- What gives you the most joy about improvised music?
Joy is subjective. I hope to experience joy in life on a daily basis. The idea of feeling emotions in the present tense is at odds with what I want to share and experience in a free improvised musical environment. If I had to name one attribute of making music that I find particularly rewarding, it would be the shared experience. This hopefully goes beyond any individual perception of joy, emotion or elicited response. It is this myriad of thoughts and feelings that coalesce and dissolve, not from any single person or source, but from all present involved in the moment (including the audience!), that seems to be most palpable at free improvised concerts and events. -
What quality do you admire most in the musicians you perform with?
There is no single quality or characteristic that all the musicians I work with have in common. I am very grateful to have met very different people, each of whom seems to say something with a unique voice. All the musicians I continue to work intensively with are very dedicated to what they do. -
Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most?
Sun Ra -
If you could resurrect any musician to perform with, who would it be?
Rolf Pifnitzka. Rolf was one of the first musicians I met after moving to Hamburg, and we played together for many years – sometimes regularly, sometimes sporadically. Rolf was unpredictable, full of energy and could literally be extremely provocative. Our last band together was Piho Hupo with Jörg Hochapfel and Chad Popple. I would like to play one last, very long concert with Piho Hupo. -
What do you still want to achieve musically in your life?
Luckily, I don’t feel the need to get “better.” I’m lucky enough to work with so many musicians that I never feel like I’m going to stop learning. I want to be able to pay my bills and debts, continue to have the freedom to have a day off every now and then, and even go home once every two years. I’m grateful for the time I have to practice double bass, so that’s definitely a plus to not having too many “gigs.” The downside is the uncertainty of my financial situation, which can be a bit stressful. -
Are you interested in pop music and – if so – which music/artist do you particularly like?
For some reason, most of the pop music I’m drawn to is either from another time or place. I have a few students who keep me on my toes as I search; sometimes they need to learn a song and I’d rather teach them something I don’t know yet so we can share the learning experience. I’ve had the great pleasure of working in Hamburg with musicians from Brazil and Syria who also play pop music. I like listening to internet radio from all over the world, but I don’t look for a specific artist, but rather different countries or regions. The radio in the kitchen here is on in the mornings, but nine times out of ten I couldn’t tell who is singing. -
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would like to have a German driving license. A driving license costs over 3000 euros here. A privilege reserved for the rich. I got my driving license in New York, I think, in 1988 for 30 dollars. -
Which of your albums are you most proud of?
I’m glad the new Gravelshard CD is out. It was a lot of work and a huge collective investment from my bandmates! I still like the duo with Alberto Braida on Broken Research, which is quite old in terms of free music (2004). There have been other releases in recent years that I’m also grateful to have been involved in, and I even started a Bandcamp page in the hope of reaching more listeners. -
Do you still listen to your albums once they’re out? And how often?
If it’s an album I’ve released myself, I’ve probably listened to it many, many times to get the sound right. I’m grateful to be working with an excellent and open-minded engineer here. When an album is finally released, I hold off on it for a while, maybe even years. If a friend is staying over, I might play them something recent; or maybe we’ll just swap CDs and I’ll add his to my stash. -
Which album (by any musician) have you listened to the most in your life?
There are a few albums, tapes and CDs that have had a hypnotic effect on me. “Reign in Blood” by Slayer; “Double Nickels on the Dime” by the Minutemen; “The Complete Genius of Modern Music” the Blue Note 4-CD box set by Thelonious Monk. I once spent an entire summer listening to “The Trance of Seven Colors” (Maleem Mahmoud Ghania & Pharaoh Sanders) every day after work on my balcony in Baltimore. It’s hard to say which album I listened to the most, but I’d guess the double release “Angels and Demons at Play / The Nubians of Plutonia” by Sun Ra & His Myth Science Arkestra. It was one of those re-releases that came out on Evidence in the early ’90s that contained two of the original Saturn LPs on a single CD. That was the first album I found, and I was fascinated by what I heard. -
What are you listening to at the moment?
The birds in our yard. Last night I just listened to the excellent duo CD “Critical Mass” by Mars Williams and Vasco Trilla. One from the stash. It is always tragic to hear of a major artist after they have left this plane of existence. So it is with Mars! His playing on Critical Mass is intense and he moves from instrument to instrument in a completely natural way. The level of communication and flow with Vasco is transcendent. -
Which artist outside of music inspires you?
Any artist who continues to make art despite the hardships of life and is neither hateful nor hurtful is inspiring. Nature is inspiration. The wind. The sea. Trees. Unfortunately, I haven’t been to a museum in a long time, but recently visited the exhibitions of my friend Rüdiger Tillmann. His forest illustrations inspired the cover of the Gravelshard publication. Rüdiger’s meticulous attention to detail is remarkable.
John Hughes on the Free Jazz Blog:
- Frank Paul Schubert, Olaf Rupp, Lothar Ohlmeier – Entropy Hug (Not applicable, 2024)
- Lina Allemano – Canons (Lumo Records, 2023)
- Ove Volquartz, Gianni Mimmo, Peer Schlechta & John Hughes – Cadenza Del Crepuscolo (Amirani, 2023)
- Andrew Raffo Dewar, John Hughes and Chad Popple – Reflections IV-VII (Waveform Alphabet, 2023)
- Two new releases by guitarist Olaf Rupp
- Piho Hupo – Foump (Indigo, 2014) ****
