Interview with Johannes Enders: Transporting Emotions through music is very important for me: Video, New CD cover

Jazz interview with jazz saxophonist Johannes Enders. An interview by email in writing. 

JazzBluesNews.com: – First let’s start with where you grew up, and what got you interested in music?

Johannes Enders: – I grew up in Weilheim , a small town south of Munich in Bavaria Germany. Beautiful place near the mountains but pretty boring at that time and really conservative. I started playing recorder when I was about 5 years old and switched to flute around the age of 10.After hearing the  first alto saxophone solo on the Earth Wind & Fire Song “After the love has gone” I fell in love with that sound and changed to alto around the age of 14.

JBN: – How did your sound evolve over time? What did you do to find and develop your sound?

JE: – Well like most aspiring jazz musician I started to copy my idols. Since I started out on alto that back then was Bird, Art Pepper and Jackie Mc Lean. I switched to tenor when the local music school big band needed a tenor player and immediately got hooked on Mike Breckers playing witch led me to Trane for couple of years. When I was 28 I fell into a big crisis with my sound and everything and stopped playing for about 2 Years. I thought I would never play again. Eventually I picked up the horn again and changed my set up from a metal mouthpiece to rubber and started playing double embouchure. I picked Stan Getz as my new sound idol. I think after that crises I started to develop my own sound.

JBN: – What practice routine or exercise have you developed to maintain and improve your current musical ability especially pertaining to rhythm?

JE: – I try to keep up my embouchure with  a daily practice routine or playing a lot with my students but otherwise I hold it with what Wayne Shorter said “If you only have music you don´t have music.” I try to keep the balance between impression and expression. Getting Inspiration from other sources like my family, nature , painting , movies or books and so on. I also play a little drums and that helps me to see the saxophon also as a rhythm instrument.

JBN: – How to prevent disparate influences from coloring what you’re doing?

JE: – How do you prepare before your performances to help you maintain both spiritual and musical stamina? I think one can´t play every day , means if you play to many gigs I tend to loose inspiration. For me music has to be in balance with life to be able to tell stories .also all things that help me to have a clear conscious. I try to deal with positive influences, getting enough sleep, try to avoid negative , unfriendly people, avoid unhealthy food, no alcohol or drugs.

JBN: – How do you prepare before your performances to help you maintain both spiritual and musical stamina?

JE: – I think one can´t play every day , means if you play to many gigs I tend to loose inspiration. For me music has to be in balance with life to be able to tell stories .also all things that help me to have a clear conscious. I try to deal with positive influences, getting enough sleep, try to avoid negative , unfriendly people, avoid unhealthy food, no alcohol or drugs.

JBN: – What do you love most about your new album 2021: Johannes Enders & Rainer Böhm – Kokoro, how it was formed and what you are working on today.

JE: – Kokoro is very much a musical snapshot .We rehearsed for one afternoon and next day we went into the studio without having overplayed the material. I think that’s why it sounds fresh. Thats what I like about it. Currently I work on two different projects. One is my quartet where we play standard material; the other one is my other Brain Child Enders Room ; kind of a Jazz/Electronic Cross Over Project.

JBN: – And how did you select the musicians who play on the album?

JE: – I know Rainer Böhm for about 15 years and we have this Duo on and off for about 10 Years. It was about time to do another album.

JBN: – What’s the balance in music between intellect and soul?

JE: – Wow great question! I think sometimes when musicians are running after the “new thing in jazz”  the music get´s to intellectual and it tend´s to be a little cold for my taste. Transporting emotions through music is very important for me because that defines who we are. I´m more interested in the human being then in the scientist.

JBN: – There’s a two-way relationship between audience and artist; you’re okay with giving the people what they want?

JE: – It´s a middle way. You have to pick up your audience. Why not playing a beautiful ballad if it makes the old lady in second row happy!

JBN: – Please any memories from gigs, jams, open acts and studio sessions  which you’d like to share with us?

JE: – I was living in New York and studying at the new school beginning of the 90^th.It was a fantastic time. My classes where filled with incredible young students like Brad Mehldau, Chris Potter, Roy Hargrove , Larry Goldings a.s.o. One the School send 3 Bands to the American Music Fest in Oakland/San Francisco. Brad´s Band played first in the morning. When we got up to get ready to play , they where already hangin at the pool getting drunk. I asked “What happened”. Brad said “we got disqualified: we played 18 seconds to long!!!”

JBN: – How can we get young people interested in jazz when most of the standard tunes are half a century old?

JE: – Well ,the main problem is how to get young people to listen to a song for more then 20 seconds! Smartphones ruin a lot of it. I think the live experience is still a great chance to catch young peoples attention for jazz. Hopefully when corona is over.

JBN: – John Coltrane said that music was his spirit. How do you understand the spirit and the meaning of life?

JE: – Deep Question! For me everything it´s best when it´s floating and in motion. Good things come out of inspiration, peace and love. This qualities I like to transport with my music like the unreached master John Coltrane.I believe the meaning of life is for the consciousness to grow.

JBN: – If you could change one thing in the musical world and it would become a reality, what would that be?

JE: – Turn back the decay of the value of music to the state where it was before new media.

JBN: – Who do you find yourself listening to these days?

JE: – Stan Getz/The Master, Dewey Redman with Ornette , Weather Report, Gil Evans/ everything with Miles, Herbie Hancock / Speak like a child, Arvo Pärth, Jaco and More

JBN: – What is the message you choose to bring through your music?

JE: – Everything will be ok and life will always go on in many ways!

JBN: – Let’s take a trip with a time machine, so where and why would you really wanna go?

JE: – Go back to my teenage years to see my father again who died much to early.

JBN: – I have been asking you so far, now may I have a question from yourself…

JE: – What made you start a Jazz Magazin  and how did you fall in love with jazz?

JBN: – Jazz is my life !!!

JBN: – So putting that all together, how are you able to harness that now?

JE: – Thanks to my kids my students, my fellow musicians and my fans   i´m surrounded by enthusiastic people that help me keeping the inner flame burning!

Interview by Simon Sargsyan