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Josh Rager, in His Own Words

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The Gloucester-raised, Montreal-based pianist Josh Rager has previously appeared in the blog on several occasions, proving his way with words as the interviewee here and here, for example, and as the incisive commenter, here.

Recently Rager decided that he didn't need my half-baked ideas as points of departure anymore, and he launched his own X...Y...Jazz blog. Rager's not even 10 posts into his blogging career, but he's already defined one niche -- sharing what he knows about playing and studying jazz piano -- and on top of that, he wades with few apparent inhibitions into discussions of some the Canadian jazz community's more pressing concerns.

Here's Rager on the subject of a musician finding his or her own voice, which I treated here and Toronto pianist/blogger Chris Donnelly treated here:

It is a highly romanticized notion that all the greats, the trailblazers, genre defining musicians came up with their own musical voice on their own. In academic literary study there is the concept of “The Romantic Author" who thinks of their own ideas by themselves; their own genius precluding any outside influence. And certainly to the novice jazz fan it does seem that improvising is an entirely spontaneous act. In actual fact it takes a village to raise a jazz musician. When you look at pictures of Diz, or Lester Young it only seems like they stood on their own as the innovators they were. In reality they stood on the shoulders of giants and what made them truly “great" was their artistic intentions to get up on those shoulders and be a part of something greater than any individual. In a sense it is almost beside the point (or perhaps it is the job of historians to determine who the greats were) for them to have set out to be innovators. What they had to do was find who they were themselves through the musician's path which is a sacred journey. And when anything gets in the way of that path, it becomes “jive."

Whoa.

Here's Rager scolding jazz students who don't go out to see Montreal's established players when they're playing (This is an issue too in Ottawa, I feel):

Pardon my French but I'm tired of hearing pathetic excuses from you about why you don't attend the gigs of the most accomplished members of our community ....  Your apathy towards the musicians who you should regard as your mentors will be of great detrement to you in several ways.  First of all you are missing out on the experience of mentorship.  This relationship that you develop with older musicians will have a greater influence on your musicianship and humanity than any Kurt Rosenwinkel album.  These musicians can be your musical parents if you let them.  By watching them play, talking to them, interacting with them they are imparting their life experiences as well as their musicianship. Its not just about lifting licks off of records.  Jazz is about living and living is about your relationship to your family and your community.

Finally, here's Rager offering one thought on the impending cancellation of the Canada Council's specialized recording grants that for 20-odd years have supported the aspirations of Canada's best jazz players:

Musicians need to remember that if what they are saying doesn't resonate with society it doesn't make the value of their contributions any less. In fact it might make them worth more. How much did this factor into the development of a great artist like say Van Gogh or John Coltrane?  In a sense don't we want it both ways? We've chosen to pursue a career path that is on the “fringe" (and as musicians don't we sometimes milk the “fringe" image?)  But as Canadians we somehow feel entitled to reject the economic consequences of this career choice.  How does this affect our art and music as a culture? Could our grant system actually be subverting our creative processes because in order to get funding from the government we need to work our project ideas into a preexisting template on an application form?

Clearly this is an artist who's not afraid to take a stand, and who has the eloquence to express himself.

Oh yeah -- Rager also plays, composes and arranges some mighty compelling jazz.



If you want to hear him -- or discuss esthetics or the jazz business with him -- opportunity knocks Saturday night at the NAC Fourth Stage.

Josh Rager performs with Ottawa bassist John Geggie and New York guitarist Paul Meyers Saturday, Nov. 28, at the NAC Fourth Stage at 8 p.m. Admission is $25 and tickets are available at the NAC box office.

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