Marc Wagnon

Zuerst ist er mir auf den heftig schrägen AvantgardeRock-Platten von Dr. Nerve aufgefallen. Sein Ausstieg aus der Band und sein solistischer Start waren um so überraschender, als er bei Dr. Nerve die abstrakten, wilden Parts agogisch betonte und plötzlich mit Tunnels, Shadowlines oder in verschiedenen von ihm geleiteten Projekten im schwer komplizierten, aber weit zivilisierteren Jazz/Rock auftauchte. Seine Gerätschaft sind Marimba, Vibraphon, Xylophon und zunehmend Midi Vibes. In kurzer Zeit hat er auf seinem Label Buckyball Records einige sehr interessante Scheiben veröffentlicht. Die fabelhafte Musik mitten im abstrakten, progressiven Jazzrock besteht aus komplizierten Kompositionen, ausdrucksstarken Improvisationen, hinreißenden, verblüffenden Soli und einer illustren Musikerschar (so unter anderem Brand X - Veteranen).
Neugierig war ich von vornherein und Marc beantwortete meine
Fragen per eMail.

ragazzi: "Your musical work is a absolute important part of the jazzrock scene of this time. Jazzrock is not modern, most of the media hate and ignore it, less or lesser radiostations play this kind of music. Is that a problem for you?"
Marc: "That is right and it is a problem for us. In fact, I think that it is a problem for more than just the ³Jazz/rock² scene. Adventurous listening is not a very popular pastime these days. But I would object to the notion that the music is not modern, and I am not sure about where you would draw the line between modern and not. On the other hand classical music still gets a lot of airplay and it is surely not new, or modern, so that does not seem to be a deciding factor for airplay. And contemporary classical music is hardly heard. The dividing line seems to be, and I am not talking about pop music, what kind of budget you have to promote your music and how easy it is to listen in an elevator."
ragazzi: "Please tell something about your musical way. Do you have studied music? Are Marimba/Vibraphone/Xylophone/Midi Vibes the "only" instruments you play?"
Marc: "My first instrument was the piano, but I always have liked the drums, so I got into the marching band in school where I developed my taste for handling sticks. Later I moved to the drum set and started playing in rock bands. But I wanted to explore more of the family of percussion instruments, so I joined a conservatory, where I learned a lot about technique on the tympani and mallet instruments. But at the same time I was strongly drawn to ethnic percussion: african, latin american and asian. I explored the instruments of these cultures by traveling and taking a more auto didactic approach; going to Indonesia to hear the gamelan, and simply buying a pair of congas and learning to play them. But it is only when I moved to the U.S. that I played a lot of ethnic percussion."
ragazzi: "How is getting the contact with the instrument Marimba? What was the first idea about it? How long do you play it? In which bands - beside Dr. Nerve and Tunnels - do you have played?"
Marc: "As I mentioned earlier, it was in the conservatory that I played mallets for the first time. we covered all the family members: vibraphone, marimba and xylophone. They all have their particularities, but the technique is essentially the same. The midi vibes came much later. What really seduced me about mallet instruments is that they combined the piano and the drums, and since those were the two instruments I played, it made sense. I recall going to a concert of Gary Burton with my percussion teacher, and we both had our jaw drop at the sight of what he was doing with the instruments. It was kind of a defining moment. It made me realize also that in order to get that kind of training I would have to move out of Switzerland. I¹ve done a lot of freelance work of different sorts, besides playing in formed bands, but as far as a steady band I played in, I would have to mention my own band ³Shadowlines² and also ³Brand X². Beside these, I¹ve played in a samba band, rock/pop band, and various avant-garde ensembles. I was performing a lot in the Knitting Factory in the early days with all kinds of people, like Dave Douglas and Mark Feldman, to mention a few."
ragazzi: "Are there some inspirations? Do you like Ruth Underwood, the FZ marimbene? Do you interested in other jazzrock marimba players? Which are important for you/in your opinion?"
Marc: "For sure Ruth was a big influence, to have the opportunity to play all those instrument, with such a great band, was one of my dream, other jazz/rock mallet players who did influence me were Mike Manieri and Roy Ayers. But as I mentioned earlier Gary Burton and also Bobby Hutcherson who are more on the jazz side of the idiom also strongly influnced me."
ragazzi: "Your last albums have more of the Midi Vibes. Don´t you like the natural sound of the Marimba? Why do you like the Midi Vibes more? The more richness of sounds?"
Marc: "I would never try to replace one for the other. To me, they are two different instruments. The idea that an electronic instrument will sound like it¹s an acoustic one cannot and probably will never happen. There are inherent differences in sound produced by a physical instrument and sound produced by a loudspeaker. With that said, when you go through a sound system, it all becomes pointless, and a good sample will sound (almost) as good as the real thing. When you consider that Jazz/rock is foremost an electric style, it make sense to use samples. With a touch of the button, you can switch from marimba, vibes, percussion, strings, sound effects,... I¹m very much interested in sound design, although I don¹t do it as much as I¹d like to because it is very time consuming."
ragazzi: "How is getting the contact to the Brand X members John Goodsall and Percy Jones? What do they think about their jazzrock history today? What do you think about their music?"
Marc: "Interestingly enough, I did not know about Brand X until I started working with Percy Jones. Percy has a very unique voice in music, and the fretless bass is his main vehicle but he also manifests his own sonic explorations with synthesizers. I met John later when there was a Brand X reunion in the early nineties, and of course during the recording of ³Manifest Destiny², and on later projects. both are very talented musicians but they have very different personalities; Percy is more introverted and crafty, John is extraverted and flashy. That is probably why it has been such a successful musical releationship. Their relationship with Jazz/rock history is twofold. First of all they were the ones creating the style back then in the seventies, and like all of us, were sad about it turning so fast into fuzack in the eighties. But secondly, in particular Percy, they want to move on, and all though they always will be associated with the style, they want to be free to create outside of the box."
ragazzi: "Frank Katz are a absolutely fine musician too, which is his background? Form which band does he come? Mark Feldman is an outstanding violin player, an important part of the "progressivity" album. Which is his musical background? How do you get the contact with the both musicians?"
Marc: "I know Mark since the mid-eighties from the early days of the Œdowntown scene² and I always wanted to do a recording with him. He is a phenomenal player, and brought a lot to ³Progressivity². Mark has a very diverse background; he did some recording for the Flock,post Jerry Goodman, and they had a very successful recording career in Nashville before coming to NYC in the mid eighties. He has since done many recording from klezmer to contemporary classical music. I met Frank through Percy when we did the the first Tunnels session. I actually knew of him when I studied at the Drummers Collective where he was the latest wiz drummer kid on the block. Frank still teaches there. Frank is a very unique drummer - he can be a rockin¹ powerhouse as well as a jazz drummer, which is ideal for Tunnels since we stand at the cross-road of these two styles. Frank is very particular in who he plays with, and besides Tunnels and of course Brand X, and some freelancing, but he does not do a lot of other comitted projects."
ragazzi: "Is there a scene between Tunnels? Is there a living jazzrock fanbase?"
Marc: "Here we go again, I think there is a living and growing Progressive rock fan base and there is surely a jazz fan base. Like I said before, Tunnels is between these two style, like no other band that I know of, and this is probaly the most evident when we play live. The drive and energy of rock act as counterpoint to the improvisation and interplay of jazz. Still it is an uphill battle to convince promoters that we are relevant and the public will be satisfied and won¹t ask for their money back at the end of the show. So trying to develop a living jazz/rock fan base, is the wrong way to go about it, we are doing vibrant and innovative contemporary music, and there is a fan base for it. We are just crowded by semantics."
ragazzi: "Do you compose all the notes in the songs? The violin solo in "Frank´s Beard" - one of the finest violin solos I ever heave heard!?"
Marc: "Frank¹s beard is a very good example of what I mean by Tunnels being in-between styles, it has both elements present, a rich ryhtmic structure who in this case was created by Frank, starting on a 12/8 which changes to a 19/16 and has a coda which uses polyrythms 5 against 4, I laid out the harmonic structure and wrote the melody, the rest is improvisation, in particular the violin solo. In fact, the whole peice was developed as an improvisation and then it became a tune. This is one of our favorite ways of writing music, we always include improvisation on our live performances."
ragazzi: "You´re a very technical musician. I think you like complex music more than easy going tunes. Its not the easy way to making music. What is the change between your first footsteps into music and today? The change in music and in you?"
Marc: "This is a good but deep question, and I¹ll try to be to the point. That is true I like complex melodies and harmonies, it is part of what I hear in my head when I write music, but I do understand and admire simplicity and it can become a challenge in itself. I have written some tunes that are simple in there concept. I can think of ³Quai des Brumes,² ³Somethings must last² and also ³Prisoner of the Knitting Factory Hallways² as examples. I think the way I compose is the way I express my feelings about the world around ourselves. I am convinced that music is a language, and that it is descriptive in its nature. I am not a fan of words, they are too loaded, and bound to be mis-interpreted. Music which we personally choose to listen to, we do so because we like it. But you cannot be ambivalent about it, and if you are, it is either that you are not true to yourself or that the music is insignificant. I come to define this by trying to make sense of the creative proccess that carried me along the years. I always have an ideal music in my head, and I sometimes get really close, and sometime not at all, but this does not mean that one would be a better piece than the other. One must have to have a point of reference that will ensure that you will not lose sight of what you are writing and why."
ragazzi: "In the seventies jazzrock was going disco/funk pop. Today the jazzrock scene is getting more good bands/albums again after the empty 80s. What do you think about that? Is there any danger, that it can go the same way like in the seventies (HipHop, Funk, Psychedelic dancemusic)?"
Marc: "I think that music is reflective of the time - some kind of a translation. it is another reality plane that parralells ours. It also gives us an alternate angle about reality. When you mention the ³lost² eighties, you have to remember that that was the time when someone also said that ³greed is good,² which to me is shallower than any statement. The fact is that the world has become more of a complicated place, and because of this fact, the big powers that make or break artist have lost some of their power. I think this will allow more creative and inspired music to come out."
ragazzi: "For me, your music is a important part of progressive rock. What is your opinion about?"
Marc: "Yes, but it is also progressive jazz. I think that the music is just smack in the middle, a nightmare for branding."
ragazzi: "Do you still in contact with Nick Didkowsky again? Can you imagine, to play with him again?"
Marc: "Never say never, but there¹s nothing on the horizon."
ragazzi: "What are your future plans? Is there any chance to see you live in europe, maybe in germany?"
Marc: "Seriously, we want to perform in Europe, there¹s not a week that passes by without somebody from there asking me about it. But so far, we have been unable to raise enough interest with promoters over there."

VM




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