You may well have not heard of Dennis Rea, so let me introduce you to a guitarist who should be up there with all the usual stellar names if there was any justice in this curious world. In a 40-year musical career on the fringes, both geographically and musically, including a time living in China, Dennis has played with many fine musicians and made some quite remarkable music.
It is my duty to spread the word, so put your feet up, hit Play ^ and read on.
Roger: Do you come from a musical family?
Dennis:
Neither my parents nor my siblings played an instrument, and most of my
family had only a cursory interest in music. The one exception was my
(much) older brother Woody, who had an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz
(and one of the largest record collections I've ever seen). He began
indoctrinating me into jazz and quality rock music at an early age and
was the most important early influence on my developing musical
sensibilities. (His son Michael, guitarist for Queensryche, certainly
benefited from his influence as well.) I also had an uncle who was an
aficionado of mainstream classical music; he became an unwitting
benefactor when I discovered the music of John Cage, Luciano Berio, and
other avant-garde composers in the boxes of unwanted record-club bonus
LPs he unloaded on my family each Christmas – a real ear-opener.
Roger: How long have you been playing the guitar and what/who were your earliest influences?
Dennis:
I began playing guitar at age 9 or 10, so I've been at it for roughly
45 years at this point – I'd damned well better have something to show
for it by now ;) People are always amused to learn that the player who
first inspired me to take up the instrument was Mike Nesmith of the
Monkees; although he was in fact a decent guitarist, it came out that he
wasn't even playing on the early Monkees records – so much for role
models.
Apart from the previously mentioned influences, two other watershed moments in my young musical life were hearing King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King not long after it came out, as well as György Ligeti's astonishing music on the soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Both granted me entry into a world of expanded tonality and limitless
imagination that made a mockery of the commercial music that pollutes
this planet. There was no turning back after that.
Roger: Can you remember your first appearance on stage? Were you in a High School band? What kind of music did you play?
Dennis:
My first band, in my hometown of Utica, New York, was named Atmosphere
and mostly played covers, but rather atypical covers for a high-school
band – Pink Floyd's "Echoes," Curved Air, PFM, Strawbs... Prior to that I
had been jamming with teenage peers on tunes by the Allman Brothers,
Grateful Dead, and Led Zeppelin, but hearing In the Court spun me
off on a more progressive trajectory. Atmosphere eventually evolved
into Zuir, a guitar-bass-drums trio that focused on my own original
material – convoluted 12-minute-long psych/prog sagas with gratuitously
knotty time signatures and the like. We stuck out like a nun in a
whorehouse in musically conservative Utica but did manage to build a
small, devoted local following. The band played a handful of shows,
usually DIY affairs in rented spaces, and actually had the audacity to
strike out for Seattle right after we graduated from high school, with
the notion of 'making it' there with my brother Woody’s managerial
assistance. Nothing came of it – we weren’t even old enough to be
allowed into most music venues – and the band eventually returned to
Utica and drifted apart, but the experience served as our rite of
passage into adulthood. A few years later I returned to Seattle, where I
reside to this day.
Roger: Do you play any other instruments?
Dennis:
Only the kalimba, and not in the conventional way, as evidenced on the
recent CD release by Tempered Steel, on which I play electronically
processed thumb pianos alongside my partners Ffej and Frank Junk.
Roger:
As we can see from your impressive discography you have covered many
different styles of music. Do you have a particular favourite style,
particularly in a live setting?
Dennis: Not
to sound evasive, but no, not really. I take as much satisfaction in
playing rigorously composed music, as I do in Moraine, as in unscripted
improvisation. My only real “rule” when it comes to playing music is
that it must be original, either my own work or that of the close
collaborators I choose to work with.
Roger: What has been your proudest musical moment?
Dennis:
In terms of live performance, it would have to be Moraine's appearance
at NEARfest 2010, which was a wholly unexpected turn of events for what
was basically an unknown band with only one recently released CD to show
for ourselves. Indeed, the prog bulletin boards all exhaled a
collective "Who?!" when we were announced. But I do feel that we rose to
the occasion rather well, and I'm quite proud of the performance
captured on Metamorphic Rock: Live at NEARfest 2010.
 |
| Moraine @ NEARfest2010 |
In terms of recordings, I consider my 'solo' CD Views from Chicheng Precipice to
be my most fully realised work to date – it's far and away the most
ambitious project I've ever undertaken with regard to the arrangements
and the instrumental resources involved. In terms of collaborations,
having had the chance to work with the late, great composer Hector Zazou
has probably been my greatest honour.
Roger: One of, and possibly THE heaviest thing you've done was the quite wonderful Iron Kim Style which
as well as being musically stunning as it was completely improvised,
something I was frankly amazed to find out, displayed a mischievous
sense of humour. Where did the idea for that band and the subject matter
of the song titles come from?
 |
| "Farewell to Kims" |
Dennis:
Iron Kim Style was never conceived of as a ‘band’ but was simply a
group of friends who got together to improvise on a very occasional
basis. I'm usually erroneously pinned as being the 'leader' of IKS, but
the impetus in fact came from my friend Ryan Berg, a bassist with whom
I'd been involved in various musical configurations since we both lived
in Taiwan in the early 1990s. It was also Ryan's idea to call the
project Iron Kim Style, borrowing the name of a Korean martial arts
discipline founded by the high-flying Grandmaster "Iron" Kim. There was
no correlation between our name and our music – we simply found it
comical. But since the name Kim inevitably brings to mind the infamous
lineage of North Korean dictators, we started weaving cryptic satirical
references to the Dear Leader into our announcements and titles just for
laughs. We used to joke that we were likely to be taken out on stage
one day by either a North Korean assassination squad or a posse of
furious martial artists.
Encouraged
by the results of our jam sessions, we began doing the occasional live
performance and eventually went into the studio to stockpile material
for a CD. The end result was a private edition of 100 copies, meant to
be given to friends, but when Leonardo Pavkovic of MoonJune Records
heard it, he insisted on releasing it on MoonJune. The rest is hysteria.
The
material on Iron Kim Style is indeed 100-percent improvised, with no
cosmetic doctoring after the fact. Like you, many have marvelled at its
cohesiveness, but you need to understand that we extracted only the
strongest material from about six hours' worth of sessions, not all of
which was up to that level.
Iron
Kim Style amicably parted ways earlier this year, or at least went on a
lengthy hiatus, largely because various members were increasingly busy
with other musical commitments.
Roger:
Another of my other favourites – admittedly I am not that familiar with
the earlier releases, and I hope to be pleasantly surprised when I find
the time to investigate - is the quite beguiling and deeply spiritual
Views From Chicheng Precipice, which you mentioned earlier. It is about as different from Iron Kim
Style as can be imagined. A meditation from your time living in China
and Taiwan; what inspired you in the first instance to live there, or
was it a work-related move? Did you play many gigs there, and how did
that experience compare with gigs back home?
Dennis:
Work-related to an extent, but more accurately love-related – my then
fiancée Anne, a China Studies graduate, had accepted a teaching position
in the city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province as part of an academic
exchange program. Anne arranged a position for me as well and I joined
her there in January 1989. At first I had scant expectation of playing
music publicly in what I expected to be a repressive authoritarian
state, but I couldn’t have been more mistaken. Shortly after my arrival I
was sought out by members of our university’s guitar club, and from
there I embarked on a surreal musical rollercoaster ride throughout
China and later in Taiwan. Altogether I played more than 100 concerts at
cultural centers, sports arenas, universities, music conservatories,
and clubs, and on provincial and national radio and television,
including three of the earliest concert tours of China by progressive
Western bands. I also performed with some of the most influential
Chinese musicians of the era, such as Cui Jian and Zhang Xing.
Roger:
That sounds like an amazing experience, and it is all documented in Dennis' book "Live at the Forbidden City: Musical Encounters in China and Taiwan" (see http://dennisrea.com/book.cfm for more details and purchasing info (USA), and Amazon.co.uk (UK)).
The time you spent in China was well before the country's current
capitalist flirtation and the subsequent opening up of its borders, and
I'd imagine it must have been quite difficult for an American to go
about his daily business? A bit "James Bond", but were you followed
everywhere?
Dennis:
In general, I was given surprisingly free rein to pursue my musical
activities in China, even receiving encouragement and support from our
university and various governmental entities. I was even allowed to
record a solo instrumental album for the state-owned China Record
Company, Shadow in Dreams (1990), which was almost
unprecedented at the time. The record sold an astonishing (for me)
40,000 copies, for which I received roughly US$500. But I did show up in
China at a particularly fraught time, during the run-up to the events
in Tiananmen Square. Chengdu experienced its own brutal crackdown and
mass civil unrest, and Anne and I found ourselves swept up in the chaos
and witness to casualties. To the best of my knowledge, my book contains
the only detailed account published to date of the carnage in Chengdu,
as the international press corps was almost entirely fixated on what was
transpiring at the same time in Beijing.
 |
| Onstage with Vagaries in the People's Republic |
Roger: Are you still in touch with the musicians you met there?
Dennis:
I’ve drifted out of contact with my former musical associates to some
extent – at this point it’s been fully 15 years since I last visited the
mainland, though I have done two concert tours of Taiwan in the past
decade – but I still keep tabs on their activities through mutual
friends, particularly Cui Jian.
Roger:
Some of your recent releases have come out on MoonJune Records, a label
known for its championing of the adventurous side of music. How did you
get together with MoonJune, which seems to me to be a marriage made in
heaven?
Dennis:
My encounter with MoonJune was a matter of pure serendipity. As a
partisan of many of the musicians MoonJune promotes, I’d been aware of
the label and its larger-than-life founder Leonardo Pavkovic for some
years. When I read that MoonJune had released a rare archival Soft
Machine concert (Drop), as a huge Soft Machine fan I placed an
order for the CD through the label website. Shortly thereafter I
received a personal note from Leonardo apprising me that the disc was on
backorder. Grateful for the personal touch, I took the opportunity to
respond and congratulate him on his fine catalog. He apparently grew
curious about me and visited my website, where the first thing that
attracted his attention was my Chinese odyssey. He wrote back and told
me that he, too, had traveled extensively in China, even earlier than I
had, so I thought he might enjoy my book and offered to send him a copy.
At this point there had been no discussion of my music, but reading my
book piqued Leonardo's curiosity, so he asked me to send him some
samples of my work. Right around that time I had just completed the
first Moraine recording and was about to shop it around. I sent a copy
to Leonardo and he immediately offered to release it on MoonJune. Of
course I was delighted at this turn of events, particularly because it
had happened so naturally, without any solicitation on my part. Leonardo
has been incredibly supportive of me ever since, and has released four
of my CDs on his label to date. He has quite literally changed my life
by exposing my work to an international audience.
Roger:
You can count me in that number, and Leo deserves much praise for his efforts in unearthing artists, yourself included, that we otherwise would not have heard of.
I read somewhere that one of the many musicians you have collaborated
with in the past was Trey Gunn. What project was that liaison for? As a
big fan of Trey's work, I'd sure like to hear it.
Dennis:
Once again, mentioning a 'big name' on my CV has come back to bite me
;) My collaboration with Trey was in fact limited to a single
performance, when he subbed for bassist Fred Chalenor for one concert
with Jeff Greinke's Land, a band I played in for much of the 1990s.
There is no documentation of that event, but I was very impressed with
how quickly Trey came to terms with our music. Trey was the natural
choice as he was a close collaborator with our then drummer Bill
Rieflin. We were acquaintances beforehand and have many friends in
common, and I still run into him in Seattle from time to time.
Roger: Who would like to work with in the current music scene?
Dennis:
Honestly, I'm perfectly content to be working with the community of
musicians I belong to right now in Seattle. Our shared values and
experiences have enabled us to evolve a common musical language; we've
grown together over the years and share in each other’s successes.
That's not to say that I wouldn't be delighted to play with any number
of international musicians I greatly admire, it's just that I'd rather
allow any such encounters to happen naturally, rather than force them.
One
thing that I feel characterizes the Seattle creative music community is
that we're perfectly comfortable going into a musical situation without
a stated game plan or prior discussion; unless a given situation
involves a predetermined repertoire, we simply pick up our instruments
and play, and the results are often surprisingly compelling.
Genre distinctions are pretty meaningless to most of us – we're equally
happy playing adventurous rock, jazz, free improvisation, or
experimental music, and don't privilege one approach over the other.
I’m
an outspoken advocate of decentralization in music, and lament the
thinking and economic conditions that lead so many talented musicians to
abandon their home cities in favor of making the well-worn trek to New
York or a handful of other major musical nodes in search of success. My
own efforts are focused on building a strong, mutually supportive
regional scene, for example through the concert series I co-present,
Zero-G Concerts (www.zerogconcerts.com),
which aims to break down the silos separating musicians who work in the
areas of creative rock, jazz, and improvised music, respectively, and
foster greater collaboration. At the moment, Seattle is blessed with an
incredibly rich community of accomplished, open-minded musicians that I
feel stand head-to-head with their counterparts in more vaunted cities
elsewhere.
Roger:
With the ending of Iron Kim Style, is your other current band project
Moraine still functioning? I recall reading an interview you did with my
good friend Raffaella Berry last year where you said you almost had
enough material for a third CD. Is that still in the pipeline?
Dennis:
Moraine is very much alive and remains my primary musical involvement.
We’re just now emerging from a half-year hiatus, during which we brought
new drummer Tom Zgonc into the fold following the departure of his
predecessor Stephen Cavit, who accepted a richly deserved composer
residency. Our first shows with Tom take place in early November, after
which we have additional shows planned in Portland and Los Angeles,
and some tantalizing international touring opportunities that we hope
will materialize in 2013.
We
do indeed have enough fresh material for a third MoonJune CD and just
want to give the reconfigured lineup a little seasoning before heading
into the studio. Expect the new record sometime in 2013.
Roger:
Great - can't wait for that!
Moraine's music although it could loosely be described as jazz-fusion
is a much friendlier beast than some of the more cerebral offerings in
that genre and the instrumentation is wider too, including violin and
woodwind, and in a previous line up, cello. Another occasional problem with fusion is improv for the sake of
it, something Moraine does not suffer from in my opinion. Is the music
arranged beforehand, and how much came from the individual players'
musical streams of consciousness?
Dennis: Cellist and founding member Ruth Davidson left the band a few
years back to pursue academic goals; her place was taken by woodwind
player James DeJoie. It was at that point that the band transitioned
from its initial ‘chamber rock’ orientation to a more forceful and
dynamic sound – having James’ baritone sax is sometimes like having a second electric guitar in the band.
 |
| NEARfest...again |
Most
of Moraine’s music is meticulously through-composed; in fact, I
consider Moraine the primary vehicle for my output as a composer, though
most of the other members also contribute original material. But we
always allow ample room for improvisation even in our tightest pieces.
One of the things that separates Moraine from the prog-rock pack is the
relative brevity of most of our songs – we’re more interested in
concision and clarity than in developing grandiose side-long suites, and
that’s made us a target for some orthodox prog-rock enthusiasts. But
frankly, I don’t consider Moraine to be a ‘prog rock’ group, and I take
pains to distance us from that descriptor; while I clearly have roots in
progressive rock, the others don’t, and other influences ranging from
Mahavishnu-era fusion to ECM jazz to contemporary classical composition
to ancient Chinese folk music are equally important ingredients in the
mix.
Roger:
Earlier we've touched upon Views From Chicheng Precipice, a quite remarkable
and unusual record full of ethnic flavour. How did that come about?
Dennis: I envisioned Views from Chicheng Precipice
as a sort of sonic counterpart to my book; taken together, they bookend
my China experience. The project is my homage to the music of East
Asia, a collection of personalized interpretations of traditional pieces
and original Asian-inspired works that blend unusual arrangements of
ancient and contemporary themes with sonic experimentation and expansive
improvisation. I wanted the record to be boldly unorthodox in its
choice of instrumentation and treatment of traditional musical material
while remaining warmly respectful of its sources.
Roger:
Keeping us all on our toes, your two latest releases, Subduction Zone
and Tempered Steel are as different as can be imagined. Tell us a little
about those two albums.
Dennis: Subduction Zone
captures a freely improvised session between me, celebrated saxophonist
Wally Shoup, and drummer Tom Zgonc, also of Moraine and my trio Dennis
and the Reaniers. We felt the session was strong enough to warrant
public release, so I made it the first title on my recently founded
Nunatak microlabel. In general it’s a more extroverted, woollier affair
than what most of my MoonJune audience has come to expect of me,
revealing another important facet of my musical personality.
The
second Nunatak release, Tempered Steel, documents my longstanding
kalimba trio with Ffej and Frank Junk. Some years back, the three of us
discovered that we’d each been experimenting with amplifying and
electronically processing thumb pianos, so we joined forces. Our
real-time improvisations conjure everything from phantom harpsichords
and subaquatic percussion to imaginary stringed instruments, vintage musique concrète, and the music of Harry Partch. I guarantee that this release will surprise anyone who’s only familiar with my guitar playing.
Roger:
Yes, it sure surprised me!
In my all too brief relationship with your music I've noticed that you
do not use singers. Have you used vocalists in the past and would you do
so again?
Dennis: Actually, the piece “Aviariations on ‘100 Birds Serenade the Phoenix,'” on Views from Chicheng Precipice,
is a showcase for the stunning vocals of Catarina de Re. But you’re
correct that I rarely involve myself with vocal music, though I've done
so at various times in my distant past and even sang myself for a brief
time. My problem with vocal music isn’t so much the singing as the
content, which is typically narcissistic and banal. I’m often reminded
of Brian Eno’s remark to the effect that lyrics limit the range of
possible interpretations of a given piece of music, basically telling the listener how to interpret it. Instrumental music, on the other hand, leaves far more to the imagination.
Of course there are consequences to my decision to focus exclusively on instrumental music; since for the vast majority of people, singing is
music, I eliminated 95 percent of my potential audience right from the
outset. For whatever reasons, most people seem unable to process purely
instrumental music and need the mediation of language (or some other
extramusical distractor, such as a light show or a pretty face) as a way
in. I find instrumental music completely satisfying in its own right
and take full responsibility for my decision to work in an area of
marginal public interest.
It’s sometimes assumed that because I play instrumental music, I don’t like
vocal music, but nothing could be further from the truth. It’s just
that I much prefer those singers whose subject matter and delivery break
the typical mold – people like Annette Peacock, Robert Wyatt, Scott
Walker, Rodriguez…
Roger: You're so right about the prevalence of banal lyrics, a particular bugbear of mine! Probably why a lot of music, particularly in alternative fields is sensibly entirely instrumental.
With so many strings to your bow it is impossible to pigeonhole you as a
composer in a particular style, which is great for the both of us; but,
if you had to describe your musical leanings on a resume, how would you
go about it?
Dennis:
You’re not making it easy on me, are you? ;) Every musician I know
dreads that question, and most of us have come up with evasive
strategies to avoid being pinned down. That’s why I was so relieved to
hit upon the title of Moraine’s last record, Metamorphic Rock, as it made for an ideal response to the perennial question, ‘What kind of music do you make?’ Answer: ‘Metamorphic rock.’
Roger: Nice one!
And now for a probably rhetorical question: do you manage to make a living from your music?
Dennis:
You're joking, right? Far from it – I lose at least ten times more
money than I make from my performances and record sales. I've literally
never seen a dime from most of the titles in my discography. As for
gigs, of the 50-60 I'll have played this year, my total income probably
won't add up to $500. I'd reckon that among those musicians who, like
myself, play non-mainstream instrumental music, fewer than one percent
can actually sustain themselves through their musical activities, and
even then need to supplement their gig income and record sales with
teaching posts and so on.
I’ve
always had a full-time job in parallel with my music career. Indeed, I
instinctively made the decision to separate money-making from
music-making long ago, to prevent the former polluting the latter. I’d
much rather work a day job that I can tolerate (and that pays better)
than find myself making musical compromises just to get by. Playing
commercial music just isn’t in my DNA, so I’ve made my peace with
leading a double life. But there’s no question where most of my passion
and energy are focused.
Roger:
What is your view of illegal download culture? I think, especially for
artists who may otherwise remain well under the radar, that it can
actually help in getting otherwise unavailable exposure. If a European
music fan who would probably never get the chance to see you play live
downloads one of your albums on a whim and subsequently buys that or
other releases, then is that not one fan gained? If he listens once and
then deletes it, you've not lost anything. Illegal downloads may well
affect sales of established artists who let's face it probably do not
need the sales anyway - Radiohead making albums available for free shows
a band who know how to work the new-fangled interwebby to their
advantage - and it may well lead to the permanent demise of big labels,
but frankly who needs them anyway? Just my view!
Dennis:
As someone said recently, “We used to get our water for free and pay
for our music; now we get our music for free and pay for water.”
Sometimes it seems as though there’s a conspiracy afoot to devalue
music, as if to punish us subversive types. I understand all the
arguments on both sides of this divisive issue and am more or less
resigned to the fact that the public is highly unlikely to go back to
paying for music. But that doesn’t mean that I like the new paradigm.
For me, there's a simple economic equation in play here that so many
‘consumers’ don’t seem to get, and which is basically a matter of life
or death for my career as a recording artist: that is, if I can’t hope
to ever recover the basic costs of creating a record, the time will come
when I’ll no longer be able to make them, and all the downloaders
showering me with ‘free publicity’ will wait in vain for another record
from me.
I
make my records as economically as possible but still go into the hole
anywhere from $3-5,000 for each small-run title I produce; in the case
of Moraine’s latest, even more. A year after its release, worldwide
sales of Metamorphic Rock have amounted to only a fraction of my
outlay, and income from legal downloads has been laughably minute.
Meanwhile, within a week of its release, I did a web search and found Metamorphic Rock
available as a free download on more than 100 different sites. I’m not
really concerned with making a profit, but you tell me how I’m supposed
to continue making records when there’s not a prayer of recouping my
basic costs? Or how an exemplary small record label like MoonJune will
be able to meet its operating expenses?
Roger: I was playing Devil's Advocate there to an extent. It's an intractable issue that's not going away, unfortunately. Funnily enough, a search of an infamous Russian site reveals no titles by Dennis Rea or Moraine, but I suppose bloggers who provide links to downloads are the primary cause of concern. And that kind of reprehensible practice is something I would never entertain on this blog, you'll be pleased to hear.
Changing tack, will you ever play in England with Moraine, or with anyone else come to
that? A completely selfish question, I know, but I had to ask!
Dennis: Believe me, we'd play in England in a heartbeat, but it would cost at least $5000 just to get the band over there, and let's face it, no UK promoter will lay out that kind of money for a virtually unknown band playing a decidedly unpopular kind of music. But if you know of any festival promoters with deep pockets, by all means put us in touch!
Roger: You have probably heard of your compatriots French TV, and Mike from that band has asked me the same question. If I ever win big on the lottery, then I may well be that deep-pocketed promoter :)
What do you currently listen to for pleasure? What was the last CD you bought?
Dennis:
I just returned from New York City, where I played an improvised set at
Downtown Music Gallery, in my estimation the greatest record shop in
the world, at least for my peculiar tastes. Naturally, I came back with
an armload of CDs, including titles by Sam Rivers, Dave Holland &
Barry Altschul; Keith Tippett; Volker Kriegel; Nicole Mitchell; and
Spencer Barefield. I’ve also been pretty mesmerized lately by the two
‘lost’ records by Rodriguez, and by the new reissue of Terje Rypdal’s Odyssey on ECM, augmented by a fantastic live recording from 1976.
Roger: ...and as I check this script, Rypdal's Vossabrygg has just finished spinning on the CD player - there's serendipity for you!
What's next for you musically?
Dennis:
Now that Moraine’s back in action, I foresee plenty of activity on that
front, including possible trips to Indonesia, Brazil, and the U.S. East
Coast in 2013 – and of course a new record. Ideas are forming for
another solo CD for MoonJune, with a varied cast of characters, and
including some rather formal chamber compositions, a new area of
exploration for me. I’m also working with a relatively new trio, Dennis
and the Reaniers, with bassist John Seman and drummer Tom Zgonc, as a
vehicle for my jazzier pieces that aren’t a good fit for Moraine. And of
course I’ll continue to play improvised and experimental music and jazz
with various aggregates here in Seattle. I’m happy to say that 2012 has
been my busiest year ever musically, and with any luck, the trend will
continue into next year...
Many thanks for your kind interest in my music! It means the world to me.
