During the pandemic I reflected on the work Rova has done over the years with incorporating improvisation and composing and came up with a list of questions. One thing about the group is that if you ask us a question there invariably are four responses to it so I sent them to others to find out their responses.
Jon Raskin
Here are Steve Adams’ response to the questions. Enjoy
1. How did you become interested in improvisation?
I think I always had an inclination towards it. I remember when I was practicing the trumpet in middle school and my Dad would tell me to “stop noodling.” And in my teenage rock bands I was always comfortable in the solo sections, which became more and more part of the music as it went on. I guess we were doing free improvisation within a rock context eventually without calling it that. When I became aware of jazz in my late teens I was really taken with the energy and freedom of it.
2. What do you value in improvisation?
To me, improvisation parallels my layman’s incomplete understanding of how electrons are currently believed to behave, existing as a cloud of probabilities until they are observed, then dropping into one of those. I feel that when the first note of an improvisation is played, it sets a particular course or path that the players then try to maintain, more or less successfully. So what I value is colleagues who also sense that path and adhere to it. I’ve been lucky to find people who seem to feel this the same way I do, even if they think of it differently.
3. What musicians have influenced how you sound and how you approach music?
A long list, but certainly high up on it are Miles, Coltrane, Braxton, Cage, Stockhausen, Captain Beefheart, Wayne Shorter, Sun Ra, Mingus! Shostakovich, J. S. Bach.
4. Talk about language in music and how you developed your language and sound.
In my music training, Bebop was posited as the discipline from which all subsequent jazz evolved, and was fundamental to playing it regardless of what style you were involved in. I still feel that for myself, though I recognize that it doesn’t work that way for everyone. The discipline and mental quickness required for that music seems to apply to a wide range of styles, if you’re not trapped in the particulars of it.
Being in Rova was a large part of my language development in other areas, since many of our pieces involved utilizing the saxophone in ways that I had not experienced before joining the group.
5. How has improvisation developed since you started learning to improvise?
The use of extended techniques has become much more widespread, and the number of musicians who are conversant in the concepts of free and structured improvisation has grown tremendously. We did a tour of our mini-big band with Satoko Fujii and Natsuke Tamura where we played my pieces involving improvisation structures as well as notation with local musicians at three different cities in Europe and everyone “got it” right away.
6. What is the difference between structured improvisation and free jazz?
For me, not a lot, since I’m always trying to think compositionally when improvising. When I’m playing a free piece, I’m still trying to maintain awareness of everything that has happened so far, and how that influences what will happen next. So all improvisation is structured to me, to a greater or lesser degree. I recognize that for some schools of improvisation that’s not true, but that is how I approach it.
7. What are your goals and what do you consider important when you are improvising?
“Staying on the Path” as discussed above, and trying to keep ego out of the picture, making decisions on what the music needs rather than on what I would like to do. If the music is complete without me, I don’t play. Keeping the development in mind, so that if, for instance, two of four players have had a duo, look for an opportunity for the other two.
8. What are your goals and what do you consider important when you are composing for improvisers?
Creating a space that has a clear identity while leaving plenty of open space for inspirations of the moment. I aspire to write pieces that can be quickly identified if you listen to an excerpt from the middle of it, but that have enough openness to remain interesting for many performances.
9. How do questions and mystery influence your music?
Mystery makes me think of the pieces Wadada Leo Smith and John Carter wrote for Rova, where there are places they get to that defy my understanding of what is on the page. One example is in Wadada’s piece, where there is a section for the soprano and bari, who are improvising off some material, and the two sopranino’s have a background that I cue in at some undefined point during this. I can always feel the correct spot approaching and then appearing, even though this doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the writing. This inspired me to be much more willing to take chances in my own composing. My graphic scores were also a leap into the unknown, since many of them are not rationally explicable. But they were a way to use the “musical” part of my brain in terms of shape, color and arrangement in a way that I accepted without necessarily understanding why.
What challenges are you currently engaged with in music?
Trying to maintain my technique during the many difficulties of a pandemic. Finding new challenges to work on, usually hard jazz tunes that I have not played before, or new notated music. Exploring the sound space of electronics and its overlap with acoustic instruments. Keeping my improvisational “muscles” in shape with sessions with other musicians.
11. What are your thoughts about community in music?
It’s vitally important in any genre, but even more so for improvisation, where the audiences and finances tend to be small. The inspiration and affirmation of the other players is fuel to keep going.
What and how do you practice? How do you improve your skills for improvising?
Most of my practicing is about trying to maintain my technical abilities - working on scales, arpeggios and tone production, keeping my reading and time in some kind of shape, and improvising on chord changes. If I have a performance of a difficult piece coming up, a lot of time goes into that.
Where do you find inspiration?
Most often from other musics, both in a direct and a reactive way - “I like that, but I don’t like that” though this is more often true of classical and World music. Visual art is another frequent source.
What is an example of music you didn’t like at first but grew to love and why?
Monk is one. When I first heard him around the age of 18, he seemed corny to me. But through continued exposure, particularly when I began to learn his music, it became obvious that there was a genius at work. I also had a similar experience with the Tristano school, including Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh. I was initially drawn to the high energy of free jazz and fusion, and the Tristano school seemed sleepy. Again, trying to play it changed my mind completely, discovering the devilishly strange beauty of the melodies.
What is your description of Rova and your relationship to it?
There are two interesting aspects of Rova to me. One, which some people have picked up on, is that it has a political subtext as a model version of democracy in action. It’s possible to look at the history of music as a parallel to the development of governmental systems - the 19th century orchestra as an analogue of the rule of a king, etc. - which still has many vestiges in the way most bands are run. We exist as a cooperative venture where decisions are mutually agreed to (mostly) and this is reflected in the nature of the music as well.
The second related thought is that Rova’s sound concept stands in contrast to most other sax quartets, or string quartets. The standard model is for the players to have a uniformity of sound and interpretation, at the expense of personal expression, and often to mimic the roles of a standard jazz group, i.e., the baritone is the “bass” and the soprano is the “lead” and the alto and tenor function as a chordal instrument. In Rova, the idea has always been to have four distinct voices that function in an equal, not hierarchical, environment.
What are your musical ideas for Rova and how have they changed over the years?
My early pieces for Rova were more “composerly” than they are now. They had, for the most part, more fixed structures and more notes on the page. I’ve been more interested as time has passed in dealing with open possibilities and categories of sound, which leaves more room for the improviser, though I still do write more thoroughly notated pieces sometimes.
How has Rova changed over the years?
I think we trust our collective skills as improvisers more than we used to.