{"id":5606,"date":"2023-02-02T20:38:16","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T02:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=5606"},"modified":"2024-11-13T09:14:19","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T15:14:19","slug":"harlem-hellfighter-moran-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/harlem-hellfighter-moran-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Harlem Hellfighter: A Conversation with Jason Moran on James Reese Europe (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We continue our conversation with Jason Moran by going deeper into the songs on his James Reese Europe inspired album, From the Dancehall to the Battlefield <\/em>(Yes, 2023). These discussions lead us through WC Handy, Albert Ayler, Geri Allen, and student musicians at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We also uncover the meditative aspects of music, the power of a musical rallying call, the relationship between modern jazz and dancing, and the opportunity to find freedom away from home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can read the first part of our conversation with Moran here. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PostGenre: In terms of research, what is your process for creating a project like this one, the Fats Waller Dance Party, or your tribute to Monk?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jason Moran: The first thing is to listen to the artist\u2019s music with which I\u2019m familiar. Then I look for, especially with this project, songs I don\u2019t know. There is a published book of James Reese Europe songs that has, maybe, sixty pieces of music in it. They’re not all recorded, so you really have to go through them and play through them. After digging deeper into their music, I start to hear the musician\u2019s ideas in other pieces. I can hear things in my music that come from Thelonious Monk or Geri Allen because I\u2019m playing with a more contemporary touch. And you can hear James Reese Europe in their music and others as well. The other part of my research is talking to people. When I’m in research mode, I talk a lot to a lot of people. I just see what comes back from those conversations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I even go on eBay once a week to see what comes up about James Reese Europe, the 369th Infantry, or the Harlem Hellfighters. Stuff that people have in their homes start to surface as people sell them online. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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But the most significant parts are listening and reading. It is incredibly important to find people who have stories. And then I look, especially for a stage performance, for an aesthetic that helps tell the story. In our stage performance [of the James Reese Europe project], we have a film that goes along with it. It is shot by a great cinematographer, Bradford Young, and it showcases us basically in a meditation. We consider this record, From the Dancehall to the Battlefield<\/em>, to also be a kind of meditation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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PG: Pauline Oliveros\u2019 composition \u201cZena\u2019s Circle” certainly fits the meditative mindset. What was it about this particular piece that you felt fit with the album?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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JM: Well, Pauline was also a fellow Houstonian. When I started working at the Park Avenue Armory, I invited Pauline to give my band and around fifteen other people a deep listening weekend retreat. \u201cZena\u2019s Circle\u201d was one of the exercises she showed us. Our experience with her was so profound that I started to use the piece when teaching other musicians about response time and the idea of being one breath together. When we started working on this concept, I used Pauline\u2019s exercise for the band to get in tune with one another. We held hands and got into that idea of sending the breath around in a circle. The thought is that if we have that relationship, and are listening to each other inhale and exhale, we’ll be okay. Pauline was a very special person, and she was an instrumental part of the process of breathing air back into these songs too.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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