By Filipe Freitas
Ben Allison, 2016 ©Clara Pereira
Name: Ben Allison
Instrument: double bass
Style: post-bop, modern creative
Album Highlights: Peace Pipe (Palmetto, 2002), Buzz (Palmetto, 2004), Layers of the City (Sonic Camera, 2017)
How did you decide to become a musician?
I don’t recall ever deciding to become a musician, it just kind of happened. But as I think back to experiences and people who inspired me to pursue a life in music, there are a few that stick. When I was 9 years old, I listened to a lot of records, pop music like The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, etc. That year, two musicians came to my school: bassist Willie Ruff and pianist Dwike Mitchell. Their music was so different from anything I had heard before. They were playing jazz, but I didn’t know what that was. At one point, they look at each other and smiled and started laughing. I couldn’t understand what made them laugh. Then it happened again. After a few minutes I realized that they were surprising each other. There was something about the way they were communicating, where one of them would play something and the other one would react to it spontaneously. At that moment, I had a glimpse into what it means to improvise. Until that point, I had thought that musicians always knew what was coming next. The idea that musicians could surprise each other was a revelation. I became fascinated with the idea. In fact, I’ve dedicated my life to learning how to have a musical conversation in the moment.
How do you see your music now as compared when you first started?
The more you play, the more you begin to find yourself as an artist. You start to develop ways to express your personality through your music. At the beginning, I had a lot of ideas but I didn’t have the necessary skills to realize them. Now that I’m older, it’s easier for me to express myself. The challenge for me now, is to choose which ideas I want to pursue. If I’m not careful, I can get overwhelmed with possibilities. Focusing one’s creativity is important. It takes a lot of energy to stay focused.
How would you describe your sound as a bass player in three words?
Melodic, rhythmic, soulful.
You’ve been representing music professionals at the Recording Academy for many years. What do you think it needs urgently to be changed in the music industry?
The Recording Academy is a trade organization, which means that it’s membership-based. The Recording Academy members are all music creators — instrumentalists, songwriters, engineers, singers, conductors, producers — in short, the people who make the music. Our goal is to draw attention to the music industry and support music creators. A big part of that is advocacy, which means working together to promote each other and our industry, and to fight for changes that benefit our community. For example, my role is Chair of the Advocacy Committee for the NY chapter. We speak with members of Congress about issues that affect musicians. We push for, and sometimes help draft legislation that’s positive for our industry. The idea is to show that music has value, that it’s important both to our culture and to our economy. A recent example of a big win for us was the passage of the Music Modernization Act, which will create new royalty streams for music creators and fix some longstanding issues in copyright law. This affects musician’s directly and positively.
What was in the base of your decision to create the Jazz Composers Collective in the early 90’s?
At that time, there was a strong neo-conservative movement happening in jazz. Some people wanted to codify the music, to define it and say, “this is what jazz is.” I’ve always resisted attempts to define the music because I see jazz as an evolutionary art form. Throughout its history, jazz as always changed to reflect the times in which it was created and the viewpoints of the people who created it. That’s not to say that there aren’t defining characteristics of the music or that there aren’t musicians who clearly set the wheels in motion. But, it’s tempting and too simplistic to say that any particular musician or city marks the definite beginning. Music is a continuum. Every style or genre is based on what came before it. Our concern is that jazz was being described as “America’s classical music,” which to our ears implied that it was a dead artform — that it would be relegated to a repertory-based music, much as classical music had become in the eyes of the public.
Our idea was to bring attention on some of the new music that was happening on the NYC scene at that time. The goal of the Collective was to support, foster and present new music in the jazz idiom and to build an audience for jazz. During our 13 years, the Collective presented over 100 concerts, featuring the works of over 50 composers, and most importantly the premier of over 300 new compositions. The Collective also presented an annual festival, financed multiple recordings and tours, commissioned new works, published a newsletter and was one of the first arts organizations to have a website (1994). It was a tremendous creative outpouring, and I am extremely proud to have been involved.
How do you see technology in modern music?
Technology changes things. When the phonograph was invented and recordings became commercially available around the turn of the twentieth century, some feared that the public would lose interest in live performances. But it turned out that people liked both live and recorded music. For nearly a century, the means of production were controlled by a few record executives and production studios. But now the computer and the Internet have allowed anybody to produce, distribute and market a record. So, technology is a double-edged sword. It cuts for good and for bad.
A big question for consumers today is, how do you find music that’s good? I think there’s a role to be played by music curators. Radio hosts and programmers, as well as people who curate playlists on the streaming services are still important and can help us find the good stuff. People like you at JazzTrail are another example. Smart, well-informed curators can help audiences cut through the noise and find the best music. It’s also important for music lovers to make an effort. Don’t just trust Alexa or Siri to tell you what’s good! If you really love music, spend some time searching. In fact, there’s a kind of joy in searching for music and stumbling upon something amazing.
Can you name two persons who influenced you the most as a musician?
My most important early influence is my mother, who is an amateur singer of choral music. The first time I’ve ever heard an orchestra and a choral ensemble was when I was very young and I heard her perform. I’m happy to report that, at the age of 85, she has resumed her ‘career’ as an amateur choral singer and is part of some incredible choirs in New Haven, CT. She has always been very encouraging and supportive of my interest in music.
Another important person to me is one of my mentors, Joe Lovano. When I was at NYU, he taught the improvisation ensemble. He was very encouraging and said some things I will never forget. He emphasized how important it is to find your voice as an artist, to carve out a niche for yourself on the scene. I appreciated that. The day I graduated college I remember feeling very nervous about the future. I asked Joe what I should do, now that school was over. He said, “be consistent and persistent. Work on your craft. Knock on doors but don’t try to knock them down.” In other words, let people know what you’re doing but don’t try to force things. He instilled in me the idea that it takes time to figure your place in the music world. It’s a process. I found a lot of meaning in those comments.
Can you name two persons with whom you have not collaborated with but wold like to?
I wish I had had the chance to collaborate with Andrew Hill. I think he is one of the greatest jazz composers and pianists of all time. I’ve always appreciated his genius. Many of my friends collaborated and performed with him in the later years of his career, but unfortunately, I never got that chance. He was another musician who changed the way I look at my career. One of the things he said to me was ‘never sell your music.” I took that to mean that I should not relinquish the publishing rights to my music and should try to retain ownership of my masters. I took that lesson to heart. I currently own all the albums I made for the various labels I recorded for over the years.
And then another person… hmmm, so many people… I would like to work with John Scofield. Aside from being a great guitar player, he has a natural musicality, and I feel like the music we would do together would be very good (laughs). I would love to work with him some day!
What would you have been if you weren’t a musician?
I’m a science buff. I read a lot about it and it’s my hobby when I’m not creating music. Almost every branch of science is interesting to me. I’m fascinated by the natural world and marvel at the people who dedicate their lives to trying to figure out how it works.
In which projects are you working right now?
I recently played bass on a new record by my friend Steve Cardenas, with whom I’ve collaborated many times over the years. The album also features Jon Cowherd on piano and Brian Blade on drums. Steve wrote a bunch of new compositions for it and we’re all very excited about how it came out. There was tremendous chemistry among the musicians. I am co-producer of the record, and have been putting it together with Steve for the past few weeks. It will be released in the first quarter of next year. I’ve also been collaborating a lot lately with pianist/composer Michael Wolff. We just recorded the second album with his new trio, the follow-up to last year’s #1 album Swirl. I’m also in the process of remixing and remastering the 10 albums I did for Palmetto. The rights to those albums reverted to me in 2018 (thank you Andrew Hill) and I’ve been busy working on a plan to re-release them over the coming year. I also continue to write new music for my various projects, tour with my bands and other groups, and teach in the New School’s Jazz & Contemporary Music program.