2014 has been quite a banner run for Brian Blade.
For two decades, the 44-year-old son of a Zion Baptist pastor has been on the incredibly short list of iconic jazz drummers from his generation, having worked with a diverse array of artists including Wayne Shorter, Daniel Lanois, Joni Mitchell, Ellis Marsalis, Marianne Faithfull, Emmylou Harris, Billy Childs, Herbie Hancock, Dorothy Scott and Bob Dylan in addition to leading his own group The Brian Blade Fellowship, which he founded in 1997.
However, these last 12 months have seen the Shreveport, LA, native make a triumphant return to his long-time label Blue Note Records with the excellent Landmarks, perhaps his most daring and diverse LP with the Fellowship yet. Additionally, Blade appears on guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel’s latest LP alongside bassist Larry Grenadier of the Brad Mehldau Trio as well as seeing the release of a deluxe edition of Emmylou Harris’s 1995 game-changing country masterpiece Wrecking Ball, which features his hushed drum work throughout both the original LP and bonus disc of killer rare material.
And lest we forget to mention Mama Rosa, his R&B-kissed singer-songwriter project that finds him in the grand company of Don Henley, Phil Collins, Ringo Starr and the late, great Levon Helm as one of the great singing drummers of our time.
Jambands caught up with Mr. Blade earlier this summer to speak with him about all the great things on his plate, where he opened up about the importance of historic preservation, jamming with Joni and Blue Note faves among other topics of conversation.
The idea of preservation…is that where you were coming from when you named the album Landmarks ?
It’s definitely a part of it. These markers that sort of, that you know where you are. A form of reference for a place, no matter where it might be. Sometimes those landmarks…they don’t last forever. It was more about, okay, here’s where we are now. This batch of songs and the band’s existence. It was sort of like focusing on the photograph that my friend Michelle shot. Sort of a modern ruin. Windows that remain, that was once a part of some kind of structure or house or adobe. I don’t know where Michelle shot that photograph but it spoke to me. The fact that the window pane was still there standing on those stones with no structure around it kind of left a glimmer of hope. I guess I like to think that way when things like Roseland or the Village Gate or CBGB’s, when they aren’t there anymore. You still have the people that inhabited those places, to a certain degree. It’s about a moment in time.
How about in Louisiana? How are they down there in terms of preservation?
Good and bad. The picture of America to a certain degree, this land is that old. Modern development and all that, urbanism. Things fall by the wayside over time, unfortunately. Other places we used to play that we feel are unofficial to the city culturally. I don’t know, you just sort of have to move on the best you can.
It’s like this weird suburban Americana kind of thing, especially in heavily populated areas.
I guess that’s what makes a place like the Village Vanguard so special, because they…stuck to their story, so to speak. And it’s still living and pulsing with music every night. It’s a real testament and obviously in this country something unusual, unfortunately.
How’d you like playing the Vanguard?
We’ve tried to play every year for the last almost decade. It’s truly special, to walk into that space and to know at one time John Coltrane stood on that very stage…the history, the makers of the history of the music, basically, came into that room. It’s truly special.
Have you had people that were maybe U2 fans or fans of Daniel Lanois that kind of got into jazz through the sideman thing…they see you playing drums on those albums and then get into jazz?
No, that’s something that I haven’t really talked to anyone about. I hope that might be the case. Listen, there’s so much music…genre can just not be a subject. Just like “I want to hear this record.” It’s hard to say. I always tried to keep my mind open to playing music and whatever the situation was, trying to serve that situation without any preconception. Like, okay, these are Daniel Lanois songs or these are Joni Mitchell songs or these are Wayne Shorter songs. How can I serve the songs? Hopefully at that point you’re not thinking about, oh this is rock or this is folk or this is jazz, but what fits the music.
Joni was really good at bringing jazz into rock and pop crowds. She was so key at that. The first time I heard Jaco Pastorius was on a Joni Mitchell record.
It kind of happened that way for me too, somewhat simultaneously with the Weather Report Heavy Weather album and Joni’s record Hejira. Her harmonic sensibility is so much wider than, say, traditional music that might be considered folk or even pop. I think that’s why she loved playing with people like Jaco. The musicianship could handle that kind of song…serving the song to a greater degree.
Did you talk to her about jazz, was she cool to have conversations with or was it just work?
We always talked about everything. We were up late listening to Duke Ellington, that’s what we were focusing on at that time. Obviously she was a couple of generations ahead of me, so she was great with popular culture and dance culture, she connected with that. It was great to know she has all of that in her.
How did you link up with Daniel Lanois?
He was living in New Orleans, say the late 80s through the mid 90s, and I was studying at Loyola University in New Orleans. I met him around that time, around 1992 or 3. Just around the time he released his second solo album, called For the Beauty of Wynona. We met just after it was finished. It was about to come out and we met and we got together to do some rehearsing and then we ended up going on tour for three months shortly thereafter. We became fast friends. Such a great inspiration to me, and such a great friend. Yeah man, it keeps going. We just played up in Montreal.
I’m surprised U2’s never received a jazz tribute or anything. I think the music would lend itself pretty well.
It’s just a matter of a musician connecting with that music, not unlike what I do when I’m focusing on writing my own music. I try and arrange other people’s music where I hear this and I feel like I can come up with my own interpretation of it without altering it to the degree of making it unrecognizable. Hopefully someone will do that.
I like your aspect, your relationship with rock music through Daniel Lanois. I saw you worked on Emmylou Harris’ Wrecking Ball. That album completely broke new ground for country.
Daniel has a God-given gift. Whatever he puts his hand to, he flourishes in a way and touches people due to what he puts into it. His passion and his heart and faith, and involving people that he believes in, which is how I came to be part of playing on Wrecking Ball, through his invitation. It’s great. He goes with his instinct.
How did you get together with Jeff Parker?
Our first Fellowship Band record Jeff played guitar on. Even at that time in 1998, he was already busy with his own prospects of playing with Tortoise…we never toured a lot at all with Jeff, but we made that first record together. I always loved Jeff’s playing and I just thought, when this batch of songs kind of came into focus, that I would love to play with Jeff again and he was available and we went into the studio.
Landmarks reminds me a lot of Tortoise beyond Parker’s appearance on the album, especially in the way the band plays so atmospherically while also implementing a loud-soft-loud dynamic in certain sections. Is that a bit of a touchstone for you, that sound that was coming out of Chicago in the 90s?
I can’t say that I really know it at all, specifically. It wasn’t any place I ever lived. Maybe I have some of the recordings from the time, but it’s more so just what so many different influences from so many different artists that somehow dispel themselves. We become who we are through that inspiration.
How much did your immediate surroundings inspire the record?
Somehow it coincided with my brother and his family moving back home and him opening up the studio that these songs that I was writing spoke to, I guess, some memories…returning home, my stuff, after having not lived here since I was seventeen. There was this sort of parallel line that was coming to converge. I’m glad we got to do most of the record here. Some of the songs, like two at least, we had recorded earlier while we were on tour. We just kind of dropped into a studio for a couple of days. That became unknowingly the beginning of this Landmarks record.
In regards to coming home, you’ve returned to Blue Note for this record. How did that come about?
That was great. My brother coming home to open Blade Studios, he also started this label…with some friends. We were sort of the artists they were interested in having a relationship with, and my brother had worked with Don Was on several different things over the years. Don has stepped into Bruce Lundvall’s position as president of Blue Note, it was great. We had someone in our corner who was interested in our music, so we sort of rekindled the relationship that was there before. I’m glad Blue Note has such a great history.
When you look back at Blue Note, do you have any favorite albums or even a favorite era?
God, there’s so many…the first Wayne Shorter record I got was Juju and that was on Blue Note. Later on, Larry Young Unity, McCoy Tyner’s The Real McCoy, Bobby Hutcherson Oblique...Thelonious Monk spoke volumes. My God, it’s a long, long list.
As a drummer, are you a fan of Art Blakey’s Orgy in Rhythm ?
I was just about to say, actually, all of Art Blakey and the Jazzmasters’ records. Free For All is my favorite. Masterpiece.
Blue Note in the 90s was awesome, especially with the of hip-hop collaborations that came out of there. It must have been cool to be a part of that.
I think it boils down to Bruce Lundvall and his awareness and his desire to keep finding music that inspires him. Musicians and bands where he was like “Okay, these guys need to be heard.” They gave these guys a home, and a great historic home to say the least. To be a part of that company and realize you’re a part of this lineage. It comes down to Bruce Lundvall.
You have a great singing voice. Where does that fall in with everything going on in your career now?
I’m always writing songs, I’m hoping to record another record of Mama Rosa lyrics later this year. It usually comes in two strings. Either I begin writing something and it goes in the direction of the Fellowship Band and this instrumental landscape, or it starts to have this story with words connected to the music and then it ends up in the Mama Rosa batch. It’s never certain until I get into it deeper.
Would you consider Mama Rosa more of an R&B thing?
It definitely comes from my love of gospel and my first real experience and introduction to music, through church. I think a lot of it comes from that, a lot of these things I grew up hearing Al Green and to a certain degree Joni Mitchell as well, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, it all sort of coalesces. The songs come out and they are what they are. I write on a guitar, so for me, all the songs are just acoustic guitar and singing. For me to feel like there’s something worth recording, it has to stand on its own two feet with just those two elements.
Let’s talk a bit about Driftwood, the album you recorded with guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel and Larry Grenadier of the Brad Mehldau Trio on bass for ECM. How’d this come together?
It was really through my relationship with Wolfgang, we made quite a few records together. This was just sort of the next record he wanted to make. As a trio, we hadn’t played together a lot. I played with Larry in a lot of situations and Wolfgang in other different situations. It was an easy connection and we all hooked up together so easily and quickly. I’m glad we were able to make an ECM record, because I love Wolfgang and that Driftwood record, it’s been good company. It’s great for me, because a lot of records I got when I went to college on ECM are still some of my favorite records…it’s its own identity.
Do you have any aspirations to do a one-off with ECM or lead a group on an album?
No. Thankfully we have a home…it’s not like they’re singing music that they would hear and they’d be like “No, we don’t want to put this out.” I can’t really see that happening. But maybe Wolfgang will make another record for ECM and invite me to come back and work with him.
How was it working with Larry Grenadier as a rhythm section?
Larry is just an incredible person and an incredible musician. When you’re in that kind of company where just the level of musicianship and sensitivity is so high, it just makes you play that much better. You don’t even have to discuss if there’s any moment of disconnection or misunderstanding. Everybody’s in tune with each other. I’ve been really privileged to be in situations like that.
It must be important for the drummer to have that kind of relationship with the bassist. Speaking of which, how was recording with the late Charlie Haden the album he made with Michael Brecker, American Dreams ?
I loved Charlie. I’m thankful that I got to play with him and Michael Brecker as well, they’re like heroes for me and for generations after. I’m really grateful for that.
One final thought about Landmarks is how eye-catching cover is. There’s just always something about the album art on jazz records that is as intriguing as the music when its done right.
I hope that in of itself is inspiring to people. Like “Oh, look at this image.” It makes you curious about what it sounds like, just because of the cover. I’ve done that with a lot of records. I don’t even look at the artist sometimes when I’m in record stores, but I’ll look around and see an image and I’ll want to hear it.
Are there any other artists that you aspire to collaborate with?
One day in the future I’d love to do some recording with Bobby Hutcherson. I got to play with him during the first year of what was called the SF Jazz Collective out in San Francisco. He was part of that collective and so was I. It was an honor to get to stand beside Bobby. Hopefully maybe make a record with Bobby.
