by Bob Makin

    Darol Anger has been a giant in the world of string music as a member of Turtle Island String Quartet, David Grisman Quintet, Montreaux, the Darol Anger-Mike Marshall Band, Psychograss, Newgrange and, most recently, Comotion. The new supergroup, formed by String Cheese Incident mandolinist-violinist Michael Kang, and has just released its first disc, the wonderfully eclectic, melodic, harmonic yet rocking musical summit, "Head West."

    Besides Kang and Anger,  the mix of jazz, classical, bluegrass, Celtic and rock also includes:

    * Paul McCandless, a frequent String Cheese guest who has redefined melody in the 20th century as a member of the Paul Winter Consort and Oregon.

    * The rhythm section of Tye North and Jeff Sipe of Leftover Salmon, a jam band that, along with String Cheese, a fired a healthy interest in bluegrass among young music listeners.

    * Anger-Marshall drummer Aaron Johnston, who has worked with everyone from budding bluegrass great Tony Furtado to legendary Latin percussionist Pete Escovedo.

    * Mike Marshall, a multi-string instrumentalist who has played with Anger for 22 years in the David Grisman Quintet, Montreaux and the Anger-Marshall Band; founded the Modern Mandolin Quartet and collaborates frequently with classical-bluegrass-jazz bassist Edgar Meyer.

    No stranger to all-star projects, Anger is a member with Marshall of the hot, risk-taking progressive bluegrass ensembles, Psychograss, which also features progressive bluegrass pioneer Tony Trischka, founding DGQ bassist Todd Phillips and flat-picking extraordinaire David Grier and Newgrange with longtime Anger collaborator Tim O'Brien. Producer of the Smithsonian-like roots anthology, "Heritage Folk Music Project," Anger recently released 'Diary of a Fiddler,' featuring duets and trios with the such bluegrass greats as Vassar Clements, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan; the boundary-busting celtic fiddler Natalie McMaster; and young upstart Casey Driessen, whose musical styles vary nearly as much Anger's. A one-time member of the jazzy chamber music outfit, The Turtle Island String Quartet, Anger also collaborated with Marshall on their latest, 'Brand New Can,' a follow-up to the appropriately entitled 1999 effort 'Jam.'

    Nothing like his last name, the sweet, gracious Anger packed into a half hour a lifetime of string music and a positive spin on its very bright future. I'm sure you'll enjoy the following conversation as much as I did and when you're through, please visit www.comotion.cc and www.darolanger.com for much more info.

Out of all the groups and projects you've been involved in, which does Comotion remind you of most both chemistry and sound-wise?

    I think that one of the reasons that I wanted to do this project -- and I have no lack of projects (laughs) -- is that it didn't really remind that much of any other group. I think possibly it somewhat reminds me of the intergenerational aspect of the David Grisman Quintet. The thing about the group that I like the most is that there are three age groups represented. I guess that goes back to the Grisman Quintet really where we had the older guys and the younger guys. The younger guys were soaking up as much as they could from the older guys and the older guys were very much enjoying the blast of energy and enthusiasm of the younger guys. In that sense, it's like the Grisman Quintet. The difference now is that Paul and Mike and I are the older guys (laughs).

    But there is a big difference there in that Michael is the guy who organized this and he's a young guy. I really admire him for that. He's got a lot on the ball. He reminds me of what I had been like at that age. He's a got a wonderful sense of what's appropriate to play in any given situation. He's a got a wonderful melodic sense too. He can reach a lot of different melodies.

What do you think Comotion will sound like live compared to the record?

    I'm hoping it's going to stretch out a lot. I think everybody's aiming for that. Because we had a short time to put the record together and a short time to record it, we wanted to get something really concise to show off our arranging and composing skill. I'm really proud that putting it together so quickly, there's a lot of content jammed into a small amount of space there. It's all different people who'd never played together before, people coming from different places. I'm certainly thrilled to have gotten to play with one of my heroes, Paul McCandless, who I've been following ever since the first Oregon record. I'm looking up at Paul and looking back at these guys.

I know the record's called 'Head West,' but I'm surprised you're not planning to tour more in the East. I imagine all your schedules are too busy.

    It's almost solely dictated by Michael Kang's schedule with String Cheese. That band is exploding. It's getting so popular. It's on sort of the Dave Matthews track. I think we all hoped to do more with the group. And it may happen. But at this point, it's just not physically doable. We still haven't figured out how to get microscopic objects appear in the same place at the same time.

That would have to be with your busy schedule too. Given that schedule, why was Comotion worth doing?

    For me, it was the chance to work with Paul and a chance to work with these younger folks that I really enjoyed playing with. I go out as a pretty regular guest of String Cheese. Paul has been also. It's one of the few cultural groups right now where the younger players, where the young people are really paying attention to and looking up to the older guys and the older guys are actually still doing something vital. I don't know how many other areas this is happening in. I can't speak with a lot of knowledge about other specific genres. But it seems to be that with this kind of music from the mid-60s, this kind of instrumental non-specific American vernacular music, that the rest of the world is starting to catch up. It's not that the younger guys are trying to rebel. They're actually real interested in what we have to say.

That's kind of like what it was for you compared to somebody like Stephane Grappelli or Flatt & Scruggs.

    Yeah, it's much like that. They're actually idolized a lot more, but there is this feeling of an unbroken chain. It almost like classical artists who can trace their mentors back in an unbroken chain. My mentor is David Grisman. He can trace his back to Ralph Rinzler of the Smithsonian Institute. He's the discoverer of Doc Watson and brought Bill Monroe into the cities. He did so much for American traditional music. These youngers are actually paying attention to all this, so it's pretty flattering.

Is it almost like, yet not quite as commercial, as what Pete Seeger calls 'the folk scare' of the 1960s?

    It's proceeding in a somewhat different way, I think.

More rock-oriented?

    Yeah. That's something that Sam Bush did, bring the stuff into the realm of accessibility. It's really not out of the direction. Most folk music, certainly fiddle tunes, were meant for dancing. So in a way, instead of it being this great artistic statement, it's actually somewhat in its original realm. There's huge bunches of young folks who are interested in this stuff, but they don't know what they're hearing, they don't know why they're interested. They just like it because it isn't Seagrams pushing it on them or whatever huge corporation. It feels like a grass-roots movement; although it could be co-opted at any time if people could just figure out how to do that. Certainly this MP3 business is a way.

    But a lot of these kids remind me of when I first picked up a John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers record when I was 13 years old. I was like, 'Wow, what the heck is this? It sounds a little bit like what I've been listening to but not really.' And then on the back of the record, they start talking about Robert Johnson and I'm like, 'Who's that?' And so you get into Robert Johnson and you just follow that. I think a lot of these kids may be on that same path. The vast majority of them will probably just move onto something else, but at least they'll have gotten some exposure to music with a roots orientation.

Michael Kang has a classical background, but it's often overlooked because he's considered a rock musician. Comment on how Comotion brings together the worlds of progressive bluegrass, jazz and/or classical with you, Mike, Aaron and/or Paul with the jam band scene that Kang, Sipe and North are such a big part of. While those guys are considered rock musicians, do their chops go way beyond that?

    Yeah. That's interesting because I also started as a classical musician. I think certainly from Michael, Paul and myself -- and to some extent, Mike too. The beautiful thing about classical music is that it starts with your basic grammar and syntax of music. You're always paying attention to that. You learn how to communicate musically through written music. It's just a wonderful way and the most effective way of communicating musical ideas in a short amount of time to other musicians. You learn the principals of organization, how to organize the structure of music. It's a way of thinking about music that's very orderly and effective so that you can communicate and understand stuff very quickly. That's part of the success of this group is that we were able to go through stuff together in a short amount of time and everybody was able to understand it. It was really well set up so we able to score complex music,  like jazz.

    That whole thing about classical music is this program that you get on where you're always moving forward in a very purposeful way. You're always learning and it carries with you throughout your life as a musician. You can see this in people like Michael who's moving forward to better himself musically and expand and do different things. Certainly in Paul's case and Mike's and my case, we're all pretty much doing the same thing. Of course, the other guys in the band are very much like that too. They're all hard workers ... instead of just being satisfied with something that people can flop around to and have a good time doing that. There is that element, but it's also, 'Let's try to be the best we possibly can be and move forward.' So to that extent, I think that's where the classical thing comes in.

And yet, 'Head West' does rock. There's Michael's electric mandolin playing. He gets a bubbly Jerry Garcia sound at one point.

    With the Jerry Garcia sound, I guess there's a certain thing with the Bay Area. He was playing fiddle tune kind of stuff on the electric guitar. It wasn't just playing rock or blues guitar. He really was playing these melodies that were more fiddle tune oriented. It hit me with the first record that David put out with Jerry. I was like, 'This guy's got this going on in the Bay Area. He's one of us even though he veered off into rock ground.'

I was amazed at how much everyone, particularly you, contributed to the writing of 'Head West' so that it seems very much a band and not a Michael Kang and friends project. What else do you bring to Comotion that wouldn't be there otherwise?

    The duet thing with Paul. I was always interested in that whether it was Turtle Island String Quartet or Montreaux or Grisman, the art of the duet line, duet melodies. To work with my hero, the master of melody in the latter part of this century, to write these complicated melodic structures and harmonies with somebody who plays so beautifully, it's really a dream come true. It was just one of the most fun things I've had in a long time. I hope we get to expand on that and do a lot of improvising.    

Without me, it would have been a great melody, a great band. But with the two of us, you have these strong melodic characters who are constantly interacting in some way. It's like The Allman Brothers, where you had the two strong melody guys playing off each other. I mean, you can think of The Beatles in a way because of those two strong voices coming together. Not that I think of myself as The Beatles or anything, but it's that idea of the duet happening.

I love 'Jam,' the last album of the Darol Anger-Mike Marshall Band, and now you've got 'Brand New Can.' Comment on what you like most about 'Brand New Can.'

    It's very focused. It's vintage Mike and Darol, good writing and some of our hottest playing. To me this record is a spiritual descendent of 'Kiaro Skuro,' the record we did for Windham Hill, which actually did very well for us. There's a lot of beauty, some really good writing. After we'd been through all our quartet things, we've learned so much about composition and organization in those groups, to come back and do some serious writing together with this incredible rhythm section. It's so focused and so sharp.

Now you've played with Mike since 1978 so there's a musical telepathy between you. But in what way did playing with him in Comotion bring any surprises for you?

    I think in a way that's something that's not finished yet. It's not really done. Mike has taken another role in Comotion not so much as a soloist. He's working more with the rhythm section while I'm off soloing with Paul doing the spotlight thing. That's kind of an interesting thing for us because Mike is leading the rhythm section and I'm working out all this counterpoint stuff on the other end of the stage. We've got our own separate deal. We're like sergeants on different fields whereas in Anger-Marshall we're co-leaders so it's kind of fun because we're not so much in each other's faces, but we still get to enjoy each other.

Did being 'sergeants on different fields' affect the way 'Brand New Can' sounds?

    Just in the sense that 'Brand New Can' was a chance to get back to our normal thing where we write together.

After all these years, what do you enjoy most about playing with Mike?

    What's there not to enjoy? The guy is just so great to listen to, so full  of ideas. He's always there. When you've got an idea on stage, if you're just making up something on the spur of the moment, he's always there dealing with you. He's always awake and alive through all this stuff, reacting to something. He's just one of the best string musicians ever. It's always a plea sure.

Before Comotion's 'Head West,' you did another all-star project, 'Diary of a Fiddler,' with Vassar Clements and Sam Bush, two other guys who have gravitated to the jam band scene, as well as Stuart Duncan, John Hartford, Natalie McMaster, Martin Hayes and many others. Comment on the incestuousness of the progressive bluegrass scene and how it has tapped into the incestuousness of the jam band scene and how all the different music styles make for great cross-pollination.

    It's funny. It was a just a bunch of people who like to hang out together. At one point, there really wasn't much money in this kind of music so it really only attracted people who really loved the music. That's always been a healthy thing to start with and it's a healthy thing to stay with too. All of a sudden, huge crowds of people started showing up. It's really a bunch of people who like each other. Most of these folks, because they're on the fringes, they've had the room to become fully individulated (laughs). I guess that's the polite term. They're just people who are characters you want to be around to see what they're going to next, like Sam Bush or David Grisman. So it's people who are a bunch of friends who wanted to hang out together and never expected to make that much money.

    Then there's this very powerful thing about playing your instrument. How good can you play? It's gone beyond getting through a fiddle tune. I was reading a book by Dave Hickey, an art critic-at-large. He was talking about pop music and rock 'n' roll, which is more like can you get through the tune? That's the goal rather than how good you play. Can you get through it so that everybody has a good time and doesn't have to stop dancing? In a lot of ways, that's the basis of rock 'n' roll. I feel that a lot in the younger jam bands, but the people who are really trying to move forward are really adapting this other thing which is, like, can you really know your instrument and be a virtuoso? How much can you do, how far can you go?   

  That's the thing that keeps people pushing. There's a camaraderie thing that happens. Everybody knows that everybody is trying to do the absolute best that they can and do things that maybe nobody else has explored. In the best situations, there's a lot of support for that and excitement about it. I certainly felt that on 'Diary of a Fiddler' because I tried to pick people who's playing not only that I loved but I thought we're doing something really special on their instrument. Then to apply my special thing to do that in some way, which is something that developed from all the bands I've been in but to a large extent with Turtle Island, the way to play rhythms not just in the context of jazz or string quartet or anything like that, just in the context of two musicians sitting around and making something beautiful. These guys, like Martin, Stuart Duncan, Natalie McMaster, these people are just really extending the boundaries of what's possible on the fiddle. It's just so exciting to be around something like that.

What upcoming plans do you have for all these different projects, like in support of 'Diary of a Fiddler?'

    I'd like to go out and duets with one other fiddle player and pull all these styles together. I'm about the only I know who can really do that. But there's a few people actually. There's a young guy few people have heard of named Casey Driessen from Illinois. He's a very hot player. I'd love to go out with either him or Stuart Duncan, but he's busy with bluegrass and stuff like that. But Casey appears at the end of the record. I'd like to do something with him. That would be fun.

I know Psychograss and Newgrange did a lot of festivals this summer. Anything coming up with them?

    Yeah. It's interesting that people are figuring out that just because it's called Psychograss, it's not going to hurt them (laughs). We're getting more calls. And also Newgrange has been wonderful. We're trying to do that as much as possible. I'm just trying to find a spot for it.    

I'm at the age where it's also as much fun not to do stuff as it is to do it. I try to stay home a little more. Alasdair Fraser, the great Scottish fiddler, always said, 'Just follow the fiddle.' I think that's pretty good advice. I guess what I've been doing is just following the fiddle and relaxing into that.

Comment on why string education is very important to you? What do you put into it and what do you get out of it?

    Oh yeah. I'm doing clinics at Texas A&M in Texas, Indianapolis Improvisational String Seminar in Indiana and in Boston at the Berklee College of Music. I had to do a lot of learning myself although I had fairly good classical teachers as a kid. But they didn't know about the music I was interested in. I had to wait 20 years to really get with people that could really teach me stuff about what I was interested in. I was working with them, learning in a panic situation, like with David Grisman. I like to do things so that people get a head start earlier than I did. There's huge grass-roots interest in music for the violin from all these kids taking classical violin lessons. They're anxious to get out of the box and do other kinds of music, not just classical. It's a satisfying thing to get out there and show somebody something that they didn't know and they're able to use it.

Bob Makin is an entertainment writer for Gannett New Jersey. Jam bands can send him material at Courier News, PO Box 6600, Bridgewater, NJ 08807 and/or information to makinclan@aol.com