Interview with Thomas Sejthen: If you play with you intellect it sound stiff and without heart: Video

Jazz interview with jazz bassist Thomas Sejthen. An interview by email in writing.

JazzBluesNews.com: – When you improvise, you know where you’re going. It’s a matter of taking certain paths and certain directions?

Thomas Sejthen: – The music takes me to different directions every time, also depends on who I am playing with.

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

TS: – In my point of view there is no balance when I play. Its only soul, feeling, right now, communication. If you play with you intellect it sound stiff and without heart.

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

TS: – Not in my own band (trio) we just play our music, and then people can take it or leave it. But I think that this album is reaching out to many kind of musiclovers, not only people listning to jazz. I dont feel that I have been doing any compromises.

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

TS: – I think more and more young people are listning to jazz (modern jazz) because they can see and hear the interaction with the musicians and really feel that we have something at stake.

JBN: – And lastly, being a teacher, do you find it difficult to write music yourself?

TS: – Sometimes. I also have a family to support and take care of, and the writeing sometimes gets in the background, because of other gigs.

JBN: – How important is it to you to have an original approach? Can you comment on the bridge between being a musician and being a composer?

TS: – I think I am more musician than composer, but of course we compose all the time when we play solos in jazzmusic. I play a lots of different kinds of jazz and gets inspired to compose by playing and listning to other composers and musicians.

JBN: – Do you have an idea of what it is you’re trying to say or get across? Is it an idea or is it just something that we feel?

TS: – I am trying to say, with my music and new album, that even if it is jazz, it is not dangerous. I am reaching out to as many people as possible.

JBN: – What do you see for your extended future? You know what you have going on? You have life? If you could change one thing in the musical world and it would become a reality, what would that be?

TS: – Future? Playing with my trio, meeting new musicians, you know living the dream 🙂 Take care of my family.

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

TS: – Brad Mehldau trio, Larry Grenadier is a huge inspiration for me. Jakob Bro trio (mostly because of Thomas Morgan). Ray Brown, Mingus. Sonny Rollins and Monk.

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

TS: – Good vibes!

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

TS: – It could be funny to see the jazzscene in 2050, to see how all the new (todays) jazzstuff has influenced the future jazz. Also how we diffine what jazz is in the future. Is it still a art form, is it all mainstream, who is listning to jazz if any 🙂

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

TS: – Hopefully I can play and record with my trio fore many years, I am glad that I did this album, and hope that it will bring me good vibes back in the future.

Interview by Simon Sargsyan