Interview with saxophonist Jarrett Gilgore. An interview by email in writing. 

JazzBluesNews.com: – First, let’s start out with where you grew up, and what got you interested in music.  How exactly did your adventure take off? 

Jarrett Gilgore: – I grew up outside of Philadelphia in a town called  Doylestown. My father plays jazz piano and I was always interested in improvisation and self expression. I think I first wanted to be a professional musician around the age of 14.

JBN: – How has your sound evolved over time? What have you been doing to find and develop your own sound?

JG: – I’m much more interested in melody now than when I was younger. I guess my sound develops through just living my life. These days I don’t listen to much jazz or free jazz anymore, and I think that helps me retain my voice and not get too influenced by others. But it’s really just a natural thing.

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JBN: – What routine practices or exercises have you developed to maintain and improve your current musical proficiency, in terms of both rhythm and harmony?

JG: – I actually haven’t touched my horn for the last two months. So I’m not quite sure I’m maintaining my proficiency at the moment. Meditation is very helpful though with concentration and creativity. I feel much freer and looser.

JBN: – Have you changed through the years? Any charges or overall evolution? And if so why?

JG: – Yes definitely. Discovering Tibetan Buddhism changed everything for me. It made music about something much greater. I used to think music was the most important thing and now I don’t really care about it as much- it’s a reflection of something much larger. Dynamic creative life force, and I don’t need “music” to tap into this life force anymore.

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JBN: – In your opinion, what’s the balance in music between intellect and soul?

JG: – The music I like needs to have more soul than intellect. I used to be into the intellectual stuff when I was young but now I just wanna hear someone pour their heart out and make me cry or laugh or dance.

JBN: – There’s a two-way relationship between audience and artist; are you okay with delivering people the emotion they long for?

JG: – I don’t approach it that way. I just do what I do and people have experiences, and the people who like the experiences come back to hear me play again. It’s very personal.

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

JG: – I used to worry about this and now I don’t really think about it. I teach kids and I’m more interested in getting them to express themselves and improvise and move emotions through the instrument, than I am about getting them to memorize tunes.

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

JG: – More authentic community that isn’t effected by making money and getting gigs and using people.

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

JG: – Kali Malone, Pandit Pran Nath, Mahmoud Ghania, Ryan Power, Pastorita Huaracina, Matano Juma.

JBN: – Dear reader, you judge who and what kind of a bad musician musician this young man is, for whom music is not one of the most important things. In this way, maybe we can clean the most noble and intellectual music like Jazz from people like this.

Interview by Simon Sarg

Note: https://jazzbluesnews.com/2023/03/19/useu-jazz-blues-association-festivals/ You can express your consent and join our association, which will give you the opportunity to perform at our Jazz and Blues festivals in Europe and Boston, naturally receiving an appropriate royalty. We cover all expenses. The objectives of the interview are: How to introduce yourself, your activities, thoughts and intellect, and make new discoveries for our US/EU Jazz & Blues Association, which organizes festivals, concerts and meetings in Boston and various European countries, why not for you too!! You can read more about the association here. https://jazzbluesnews.com/2022/11/19/useujba/