Frank Presley's interview with Gerard Masters 5

Historical article recovered from a Wayback capture dated 2018-02-24.

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September 2004

Frank Presley:

You moved to Sydney five years ago from New Zealand. Tell us how you came about playing the piano in New Zealand.

Gerard Masters:

I started playing the piano when I was about seven. I was never really that excited about it actually. I remember being forced to go to piano lessons. Really all I wanted to do was play soccer. So I didn’t want to be inside while all the other kids were outside kicking balls around. I remember my parents always saying to me ‘You’ll thank us one day son’. I’ve had to say to them many times since ‘Yes I thank you very much’.

FP:

So you had a couple of very supportive parents. Who do you regard as your most significant influence on the piano?

GM:

Well I’d probably have to say Mike Nock. When I went through the Jazz School in Christchurch, I discovered Mike’s records and really fell in love with his style and approach to music and subsequently decided to come over here and study with him, so it was a beautiful thing.

FP:

What do you enjoy most Gerard, performing, composing or recording?

GM:

I wouldn’t be able to rate one above the other. It’s all part of the whole process really. They all have their ups and downs, good moments and bad moments so none of them sticks out as being my favourite.

FP:

Does composing come very easy to you? Your current release ‘Island Life’ and the previous ‘Pallindrome’ have quite a number of your own pieces on those recordings!

GM:

Sometimes it comes easier and sometimes it can be a bit of a struggle finding the right tune. Also finding tunes that work with a particular band that you are working with. Also finding the time to sit down and write music these days is quite hard with so many different things going on where I am not getting the time to be able to sit down at the piano with a piece of blank manuscript as I’d like to.

FP:

Do you find that you try and capture the moment? For example if something comes into your head, do you race to the piano and try to build upon it ?

GM:

I hear people talking about that sort of thing happening but normally with me I’ll actually set aside some time to write music. I’ll sit down this morning for example, for a couple of hours and write music. It doesn’t often happen that I’m walking down the street and a beautiful piece will come into my head.

FP:

Do you think your playing has changed between those two releases ? (Island Life - Jazzgroove 2004 & Pallindrome - Jazzgroove 2001) or how has it changed if it has ?

GM:

My playing has changed definitely. It would be hard to say how. But also the trio has changed as well. On the first record it was a different bass player - Brett Hirst. Since then Brett became quite busy with the Vince Jones and Mike Nock bands and Cameron Undy came back to town at that point and had a lot of time on his hands and I’m very grateful to be able to slip him into the band at that point and that’s when the band really took on another sort of approach to music.

FP:

So how did you approach the Irving Berlin piece ‘How Deep is the Ocean’ ? (Island Life - Jazzgroove)

GM:

I took Bill Evans re-harmonisation or semi-re-harmonisation of the tune and was playing around with that and decided to give it a bit of a 7/8 slightly modern feel, and when we actually came to record it, we’d spent so much time working on getting the whole 7/8 thing, that Cameron Andy just said “Let’s try and actually play really loose on it and not get too involved in the 7/8 thing”. So most of the time we’re playing 7/8 but it gets pretty loose at some points.

FP:

What are you listening to at the moment Gerard ?

GM:

I’m listening to a few different sorts of thing. I just got back from a little trip to South Africa, so I picked up some music over there that I’ve been checking out. Marimba music. I was introduced to the marimba. I’d never really seen much of that sort of music before. That was amazing so I bought a couple of marimba cd’s back with me. I bought a Nigerian CD by King Sunny Ade, which is very groovy sort of stuff. I listened to the new album by ‘The Roots’, a hip hop group from Philadelphia. Of course I just bought the new Finn Brothers album the other day, which has pretty much been played non-stop on my stereo at home.

FP:

You pay respect twice to the Finns on Island Life. Has their music influenced you in anyway ?

GM:

I think growing up in New Zealand it was pretty hard to avoid the music of the Finns. I remember going to sleep at nights with my grandma’s old $2 radio that she bought at a garage sale sitting above my bed playing Split Enz songs on the hit parade.

FP:

What was it really that attracted you to Jazz music? What was the moment when you first heard Jazz and you thought well this is the direction I want to go in ? Notwithstanding the fact that you do perform other types of music here in Sydney.

GM:

That’s an interesting question. I think it was the last couple of years at high school. I was playing in rock bands with my mates but was also starting to get into the school Jazz bands and Dixieland ensembles. One of our teachers at high school was a trombone player and he ran Jazz groups and we started getting into that and it just seemed to be a natural progression to go to a Jazz school after high school. I was lucky because at school, I had a few musical mates that I used to hang out with and jam all the time. None of us really wanted to go to university. So we decided to go to Jazz school.

FP:

And then of course you ended up at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music ! How do you regard the strength of the Sydney Jazz scene ?

GM:

I think it’s very strong at the moment. Particularly the whole Jazzgroove thing has become a very strong force in the Jazz and improvised music scene, which has culminated recently with the JazzNow festival. Jazzgroove played a big part in which just happened at the Opera House at the studio, which to me is a bit of a statement as to how strong the Jazzgroove has become after years of being a very underground sort of thing. It still is to a degree; we seem to be getting recognition from a wide range of sources now, which is great. I have only been here for 5 years and I’m not too sure on what was happening before that but it seems to me in that period that things have definitely been growing. When I moved over here, there seemed to be quite a pessimistic attitude about the scene. A lot of the venues had just closed down and a lot of the players, maybe some of the older players seemed to be upset about not having places to play and that sort of thing.

FP:

Too many poker machines ?

GM:

All that sort of thing. But I’ve definitely noticed in the five years that I’ve been here that things have been changing for the better.

FP:

What’s the future musically hold for you ? What’s the next project for Gerard Masters ?

GM:

There are a few things on the go at the moment. I’m always working on the trio and looking for places for that to play. My long-term goal is to take that band to Europe in about a year’s time. Also playing hip-hop with a group called ‘Ends and Means’. We’re making a new album starting in about one month or so, which is going to be exciting.

FP:

The same band that Matt Keegan is in ?

GM:

That’s right. I’m also starting work on another album of mine which is going to be more of a dance floor sort of album more funky sort of. Also writing for the Jazzgroove big band

FP:

The Mothership Orchestra ?

GM:

Yes

FP:

You’ve been writing for a lot of different projects including the Mike Nock Big Small Band, a classical pianist Ambre Hammond, Lily Dior and Rick Robertson. The music for Ambre Hammond. Tell us a little about that.

GM:

I’ve only written one piece so far. Ambre is an amazing classical pianist and I actually shared a flat with Ambre for four or five months and she is working on a recording project of pieces of Australian composers and there’s a few Jazzers in there. Mike Nock was going to write a piece; Dale Barlow was writing a piece as well.

FP:

Living or dead, if you could choose the ultimate Jazz band, which would be the members, what would they play and where would you like to play ?

GM:

I’d have to say Cameron Undy on the bass and Nicholas McBride on the drums. A pretty easy one really. I couldn’t think of any other guys that I’d really want to play my music with.

FP:

That’s the best advertisement for the Jazzgroove release ‘Island Life’. The Gerard Masters Trio