into another project. I also thought that there might be too many moving parts and too many people that we would have to rely upon to get something like this done. But luckily, Dave was persistent and kept asking me until I agreed to do it.

I set some challenges for myself, as I always like to do, with complex tunes like “Conception” (George Shearing) and “Humpty Dumpty” (Chick Corea). But mostly I wanted this to be a record where we could relax and blow on a very high level.

In Italy everybody kept telling me the an Italian singer couldn’t have success singing in English and the next think I know is that one day my record company called me saying one of my songs was playing at radios. I believe that the backbone of every success is perseverance.