By Vic Schermer

Uri Caine is both a pre-eminent "straight ahead" jazz pianist and a "cutting edge" innovative pianist, musician, and composer who is not afraid to experiment with new forms. Utilizing instrumentalists, vocalists, dj's, assorted street sounds, digital recording effects, and, on one CD, his mother, Shulamith, reading one of her poems - in other words whatever helps get the sound and intention he is looking for!- Uri makes well-disciplined and well-thought-out music imbued with musical history, that cuts across all categories, encompassing jazz, classical, synthesizer, ethnic and religious music, etc. In essence, Uri uses a variety of classical and jazz forms to create sound experiences for his musicians and listeners which are alternately tender, moving, passionate, delicate, stimulating, challenging, and disturbing. Winning the International Mahler Competition for his groundbreaking recording, "Primal Light," based on the music of Gustav Mahler, surprised everyone in the music world and put Uri in the limelight as a key musical innovator at the turn of this century and the New Milennium.

Uri grew up in Philadelphia and started his musical career as a jazz pianist there. He had both classical and jazz training in Philadelphia, and studied classical composition with George Rochberg and George Crumb. In the late 1980's he moved to New York City, where he currently lives with his wife, Jan Galperin,  who is a sculptor. He has been involved with the innovative developments at the Knitting Factory in the SoHo section of Manhattan, and performs in New York, Philadelphia, and around the world in a rapid-fire schedule of club dates, concerts, and recording dates.

It is my impression- and it is only one man's opinion- that Uri is trying, whether consciously or unconsciously, to recapitulate the history of music by going back to its roots and its essence. Consider that, at the dawn of human history, music most likely started with combinations of sounds, partly human and partly from nature. The rustle of trees might combine with a bird call and someone's shout to create a feeling of something mystical or magical, rhythmical and flowing, like a kind of synthesized hallucination or presence. Gradually instruments like drums and flutes evolved, then ensembles. Only in recent epochs have specific musical forms and styles developed: solos, orchestral pieces, dances, liturgical music, diatonic scale, serial composition, etc. Still, at it core, music remains the use of a variety of sounds (and the silence within and between the sounds) to convey an idea, an image, a feeling. Innovative musicians see the potential in the simplest sounds. Thus Beethoven created intensity by repetition. Miles Davis found that he could vastly expand the range of jazz expression with a straight mute and modal composition. Uri Caine brings in synthesizers, DJ's, classical themes, folk themes, the voice of a Jewish cantor, street sounds, etc. to create new musical experiences. In his pieces, street noises may comingle with an old song, a Bach motif may be interrupted by a synthesized voice, a Mahler theme may be played as "straight ahead" jazz.

In this way, Uri is reconstructing music from the ground up. Respectful to all genres, he nonetheless questions and challenges each one.

But then, you have to hear Uri's music to believe it! Buy his recordings or go to one of his gigs for an unforgettable musical experience.

I had the privilege of interviewing Uri at my office on Rittenhouse Square on a Saturday at the end of September, as he was on his way to Ortlieb's Jazzhaus to perform with a small group of his friends headed by tenor saxophonist, Larry McKenna. Uri introduced himself in a warm, friendly, and gentlemanly manner, and then seemed to relax completely as he shot out interesting recollections and stimulating ideas which at times, were almost mesmerizing.

Since the interview went on for over an hour, and all of it is worth reproducing, we've inserted headings to which you can "click" if you're interested in a particular topic. If you've got some time, read the whole interview. You won't regret it.

Here, in virtually its entirety, transcribed from a recording, is the interview with Uri.

PERSONAL AND MUSICAL BACKGROUND

VIC: First, Uri, I'd like to ask about your background. I understand that your father is a lawyer and your mother is a poet?

URI: My father was a lawyer and now teaches at Temple Law School. My mother is a poet and teaches at Drexel. One of the distinctive things about my family was that we were all into speaking Hebrew: myself, all my brothers and sisters. For my father and mother, who were both Americans, for them to be teaching kids Hebrew in such an intense way- I really think they wanted us to move to Israel at some point. I remember even kids in my neighborhood who would come to visit us and weren't Jewish, they would be speaking Hebrew in our house, because my father was such a fanatic about it [laughter]. I grew up going through the cultural- not the religious- Jewish schools. I went to Solomon Schecter, which at that point basically taught Hebrew culture, and then I went to Akiba, a high school in that same vein. All of this influenced me musically, in that what I was hearing at home was a lot of Israeli music from Iraq, Bagdad, Yemen, that was Hebrew and reflected the fact that a lot of those Jews had immigrated to Israel in the fifties and were changing the other aspect of the European Israel. At the same time I also remember singing around the table on Friday night, and learning many Israeli folk songs. When I think back about that, and my earliest musical experiences, they have a lot to do with that type of community. I remember hearing the cantors sing in the synagogue on the high holy days, the very emotional prayers, and seeing how the older people were reacting to that. So, that was one aspect.

BERNARD PEIFFER

I started taking piano lessons because my mother played a little bit. I started lessons with a woman in the neighborhood. When I was about twelve or thirteen, I heard about Bernard Peiffer [pron. Pay-FAIR'- eds.], who was a French pianist living in Philadelphia. I was starting to listen to jazz, mostly through my uncle, who gave me Miles Davis' recording, "'Round Midnight" and John Coltrane's "Crescent." When I first heard those, I knew it was something heavy, I knew it was something I wanted to delve into, so I switched teachers and started with Bernard. He used to come to our house. That definitely started my path towards what I'm doing now.

VIC: Several of you Philadelphia jazz pianists were profoundly influenced by Bernard.

URI: Bernard was tremendously charismatic, but very demanding as a teacher. He drove a red Mustang, and dressed very cool, and had a very funny manner. But when it came to music, he was totally serious. If people weren't prepared for the lesson, he would just stop and tell them to go home! One thing that he told me that made a strong impression was that "If you think I'm not going to make you practice classical music, you're wrong- that's the way you're going to get your technique together."

VIC: What is it in particular that Bernard gave his jazz piano proteges?

URI: A lot of it has to do with attitude. You're looking for role models. For me, he was very sophisticated, very emotional, very open. Also, you could go hear him play. It was a pilgrimage. All the students would go and hang out at his gigs, for example at the [now defunct- eds.] Borgia Tea Room. It made what we were studying very real. That if you kept on working at it, you could reach that level.

VIC: Did he have a particular way of teaching jazz?

URI: He would encourage me, for instance, to write, and then I would bring in pieces, and he would really work on it! He would say, "add this note to that chord...OK, play it again..." Very careful chord by chord analysis. I think he was trying to tell me that you have to work at these things, see how it goes, and wait until you're sure you have it right.

VIC: The chord structure is crucial.

URI: He talked a lot about that, he talked about chord voicing and how you could inject different flavors to the chords by adding different notes. He talked a lot about the concepts, how he himself was influenced by Art Tatum, Herbie Hancock, Cecil Taylor, things in the sixties. He wasn't staying still, he was dealing with many different influences. In general, he was a tremendous virtuoso, and he also knew a lot about contemporary composers like Messaien and Stravinsky, and that made me start to check them out.

On to part 2 of the Uri Caine interview