A Chat with Tim Hagans

AAJ: Do you know anyone else that's doing what you're doing?

TH: Not with the freedom and the wildness, what Bob and I are doing is the extreme. The tune "Trumpet Sandwich" is kind of a tribute to Led Zepplin and such, with like drums and guitar, only I'm the guitar on the trumpet. I don't hear anything that wild. Medeski, Martin, and Wood are doing something a little different, really cool. There is a band called Soulive on Blue Note. I haven't heard anyone that does this kind of wild.

AAJ: What you're doing has really caught on because people I know listen to this and they don't know what to think and they don't think it's jazz, but they like it.

TH: Everyone has their own definition of jazz, but for me it's gotta be improvised, jazz people think "ding dink a ding," other people think "smooth jazz," everybody has their own definitions, but for me it's not knowing what you're gonna play until you put air through the horn. It's that energy and excitement and suspense that happens when you don't know what you're gonna play until the split second before you play it. You give that energy to the band who is doing the same thing and to the public whether it's live or recorded. That, to me, is the definition of jazz. It's what happens in that split second and you make that decision and you try to play what you've never ever played before and that's what Bob and I are trying to do. Our mission is to remind everybody to take chances.

AAJ: Any new projects in the future?

TH: Yeah, Bob and I are making a third record and we'll be recording sporadically in the coming six months and also a drum and bass big band album which Blue Note may put out.