Wayne Krantz: Back on Track

Ian Patterson

Senior Contributor since 2006

Ian is dedicated to the promotion of jazz and all creative music all over the world, and to catching just a little piece of it for himself.

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Published: August 25, 2009

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AAJ: How difficult is it to keep your music free of others' voices, because I guess any "contamination"—I don't know if that's an appropriate word—must happen subconsciously?

WK: The hard part is breaking away initially. Once you come into your own you're free to play anything without fear of losing yourself.

AAJ: "It's No Fun Not to like Pop": is this a comment on the bombardment from all sides of pop music and the poor exposure given more creative music?

Wayne Krantz

WK: I hadn't considered that interpretation, exactly, but that doesn't make it wrong. It just seemed kind of funny, I guess, this pop-sounding riff against that lyric. And then that sort of wistful part, somebody wishing for better pop to listen to, maybe...then all this wild, pop-inspired ensemble improvisation. I mean, it's never fun not to like anything, right?

AAJ: You sing a little on the album: is an entirely vocal album something you would like to do one day?

WK: Sure. It's all about balancing it with the music the right way. If I can figure out how to do that for a whole record—if whole records even exist by then—I will.

AAJ: How confident are you as a singer/lyricist?

WK: About as confident as I sound. At least now I know I'm capable of doing it. That's progress.

AAJ: For me, one of the best tracks on the album is "Jeff Beck." Tell me about Jeff Beck Jeff Beck
b.1944
guitar 's influence on you? He's often called the guitarists' guitarist; what is it that sets him apart from other guitarists?

WK: To be honest I hadn't heard much of him until I went to a show some years ago at Roseland. He knocked me out. Then I heard him recently at the Fillmore and he did it again, but even harder. He's the real thing. I mean he's an honest-to-god rock player with his own language.

That basically sort of doesn't happen anymore. Nothing he plays sounds derivative, even if it occasionally is. It all sounds like it's coming from the source. I can't call him an influence 'cause I didn't hear him at that stage of my development, but I now think he's incredible. Fortunately, there's no such thing as somebody being the best in music, so I don't have to worry about him. I can just dig it.

AAJ: The music on this CD is a real old mixture of styles—funk grooves, drum and bass, rock, there's tremendous shredding, there's a pop feel to a couple of songs, acoustic stuff, furious trio interplay, melodic stuff—is it tiresome to you when people ask you what sort of music you play?

WK: The question isn't tiresome, it's reasonable. What's tiresome is not having an answer for it. Someday I will. In the meantime it's whatever inane response I can come up with in the moment. I can't even think of one today, so I'll use one that Rocky Bryant came up with years ago: Exciting.

Selected Discography

Wayne Krantz, Krantz Carlock Lefebvre (Abstract Logix, 2009)
Wayne Krantz, Your Basic Live '06 (Independent, 2007)
Chris Potter, Underground (Universal Music, 2006)
Wayne Krantz, Your Basic Live (Independent, 2003)
David Binney, Balance (Act Music, 2001)
Victor Bailey, Low Blow (ESC Records, 1999)
Wayne Krantz/Leni Stern, Separate Cages (Alchemy records,1996)
Wayne Krantz, 2 Drink Mimimum (Enja Records, 1995)
Leni Stern, Ten Songs (Lipstick Records, 1992)
Wayne Krantz, Signals (Enja Records, 1991)