Makoto Ozone

Jazz pianist Makoto Ozone has spent the last 20 years moving between Japan and the United States, so it is perhaps no surprise that his most recent release “New Spirit,” moves comfortably between two other musical worlds -classical and jazz. Though Ozone could rest on the accomplishment of a remarkable career in jazz, becoming one of the most recognized Japanese jazz musicians abroad, first with Gary Burton in the 1980s and later with his own trio, he has not stopped pushing the boundaries of his musical expression.

That musical restlessness has led him from the top ranks of American jazz toward a broader musical scope. On the classical-based duet CD in 2002, “Virtuosi,” Burton and Ozone explored Ravel with jazz improvisation. On “New Spirit,” Ozone takes this one step further, combining his trio of Clarence Penn on bass and James Genus on bass with a classical string quartet to make a highly unique septet.

After a decade of crisp, focused piano trio recordings, this shift may come as a bit of a surprise. Yet Ozone views classical and jazz both as rich sources of expression. For his upcoming tour, his jazz trio and a string quartet will perform together in a unique exploration of what Ozone explained in an interview are distinct, yet extremely complementary approaches to music. His tour comes to Tokyo in late August.

You must have had some change in your thinking to do this new CD. It seems a little bit of a new direction.

Yes, it is. That’s why in Japanese we are calling it “New World,” but we didn’t want to call it that in English because that seemed a little shallow to me. We had this spirit of trying out something new. I’ve always wanted to do something like this with my trio, because everyone in my trio is capable of playing classical music. That's interesting coming from these musicians who can swing their ass off. Clarence has the experience of playing percussion in a classical orchestra setting. He studied classical and so when I played with him I always noticed that his tone, his sound, is so sensitive and so different from the other jazz drummers that I know.

What made you want to do this kind of project?

I’ve always wanted to do something like this, but never had a chance to come up with a full idea. I was always thinking what to do, play with an orchestra, or with a violin or oboe. Plus I didn’t have enough experience writing in this kind of style. Last year, they had the big Tokyo orchestra festival and the director asked me to write a piano concerto, actually he kind of demanded me, and then to play it and conduct this full 70-piece Yamagata orchestra. I’d never done that before. The musicians helped me a lot and they were all lovely people, so that experience gave me confidence. I thought that if I could do that big a composition then maybe I could do something with the trio.

How did you get started on it?

I called up Clarence and he said go ahead, but don’t make it too difficult or too heavy. I wrote something and sent it to him and he was pleased and surprised. He said, this is 20th century music. So, he got inspired, and went home and wrote a piece. He called me the next morning and said come over and hear it. So I went over and I asked him, when did you write this? Oh, this morning, he said. You know, you just can’t do that, I told him, but it was wonderful. He had never written anything for strings, so I just made sure he used the right range for each instrument. I didn’t want to change the voicings, so I just left it. His playing has improved so much, like the solo between the 2nd and 3rd movement. There’s so much depth to it.

But still, you had to study the technical side at least a little?

I never learned anything at school. I wrote a little bit for strings before. But with that orchestra experience, I was playing it by ear. After this, though, I’ve decided I’m going to go back to school to study at Eastman School of Music, just for a semester. I’ve been studying with a classical teacher there, but it’s hard to get out of the city. So, I decided I would spend half a year there working on my classical technique on piano and studying orchestration, composition and counterpoint.

The CD comes out sounding like a septet. Usually, either the strings are behind, or a sweetener, or just backing.

I didn’t want the strings to be the background. For that I would have hired about twenty strings to get the right sound. I wanted the string quartet, because it’s already a format. There’s a fullness to the sound, and you can move them around quickly. An orchestra is like a huge ship, it’s great and gorgeous but you can’t move it around. In a jazz trio, when we play fast, we need something that can move with us. So, I thought, a string quartet. I wanted to be sure that when the strings are playing a certain part, then the trio could accompany them. When I write for a bigger band, I want everyone to be touched. I want everyone to get inspired and everyone to say something. 

At times it seems like the trio is even holding the quartet up. You’re all seven interacting.

It actually puts more pressure on the trio. If we just had the string quartet as backing, then we wouldn’t have had to do something new. We’d just do our thing. To do something like this was a challenge. We really had to rehearse, take it home and do the homework, and take much more time to record it.

With the string quartet there, you can let the rhythm fall into quieter passages.

I needed some string players, but I didn’t want players who could play jazz. I want string players who only play classical. I wanted the precision and the feel. And I wanted the chemistry between the classical quartet and jazz piano. So, I got these young guys. They were so excited to play this music. Those guys have a different time feel from us. The jazz players just count off and play it in jazz time, but when I played the melody for them at first, I had to play it like a classical musician. I played it according to the melody as if singing it and breathing it. I wanted the string players to play their time feel, and then the trio could follow them. To fit into their time feel requires more listening ability and interpretation ability.

But still you use different rhythms, like the bolero.

Right. On that one they had to come into our time feel. But as soon as the piano finishes, I just let the time shift back. I couldn’t give them a count, because that would throw them off, and so I let the time feel shift. They’re playing their time, and are very comfortable together, and then when we come in, they have to come to our feel. Which is very challenging for them.

String quartets don’t really swing, though.

Well, I learned that playing with the orchestra, they move the time around easily and freely. Everyone thinks classical music is so rigid. I found it to be quite free, even freer than jazz in certain parts. The notes you play are written, but that’s the only part that’s written. Especially if you’re a soloist, you can go out of the range, but even within the range, you can do so many things. On the surface, everything is written out, notes, tone and so on, but it’s like if you’re an actor, you can say one line, like “I hate you” in all these different ways. You can say it in a funny way, serious way, cynical way or facetious way. Although you’re pumping out the same word, those feelings inside come out so differently. Depending on how you are feeling, it will never be the same. I may breathe after the first note or the second one. It’s like making a theater play, directing and trying so many different ways of saying a line.

Often when jazz players turn, or return, to classical music, I wonder if it’s because they feel stuck somehow.

You are right about that. The word “stuck” is so accurate. I guess jazz to me is still so primitive and it has so many possibilities to grow. That’s what so many jazz musicians are trying to do, to get it to grow. Coming to classical music, you realize there are so many different ways to construct the music, feel the music and play the music. I didn’t even think about the tone of the piano, until I entered that world.  I always wanted a pretty sound, because my hero, Oscar Peterson, always had a crisp, clear sound, but I thought everybody telling me I had a clear sound was enough. My classical teacher, though, has such an incredible tone. We’re playing the same instrument, but the difference was remarkable. He told me, you’re playing the piano, but don’t think you are playing the piano. Don’t just push the keys down. Think of it like you’re playing the violin and you’re playing short little notes arco, and then try to recreate that. Think of your hand as the arco, and the keys as a string. I realized I’d never done that before. I started discovering different ways to play and different ways to create voicings.

Do you feel like the classical harmony opens up a whole range of options?

Yes, because they don’t have chord symbols, and jazz does. Jazz can be a little boxy. Here’s these chords, and you play the improvisation according to what notes are available. Even in modal playing, it’s in that box, or it’s in that family. Monk, Coltrane and Miles wanted to push farther. So, we say in jazz, you’re playing “out.” But Ravel was already doing that a hundred years. So, it’s not really “out” it’s still inside. I’m not criticizing that, but classical music has such a treasure, so many hints and ideas. I can use this or take that.  So, it really opened up my vision.

And of course, in classical, they used to improvise.

Actually, many of them can improvise. The songs were getting long, though, on the CD, so they didn't there, but I promised them that when we play live, they could improvise. But interpretation is really improvising, too. The classical musicians are a lot more specific about interpreting the notes. They want to know whether to play soft or loud. I didn’t put all the articulations on the written notes, but they would say they heard it differently. Even one line, they would talk about all these different details of how to play it. The classical guys would play one line twice and ask me which I liked, but I couldn’t hear the difference. So, I’d ask them and they’d explain it, and then I could hear it. It was very subtle. I loved working on things like that with them. When they make even a subtle change, it makes the melody much stronger, and more dramatic.

That way of working is different from jazz.

It's quite different. In jazz, you don’t have to sing it to them. Jazz musicians are like, well, I’ll worry about it when I get there. I don’t know how I’m going to feel when I get there. And that’s cool. In jazz if you tell them too much, then you are stepping too far into someone’s personal field. They’d say, hey, you don’t trust me? I’d say, well I trust you, but this is the way I hear it. But they’d say, what about the way I hear it? So, you have to say, OK, I’ll let you do your thing.

You’ll do more of this I hope.

Definitely. I want to learn how to conduct an orchestra. But basically, I have to learn how to conduct an orchestra of one—me!

(Originally published in The Japan Times August 2004)