Interview with Musician Lucian BAN

“Tarkovsky's films speak to me directly and inspire me as a musician”

Twice nominated (2005 & 2006) for the award Best European Jazz Musician by the Hans Koller Foundation in Austria, Lucian Ban is a New York pianist and composer, from Romania, born in Cluj. He is playing is various jazz set with some of the most reputed international musicians. This June, he will hold three concerts in Romania: American Landscapes - SOLO PIANO, in Bucharest, at the Act Theatre (1 June), Tarkovsky Redux - a soundtrack to Tarkovsky's films with Mat Maneri (viola / US), Silent Strike (electronics/RO), Dan Basu (visuals /RO) – Hungarian Theatre in Cluj (4 June), DECO HEART – Mat Maneri & Lucian Ban DUO, at the Targu Mures Philharmonic (5 June). In July, Lucian Ban will perform in Portugal and Spain with TUBA PROJECT.

On 4 June you will give at the TIFF a concert with music inspired by Tarkovsky's films. The project was initiated in 2010 with a commissioning from the Anonimul Film Festival. What will be now different?
Within the Anonimul Film Festival it was presented as a workshop. They had invited us a year or two before with the project “Warhol” and wanted us back with a different project. They told me: “You come with a proposal of what you would like to do”. And when I met Mat Maneri in Brooklyn, I asked him: “Mat, look, the festival wants us again, what would you like to do?” And he turned to me and said: “Tarkovsky, Lucian, I would like to do Tarkovsky”. The project was presented in a first set at the Anonimul, but now we developed it. It is good that now we come to Cluj, because at Anonimul we were playing outside. The conditions were unsuited, technically speaking. At the Hungarian Theatre in Cluj things are going well logistically and technically.

How are you, as music composer, inspired by a film?
First of all, the film must tell me something. I wouldn't be able to do the same with Fellini's films. Tarkovsky inspires me much more that other directors when it comes to music. He is a special case, unique in the history of cinema. It is not incidental the Bergman said that Tarkovsky is the film director par excellence. He is slightly dark, he is metaphysical, he is slow, minimal sometimes: these are things that talk to me directly, as a musician. But it is even more matched with Mat Maneri. This would be the general answer to your question. In particular however, I have to tell you that we're quite deep into Tarkovsky, and, in parallel, we edited a video material out of his films, to be mixed and projected on the background. It will be a real performance.

You are meeting again with Mat Maneri in the project Daco Heart, namely in the concert that you will give together in Târgu Mureş, on 5 June. How come two different projects resulted from your encounter?
We have a great musical relation. We are actually also playing together in a quartet. There is a great musical and human connection between us and this is how all these groups came into being. Sure, they are different... “Enescu” (one of the most successful recent projects, “Enescu Reimagined”, made by Lucian Ban together with John Hébert – Ed.) is different from “Tarkovsky”; “Tarkovsky” is different from the duet... which, if we were to consider only the fact that is it a duet, comes with a different approach of the sound material. First of all, it is an acoustic project, with a piano and a viola. Secondly, we can afford playing stuff we wouldn't be trying in a quartet or a larger group. There much more intimacy and you can do things related to quietness and repose. It is a mixture of improvisation with things written in his pieces and my pieces. It is quite an experimental project.

The third concert you will give in Romania is also the first in a chronological order. On June 1^st, at the Act Theatre, you will give the concert “American Landscapes”, where you reinterpret famous pieces describing America as you felt it.
Roughly, that is right, but it isn't only an interpretation. There are many improvisations, as well as my own compositions inspired by American pieces. This solo comes from cohabiting with the piano which has been lasting for a very long time. There are solos which, due to their nature, I have never tried in groups... They subliminally piled up in the 10-5 years since I moved to America. I wanted to touch upon two issues in this project: present my own piano solo vision of the wide American musical landscape, and secondly, show that American music is much more than jazz. There is an incredible, fascinating diversity... Not everything is limited to blues, rock or jazz. I wanted to show how much experiment there is in America overall – and not only in some gallery or avant-garde club in New York, but in all of America.

Why have you not felt the need to have a project where you musically describe the way you see Romania – a sort of Romanian Landscape? Why presenting America and not Romania – to put it differently?
Probably because of the direction. I left from here to there, for something different.

Why did you leave?
For my career as jazz musician, for greater and extra challenges, because New York was and is the “knot” of all jazz endeavours.

Is it difficult to grow as a jazz musician in New York, with all the competition there?
You must have a certain level of training when you get there. New York significantly changes you, because the scene around you is vivid and diverse. If you were a painter, you would constantly go around studios where painters create. You can imagine what a source of inspiration, what a challenge, what a drive this can be... I believe this goes for all arts.

Your musical menu is extremely varied, you have several formulas and projects in which you are involved: Elevation, Assymetry Quartet, Deco Heart, The Tuba Project, etc. how did you get to all these combinations and how is each of them putting you into value? Are these presenting you differently as a musician?
Each is a challenge to me. In each I am trying to translate ideas that are specific to that certain project. In “Enescu Reimagined” I was interested in re-orchestrating for a larger ensemble the work of a composer coming from a completely different genre. In duo projects I am more interested in the type of relation that is built between musicians – it is a closer collaboration and a sort of intimacy that gives a different substance to music. Tuba Project is very much related to blues and groove... Actually, each project is an opportunity for me to try ideas and learn from those whom I work with.

One of the best received project in the last one year and a half is “Enescu Reimagined”. Which is the creative process turning symphonic music into jazz?
I can tell you how it worked with me, because in that project, John Hébert was the co-leader and re-orchestrated part of it. I have taken part of Enescu, which are not among the most famous – such as “Romanian Rhapsodies” - as well as some of his unfinished works. On one hand, there was the work of a composer from a different century, from a different musical centre, and on the other there was us, a group of musicians from the jazz community, working differently from any classic. We're working with improvisation. And although this is composition in real time, there's nothing at random. It was clear to us that Enescu will sound experimental, as jazz is in general in America. I was very lucky to be joined by top musicians. We didn't aim for a minute to “jazz up the classics”...

When you're saying improvisation, are you saying that no concert is like the other?
Definitely yes. And that's very important and enlivens the project.

What do you do to keep close to your... roots?
You trust your colleagues, their expertise and prestige, for which you hired them, after all. It's just like in theatre: if you want to make sure that a performance will turn out fine and you have to choose between someone anonymous and Bob Wilson, you will take Wilson – you have more guarantees that it will turn out fine. Then, I chose musicians who I knew were fit for this genre. Certainly, what was written in the project “Enescu” remain as references, but we purportedly did not enforce to many rules. Everything changes from one concert to the other, including the priority in solos. If in Bucharest, on the violin octet, the first solo was taken by Ralph, the trumpet player, in New York some else just had to play. It has to do with confidence in the team. All these musicians know each other and are working together in many projects. There are no problems of ego, furthermore there's plenty of feedback, something like - “now you take it”. And once music is internalised, freedoms are greater. I can even take parts from the score of a different instrument, you see? This is why we enjoy, and this is why they are delighted to be part of the project – because it is extremely spirited.

How do you feel Romania is taking in experimental jazz?
Without knowing everything, I may say that the experimental feeling in jazz is not very present in Romania. This is why many of the artists that come here on tour are not among the experimental ones. It has to do with history, tradition, the popularity of a genre... many things together. Something that is played in a small club in New York on a regular basis sounds like contemporary music avant-garde here.