Note: All four of these interviews have been edited. I have removed extraneous material (such as repeated uses “um” and “like,” and interruptions of “right,” “wow,” repeating what the interviewees just said, and other such things, mostly on my own part), parts I deemed unnecessary for the interviews, and parts the interviewees preferred I not publicize. I also cut parts that were repetitive. In parts that were hard to understand, I did my best to transcribe what I could and eliminate what I could not.
Interview #1: Baron Sydney
Note – I accidentally didn’t record the majority of this interview. Baron Sydney is a retired man, in his 50s, from the Bronx, whom I met after he finished street-performing in Strawberry Fields. This interview begins with him answering one of my questions about why and how he plays Beatles songs.
Baron: I kind of rewrite them [Beatles’ songs] myself, and I do them, I kind of spit them back out, they’re kind of renditions of Beatles songs, so in a way, you know what I’m saying? They’re kind of my renditions, so I kind of take them in and spit em back out, so in a way, I kind of, cause I never really, sometimes I don’t even bother, to like, sit down, and like, I’ll just figure out these songsso in a way, I’m like living, that’s, in a way I’m rewriting it myself. I hear a chord, and I say, “oh yeah, that’s that song,” and instead of going into a book and figuring it out, I figure it out in my head, and spit it out.
Me: That’s beautiful. And do you play the songs – have you done any alternatives – have you ever taken a song, and just rewritten it?
Baron: Yeah, I do Bob Marley, and the Beatles together, which is pretty cool – I got a way of, where I mix up “Let It Be” and “No Woman No Cry,” I got a way of just mashing the two together. It’s – you know, you do what’s inspired, you know?
Me: Do you like anything specifically about Strawberry Fields?
Baron: Um, I like it as a tourist spot, I come here and make a couple of bucks and whatnot, it’s kind of a cool place. And then you get weddings and proposals and bum-fights and all kind of stuff.
Me: So it keeps you entertained?
Baron: Yeah, exactly man. Babies come through here and they start dancing while I’m doing my thing, and it’s a wonderful place to play.
Me: That’s beautiful.
Baron: Yeah yeah yeah. It beats working for a living. Laughing
Me: laughing Could you give me that lyric one more time, cause I realize I wasn’t recording before, could you give me that lyric?
Baron: Kings and queens, dopes and fiends, and everything in between.
Me: Yeah, that’s pretty good, I think that’s a pretty accurate description of New York City.
Baron: Yeah, that’s New York City. So if you hear those lyrics, you’ll know it’s me.
I interviewed the next three jazz musicians after hearing their set in a quintet.
Interview #2: Lluis Capdeuica
Me: State your name?
Lluis: Lluis Capdeuica.
Me: How old are you?
Lluis: I’m thirty-two.
Me: Thirty-two. How long have you been playing?
Lluis: I start playing at age six. And I, you know
Me: Wait, I’m sorry, age six?
Lluis: Yeah, but I was never serious I got really serious when I was twenty five. Seven years ago.
Me: Okay, so that’s, well, starting at age six is serious no matter what, that’s pretty impressive by my standards. Where are you from?
Lluis: Spain.
Me: Spain?
Lluis: Close to Barcelona.
Me: When did you move here?
Lluis: I moved here 2007.
Me: 2007. So you moved here seven years ago. So you started playing, you started getting into music once you moved to New York City.
Lluis: Yeah.
Me: Why did you move here?
Lluis: Because I wanted to play.
Me: You moved here because you wanted to play.
Lluis: Yeah.
Me: Is there anything about New York City that’s different than Barcelona? [In terms of the jazz scene]
Lluis: I mean here there is much more musicians and venues and you know, all these musicians.
Me: So do you play any other instruments?
Lluis: No, just piano.
Me: That, by the way, that – frankly you were my favorite – all the songs were great, but you by far had my favorite songs.
Lluis: Thank you.
Me: I loved it. I loved the tempo, I love the feel, I like the change in tempo, the change in tempo was amazing – I mean, I’m not so musically literate, so I can’t explain it, but I loved it, it was amazing.
Me: So what about New York City, the streets, the life, the energy, what about it has an effect on your music?
Lluis: Well, I think, you know, here, there’s always something happening, so, unless you’re a solo musician, you need people to play, and here you can always search for somebody, you can try a musician, maybe you don’t like him, or you like the way he’s playing, and the next after you try somebody else. And also, if you want to do something that has, if you want to show that you’re very dedicated, this is a good way of doing it, because here, it’s easy to get recognition, or to be heard.
Me: To get recognition.
Lluis: Yeah, everything here is spread out, local news can be international news, so all the contracts and everything happen here in New York. And if you want to play in Tokyo, you get big here, not in Tokyo. So it’s good to be in this area.
Me: So how do you…
Lluis: And then of course, you learn from other people. You learn by playing with other people. There’s a lot of people.
Me: So how many people have you played with over the past seven years?
Lluis: I don’t know, I cannot even count it.
Me: You can’t even count it.
Lluis: Just like, every day is different. Of course, there’s favorite people that I might have, but you know, that’s not the rule
Me: Is playing with each person an entirely different experience?
Lluis: Kind of, yeah. It teaches you, you learn to do the adjustments, you know
Me: Adjust to other people, like the tempo, and the feeling, and the energy
Lluis: Cause everybody feels music differently.
Me: Have you written anything specific about New York City? Was take the 7 train yours, or was that Jose’s?
Lluis: That was Jose’s.
Me: Anything specific about New York City?
Lluis: I wrote that song, “East Broadway.”
Me: East Broadway.
Lluis: Yeah.
Me: Was there any specific inspiration?
Lluis: Well, you know, I kind of got a date down there.
Me: You got a date down there?
Lluis: Laughing yeah.
Me: Honestly, before you even said that, I was about to ask, have you ever written a song about a girl from New York City?
Lluis: So that was kind of the song, but then – I like that fact that Broadway is mostly on the west, and that place we were staying at, it was on the east, and it’s not as rich as the west, so you know, you have a lot of people that have to work very hard, they’re not rich people at all. So in other words, the east is serving, or working for the west, since Broadway goes from west to east, east to west, I like to say there’s another side to Broadway
Me: There’s another side to Broadway, there’s another side to New York. So there’s another side to the wealth, there’s another side to
Lluis: And that’s why the song is not completely sad, but not completely happy, kind of searching for reality, I guess.
Me: Do you play any genres besides for jazz?
Lluis: I studied classical, and then I played reggae music when I was younger, I studied a little bit of Latin music, but that’s it. I tried to focus on that.
Me: When you came to New York City, did you start playing exclusively jazz, or did you also start playing other…?
Lluis: No, I came here for jazz.
Me: What’s different between the jazz scene in New York City and the jazz scene near Barcelona? Did you play in Barcelona when you played in Spain?
Lluis: No.
Me: Did you play in your hometown?
Lluis: Yeah, before, I played in my hometown.
Me: So what did you play in your hometown?
Lluis: A mix of jazz and more commercial music.
Me: What do you feel is the difference between Spain and here?
Lluis: I don’t know, I think in Spain, in Europe in general, a lot of musicians, they try to see what’s happening in New York, and then they try to learn from it. So here, the originality I guess is more
Me: This is the epicenter [this word was not used correctly, by the way, so don’t make the same mistake I did ;)]. This is where everything starts.
Lluis: I think so.
Me: And that’s why you moved here.
Lluis: In a way, yeah.
Me: Is music your only source of income?
Lluis: Yep.
Me: I also heard that from Bryan, and I’m actually surprised, because I always have this image of the starving artist, you know, barely being able to make… you know, I don’t want to get personal, but are you able to
Lluis: Yeah, I’m doing it. I live by myself. But I work for it.
Me: You work hard, yeah, of course. Is there anything you’d like to add, say something specific about your music? You composed your own music. Do you have your own band?
Lluis: Yeah, I play a trio.
Me: What’s the difference playing in a band led by another person, any playing in your own band
Lluis: When you play a trio you can shape the music as you like, here it’s more about connection with the players, what they give you and what you give them – it’s different.
Me: You and the drummer keep the beat.
Lluis: Yeah, right.
Me: Do you connect more with the drummer than you do with the other band members?
Lluis: It’s always the same thing, but you know, it’s a quintet, so the band is bigger, you might want to take shorter solos… I believe in teamwork, you know, it’s a larger team, and the horns, normally, they have to lead, they play the melodies, it’s a way of accompanying and interacting with them. So it’s different than trio, it’s very different.
Me: I’ve only really been exposed to [diverse types of] music recently, and I’ve gone to the New York Philharmonic, I’ve gone to the ballet, and the opera, where they have huge bands, and personally, I prefer chamber music much more, where there’s a more personal feel to the music. What do you prefer in terms of how you play to your audience?
Lluis: I think everything is different, and you can learn something from everything, if I go to hear the New York Philharmonic, I might be looking for something different, than if I come here and hear a small band, you know? It’s a different thing, it’s a different experience. And you can always learn from anything. But the thing that got me more into music is expression and soul and feel, and of course I work a lot with my brain, practicing and writing and stuff, so I try to keep a balance of that, but my strong passion is more into the expressive side. But I don’t give up the other one. I practice everything. I try to play as fast as I can, and transcribing, and all that, you know.
Me: Have your Spanish roots, have they had any specific effect on your playing here?
Lluis: I don’t know man, I think everybody has their own roots – when you talk, when you speak, when you look, when you play.
Interview #3: Bryan Copeland
Me: Your name?
Bryan: Bryan Copeland
Me: How old are you?
Bryan: Thirty-six.
Me: How long have you been playing?
Bryan: Twenty years.
Me: Do you play anything besides for the bass?
Bryan: Yeah, I play electric bass, drums, keyboards
Me: You’re all around, basically. Are you from New York City?
Bryan: No, I’m from Austin, Texas.
Me: Why’d you move here?
Bryan: For the jazz scene.
Me: Specifically for the jazz scene.
Bryan: Yeah.
Me: What’s different between the jazz scene in Austin and the jazz scene in New York?
Bryan: People here, they’re just really hungry to play jazz.
Me: The people – how about the audience?
Bryan: There’s definitely more places to play jazz here, for sure.
Me: Is the audience larger – the potential audience for…?
Bryan: Well, obviously in New York, you have a bigger pool – more people to choose from. I would say percentage-wise, maybe not, but when you take the whole size
Me: How long have you been playing jazz?
Bryan: Probably, I guess since 1999, so – what is that – that’s fifteen years.
Me: When did you move here?
Bryan: I moved here in 2006.
Me: So that’s nine years ago… no, eight years ago. Is there anything about New York City that’s shaped your playing?
Bryan: Sure. I mean, just playing – there’s so many amazing musicians here, and people are so passionate about playing – you know, you can find people that are just so intense. And when you play with them, there’s this intense focus.
Me: You said that you lead a band. Have you written any specific songs about New York City?
Bryan: I don’t know, I guess in a roundabout sort of way. Cause all my music I write is life experiences
Me: Do you have any lyrical songs, or is it all
Bryan: Yeah, I’ve been doing that a lot lately, I have a singer
Me: What do you specifically like about New York City, about its history, about its culture, that’s different from Austin, or different from other jazz scenes?
Bryan: Just mainly the jazz itself. You can live in Austin and work all the time, and makes lot of money playing music – it’s very easy, the quality of life is much higher there
Me: Really? Than here?
Bryan: Your money goes a lot farther. We lived in a big house. I had all these instruments, and people would come over and we’d play all the time
Me: So you gave up a lot to come here
Bryan: Yeah. You know, there, you have everything – and you have a car, and you can park, and you drive up to the venue and you unload your gear, and people get very comfortable there. It’s a big party, people like to drink, and do other things. It’s fun, but nobody – I mean, a few people take it seriously – for the most part, it’s just fun. And here, people are just desperate and hungry to play. You know, I was living in Queens for a long time. Somebody would call me, in South Brooklyn or somewhere, and say, do you wanna come over here just to jam
Me: Somebody you don’t know?
Bryan: Yeah, or someone I just met – or someone – “my friend told me to call you, do you wanna come play,” and I’d go all the way down there to play, and people are willing to do the same. I have this band, with some of these people who are the most in-demand, travelling jazz musicians in the world, and I’m like, “hey, do you wanna rehearse this music,” and they’re like, “yeah, I’ve got three hours that I’m not going to the airport or flying to Europe or something,” you know, and they’re willing to do that. Austin –
Me: You just can’t find people like that
Bryan: It’s impossible. You’ll be like, “hey man, can you rehearse?” and they’ll be like “oh no man, I’ve got all this stuff to do…”
Me: Why do you think that is?
Bryan: Ah, just comfort. Here, it’s like, your fighting, you’re just fighting to survive and play music. There, you can be very relaxed
Me: I hate to ask this, but do you ever regret it, moving to New York?
Bryan: Sometimes, you think about it, you know, it sure was easy, sometimes when life gets really tough here, it was really nice, but anytime I’m faced with a musical situation that –
Me: – that you just couldn’t have in Austin –
Bryan: I’m like, yeah, I’m glad I’m not doing this anymore, cause you know, I played so many gigs there, there are some really great musicians, and there’s some people who are goofballs, you know. You just take every gig that comes along, and you’re getting some weird gigs, you know
Me: Is this in New York City or in Austin?
Bryan: No, in Austin
Me: Do you have more choice here, or do you play every gig you can get?
Bryan: I mean, I’ve gotten a lot more picky, just after doing
Me: You have a choice
Bryan: Well, do I wanna have money or not? Laughing That’s the choice I guess.
Me: I’ve been to the New York Philharmonic, and I’ve been to larger orchestras and stuff. I far prefer chamber music concerts, I far prefer quintets, far smaller, far more personal, far more comfortable. What kind of audience do you prefer to play to?
Bryan: Same – I like small, intimate settings, low volume, I don’t like going through big PAs and stuff, I like the acoustic sounds of the instruments. Typically I prefer smaller, intimate settings. It’s interesting you were saying that, because I went to this seminar, there’s this thing called “Chamber Music America,” and it’s an organization that promotes chamber music and also jazz and stuff, they have grants and stuff. They offer these seminars and conferences and stuff. They even go to, they have key-note speakers, and that’s what they were talking about, out of all – they’ve been doing a lot of research and polling, and, I think, the younger generation of people strongly prefers the small, intimate setting to the big concert.
Me: I’m not surprised, frankly. I was saying before, as a non-commercialized musician, it’s hard to make it, when you have all these record companies basically promoting images as opposed to real music.
Bryan: Well, I think it’s hard for anybody in music. My cousin plays guitar in Kelly Clarkson’s band, you know, it’s tough for them. He does all kinds of different things to make end’s meet. So you know, that’s the biggest level you can be on, as far as commercial success in music.
Me: And it’s still tough.
Bryan: Yeah, it’s still tough. She does a lot of society gigs too. She does these openings – like Microsoft, this, that, and she does all kinds of things like that.
Me: And it’s still hard.
Bryan: She’s doing better than any of us are, but still, not as well as most people think she’s doing.
Me: Actually, I’m surprised by that, I didn’t even know that.
Bryan: Music is tough, man, music has been
Me: Undervalued.
Bryan: it’s been crippled by the Internet. It’s opened up more, there’s more freedom, people have been freer to do what they want – cause they’re funding their own projects, you’re not having to answer to record labels and stuff, but at the same time it’s just – there’s just no money in it, I have lots of friends who travel around, and at an indie rock level, they’re pretty big for indie rock, like this band the Moldy Peaches, I don’t know if you know who they are, they did the music for that movie Juno, so these bands are on a pretty – they have a huge following, bigger than most jazz people I know. And all those people I know have days jobs, and they have a huge following of fans around the world.
Me: And you teach, and you play other tons of gigs, in other, different bands. On average, how many hours a day do you work?
Bryan: What do you mean?
Me: In a five day work week, how many hours on average, including practice and stuff like that?
Bryan: I mean, it’s just all the time. You wake up and you start working until you go to bed.
Me: You sleep next to your bass.
Bryan: Basically. I’ve been doing a lot of computer music and stuff. And everything you do, you just wake up and start doing it until you can’t do it anymore.
Me: What’s the difference between leading a band, and being in a band that someone else is leading?
Bryan: Oh, there’s a huge difference. You know, if you’re going to be a side-man in a group, you know it takes a lot of work to make connections with people, but when you’re running a band, you do everything. You have to book the gigs, which is almost impossible, you just have to harass people, like relentlessly
Me: So it’s harder to be
Bryan: Yeah, I mean, once you get to another level then it gets more rewarding, but the level that I’m at, and that most people are at, leading a band, there’s less money in it, cause you’re paying guys, and a lot of times you don’t get money, you’re just like, I’ll just pay the band and not take any money. And you hustled the gig, and in addition to that, you have to be your own publicist basically. You have to e-mail New York Times, and Time Out New York, and all these things to try and get listed, and try and get publicity.
Me: That’s rough. That sounds really bad.
Bryan: I have this gig at Cornelia Street on Thursday, and I’ve had this gig booked for months, and I’ve just been working for months, trying to promote it. You know, in New York, if you’re a band leader, most venues want you to sign an exclusivity clause, which means you only play one show a month, that show, within one month of that show’s the only show you’ll play in this area
Me: Wow. Why? That’s so mean.
Bryan: Well, because it’s almost impossible to get people to come to your gigs, cause there’s so much going on here, and they just want it to be an event, they just want you to promote it like it’s
Me: Like it’s crazy. Like it’s the party of the year.
Bryan: Yeah.
Me: Wow, god, I guess I respect your profession a lot more, now that I heard that. You do stuff I can never do, but now I just heard it’s way harder.
Bryan: It’s crazy. You have to be a salesman, and I’m not good, most musicians I know aren’t good at that, so you have to adapt to that, you have to learn
Me: Learn to convince.
Bryan: Yeah, it’s hard. It’s hard to step outside yourself and take on that role.
Interview #4: Jose Luis Armengot
Note: As Jose had a heavy accent and his English wasn’t perfect, I corrected simple grammatical mistakes in order to make the interview easier to read. As stated above, in parts that were hard to understand, I did my best to transcribe what I could, and eliminated the rest.
Me: I guess let’s start with your name.
Jose: Jose Armengot.
Me: How old are you?
Jose: I’m thirty-nine.
Me: When did you start playing trumpet?
Jose: I play trumpet in my country, the Dominican Republic, for sixteen years.
Me: You’ve been playing for sixteen years.
Jose: Yeah, sixteen years in band school, no professional.
Me: Wait, since you were sixteen years old, or for sixteen years?
Jose: Fifteen years, I’m sorry.
Me: Fifteen years, so since you were 24.
Jose: Twenty-four, yeah.
Me: Why did you move to New York City?
Jose: Before I played in a Dominican merengue band playing in Madison Square Garden
Me: What band?
Jose: Juan Luis Guerra band, 440. In Dominican Republic, I play my jazz – I want to play jazz in New York…
Me: Do you play any other instruments?
Jose: Piano.
Me: A lot of jazz players from the 30s and 40s and 50s came from the Dominican Republic [I should have said Latin America in general – my mistake], so what’s the difference between playing jazz in the Dominican Republic and playing jazz here.
Jose: The experience is different… for New York, for a lot of the musicians it’s history… I think that every musician in the world comes to New York to understand jazz music, New York City, the energy. In my country, I listened to Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman. New York is a special city for musicians.
Me: Remind me again, how long ago did you move here?
Jose: Seven years.
Me: Have you been playing jazz that entire time?
Jose: Yeah, I played jazz in my country. I play jazz in New York for four years – I played in Cleopatra’s Needle. When I came to New York, I went to Cleopatra’s ever day – learn the language.
Me: I’m not so familiar – is Cleopatra’s Needle a band? Or a club?
Jose: It’s a club.
Me: I understand there’s a lot more musicians here, but in terms of the style, what’s the difference between the Dominican Republic and New York City?
Jose: New York is the most open. Dominican Republic – my music, merengue – was a different experience. Jazz is a lot of improvisation.
Me: A lot of improvisation in Dominican Republic. What about in New York City? There’s not as much improvisation? It’s more, very rehearsed?
Jose: It’s more hard, for a musician in the Dominican, it’s the jazz, it’s the style. For Latin… jazz is more spontaneous.
Me: Jazz is more spontaneous, here, in New York City?
Jose: Yeah, yeah, yeah. For me, it’s more for the culture, the people, the street
Me: In New York City?
Jose: In New York, yeah.
Me: Where do you live in New York City?
Jose: I live in Corona.
Me: Corona, okay. Have you written any songs specifically about New York City?
Jose: For me, I prefer Times Square.
Me: Times Square?
Jose: I have this song, “Times Square” – [I can’t transcribe what he described as his song] – the street, the people…
Me: Do you play in other bands?
Jose: I play different music, Ecuadorian music, Colombian music, for jazz, I play in this band.
Me: So you’re very diverse.
Jose: Music for me is diverse. Jazz, for me is, when you play improvis[ation], you spread your person.
Me: This is your personality.
Jose: Yeah, yeah.
Me: I could tell, I really liked your songs. I’ve gone to a few larger concerts, like the Philharmonic, and I’ve gone to a few chamber music concerts, like five people in a very small room. Similar to what happened here. I prefer, personally, chamber music. Very small, very personal, the acoustics are a bit better, you can actually see musicians, their face and their expressions, and the energy they’re putting into it. So what do you prefer?
Jose: For me, I prefer the musician in the moment in connection with…
Me: Do you think it’s harder to communicate with another musician if there’s five people as opposed to if there’s fifty people?
Jose: This music, if you connect to, for me, very important is the connection with the moment. Music for me is spiritual, it’s art. It’s the moment for me, it’s connection
Me: with the other musicians. What about the audience? Do you prefer a larger audience, or a smaller audience?
Jose: I prefer a small.
Me: Do you ever look at the audience, do you ever feed on the audience? Do you ever look at them and say – you look at their expression, you look at their emotions
Jose: Expression, emotion, experience, yeah.
Me: Have your Dominican roots had any effect on your music-playing here?
Jose: Yeah, yeah. Dominican is very expressive. It’s the people – it’s more spontaneous. It’s good for me – it’s my personality.
Me: The class we’re taking is about New York City, so I guess I’ll ask, is there anything you just love about New York City that you express through your music, maybe it’s the streets, the people, the…
Jose: New York is jazz… it’s jazz, New York is jazz. For me, I interpret the jazz – it’s free. New York is the people – Columbia, China… when you play, it’s the world – it’s very expressive.
Me: Have you seen any other styles of music that you are interested in, as opposed to jazz, as opposed to Ecuadorian and Colombian
Jose: Colombian, Puerto Rican… music expresses the heart.
Me: But very, completely outside – maybe Chinese, or Arabic music, have you ever looked at these things and said, “Oh my God, these things are just very interesting,” you like them a lot?
Jose: For me, I like inspiration, I like different emotion, I like this different moment, improvise, the life improvise.
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