Interview with Stephan Kramer: The intellect is the tools and the soul the content: Video

Jazz interview with jazz guitarist Stephan Kramer. An interview by email in writing. 

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

Stephan Kramer: – I grew up in Munich Germany and there was an old guitar of my father´s on top of the wardrobe that he didn’t have time to play anymore, but that was calling to me.

JBN.S: – What got you interested in picking up the guitar? What teacher or teachers helped you progress to the level of playing you have today? What made you choose the guitar?

SK: – It was always the guitar, it chose me. I did have a number of teachers, some were better than others. The important ones were Paul Wyatt, Evaldo Montenovo, Peter Omara, Ted Dunbar and Fred Fried. The most important ones were Billy Bauer, Barry Harris and especially Sheila Jordan.

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

SK: – It probably developed through being interested in so many different styles. I started out with rock music, and very early got interested in the blues. Bossa Nova got me into Jazz and through Sheila I was infected with the bebop bug.

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

SK: – Singing and counting the rhythms sort of like a drummer and using a metronome.

JBN.S: – Which harmonies and harmonic patterns do you prefer now? You’re playing is very sensitive, deft, it’s smooth, and I’d say you drift more toward harmony than dissonance. There is some dissonance there, but you use it judiciously. Is that a conscious decision or again, is it just an output of what goes in?

SK: – Harmonically I owe so very much to Barry Harris and his teachings. His way of looking at things harmonically is so very deep but clear and logical at the same time. Everybody should be checking him out at least on youtube. There is so much information. 

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

SK: – I have no clue.

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

SK: – For a very basic definition I would say the intellect is the tools and the soul the content.

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

SK: – What is it that they want? I try to give what I can express through music where words are not enough.

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

SK: – What is most memorable to me, is that I learned from Sheila to talk honestly to your audience. Not everybody in the audience is usually a jazz lover, but if you talk to them from the heart you can pull them into the music and share it with them. I was fortunate enough to witness her doing that many, many times no matter if it was in a small club or big concert venue, her brave honesty always succeeded.

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

SK: – I think it is the attitude and the feeling with which you approach those tunes, if those are also half a century old you might have a problem (most of the oft played standards are actually older than that).

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

SK: – I think he reached a very high degree of being able to understand the spirit and be able to express it through his playing. I am still searching and have always found meaning in playing music. Practicing Thelonius Monk’s beautiful ballads or J.S. Bach’s cello suites I sometimes feel like I get a short glimpse of the spirit and the meaning of it all.

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

SK: – Expose children to good music early and give them way more music classes in school, it is just as important as math and the languages.

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

SK: – Derek Trucks, Sheila Jordan, Barry Harris, Charlie Parker, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck, Bud Powell, Fred Fried and on and on….

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

SK: – Back to the late seventies so that I could practice more correctly the things I know now.

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

SK: – What do you love most about jazz music?

JBN.S: – Thank you for answers. Swing!

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

SK: – This question I don’t understand.

Interview by Simon Sargsyan