José Duarte - how many cds you have recorded in Portugal?

Ken Vandermark - the only cd actually recorded in Portugal is the "4 Corners" album, released this spring on Clean Feed.

JD - did Coleman Hawkins have any influence on your style?

KV - not on my particular aesthetics, but certainly with my attitude about playing the saxophone.

JD - have you ever played at the annual 'Vision Festival' downtown NY a free jazz festival with already 12 editions?

KV - I've been invited to participate a couple of times, but always after my schedule was already booked so it hasn't been possible for me to be involved: hopefully sometime soon though.

JD - do you consider yourself a jazz musician? a free jazz musician?

KV - I consider myself to be a Jazz musician, my music relates directly to the ongoing developments in the history of that method of creating music. In my opinion, Free Jazz refers to a specific period in the history of jazz, from basically the late 1950's to the late 1960's, and the use of this term in relation to certain aspects of contemporary Jazz is therefore misleading. I don't think that Joe Lovano should be called a Bebop artist even though he frequently uses tonal frameworks for his music; it makes just as little sense for me to be called a Free Jazz musician just because I don't use these organizational systems. New terms for the discussion of contemporary music need to be developed, most of them are now decades out of date.

JD - are you permanently against the way of living in this world and so that's why you usually play shouting and with rage?

KV - This sort of critique was applied to players like Albert Ayler and John Coltrane more than 40 years ago. It made little sense then, and certainly makes no more sense now. To equate certain kinds of rhythmic and sonic density with anger is to simplify musical experience. . Any art, if it's worth paying attention to, is going to contain complex systems of communication. For me, volume and dissonance (which are only part of the tools Ayler, Coltrane, and players like myself use) can just as easily express joy, vitality, exhuberance, and catharsis.

JD - do you know any Ornette solo by heart?

KV - no, I don't know any improvising musicians solos by heart. I fail to see the point of that sort of endeavor. An improvisation taken out of the context in which it was created provides only a partial set of information for trying to understand a musician's set of decisions made while soloing;  an improviser is constantly interacting with the various aspects of rhythm, sound, dynamics, harmony, space, etcm, that the other musicians are providing at the time of performance. These details need to be considered and analyzed as well as the primary line.

JD - do you agree that free jazz today is better played than it was almost half a century ago?

KV - as mentioned above, I don't believe the music today is Free Jazz. I believe that music belongs to it's time, and in its time Free Jazz was brilliant, as was Bebop, etc.  The real music being played today strives to be as good as that from any other period, the music which attempts to copy the achievements of the past is just a shadow of real, creative history.

JD - what really new happened after Trane's death (67) and Miles and the rock (late 60's)?

KV - I don't understand the question. If you're trying to imply that after Coltrane's death, and the introduction of cross pollination between genres instigated by Miles Davis, Jazz somehow lost its way, I would completely disagree.

JD - how many black musicians did you invite to play or record with you?

KV - I have worked with a number of Afro-American musicians, but why is this relevant?  Shouldn't the question concern the artistry of the people that I collaborate with, not the color of their skin?

JD - when did you record your first cd? how many cds are there already in your discography?

KV - the first cd was made in 1992 or '93, by the Vandermark Quartet, called "Big Head Eddie."  I really don't know how many albums are in my discography.

JD - in which european countries do you have the greatest sucess?

KV - right now, I would say I feel the strongest connection with the listeners in Poland, Austria, and Spain.

JD - and in the States are you also so well known?

KV - well, I guess the idea of being well known is pretty relative. I get chances to work in North America, and I think the audience there is as supportive as in Europe. I would say that the critics in Europe are better informed in regards to the aesthetic range of my music than those in the U.S.

JD - improvisation and swing are they still the two main characteristics to call a piece a jazz piece?

KV - trying to figure out what characteristics define Jazz is incredibly complex, it's like trying to sum up the facters that delineate any serious art form. I would say that the importance placed on improvisation in relation to pre-determined/composed materials is definitely a key element in what separates Jazz from other kinds of music. The issue of "swing" is more arbitrary. Rhythmic expression, which is definitely a component of this music, should be considered as variable as brushstrokes in painting- the brush matters, but how do you articulate the way that it defines the parameters of the history of art?

JD - where did you study Music? what kind of Music? the Written Music the so wrongly called 'classic'?

KV - I didn't study music at a conservatory, I am essentially self taught.

JD - do you listen to jazz records? which was the last one you heard?

KV - I listen to all kinds of music all of the time. The last Jazz album I listened to was earlier today - Ab Baars', "Sprok."

JD - what's your opinion about the portuguese audiences?

KV - I've usually had a great time playing in Portugal.  For example the audiences we played for while making the "4 Corners" album were absolutely fantastic. 

JD - all 'Tower Records' closed by the second time - does that means that the jazz cds sell now even less that in the near past?

KV - yes.

JD - do you think it is possible to listen to free jazz all day, every day?

KV - I think doing only one thing all day, whatever it may be, is going to be pretty limiting in the end.

JD - in your repertoire why don't you use standards or blues?

KV - well, I think I use Blues materials all the time. I don't play "standards" in the conventional sense because I don't believe that it's possible to contribute new ideas for the music using that source material any longer.

JD - which are the jazz recordings that you would advise young people to listen to as a beginning to understand jazz?

KV- the only way to come to an understanding of how Jazz works as an art form is to go see and hear it in live performance as often as possible.

JD - one word for each of the following jazz musicians:

* Desmond: smart
 
* Bechet: beautiful

* Willem Breuker: important

* Mulligan: underated

* Shepp: tone

* Getz: melody

* James Carter: contemporary

* Dolphy: tragic