Interview with Darrell Katz, Director of The Jazz Composer’s Alliance Orchestra

By Tom WeeksNovember 30th, 2011Blogs

Darrell Katz is a Harmony and Arranging Professor at Berklee, a former High School Jazz Festival adjudicator, Director of the Jazz Composer’s Alliance Orchestra and a prolific composer of highly original music. Darrell recently sat down with BerkleeJazz.org’s Tom Weeks.

Tom Weeks: How did the Jazz Composer’s Alliance Orchestra (JCAO) come into being?

Darrell Katz: I was struggling with wanting to write for a large group and starting my own. At that time, I was also writing some for a group called True Colors, led by Rob Schepps. Ken Schaphorst (now chair of Jazz Studies at NEC) was also writing for that band. I proposed that we start a jazz composers group, as we’d seen collective groups work so well for classical composers. Composers In Red Sneakers (and a few other composer collective groups in Boston in the mid 80’s) were an organizational inspiration. We found a few other composers and started a band and began putting on concerts. After about a year, we incorporated, and not long after that, became a non-profit corporation. Within the first two years or so, we started bringing in guest composers (something we do less of now). Sam Rivers was the first. The band was a little bit smaller to begin with and expanded several times to its present size.

"I can’t really write a piece if I don’t have something that it’s about. This could be anything: an interval, a rhythmic figure, the text (as I so often set text), or the title of the piece."

Tom: Are there any underlying themes, objectives or concepts, musically or otherwise, that run through your different compositions?

Darrell: There always are, in a variety of ways. I can’t really write a piece if I don’t have something that it’s about. This could be anything: an interval, a rhythmic figure, the text (as I so often set text), or the title of the piece.

My music tends to be rather episodic, however, and about a lot of things. I admire composers who stick to one particular musical concept, though I tend not to. As I said, many of my pieces are text-based, which has been from poetry, prose, and one sentence quotes. I choose text that really speaks to me, and my big goal is to have the music represent it, and allow its meaning to come through. This dramatically changes and controls what I write, determining intervals, rhythms, form, etc.

I don’t always expect the listener to know what underlining, unifying idea I used to write a piece, but it has to be there for me.

Tom: Are there any of your compositions you are particularly fond or proud of? If so, why?

Darrell: I’m fond and proud of all, or at least most of them, most of the time. I think that I’m most pleased with them when I’m about 3/4ths through writing them. Or when they’re in the early stages, but when I’ve finally really got going with them. And of course, eventually, there are moments when all I can hear is what’s wrong with them.

In particular, though, I do like: “The Death Of Simone Weil”, “December 30, 1994”, “I’m Me and You’re Not Ha Ha”, “Like A Wind”, “ Everybody Loves Ray Charles” and “A Wallflower In the Amazon.” I also am very pleased with my arrangements of music by Jimi Hendrix, Duke Ellington, and Willie Dixon/Muddy Waters.

“The Death Of Simone Weil” I’m proud of, as it’s a fairly unusual work, a setting of a long narrative poem — it runs 65 minutes, which makes it, I think, an oratorio, though we liked to call it an improvisational cantata. I really learned a lot about setting text to melodies and musical textures through writing this piece. I felt like I succeeded at writing music that brought out the meaning and feel of the poem, creating an interesting, content driven form and managing to have the band play a much greater role than just providing accompaniment to singing.

“December 30, 1994” makes a strong (and angry) political statement and has some unique textures (with part of the group improvising textures, rubato, while others play some passages in time). The music really supports and develops with the text.
With the arrangements, I felt like I managed to be true to the pieces I so admired, while still putting in my style, and how my group plays.

Tom: What are some ways you get the sounds you are looking for out of an ensemble?

Darrell: I tend to think of writing music as story telling, and sometimes sculpting. I don’t know how often I really find new sounds but I find sounds that are new to me when I’m really trying too hard to get the music to tell whatever the story is. The best sounds for me seem to come out of finding a way to support an idea. I also keep track of ideas that I have that are more purely sound-based and hope that I find an opportunity to work them in someday. I’ve also had ideas that I’ve used that I hope to eventually find some not repetitive way to use again.

Tom: What are some of the challenges you face when leading a large group of musicians, both administratively and musically, and how do you overcome them?

"The important thing really is: DON’T do this unless you really love it."

Darrell: As far as administration, everything about it is a challenge. Whatever the challenges are, all require jumping through the hoops. I don’t much care for any of the things I (and we) have to do to keep the band going. We do it all: promotion/publicity, grant writing, concert production, booking, art work, mailing. I have no interest in any of these things but I do them because I have to.

The only problem with musicians, really, is getting them to rehearsals. Everyone’s busy, doing many different things, and it’s demanding to have to spend so much time (even though it’s never enough time) at rehearsals. As far as attitudes, though, in our group it’s great. Most everyone who plays with the group really wants to and enjoys what we do, and we really do have a very cooperative venture. We also have to juggle working with what’s on the page in our music, and what isn’t on it.

Tom: Do you have any advice for leaders of large ensembles?

Darrell: Don’t quit the day job and be willing to put in a lot of time at unpleasant tasks. Fortunately, Boston, anyway, has a lot of musicians who are strong players, willing to put in the time and effort to play challenging and interesting music, and willing to be a part of a cohesive group, even if it doesn’t pay well. If you have something worthwhile to offer, you can find people who will play it. But it takes a lot of perseverance and patience, which are two of the main things that I need to write music.

The important thing really is: DON’T do this unless you really love it.

Tom: What are some of your favorite recordings or pieces? What are you listening to currently?

Darrell: I love to listen to music, though I don’t spend the hours that I used to: too many distractions, too many things I have to do, too much time needed for my own music.

I always want to hear new things and have listened to a huge variety of music (though there are plenty of things that I HAVEN’T ever checked out). I always want to hear something new, or something new by someone I already know, and I always like going back to the things I love.

There’s music that I have enjoyed for a really long time that, in fact, I continue to appreciate even more as time goes on. It’s so hard to make a list like this, there’s so much music I like. Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Eric Dolpy, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Stravinsky, Messiaen, Ives, and Bartok have long been mainstays.

As far as strictly jazz goes: Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, Charlie Parker, Dizzy, Miles, Dexter Gordon, Wayne Shorter, The World Sax Quartet, Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, Tim Berne, and especially Thelonious Monk, Gil Evans and George Russell.

I can list off so many things I enjoy. Lately, I’ve listened to a lot of Henry Threadgill, Julius Hemphill, Jimi Hendrix, Count Basie, John Holenbeck, Jason Moran, Rzewski, Mavis Staples, B.B. King, Hank Williams and Ligeti. I’m all over the map. When I start trying to think of what music I like, I tend to want to list hundreds of things. When I start to like a style, usually I want to learn something of the history of it. I try to explore a lot of different types of music.

Check out the JCAO’s website and recordings at: http://www.jazzcomposersalliance.org/