Dom Minasi's Guitar Hang

 Happy Holidays Folks.

I am happy to feature six wonderful guitarists.  David Becker, Tom Guarna, Max Gallo,Nate Najar,Marco Cappelli and Hans Tammen

David Becker

 

For more than three decades, Grammy and Emmy nominated guitarist, David Becker has continued to define himself as one of the best and most unique voices in jazz and contemporary music. He has led the critically acclaimed DAVID BECKER TRIBUNE to a worldwide audience performing in more than 35 countries sharing the stage with such celebrated jazz acts as Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Michael Brecker. German television journalist Roger Willemsen (ZDF) called him "One of the best Jazz Guitarists ever." Jazz Podium and Downbeat called him "A poet on the Jazz Guitar." Jazz Thing and Gitarre & Bass called him” a virtuoso”. David has released 20 recordings many topping the jazz and contemporary music charts. Becker has also appeared at many international jazz festivals including The Monterey Jazz Festival.

David released a duo effort with guitar master Joe Diorio, THE COLOR OF SOUND which was named "One of the best Guitar duo recordings of all time." - All Music His album BATAVIA was ranked as one of the top 10 World Music recordings of 2010. Becker also produced the Attila Zoller tribute record, MESSAGE TO ATTILA (ENJA) which also features Ron Carter, Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, John Abercrombie, Jim Hall. David has been active in music education releasing four instructional books: GETTING YOUR IMPROVISING INTO SHAPE, PLAYING IN SHAPES, RHYTHMIC MOTIFS FOR COMPING AND SOLOING, ETUDES YOU CAN USE as well as many video courses. He has performed master classes at university and conservatories worldwide. In 2021 he taped a series for the SPACE CHANNEL called PLANETS. His new recordings, CONTINUUM & PLANETS were released in 2022. CONTINUUM was submitted for a GRAMMY nomination. 

To learn more about David, visit his website: https://www.davidbeckertribune.com

 

DM: How Long Are You playing?

DB: I actually started out on drums and then switched to trumpet at age 12. I was fortunate to have a great Jr High music teacher, Ted Dechter. His son Brad is an arranger in LA and his grandson Graham a jazz guitarist in NYC. 

Ted had played with Stan Kenton, Harry James and was also active in the classical and Jazz scenes in LA. Ted had a way of taking young musicians and making them sound like a band. The fundamentals I learned in Jr high really shaped my musical foundation which I still apply today. 

I then took up guitar at age 15, so I have been playing about 45 years. There was a great music shop in my area owned by Terry Gibbs and Drummer Mel Zelnick(Benny Goodman). I took some guitar lessons there. I enrolled at GIT at age 18 and that is where I met Joe Diorio who became one of my most important mentors. Joe encouraged me to follow my own path. I also spent some time with Pat Martino. 

DM: Why Jazz?

DB: Well, music was always around our house. My mom is European and had an extensive Classical record collection. I remember conducting the stereo with a tinker toy while listening to Edvard Grieg’s Concerto in A minor when I was 4.

My older brothers and I also collected Monkee and pop records of the day. My oldest brother (6 years older) also had records from Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, etc and I listened to those at age 9 with the same enthusiasm as the classical or pop records. I also bought my first album at age 9 from a Latin band called El Chicano who recorded an instrumental from Gerald Wilson, “Vivo Tirado”. I wasn’t aware at the time, but the guitar player was heavily influenced by Wes Montgomery. I just liked it! 

Later on trumpet, we played a lot of Big Band charts and I had recordings from Louie Bellson, Buddy Rich and Dizzy Gillespie(with Joe Pass). When I took up guitar, I began with Rock & Roll and muddled around for year or so, but when I heard Grant Green on the radio at age 16, that’s what I wanted to do. My brother also bought John Abercrombie’s first album, TIMELESS around that time. I had a neighbor who played guitar that had a huge record collection. He gave me a Joe Farrel record Moon Germs and that blew my mind! He also turned me on to everybody! I got really into John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles of course, Art Blakey, Chcik Corea, etc. I listened to all the guitar players I could like Kenny Burrell, Tal Farlow, Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel, Jimmy Rainey, Joe Pass, etc. 

He also hipped me to Mick Goodrick, Pat Martino, Jack Wilkins, George Benson, etc. When I got to GIT, I was a huge Wes fan and consumed so much not only his recordings, but stories from Joe as they were close friends. I also discovered the early recording of John Scofield and Pat Metheny. In fact I saw the original Pat Metheny Group in 1979 when I was 17. I also saw Weather Report in 1978 with Jaco. I would go to all the Jazz clubs in LA and see people like Dave Liebman, Milt Jackson, Bob Brookmeyer and anybody I could.

DM: Who are your major influences?

DB: All of the above! Wes Montgomery for sure! Joe Diorio of course and all the other guitar players who helped the evolution of the instrument. But  horn players too. I love McCoy Tyner. His record Real McCoy with Joe Henderson is one of my favorite records. I also would include bassist/composer Eberhard Weber.

DM: How do you feel about the use of electronics( FX) in Jazz?

DB: Well ,every jazz guitar player has to plug in to play. I use a delay pedal and loop pedals also an ebow, but for me it’s all about how you use them. It has to be musical otherwise it has no purpose. 

 

DM: Where do you think Jazz is headed?

DB: That’s a good question. For me, I am just trying to get better and 

be respectful of the past, but keep my sights on what’s ahead. A lot of Jazz today is regurgitated old stuff. I mean it’s done well, but if all I wanted to do is play in the dialect of 1950’s Jazz, I rather drive an Uber! Don’t get me wrong I love Bebop, but I was born in 1961, so there is a lot of music that has affected me. I hear young guys play in a certain “older” bag and they do it really well, but where’s it going?

Joe Diorio once told me, “David, I know you have your influences, but you always sound like David Becker and that’s a good thing”.

 

 

 

Tom Guarna

Grammy-nominated guitarist, composer and arranger Tom Guarna began his musical studies at age fifteen, rapidly demonstrating a natural ability to play and compose. After studying classical guitar and composition at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in 1986, he played local gigs in New York and fine-tuned his education with John Abercrombie. He earned a Bachelor Degree from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in 2008, and a Master’s Degree at The Juilliard School in 2010.

 After working with several jazz bands, he joined Blood Sweat and Tears in 1995 and toured extensively with them for the next three years. Since then, he has forged his own voice as a modern jazz guitarist, performing with a wide range of artists including Wallace Roney, Stanley Clarke, Mark Turner, Branford Marsalis, Randy Brecker, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Mulgrew Miller, Fred Wesley, Mike Clark, Uri Caine, The Allman Brothers, The Yellowjackets, and Gary Bartz. 

Guarna has toured five continents with his own quartets and as a top sideman in several exciting groups led by Lenny White, E.J. Strickland, and Les McCann. He was a featured artist on over thirty albums, and composed “If You Dare,” a funk-rock song on Lenny White's 2010 Anomaly CD. Guarna also toured the United States with pianist Manuel Valera, after playing on the Grammy Award-nominated 2012 album, New Cuban Express. 

As composer and leader, Guarna has recorded: Get Together (2005), Out from the Underground (2007), Wingspan (2008), Major Minor (2009), Bittersweet (2011), and the hard-grooving Rush (2014), which garnered wide acclaim. His seventh album, The Wishing Stones (2017), featuring an all-star quartet of drummer Brian Blade, bassist John Patitucci and pianist Jon Cowherd, was lauded a 4-star rating in DownBeat Magazine. 

Tom Guarna, a guitarist whom DownBeat magazine has praised for the “emotion, tension, surprise and passion” in his playing on Rush, assembled what he calls “a dream team” for The Wishing Stones. The album, his first for the Destiny Records label, was released in November of 2017. The 11 hook-laced Guarna originals, produced by the guitarist and performed with warmth and élan by his all-star quartet, were masterfully engineered by George Shalda. It was recorded at Sear Sound, the New York site of historic studio sessions for artists such as David Bowie and Wynton Marsalis. 

The Wishing Stones was inspired by his accidental discovery of Aruba's Rock Wish Garden, a peaceful beach featuring stone structures that visitors have built over the years as totems. Guarna explains: “Each of these stacks of stones has a story, representing the desires, aspirations and memories of many people. I’d like my songs - my stacks of stones, as it were – to have a similar resonance with listeners. That’s been a goal as I evolve, to convey life's emotions in music, whether it’s in my writing or the textures I create on the guitar. I want to get to the heart of the matter.” 

Guarna incorporates many styles (jazz, funk, latin, soul, pop, R&B, world music) into his own blend of unique and engaging music, as he forges ahead within his forte: modern jazz with a touch of classical influence.

To learn more about Tom, visit his website: https://www.tomguarna.com/

 

DM: How Long Are You playing?

 

TG: I've been playing for 38 years. I'm mostly self taught. I learned to play music on the band stand although I have taken some spotted lessons over the years. I had some lessons with Steve Khan and John Abercrombie. I have an undergraduate degree from The New School For Jazz And Contemporary Music. I also have a Masters Degree from The Juilliard School.

DM: Why Jazz?

 

TG: In the beginning I was playing Rock and Funk. When I heard Coltrane, Miles, Joe Pass, Allan Holdsworth, playing those lush harmonies and beautiful improvisations, that really spoke to me. I've been on that path ever since.

DM: Who are your major influences?

 

TG: Too many to mention. Here are a few. Guitarists: Charlie Christian, Wes, Tal Farlow, Barney Kessel,  Jim Hall,Billy Bean, Pat Martino, Jimmy Raney, George Van Eps, Allan Holdsworth, Hendrix, Jimmy Page. Other instruments: Ellington, Monk, Elmo Hope, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Bud Powell, Ben Webster, Joe Henderson. The list goes on and on.

DM: How do you feel about the use of electronics( FX) in Jazz? 

TG: I have no issue with that at all. I use them. If it helps to realize and enhance your musical voice, I'm all for it!

 

DM: Where do you think Jazz is headed?

 

TG: The same place it always has been headed. FORWARD.

 

 

 

 

Max Gallo

 

Max Gallo learned many lessons listening to  the guitar masters who came before him like Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Kenny Burrell, and others. He has a degree in composition and arranging. Max has collaborated and played with some of the greats. Such as John Riley, Scott Hamilton,  Byron Landham, Hector Cotsita, John Weber, Riccardo Zenga, Carlo Atti, Guido Manusardi,   Luciano Milanese and Gianni Cazzola

He was a guest  Resident Band with his 4etto at UMBRIA JAZZ and participated in various Festivals.

He recorded various CDs in his name. His most recent, SMILE, was recorded with saxophonist, Scott Hamiltonian at the  JAZZ Not STOP Studios during the pandemic.  numerous Live Streamings, He was a guest artist on  the last CD of the Great Pianist,  Guido Manusardi 

 

Unfortunately Max doesn't have a website, but you can go to his Facebook Page and see what he is up to. https://www.facebook.com/MaxGalloofficial

 

DM: How long have you been playing?

MG: I am playing over 40 years. I started at 12 initially studying classical guitar, then  around 15 I listened to records and went to jazz concerts and I fell in love with this music, then in the 80s I studied Arrangement and Composition for Big Band and Functional Harmony with a great Italian teacher Maestro Filippo Daccò

DM: Why jazz?

MG: because my classical guitar teacher played jazz and I was 14/15 years old and he invited me to two concerts and so I fell in love with this music.

DM: Who are your main influences?

MG: Wes Montgomery - George Benson - Kenny Burrell - Barney Kessel - Joe Pass and others.

Dm: What do you think about the use of electronics (FX) in Jazz?

MG: I don't follow it, so I can't say anything about the merits.

DM: Where do you think Jazz is headed?

MG: Jazz is directed towards the Heart and  if it gets there it accompanies you for a lifetime.

Thank you  very much  Dom. 

 

Marco Cappelli

 

Marco Cappelli (Naples, Italy - 1965) studied classical guitar with Oscar Ghiglia at "Musik Akademie Der Stadt Basel" (Switzerland). Since the mid-90s has led an extraordinary artistic path, first becoming familiar with rigorous written music, then with free improvisation. 

 

The diversity of Marco’s performances is due to a fascinating array of collaborations (Avi Avital, Anthony Coleman, Michel Godard, Butch Morris, Franco Piersanti, Enrico Rava, Marc Ribot, Adam Rudolph, Raiz,  Elliott Sharp, Giovanni Sollima, Markus Stockhausen, Cristina Zavalloni, and more) as well in jazz and avant-garde music festivals both as a soloist and in ensemble settings. 

 

His rich discography has been published by important recording labels. .

Here we remember two CDs with “Ensemble Dissonanzen” dedicated to chamber music by G. Petrassi, L. Dallapiccola and H.W.Henze (Mode Records). 3 CDs with Marco Cappelli Acoustic Trio (Mode Records, Tzadik, Da Vinci), 2 CDs with Marco Cappelli’s Italian Surf Academy (Mode Records). In 2022 Marco founded the record label 41st PARALLEL RECORDS (https://41stparallelrecords.bandcamp.com/music).

 

As composer/performer, he collaborates with internationally acclaimed dance companies (such as Armitage Gone! Dance and Young Soon Kim Dance Company,  both based in NYC), theater (collaborating in Italy with writer Maurizio De Giovanni and actor Andrea Renzi), and film (working with such directors as Leonardo Di Costanzo and Salvo Cuccia). Asll on DVS(and live show) 

In The Shadow of No Towers with comic writer Art Spiegelman and actor John Turturro).

 

Marco Cappelli currently lives between Palermo (Italy) - where he teaches classical guitar at the Conservatory - and New York, where he is involved with the contemporary and avant-garde music scene. To learn more about Marco visit his website:https://marcocappelli.com/

 

DM: How Long Are You playing? 

 

MC: I started to play when I was about 10 years old. My father (not a musician at all) had a guitar that he couldn't really play but, having a very good ear, he could play and sing all the Neapolitan songs from my hometown tradition, just muting the strings when the melody didn't match one of the few chords he knew. 

I grew up playing both in garage bands and folk music groups, learning the roots of blues and rock from a European perspective (which is a huge topic for me, especially since I live and work in New York and see clearly the difference from the US perspective). After high school, I went to study at the Conservatory, where at the time (the early 80s)  the only possibility was to take classical guitar lessons. So, for the following 10 years, I was "trapped" in that world, where I met mentors like Oscar Ghiglia , one of the most important interpreters of the classical guitar repertoire, with whom I studied in Basel, Switzerland. It was in Basel that I started to be interested in contemporary music: premiering music (solo and with ensembles) just written by composers to work with brand-new compositions that were taking shape - became my specialty. I started to be interested in so-called " not conventional music languages", becoming familiar with graphic notation, improvisation, live electronics, and so on. 

 

DM: Why Jazz?

 

MC: I have no specific background in jazz studies. My relation to improvisation developed through the work I did directly "on the field" with jazz musicians starting in the 90s, when  I was hired by the Italian trumpet player Enrico Rava in a jazz version of Bizet's Carmen for a large ensemble: that experience pulled the trigger of my interest for a different way to look at my professional profile as a musician and opened the door to a musical path beyond the borders between music genders. I was never interested in "academic jazz", with due respect to the amazing musicians who play it with admirable virtuoso mannerisms. 

 

 

DM: Who are your major influences?

 

MC: A pivotal figure that I met in my early years as a professional musician is Ralph Towner, who moved from the US to Sicily sometime in the 90s. At the time I started to teach at Palermo's Conservatory and invited him to run a masterclass. We became good friends, and his ideas about improvisation through the classical guitar deeply influenced my idea of sound. In the following years, I started to come more and more often to New York.  I was very much attracted by the local experimental scene (well represented by labels like Tzadik and Mode Records), which was very vibrant. In particular, I was impressed by the constant interaction between musicians from different backgrounds. I moved to New York in 2004 and got suddenly involved in the scene by iconic figures and mentors/friends like guitarists Marc Ribot and Elliott Sharp or rhythm masters like Jim Pugliese or Adam Rudolph. Since then, I have worked both as a sideman as well a band leader, trying to find my personal voice in the huge universe of the contemporary guitar. 

 

DM: How do you feel about the use of electronics( FX) in Jazz?

 

MC: Absolutely positive. Whatever might contribute to developing the sonic language is welcome from my perspective because jazz is a continuous evolution and movement. I like musicians like Eivind Aarset, Fred Frith, Elliott Sharp, or Kazuhisa Uchihashi.

 

DM: Where do you think Jazz is headed?

 

MC: Difficult to say in a few words. Part of the jazz culture is ending up like classical music, closing itself in the "academia" to build a sort of identarian prejudice, with the intent to create clones of artists who in the past left a strong mark on the history of music and who probably today would keep themself at a safe distance from this attitude. I definitely count on the other part: for me, "jazz" is a fearless creativity that navigates on the borders between cultures, strongly anchored to an African rhythmic matrix. 

 

 

 

 

 

Nate Najar
 

I started playing at about 11 years old, imitating the rock guys I admired on tv and the radio.  When I was 13 we moved to a small apartment in a more lively part of town and there was a great blues singer - Molten Mike - who played in the bar around the corner.  He did delta blues, with a national steel guitar.  I thought it was the most fascinating thing, so whenever he had his gig at this spot I’d be there waiting for him to arrive.  I’d help him bring in the equipment and help him setup, just so I could be around him and his guitars.  He showed me some things and I began imitating his playing.  Eventually he would invite me to sit in.  Imagine me, a 13 year old getting to play a real gig with a real professional band.  I was in heaven. I got all the Robert Johnson records (cassettes at the used CD store!) and worked out all those tunes. So I was a real blues kid.  This was right around the time Clapton recorded “From The Cradle” and there was a huge blues revival in mainstream music.  I had a buddy who played drums and he was a little older than me so he could drive already, and we’d just go around town finding places with bands to sit in with, eventually also finding some gigs of our own.  

A math teacher of mine saw how much I liked this end of early American music and told me I should listen to some more jazz.  He told me about Django Reinhardt - and one of my blues guitar friends - the great Jimmy Griswold - had talked to me about Django too. He still does! So this teacher gave me a cassette of a bunch of Django Reinhardt recordings - the Hot Club quintet things with the well known Django repertoire like Nuages and Minor Swing - and a cassette dub of Wes Montgomery “Smokin at The Half Note.”  I couldn’t believe my ears.  I tried so hard to copy those recordings.  I couldn’t, but I tried! My other drummer friend from this school had a father who played jazz guitar.  Dan Crowley.  Mr. Crowley told me to go study with "the guy from Washington D.C down by the Skyway” and by that he meant Frank Mullen.  Frank had recently retired from teaching at the St. Pete Junior College but still taught at his home and agreed on Dan’s endorsement to interview me for possible teaching.  I played a very basic chord melody I had worked out on “Misty” for him and he agreed to teach me.  

Frank taught on a classical guitar - we didn’t play arch tops in our lessons - and the lesson always included some classical like villa lobos or sor, and a chord melody that Frank had written - he had written thousands of chord melodies on every tune imaginable.  It was pretty easy to determine which chord melodies were to be performed and which were really just exercises in harmony, substitution and voice leading.  He liked to put an entire chord under each melody line and the chord was always something different, creating very interesting voice leading.  And he had all kinds of little systems for discovering new harmony.  It was really hip.  He had pictures all around the room of him with Barney and Charlie and Herb and Howard Roberts, Jim Hall, Wes, etc…. What a great environment for a suburban teenager to hang out in.  I still sat in wherever I could and gigged a little.  

I stayed with Frank for 6 or 7 years while I began working around town.  I discovered I liked the classical guitar better for certain things and focused on that box for my jazz sound.  I was enamored with Charlie Byrd (I still am!).  I still played a Stratocaster and an arch top for “gigs” but if it was my gig I was playing acoustic nylon strings.  I played a lot of different music too, whatever anyone wanted because I just wanted to play the guitar. 

I started sitting in occasionally with the great trombonist Buster Cooper who was from here and had returned here in his later years and had a Friday and Saturday night steady with a quartet.  A few years later I ended up on that gig for a 3 years and it was one of the best experiences of my life.  I learned how to really learn a tune on the bandstand.  I didn’t know any repertoire when I started and the first week I brought a handful of fake books.  Nobody said anything to me, but Buster really know how to lead a bandstand, so he’d either call a tune and count it or just begin playing - there was no time to look anything up so by the second week on the gig I left the books at home and relied on my ears.  There was no piano player but the bass player, the great Bill Bennett knew every tune ever written and Buster was a very strong melodist so it wasn’t too difficult to pick up the tune.  Particularly since I had heard most of them on records.  At any rate, it must not have been terrible because I had the gig until it ended when the joint was sold.  What a training ground!  

I’m 41 now, so it’s been 30 years or so since I began playing.  The world is different, my playing is different and my ears are different! But we are products of our experiences - I never went to school, I was too eager to get out into the world and play, so I missed a lot of fundamentals and I also learned a lot of esoteric things straight from the street.  I would literally play with anyone who would let me.  The great bass player John Lamb lives down the street from where Frank lived and as a social engagement he took a lesson with Frank every week.  His lesson was right before mine and one day as he was leaving he said “why don’t you stop by after your lesson.” So I did and that began a years’ long association with John that has involved many, many gigs, concerts, recordings, life lessons and memories.  John just turned 89 the other day too. 

To learn more about Nate, visit his website: www.natenajar.com

 

DM: Why Jazz?

NN: In the beginning, I was always moving toward music with more nutrition in it so when my high school math teacher gave me that Wes Montgomery record I was mesmerized.  More than anything I loved the joyous feeling it exuded and the type of energy the swinging produced.  And then as I discovered all the emotional nuance wrapped up in all that we categorize as “jazz” and yet it still had both compositional and improvisatory freedom, I was hooked.  

 

DM: Who are your major influences?

NN: For guitar, it is Charlie Byrd, Django Reinhardt, Julian Bream, Barney Kessel, and Herb Ellis.  But remember, the first records I ever worked out were the early Robert Johnson sides.  A major influence in the way I hear and relate to jazz is the Ellington band.  John Lamb was in what I refer to as Duke’s last *great* band in, the early-mid 60s.  He’s on the Far East Suite and the others of that era.  “Soul Call” is a masterpiece and it’s a live concert.  Sam Woodyard doesn’t even show up until the 3rd chorus of A Train!  I dug deep into that era Ellington to be more conversant with John’s experiences and I reaped many musical rewards from those efforts.  My biggest influence on how I approach the guitar as an instrumentalist is any great piano player.  I see the guitar as an orchestra, the same as a piano is, and all the music is in there.  I’m just crazy about Tommy Flanagan, probably over any other pianist, but piano trios are some of my favorite records and I’ve spent way more time paying attention to piano players than I have to guitarists.  

DM: How do you feel about the use of electronics( FX) in Jazz?

 

NN: I think that anything that elevates the proceedings is a good thing and anything that doesn't might be surplus to requirements.  If I don’t “get it” it doesn’t mean it’s any less either of course, but it does mean that at least at that moment it didn’t do it for me.  Still, I’m crazy about sound and how we hear and relate to it, and I generally prefer warm actually acoustic sounds.  I like sound that makes me want to turn it up, not things that make me want to turn them down.  That’s a vague and odd explanation but the best one I have.  Even with recordings, the creation of music is ephemeral, particularly the I moment of decision to do this or that, and the recording is just the documentation of that ephemeral moment.  So, we do things and hope it lands.  Maybe sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t!

 

 

Hans Tammen
 

 

 

 

 

Hans Tammen likes to set sounds in motion, and then sit back to watch the movements unfold. Using textures, timbre and dynamics as primary elements, his music is continuously shifting, with different layers floating into the foreground while others disappear. This flows like clockwork, “transforming a sequence of instrumental gestures into a wide territory of semi-hostile discontinuity; percussive, droning, intricately colorful, or simply blowing your socks off” (Touching Extremes).

He currently plays guitar, Buchla Music Easel, a Blippoo Box chaos synthesizer plus other small electronics devices. He also performs with various pieces of software of his own design, i.e. the "Endangered Guitar" (a hybrid software/guitar instrument), and "Prozesshansl" (made to process the sounds of other instruments). He regularly writes for large ensembles, notably his 18-piece chamber-jazz ensemble Third Eye Orchestra, and the all-electronic Dark Circuits Orchestra, both founded in 2005. In 2021 FLUX String Quartet commissioned him to write a large work for string quartet and live electronics.

To learn more about Hans, visit his website: https://tammen.org

DM: How Long Are You playing? ( can include teachers' degrees etc.  can be as long as you want)

HT: About 50 years. My grandfather gave me an old guitar when I was 15. It went all downhill from there. ;-))

DM: Why Jazz?

I don't know, as there are so many different kinds of music that run under the Jazz moniker that the term is pretty meaningless. That said, I still cannot explain why a kid from a rural area in Germany got totally obsessed with music that is very much rooted in Black culture, just from listening to the radio. These sounds just spoke to me. Obviously I'm not the only one, as this music has tremendously influenced cultures all over the world, not only in Europe. I played in countries like Russia, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, and with musicians from Kazakhstan, Siberia, or Mongolia. How come that the ensemble Arkhangelsk formed in a remote town in northern Russia, and ran a Jazz festival there for many years? How is it that you can find Jazz from China as early as the 1940s? Or just look at the extensive anthology of Ethiopian Jazz I bought a while ago, with music spanning many decades. Obviously there is a message in Jazz that speaks to people all over the world, not only to people from the so-called Western world. And if this message brings people together rather than dividing them, I'm all up for it.

DM: Who are your major influences?

HT:I got into Jazz after I heard Miles Davis' "Aghartha", and I'd still name Miles' Bitches Brew period the central influence on my music. "On The Corner", OMG! For guitarists it's Pete Cosey and Sonny Sharrock. I heard Sharrock's solo on the live version of Herbie Mann's "Hold On, I'm Coming" when I was 18, it was an epiphany! I was already listening to Coltrane and other Jazz-on-steroids, and this guy finally brought Coltrane's energy to the guitar. Cosey was a bit harder to understand, remember that this was at a time when you couldn't simply dial up a YouTube video to see what he was doing. I really liked his strange sounds, only later I understood that he e.g. used a variety of guitars that he had restrung in odd ways. What appealed to me was that both he and Sharrock soloed with energy, timbre and dynamics instead of playing fast lines.

Another major influence was Stockhausen's "Gesang der Jünglinge", which I encountered in a darkened room at my city's music conservatory, also at a time when I was a teenager. I knew immediately that this is stuff I wanted to do, too. Strangely, it took until the year 2000 to find my own voice in electronic music, and to get to this point I needed to program my own software that extended the prepared guitar technique I already used from around 1990 on. Another important influence is Steve Coleman's music, and when I write for my 18-piece Third Eye Orchestra, phase techniques, metric modulation and polyrhythms are central to my writing.

Dm: How do you feel about the use of electronics( FX) in Jazz?

HT: Not sure what that question is, we play electronic instruments for about a century now, and the Sachs-Hornbostel system included "electrophones" already in 1940. We should incorporate them the same way Jazz has expanded its sonic palette using sitars, oboes, prepared pianos and what not. Jazz had always experimented with new ideas, musically and sonically. When electronic instruments became widely available in the late 60s, Jazz musicians used them. Miles' on Bitches Brew and beyond, Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi with Patrick Gleeson, Paul Bley & Anette Peacock with some of the earliest Jazz synthesizer works, Don Cherry with Jon Appleton, Freddie Hubbard with Ilhan Mimaroglu - I think anybody using electronics in Jazz is in excellent company.

I do like your distinction of "electronics/effects", though. As someone who plays electronic music for 20+ years, and who designed their own software instrument, I am more impressed when the electronics become their own distinct voice, rather than an "effect" that is added to your playing. Each instrument has their own advantages, so we hire pianists or saxophonists for what their instruments can bring to the table, and we should do that for electronic instruments, too.

DM: Where do you think Jazz is headed?

HT:I have no idea, every time I'm asked to look into the future I'll tell the story of the airplane. When people started flying around, the notion came up that nation states would disappear, as you simply can fly over a border. Well, at that time people couldn't foresee that you can put guns on an airplane, so that was the end of that story.

I can only offer my own listening habits. I would like to hear more ensembles like Nik Bärtsch's, Plaistow or The Necks, with long interlocking / overlapping rhythmic patterns, plus the introduction of small variations over time. There are almost no Jazz solos in the traditional sense, this is about invoking trance-like states, which you can't get with a screaming solo on top. It relates to a lot of "circular time" music located outside of Jazz, such as drones, drum circles, techno or minimal music. If you follow author Ted Gioia's observations of trance states, you need to immerse yourself in it for at least 10 minutes to get the point. Subtle variations in timbre, rhythm or dynamics may not have a big effect first, but after a while you focus on small details in ways you rarely experience elsewhere. Generally, I'd like to hear more of that.