By Filipe Freitas
Anna Webber, 2017 ©Clara Pereira
Name: Anna Webber
Instrument: tenor saxophone, flute
Style: avant-garde, contemporary jazz
Album Highlights: Binary (Skirl, 2016), Simple (Skirl, 2014)
If you weren't a musician, what would you have been?
I was very close to studying anthropology in college.
What do you picture in your mind when you're improvising?
I'm not picturing anything. I'm trying to respond as honestly I can to whatever musical stimuli are coming my way.
What was the first tune you really fell in love with?
Not sure about the first tune, but one of the first jazz albums I got obsessed with was Joe Henderson's album Page One.
Tell me 2 persons who marked you the most as a musician.
I was lucky enough to have very generous and supportive teachers when I was in high school and college - those are the people who've likely shaped me the most musically.
Besides jazz, what other styles do you listen to? Tell me your favorite musician(s) for each style.
I listen to mostly not jazz - a lot of hip hop, rock, pop, new music, etc. Recently I've been listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen, Elliott Smith, Kendrick Lamar, and Iannis Xenakis.
When and how did you form your Simple Trio? What are the qualities you most admire in Hollenbeck and Mitchell?
I formed the Simple Trio in 2013. I had studied with John Hollenbeck when I did a master's degree in composition in Berlin in 2011/2012. Matt Mitchell and I became friends when I moved back to New York. I like working with both of these guys because they have the ability to play very complicated music in a way which belies its complexity - they make it sound natural and alive. We also have large areas of overlap on our aesthetic sensibilities, so I can trust them to improvise in a way that brings out the best in my music.
On what projects are you working right now?
I'm going to be writing a set of octet music this summer for a new band. I also just released a digital album with a trio called Jagged Spheres which I co-lead with Elias Stemeseder and Devin Gray.