Jason Stein – Sunday Interview

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

1. What is your greatest joy in improvised music?
   
   
   My greatest joy as a player is the experience of connection and
   communication with the people I’m playing with and having the
   opportunity to contribute to that communication. Being a musician
   has always been a social enterprise for me. When I was young I
   wanted to be able to play well partly just because I wanted to
   hang around the musicians in my environment who were great
   players.
2. What quality do you most admire in the musicians you perform with?
   
   
   
   I admire openness and the willingness to experience new things and
   new moments and unfamiliar territory and let that newness envelop
   you and to be able and willing to work from that place.
3. Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most?
   
   
   
   Lester Young, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker,
   Thelonious Monk. Too difficult to narrow it down further.
4. If you could resurrect a musician to perform with, who would it be?
   
   
   
   John Coltrane. When I was around Charles Gayle a lot at Bennington
   he had what seemed like an ongoing internal conversation with
   himself about whether or not he could reasonably share the stage
   with Trane. He talked about it. He’d say “yeah man you know I
   really think that these days if I had to perform with Trane I
   could hold my own I really think I could.” Charles was such a
   powerhouse and of course Trane would have been absolutely enamored
   with his playing but it was striking that Charles used the
   imagining of what he’d have to bring to the stage in order to
   reasonably perform with Trane as a tool to cultivate a playing
   standard for himself. It was a creative exercise in imagination and
   appeared to fuel a life long orientation towards development. I
   admire that a ton. This question reminds me of Charles. But all
   that said, my answer is Trane. If you asked who I’d most want to
   hear (and not perform with) I think I’d say Bird. I’m so curious
   what he actually sounded like in a room and how his playing
   vibrated the walls and everyone’s bodies.
5. What would you still like to achieve musically in your life?
   
   
   
   I have a lot of music in me. I want to keep practicing and to
   continue to develop on my horn. And I want to keep working and
   performing and touring. I love playing. I want to keep at it for a
   long time.
6. Are you interested in popular music and – if yes – what music/artist
   do you particularly like?

   
   Sometimes songs will catch me and I’ll listen to the same song
   over and over. It’s kind of random. With popular music I tend to
   attach to a song rather than to a particular artist.
7. 
   If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
   
   
   
   I’ve been trying to prioritize sleep.
8. Which of your albums are you most proud of?
   
   
   
   I’m definitely most proud of my most recent album, Anchors. This
   record is more personal and nuanced than anything I’ve ever done
   and required more imagination and more of a comprehensive sense of
   what I’m able to do on my horn in order to access certain ideas
   and feelings.
9. Once an album of yours is released, do you still listen to it? And
   how often?
   
   
   
   Very rarely. I tend to look ahead and focus on the future.
10. Which album (from any musician) have you listened to the most in
    your life?
    
    
    
    There are a few. Hard to say which one.
    John Coltrane Stellar Regions
    John Coltrane Interstellar Space
    Evan Parker Chicago Solo
    Lee Konitz Motion
    Jimi Hendrix Axis Bold As Love
    Sonny Rollins Live at the Village Vanguard
    Miles Davis Nefertiti
11. 
    What are you listening to at the moment?
    
    
    
    Elvin Jones Live at the Lighthouse. I’ve been working on learning
    some of Steve Grossman’s solos on that record.
12. 
    What artist outside music inspires you?
    
    
    
    Herman Hesse

Jason Stein on the Free Jazz Blog:

• Jason
  Stein, Marilyn Crispell, Damon Smith, Adam Shead – spi​-​raling horn
  (Balance Point Acoustics/ Irritable Mystic Records, 2024)
• Jazzfest Berlin 2023 (1/2)
• Natural Information Society – Since Time Is Gravity (Eremite, 2023)
• Basher – Doubles (Sinking City Records, 2022)
• Vision Festival 2022: Lasting Impressions
• Keefe Jackson’s Likely So—April 16, 2022 at Constellation, Chicago
• Damon Smith/Balance Point Acoustics Roundup, Part 2
• Damon Smith/Balance Point Acoustics Roundup, Part 2c
• Natural Information Society with Evan Parker – descension (Out of Our Constrictions) (Eremite Records, 2021) *****
• Tributes and Homages (III of III)
• Reeds & Skins
• 85bears – s/t (Eyes and Ears Records, 2020) ****
• Quin Kirchner – The Shadows & The Light (Astral Spirits, 2020) ****½
• Threadbare – Silver Dollar (No Business, 2020) ****
• Ivo Perelman is Prolific in His Creativity: An Interview with Ivo Perelman
• Nature Work – s/t (Sunnyside, 2019) ****
• Free Jazz Blog’s 2018 Top 10 Lists
• A Short Introduction to Swiss Reedist Christoph Erb
• J@K@L (Keefe Jackson, Julian Kirshner, Fred Lonberg-Holm) – After A Few Days (Jaki Records, 2018) ****
• Jason Stein Quartet – Lucille! (Delmark, 2017) ****
• Quin Kirchner – The Other Side of Time (Astral Spirits, 2018) ****
• The October Revolution Part 2: Saturday and Sunday
• Mike Reed – Flesh & Bone (482 Music, 2017) ****
• The 2016 Free Jazz Blog Reviewer’s Top 10s
• Jason Roebke Octet – Cinema Spiral (NoBusiness, 2016) ****
• Hearts & Minds – self-titled (Astral Spirits, 2016) ****½
• Sounds from Chicago
• Hanami – The Only Way to Float Free (Eyes and Ears, 2016) ****
• Boris Hauf – Next Delusion (shameless, 2015) ****
• James Falzone: The Renga Ensemble – The Room Is (Allos Documents, 2015) ****½
• Tim Daisy and Jason Stein – Alive at the Woodland Book Center (Relay, 2014) ****
• Kyle Bruckmann’s WRACK – … Awaits Silent Tristero’s Empire (Singlespeed Music, 2014) ****
• Russ Johnson – Meeting Point (Relay, 2014) ****
• Round-Up: Chicago
• Tim Daisy and Jason Stein – Bascule (Peira, 2013) ****
• Solo clarinets
• Weekend Roundup: Peira records … a tiny and excellent label for improvised music
• Josh Berman & His Gang -There Now (Delmark, 2012) ***½
• Boris Hauf times two
• Jason Stein Quartet – The Story This Time (Delmark, 2011) *****
• My Silence – It Only Happens At Night (482 music, 2011) ****
• Bruno Duplant, Paulo Chagas & Lee Noyes – As Birds (re:konstrukt, 2011) ****
• Jason Stein’s Locksmith Isidore – Three Kinds Of Happiness (Not Two, 2010) ****1/2
• Mike Pride’s From Bacteria To Boys – Betweenwhile (AUM Fidelity, 2010) ****
• Exploding Star Orchestra – Stars Have Shapes (Delmark, 2010) ****½
• Keefe Jackson’s Project Project – Just Like This (Delmark, 2008) ***
• Jason Stein’s Locksmith Isidore – A Calculus Of Loss (Clean Feed, 2008) ****
• Bridge 61 – Journal

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