New Jazz from PDX: The Ocular Concern
Part two in a series exploring cutting-edge modern Jazz in Portland and the musicians that make it.
The Ocular Concern, a Portland-based three-piece indie-jazz band comprised of Andrew Oliver (electric piano), Dan Duval (electric guitar), and Stephen Pacerev (drums) create minimalist, genre redefining music (The band’s website describes their music as “Indie-Jazz and other curiosities).
I recently sat down with Dan and Andrew to discuss the Portland jazz scene, upcoming projects, and some of their favorite jazz records.
Ashawnta Jackson: Can you tell me a bit about how The Ocular Concern started?
Andrew Oliver: We started in April of last year, so a little over a year.
Dan Duval: Sounds about right. It sort of evolved from some more casual playing situations that had been happening off and on.
AO: We’d been playing some duo, just guitar and piano, and Dan, you’d been playing with Dan in some other group, and that eventually stopped happening, so we just put them together, I guess. We really just wanted to augment the duo, but we didn’t want to add bass, we went with drums because it was a little more atypical.
DD: Everyone was really happy when Steven [Pancerev] moved back to town. He’d spent five years in Rhode Island and before he left for Rhode Island, I had met him and played with him one time and then when he came back everyone was excited to work with him again. Andrew and I were some of the first people to monopolize his schedule. It was good timing that way. We manipulated the situation as well as we could [laughs].
AJ: You two are fairly young, and for jazz musicians, that’s got to be kind of interesting, to be so young and so involved in the jazz community. Do you find that jazz community here, especially for young people, is a growing thing, a nurturing kind of community?
AO: I think there are a lot of good musicians here. More than in a lot of cities of this size, I would imagine. The cost of living is not so high and it’s a good climate for artists of all kinds, and that certainly has created a situation where there are a lot of great musicians. There are a lot of opportunities to play with people and to try new things. But, there’s not necessarily as much of a demand as there is a supply, and that’s the hard part. It is possible to make some waves in the music scene and to get people to pay attention to what you’re doing, but it is difficult. I guess that’s the hurdle, but it’s not a lack of talent, that’s for sure.
DD: I think you make a good point that the jazz world often is not a youth culture these days, but there’s some notable people trying to address that. Our friend, Ben Darwish is a great local musician who doing sort of jazz youth outreach, you could say, by having a sort of funk band and all kinds of other thing that aren’t you typical boring, college jazz activities.
AO: There’s certainly some movement in that direction in town people trying to be more open minded about how they define jazz.
DD: The Blue Cranes are very interested in playing in non-traditional venues; house parties, basements, warehouses, art galleries, rock clubs, anything, and a lot of these people are involved in the more traditional forums for playing jazz like the schools or concert halls. So it’s nice that there’s so much cross over in Portland.
AJ: You mentioned that people are really interested in redefining what jazz means; it doesn’t have to be what people have traditionally thought of it. So how do you, personally, define what jazz is?
DD: I’m not so sure I know what it means, or if I even play jazz, but it seems to be the word that’s more appropriate than other words for what we do. It’s by default maybe.
AO: Yeah, I think so. It’s become such a broad thing, you know, and at the same time jazz has progressed, especially since the 60s, post 60s-
DD: Yeah, post Miles [Davis] fusion.
AO: It has become so broad that no one- it can mean so many things and I think that some people have a very narrow definition of it, musicians and non-musicians. And some audience members and people will have totally bizarre conceptions about what jazz is based on the numerous things that have happened in the last hundred years. So it’s hard to say as easily as it would have been in say, 1959, to say that you play jazz and everyone has an idea of what that sounds like. Whereas now it ranges from what we play in The Ocular Concern to some sort of jazz-funk thing to old-time jazz and swing. The lack of good defining genre terms is a constant frustration- for me anyway.
DD: We’ve all [jazz musicians] have had the experience of going to some gig and talking to an audience member or to a cocktail party or something and saying “I’m a jazz musician” and they say “I love jazz! I have two Kenny G records” and you realize you’re not on the same page. We’ve all had that experience. That’s why I’m reticent to use the word; I don’t want to make people think that I’m doing something that’s got nothing to do with what I do.
AO: Or they say “Every time I’ve heard jazz, I’ve hated it, except this was a really interesting concert.” What does that mean, what have you heard? [laughs]
DD: With all that variety out there, people have often only heard one random album from all that variety and they think that’s what it is.
AJ: It seems that people are afraid of jazz sometimes. What do you think that comes from?
DD: I think jazz musicians often behave in a very insular way and it makes other people feel isolated and if you’re not “in” they’re looking down on you. Much of jazz culture is self defeating in that way.
AO: And I think people are also afraid, or wary, of something they think might be pretentious, or not accessible.
DD: Or not fun.
AO: Yeah, maybe not fun and not accessible depending on what they’ve heard.
AJ: What brought you to this music? Who are some of your influences?
DD: [Points to Andrew] Jelly Roll Morton for you.
AO: Yeah, I started with early jazz, 20s jazz and ragtime, because I played classical music for many years and started discovering that music from ragtime. Then I moved into jazz from there in a chronological way. That was pretty interesting because every so often I’d become less dogmatic “Oh hey, maybe music from the 40s is ok.” “Maybe music from the 50s is ok” [laughs} so I’ve gone through in that way, but by no means comprehensively. And recently I’ve been exploring a lot of African music over the past five years or so, West African music specifically, and trying to bring that in a little bit as an influence in composing but now I’m also trying to be more conscious of things that people want to hear it’s possible to be artistic and also not hit people over the head too hard. And sometimes when you’re in a jazz school, for example, or an atmosphere like that, the level of complexity that you hear on a regular basis is quite high and sometimes can actually be unpleasant from a certain perspective.
DD: It can be overbearing.
AO: Yeah. I’ve been trying to listen to my music and other music a little more objectively trying to get outside from a musician’s perspective and see what elements are of interest from that point of view. Just try to ground it a bit more. So, that’s been another sort of side interest for a while. Not dumbing it down, just thinking about who you’re writing it for.
DD: I did roughly the opposite of what Andrew did; I went backwards chronology when it came to discovering jazz as a young person. I grew up on rock and pop music and also studied music and played a little piano and guitar, so I had a framework. Then eventually I found out about Bitches’ Brew. It was the first jazz album I ever had. I heard John McLaughlin play the guitar, and was like, “Whoa, I want to know what’s up with that!” And then I heard Herbie Hancock and Miles and different things from the 60s and kind of going back from there. I had to keep asking teachers questions and they kept saying, “Well, you don’t know what you’re talking about because you haven’t listened to this other, older record.” And so, all right, I guess I better listen to that. Always, of course, I ended up loving it.
AJ: What are you listening to now?
AO: I’ve really become interested in really straight-ahead west coast jazz of the 50s. As strange as that may seem. The west coast jazz scene was much maligned by the east coast jazz scene, and by extension, at least in my experience, in jazz school. Even here [in Portland], no one is really listening to a lot of that stuff…. there’s a certain attitude that seems to go with that scene. So I’ve recently been discovering all of the great things that took place in LA music scene, and I’ve really been enjoying checking all of that out. There’s some really great arranging. I’ve also been exploring the improvised music of the 70s and 80s more, aside from the fusion movement. Jazz fusion became the most prominent form of jazz in that time period, but there’s a lot of great acoustic music that was sort of underground because there wasn’t so much of a demand for it. Artists such as Waddada Leo Smith, the AACM guys, Paul Bley, Woody Shaw-
DD: Anthony Braxton.
DD: For jazz, I’ve been listening to the Refuge Trio, which everyone should get a copy of. And also, I’ve been listening obsessively to Donuts by J. Dilla because in February we’re doing a tribute show to him on his birthday, so that’s kind of a fun project on the horizon.
AJ: Ok, last question. If you had to give someone just one album to introduce them to jazz, what would it be?
AO: That’s a good question. Of course, the stock answer would be Kind of Blue, or something.
DD: Yeah, that’s the stock answer.
AO: I was so bored by that record for so many years before I learned to like it, I don’t think I would ever start anyone on jazz with that record.
DD: Maybe the current Blue Cranes release?
AO: Ah, yeah. Observatories. It depends on what their background is, you know?
DD: Yeah, what else do they like to listen to?
AO: It depends on what they like to listen to. If they like to listen to, like, modern rock or contemporary indie rock, then I would go in that direction- Claudia Quintet or Blue Cranes
DD: Claudia Quintet may be a sort of litmus test to see how much sophistication they can stomach.
AO: At first listen, it might be a bit much.
DD: It’s one of my favorites, though.
AO: If they like things that are swinging, then maybe- I don’t know, such a tough question….
DD: Bitches Brew was a great first jazz album for me. But maybe that’s just more about me then about jazz, though.
AO: What about Soul Station by Hank Mobley?
DD: I don’t know that record.
AO: That’s the best straight ahead record.
DD: Or Body Talk by George Benson? It’s a great, accessible funk-jazz record from the 70s.
AO: Something like Soul Station would be good because it’s a absolute bible of straight ahead playing. The most swinging record.
DD: Or any Bill Evans-
AO: Oh, Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard, that would be great. Well, I guess there’s not just one answer [laughs].
DD: Yeah, there’s ten answers for you [laughs].
You can catch The Ocular Concern Sunday, August 7 at The Blue Monk.
-Ashawnta Jackson, KMHD Blogger
