by Daniel Morrell

Jazz Mandolin Project has undergone many changes since its inception in 1994. The only constant in their ever-evolving sound and shifting lineup is front man Jamie Masefield. His devotion to his craft has allowed JMP to floor audiences around the country, as well as gain notoriety among the typically staunch realm of jazz critics, as evidenced by their release of "Xenoblast on the historic Blue Note Records label.

Jamie's ability to mesh an understanding of classical composition and jazz improvisation with rock sensibility allows the listener to be able to appreciate the formality of the music while still forcing them to move to the rhythms. All of this being said, he is also one of the most down to earth and genuine performers I have ever met. I got a chance to sit down with Jamie after his set at the Grassroots Music Festival in Cockeysville, MD. For updated information on his current tour and future projects visit http://www.jazzmandolinproject.com

DM: The mandolin is typically associated with bluegrass music, but you started out playing Dixieland jazz. What turned you on to Dixieland as opposed to bluegrass?

JM: When I was little, I didn't really hear much bluegrass and I heard a lot of traditional New Orleans jazz. I come from a musical family, and there were a lot of family functions where people would be playing and everyone would be having a good time. So that's the sound I heard when I was really little. The tenor banjo was the instrument that was being played, and I just thought it was great and I asked for one for Christmas. I started taking lessons with this close friend of the family. It lasted all throughout high school, every Saturday at one o'clock, from age 11 to age 18. Then I went to the University of Vermont, and I started picking up the mandolin, which is tuned similarly to the banjo. So, all of these kind of old jazz techniques I learned on the banjo, I could bring over to the mandolin. I'm an oddity in the mandolin world in that I don't have that bluegrass background at all, and what I've been playing from the beginning is various forms of jazz.

DM: Who was influential back in the beginning? Were you listening to the early mandolin or banjo specifically?

JM: Well, there was one banjo player, who had been my big hero. He played with Duke Ellington. His name was Ellmore Snowden, and he made one album in the '60's called "Harlem Banjo." Its a fairly rare album, but he was the first tenor banjo player that I ever heard who was really improvising over jazz tunes. I've heard a lot of tenor banjo players who have nice variations to melodies and they go through all their variations every time. But this guy was a real jazz musician and I played along to his record and learned all of his licks. Then I discovered the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and the banjo player in that band really influenced me as well. His name was Narvin Kimble. He's got to be in his late 80's or early 90's now. I understand that he just had a stroke in the last year, so I don't think he's on the road any more, unfortunately. But I got to know him, and we did a bit of playing together. So those are the banjo guys who really inspired me. On tenor banjo, not the five string like Bela Fleck.

DM: When you guys started off, you were a coffeehouse band, right?

JM: Yeah, that's where the project started. I was playing in a number of different groups in the Burlington area. I was playing the tenor banjo and the tenor guitar in some swing groups and playing some mandolin. None of these groups were doing what I really wanted to do. I wanted to play jazz on the mandolin, and take a fairly modern approach to it . . . and write my own tunes and have my own group. So I started booking one day a month at this place called the "Last Elm Cafe," and just found anybody I could to play with me. It was basically for free and the idea was "Look, were just going to have fun and play for ourselves," and not worry about the things we would have to consider if we were playing at a restaurant while people were eating dinner. It got a little out there. It was kind of experimental. The project today is the outcome of those early beginnings.

DM: From those early beginnings, did you see yourself as a full-time musician?

JM: Well, I really hoped I could be a musician. Definitely. To devote my life to it . . . that's the way I've always felt. It was just at that time in the early 90's when fans were starting to bring tape recorders and DAT machines and set up their own mics and tape shows. It was just at that time that the Internet was really getting going, and people were really starting to communicate about what bands they liked and trading tapes. Those two things helped us enormously. During the first real national tour that we did, out in Madison, Wisconsin in fact, it floored me. I just thought, "nobody's gonna come to this . . . we only play around Vermont." But we got to Chicago, and several hundred people came to hear us and it was just amazing. People were saying "oh yeah, we got tapes . . . we've been waiting for you guys to come out for a long time," and I was just amazed. So that's really one of the big things that has helped us get out there.

DM: I think that tape trading and the Internet have definitely helped the scene that is evolving around the music. Another facet is the festival circuit. What do you think is the effect of festivals like this one (Grassroots Music Festival)?

JM: I think it's great. I think we're kind of coming full circle back to people enjoying pretty creative music. There are similarities between all of these bands that are playing here, but there's also a lot of differences.

DM: Yeah, I guess if you break it down, the only real similarity is that they all improvise. It's not like there is a typical jazz band here or a typical bluegrass band.

JM: Yeah, back in the '80's, when I was growing up, you had bluegrass festivals, and that was great. You had more rock-band stuff and folk festivals. But I find this to be very creative. People are really working to develop themselves. It's very artistic. It's great.

DM: I realize that the lineup for your band has changed a lot over the years. What is the current touring crew?

JM: Well, right now, the idea that I'm working with is: "I have two bass players who know all the material and two drummers who know all of the material. " So I'm working with these four guys in different combinations because the group tours so much and all of these musicians I'm playing with are already established in the New York scene, or something; they have work in other places. So it's been a lot to ask someone to just be on the road with JMP all the time, but its turned out to be a really healthy and creative process to have two cats in each department who know all of the material. Then, when you mix it up, it seems really fresh. Everybody is excited to hit the road, and nobody's road-weary. It's been a good process.

DM: So this situation has to make you the main composer then, I'm assuming.

JM: Yeah, I've always been the main writer. There are a number of tunes that we have all collaborated on. But in general, that was one of the big reasons that I wanted to have a group: I really enjoy writing music. I'm devoted to two different things: composing and improvising. I do the composing at home, and the improvising on the stage. The hope is that, at home, I carefully create some sort of framework or notion. The guys learn the general framework, and then we go out and interpret and do our improvising. There's that combination of the two elements.

DM: Speaking of composition, I noticed you have a track on your latest album named "Igor", devoted to the great composer Igor Stravinsky. He is mentioned as a major influence by guys like Frank Zappa and your friend Trey Anastasio.

JM: Mentions Stravinsky?

DM: Yeah.

JM: Well . . . anybody who's really into composing will generally mention Stravinsky because he did so much to modernize composed music. The big thing, in my mind, that he brought to the table was the rhythmic sense of things. Before Stravinsky, there wasn't so much of a strong rhythmic pulse. He wrote this piece called "The Rite of Spring," that's just like (pumping fist) "DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DA DA."

DM: I heard a story about how the first time they played that in Paris, there was a riot in the audience.

JM: Yeah! I've told that to audiences before we play. I tell that story quite a lot. They debuted it in Paris and it was a total scandal. There was a riot. Some people stood up and said "This is terrible! This is blasphemy!" And there were other people that stood up and said "Shut up and sit down! This is art!" The next thing you know these people are beating the crap out of each other. I always thought that it would be amazing if I could write a piece of music that was so revolutionary that the whole crowd just beat the crap out of each other . . . like there were some people who felt very strongly that this was not a good thing, and then the others saying "This is a good thing!"

The great thing about Stravinsky that I've noticed is that, young people all throughout this century have picked up on Stravinsky's rhythmic pulses. It's still very hip, and people still borrow from it a hundred years later. It's quite remarkable.

DM: Another guy you mention as an influence is Ernie Stires. You have studied under him in the past . . .

JM: Yeah, I was just studying with him two days ago.

DM: Do your studies with him cover mostly improvisation or compositional technique?

JM: Ernie is my composition teacher. I've been studying under him for about four or five years now. He's teaching harmony and theory to me and expanding my mind about how to write music. He stresses basic things like theme and variation. Like in a typical Bach piece, a theme is stated and then for the next eight minutes, you hear variations of the theme. Those variations can become very distant to the theme, but there are logical threads that connect them. That's done through careful composition, generally with a piano . . . and really analyzing it and being very careful and exploring every option you could possibly have. Then you find the best options for you, personally, and then write it down. That's the kind of thing that Ernie has really been trying to broaden our minds to play. Instead of thinking of really simple songs, maybe you could take your simple idea, play it, and then gradually unveil the blossoming of the idea. You could go this way or that way and then these ideas can combine . . . it's exciting. He's been an important influence.

DM: Your new album, "Xenoblast," seems to have a lot more drum n' bass elements than your previous recordings. Is that the direction you're moving in?

JM: The drum n' bass thing is definitely very intriguing. We just started investigating that before we made "Xenoblast," and we've been working on it a lot since then. It kind of gets back to Stravinsky, with all the rhythmic aspects of the stuff. I find it a very contagious, convincing groove. It sounds very modern to me. We're having a hard time figuring out how an upright bass, a mandolin and drums can work within that scope and be something that sounds convincing. We're learning and . . . it's been kind of fun.

DM: Its definitely upbeat music.

JM: Yeah, it's really upbeat and it pumps and it makes me feel like "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" It's not very melodic, but there are a lot of other things in our music that are pretty melodic. We've been having a lot of fun with it.

DM: What would you say was your greatest musical moment?

JM: There's no one moment that sticks out. There are just times when everything sounds just right, and you get an epiphany. You think, "Wow, this is what I've always heard in my head and here I am (whether it be St. Louis, New Orleans or wherever) and its just so wonderful." It's like when we die, supposedly you see these flashbacks of your whole life, and it makes me wonder if I'll see all these moments . . . all of these great moments. It just like everything falls together. When things are going just right, I feel like a little kid whose parents who have taken him to the amusement park or the fair. Big Ferris wheels with all these people and popcorn. As a little kid you're just overwhelmed . . . you can barely catch your breath. I'm like that when the moments happen.

Jamie's Picks - Ahmad Jamal - "At the Pershing: But Not for Me" Astor Piazolla - "Zero Hour" Stravinsky - "The Soldier's Tale" Meshuggah - "Chaosphere" (best guess for album title) Artist you would have most liked to play with: Astor Piazolla