THE BROTHERWISE DISPATCH vs Ras Moshe Burnett

THE BROTHERWISE DISPATCH, VOL.2, ISSUE#19, MARCH-MAY/2016

Ras Moshe Burnett is an avant-garde Jazz musician and poet whose artistic endeavors sustain ‘Free Jazz’ as an emancipatory aesthetic orientation against the hypercommodified atmosphere of contemporary music. Currently a member of Bill Cole's Untempered Ensemble, Burnett is the founder of The Music Now Festival(ongoing for 16 years), and is also a member of the Arts For Art organization and performs regularly under that banner at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center. Ras Moshe’s most recent album is OUTSIGHT.

Brotherwise Dispatch - How would you describe the aesthetic influence of John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor on the singularity of your own sound and musical endeavors?

Ras Moshe Burnett - Wow! Its very perceptive to mention those two artists. They are among some of my main/key influences. I never tried to imitate John Coltrane outright, but whenever I play, I feel a similar energy that is very much along the lines of his playing. It could be sub-conscious since I've been listening to him forever. But I don't consciously make that decision. His aesthetic influence is through his playing (technique and tone), which implies self-determination through sound. Since he was a quiet person and he didn't announce things in interviews, there is a popular misconception of him as not being politically aware, but based on my life long conversations with elders in the community and musicians older than me, I can say that this is not true. This fear of Black musicians having a Black consciousness is based on the very uninformed view that Black consciousness is based on a generic dislike of a whole group of people.

In true Black Arts Movement tradition, I no longer try to explain this dynamic to people. Those of all colors who are hip will know what's what.

Cecil Taylor! Incredible. I have all of his recordings and many many concert recordings. His approach to the piano and the way he constructs his lines are direct influences on my approach to the saxophone. A lot of arpeggiated waves and clusters. A serious harmonic conception. His playing is very earthy as well. Very African, lots of people don't agree with that because of the speed of his playing, but his piano playing is very African. A "Blackenizing"(to borrow Hank Ballard's phrase) of the postwar/20th century avant-garde, which he is clearly influenced by.

Black artists with avant-garde inclinations-be it Jazz-painting-dance etc. don't have this inclination via a cultural disconnect. Some political comrades who are more pop inclined than I am, often like to point out the CIA's involvement with "abstract art" in the 40's and 50's when they want to constantly tell me that Black people "can't understand Free Jazz". This is an insult to the cognition of the Black working class and it is internalized racism.

I always question this comparison between the "abstract artists" selling out to the government and to "Free Jazz" players. My view is-if Jackson Pollack and his constituents sold out, what does this have to do with Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Sunny Murray or Albert Ayler etc? Or Black musicians using their brains to be uninhibited in Jazz? This view is indeed emblematic of the lack of information about Black people, even in some political circles. It’s not so much about what you like or dislike, but to think that Black musicians playing differently is synonymous with "elitism" and "support of the bourgeoisie" is ridiculous.

But we do know the music they have lots of time for.

BD - What qualitatively differentiates a work of avant-garde Jazz from more mainstream jazz?

RM - There's not much difference. Jazz itself has always been about being creative, regardless of time period. It’s natural for any art to change through time. It doesn't make earlier developments in the music obsolete by any means. To me, it’s a case of all the different approaches to the music existing at once. Those of us who play gravitate to different parts of its development. The so-called "avant-garde" always spoke to me as far as my own music, even though I don't use that language one way. I am a music lover across the board.

On a technical level, the changes/differences between the two Jazz styles is that the 60's music went beyond metronomic time. This does not mean no rhythm, but the rhythm was expanded past the bar lines. That was the biggest controversy with "free jazz", probably more controversial than what the wind players were doing. Because in a way, you can play "free" on top of Jazz rhythm as we know it, but when the drummers opened up, it was a new time now. Literally.

BD - What are some of the difficulties you’ve encountered in communicating to audiences and younger up and coming musicians the importance of approaching avant-garde jazz from more than a mere technical standpoint, and as indicative of a particular insurgent orientation to the normative gaze of established power?

RM - I've come across the same difficulties that Max Roach came across in his mission to do the same thing. (I'm not comparing myself by any means!)

There is a dialectic involved, in that at this point in time the connection between avant garde jazz and social activity is well established and more embraced than before. At the same time, from what I noticed watching the lives of my older musical comrades, the dynamic of younger generations being able to use the results of the struggles of those who came before, but don't really mean it, is very present in "avant-garde jazz", as it is present in the social reality of Black life in America.

BD - How have you managed to maintain your integrity of artistic engagement against being ‘overdetermined-from-without’ by the global culture industry?

RM - I guess I was so wired by the Black Arts Movement that, even as a younger man I was never affected by peer pressure, either from the industry or otherwise. I was coming to young adulthood in the early 80's and that was turning into a very reactionary time period ... I never cared or paid it much attention. I was with what Archie Shepp, Randy Weston, Max Roach and Sun Ra were talking about.

BD - Back in the days, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker used to rush the stage of other musicians while they were in the middle of performing and engage in improvisational aesthetic Jazz ‘battles’ and sometimes play the other artists off their own stage. That type of intense aesthetic confrontation lives on in Hip Hop culture for sure, but how frequent are those type of challenges today in the Jazz world? Have you ever been challenged on stage by another musician and if so, describe that kind of artistic phenomenon to our readers?

RM - I have never been challenged by another musician. I wouldn't be afraid if it did, but no one has ever engaged in that mode of behavior with me. I've heard those stories and seen it happen, but it never happened to me.

From what I heard Jackie McLean and others say about Bird, was that he was always very encouraging, he didn't call hard tunes or do malicious things. He and John Coltrane also never put anyone down, publicly or privately. There seems to be a lot of that...it always existed, and it is evidence of a bad character.

Depending on the generation, that phenomenon of "bum rushing" comes from either insecurity: where someone doesn't understand the ethical and brotherhood dynamic involved with Jazz creation, or: its viewed as having fun with your musical comrades...you see them up there playing and you get inspired!

This has been another one of our BROTHERWISE FIVE interview series, during which THE BROTHERWISE DISPATCH interrogates intellectuals, artists and activists with five probing questions to the delight of our readers.

On behalf of Ras Moshe and THE BROTHERWISE DISPATCH,

Peace.

-A. Shahid Stover

(this interview of Ras Moshe for THE BROTHERWISE DISPATCH was conducted by A. Shahid Stover through email correspondence from March 1st – 4th of 2016)