By Asim Memon
Most jazz fans remain content to confine their involvement with the music they love to just listening to it. Not Tony Haywood. He digs improvised music so much that he started his own jazz label.
Haywood, 35, established HiPNOTIC Records a couple of years ago to promote aspiring jazz musicians. "The whole thing is driven by a real love for the music and a respect for the musicians and a desire to really expose more people to this music. And also to be part of moving the music ahead," Haywood says.
Even more remarkable is that Haywood, an attorney by training, operates HiPNOTIC in addition to his day job as a Congressional counsel. "I work for the House Government Reform Committee, which is a committee in the House of Representatives that does oversight of the government," Haywood explains. "I work on the Democratic staff of the committee. My boss is Henry Waxman from California."
But this Capitol Hill insider didn't just wake up one morning and decide to devote all his spare time at night and on weekends to running a record label. The venture evolved out of several years toiling as the manager of the Onus, a quintet started in 1996 by clarinetist Darryl Harper, an Amherst College classmate of Haywood's. "I was beginning to spend most of my time managing the Onus," Haywood relates. "I said, 'Well, if I'm going to be spending all this time then I ought to be investing in something of my own.'"
That something of his own gelled into a record company when Haywood attended the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) conference in New Orleans in January 2000. There, Haywood discovered how the then nascent industry of internet distribution could serve the Onus. "One of the things that any musician wants is the ability to get his music out there so it's available," explains Haywood.
"I felt that with the ability to have the CD available everywhere online and by setting myself up as a separate entity and having an identity separate from the band I could give the band some credibility. In part it was a kind of a smoke and mirrors thing. But definitely I had the intention of becoming a legitimate label. I think the vision was always beyond the Onus."
When asked about this vision for HiPNOTIC, Haywood equivocates in one breath, "Well, I guess I'm still developing it," and firmly asserts in another, "Music by bona fide jazz musicians that is grounded in jazz tradition but that is attempting to move that tradition forward So, really I'm interested in younger artists who have a musical concept of their own—composers, people who aren't just playing standards. Hopefully what each CD reflects is a band concept."
HiPNOTIC's four-album catalog exemplifies this vision. The Onus' two discs, a self-titled debut and a follow up, Reoccurring Dream, Orrin Evans' Seed and bassist Matthew Parrish's Circles are heavy on originals by the artists. The Onus features a wild frontline: Darryl Harper on clarinet and Jeff Ray on guitar. This instrumentation, which recalls the recordings by Benny Goodman and Charlie Christian together, fused with a modern repertoire offers a forward-looking sound.
"Like Horace Tapscott's explorations of the 1970s or Andrew Hill in the 1960s," one critic writes of Seed, "this band pushes an expansive enthusiasm for new jazz." And an All About Jazz reviewer has described Parrish's Circles as "another important addition to the acoustic contemporary canon."
On Circles, his debut as a leader, Parrish fronts a quartet that features explosive tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm, Vincent Bourgeyx on piano and drummer Steve Haas. Parrish comes from well within the tradition—he cites Mingus, Ray Brown and Paul Chambers as his influences. But challenging originals like the modernistic "Bee-Doe-Lot," snappy "This One's for Al," and bass-piano duet "The Trouble with Me" evince the type of progressive composition Haywood seeks for HiPNOTIC.
"Matthews's record is arguably the first legitimate, full-fledged release on the label to the extent that it's the first one that I produced from start to finish," says Haywood. "In other words, Orrin's Seed record was going to happen regardless, but I was able to participate and help him finance the record. Matthew's record I decided I wanted to do."
While Haywood operates HiPNOTIC from within the Beltway, many of the label's artists have strong Philadelphia connections. Virtually the entire cast of Seed—pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Mike Boone, and vocalist Dawn—lives in Philadelphia. Darryl Harper, leader of the Onus, is a native of the City of Brotherly Love. Moreover, Harper, Matthew Parrish, Jeff Ray and Orrin Evans all studied in the jazz program at Rutgers University. After Rutgers Parrish settled in Philly and, Haywood says, "cut his teeth on Ortlieb's bandstand." The Onus played their debut gig at the same venerable Philly jazz institution.
Building upon Haywood's association with the Onus, HiPNOTIC's next release will be a project by guitarist Jeff Ray. And in line with the label's mission, this album will explore the boundaries of jazz. "Jeff's record is going to be very different," says Haywood "It's going to be more groove-based music: hip hop, funk, r&b, house rhythms, but with some fairly intricate, sophisticated stuff on top.
"It's an interesting time," he adds. "A lot of musicians are beginning to start thinking outside of the box, to mix genres and stretch the boundaries and go for it."
Whether HiPNOTIC remains merely a boutique avocation for Haywood or emerges as a new force during this fecund time for jazz, only the future will tell. "I'm committed to doing Jeff's project and I've been talking with Matthew about doing a follow up record," insists Haywood.
And despite his passion for jazz, Haywood has no intention yet of quitting his Congressional gig to pursue HiPNOTIC exclusively. "It's interesting to have both things going on at once—to have a foot in two different worlds," he comments. "The question is whether my body and mind can hold out."
For more information, visit the HiPNOTIC Records website at www.hipnotic.com.
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This article first appeared in the July-August 2002 issue of All About Jazz: Philadelphia.
