Born
in Edmonton, Alberta, John Stetch has traveled across Canada and the world
showcasing his unique style of jazz piano. His last album, Ukrainianism,
received high praise from critics and the jazz community. Recently, John
came out with his seventh album, called Standards. New Pathway intern Michael
Szubelak had a chance to talk with John Stetch, now based in New York
City, about his past and future work.
Where
does your knowledge of music and composition come from? What sort of a
musical education and background do you have?
Well,
my dad gave me his clarinet when I was about nine and he showed me the
fingering and how to play it. [Later] I switched to saxophone and took
private lessons. I actually went all the way up until university where
I took first year of classical saxophone. So I studied a bunch of music
courses including some classical courses, history and theory.
So
when did you start playing piano?
It
came in the year after that. I guess I was getting tired of practicing
the saxophone. I just wasn’t that inspired by it. I found that piano was
more interesting to me or more fun in terms of its rhythmic and harmonic
potentials. So I switched to [piano] and went to a college in Edmonton
for a year and then transferred over to McGill University in Montreal and
finished a Bachelor of Music there.
Where
have your tours taken you?
I
make most of living or at least half of it outside of New York City. That’s
where more of the real work is. I’ve toured Canada probably six times,
including the Montreal Jazz Festival. I’ve toured around the US with Rufus
Reid’s Band. I’ve been to Japan twice. I’ve toured across Europe a couple
of times.
How
relevant is support from the Ukrainian community?
It
was critical especially at the beginning when I was trying out my new stuff
and I didn’t know how it would be perceived or heard. It was really nice
to play in different cities for Ukrainian communities who really did get
it. I was really glad to see that, because I didn’t want to alienate anybody
knowing some of the stuff could be a little more progressive. It was also
really nice to see the anglophones really liking the Ukrainian stuff because
I was actually afraid of that at first. I was a little shy of playing Ukrainian
music in the jazz institution. I just thought it had no place there, especially
when taking tunes which come from my polka background. I’m really glad
for the Ukrainian community’s support. They’ve brought me into their festivals
and concerts and have been really supportive that way.
Your
last album, Ukrainianism, fuses traditional Ukrainian folk and the jazz
sound. Where did the idea to meld these forms together come from?
The
first idea came with Carpathian Blues about fifteen years ago. I did that
for all my Ukrainian friends that would come out to my gigs in Canada.
I thought that maybe at least one piece should show [Ukrainian] heritage,
so that they could have something fun to relate to. But after the success
of that I figured I’d try a couple of more. One thing that is good about
the simple pieces is that you can do a lot with them, because they’re simple.
You can really build around them, you can frame them differently, put them
in different registers, give them different chords and harmonies and they
still are recognizable. You would have to really make a big mistake in
order to obscure them.
Why
after Ukrainianism did you return to playing jazz standards instead of
producing more original work?
It’s
kind of a long story. We rented the Steinway from Steinway Hall, it was
a nine-foot concert grand [piano] and it was kind of expensive. In order
to save the record label some money we figured that maybe I would try to
sneak another album in. I already knew standards because I’ve played them
for most of my adult life. So I knew that would be an easy thing to throw
in there. Also, I certainly didn’t have enough new repertoire yet to do
a new album, whereas the standards I can always fall back on because they
come easily to me and I love them. They’re part of my language I guess.
Anytime people come together here and jam its that. I just played with
some people the other night that I never met before and we just called
tunes we all knew. It’s a real great feeling to get together with people
that you never met before and just play these similar standards and see
what happens.
On
Ukrainianism you dealt with some very serious issues like the 1933 genocide
in Ukraine on the song Famine and the dangers of nuclear energy on the
song Children of Chornobyl. Can audiences expect more of the same historically
aware and politically charged music from you in the future?
I
plan to maybe do a Ukrainianism #2 in a few years. I’m too busy working
on other repertoire now to get to that [right now]. I have no idea where
I’ll draw from, but I know there’s a wealth of material within the Ukrainian
culture. I see some other musicians taking on some ethnic concepts, but
they’re not necessarily from those regions at all. They might just be regular
American anglophones. I feel proud that it’s a true thing to me, it’s my
true heritage, and it’s not just something false that I adopted.
At
an Edmonton concert commemorating the 69th Anniversary of the 1933 Famine
Genocide in Ukraine you played your piece Famine and brought people to
tears. What are your feelings on that?
I
just got shivers down my spine. I heard that and it was a great feeling.
I guess I can’t say where that inspiration comes from. I don’t even remember
what I played, I just did an improvisation with the mood in mind of that
event and then I just let it come out on the piano. I find it easy in a
way that when you think of something of that magnitude, there is a lot
of freedom and openness that comes to me because the tragedy involved creates
a certain energy and therefore dissonance is very permissible on the piano.
So I have a lot of freedom that way and I don’t have to worry about going
for specific, traditional harmonies. So I guess its just the raw, emotional
power that people were referring to, but it makes me feel good that I can
play for the real thing, the real audience that understands that. Famine
is one of the pieces that I would maybe leave out in some anglophone concerts.
Although I try to educate them too because some of them haven’t heard about
[the Famine].
What
is your most memorable solo performance?
That’s
tough because they’re different. I would have to say that recently, the
one in Edmonton with the Ukrainian Men’s Choir [was memorable]. I’ve played
concerts in front of Ukrainian people before that were smaller, but never
in such a large space where so many people were Ukrainian. So it felt very
powerful to me. It was a beautiful space and also the contrast of the choir;
I love their sound.
What’s
in store for your next album?
The
next one is going to be all Thelonious Monk. It’s challenging. They’re
difficult tunes. Monk himself really put a stamp on them, so the danger
is you don’t want to sound too much like Monk, yet you want to keep the
spirit of Monk.
Are
you sticking to solo albums or is there a full jazz band album coming in
the future?
I’ve
been playing a little bit again with a new trio that I have and I’m really
excited about it. We’re working on new material and that will take a few
months to pull that together and eventually, hopefully, we’ll release an
album next year. In the meantime I’m working really hard on the Thelonious
Monk solo album, but after that I’ll probably go back to the group thing.
The new trio is just bass and drums and me. I love saxophone and everything,
but there is a certain freedom that comes with just playing with bass and
drums because you get to control the intro, the ending and everything.
Sometimes horn players steal the limelight even when they don’t mean to.