AprilCadence2013

Interview Buster Williams
and also in those days you weren’t considered anybody to be considered unless
you had a sound, and that sound was your sound.
AS: Most of the people I heard in the jazz clubs in New York City, when I was a
teenager, yourself included, each musician had a very specific tonal language,
harmonic language, and a personality that was unique to that musician. It
seems to me, and this is just an observation, that as time went on jazz musicians
started imitating, sounding more like clones of each other, and not being able to
find an individualistic approach. I find less and less of that as you get into the
late 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
BW: Well, i call it…..at some point we begin the age of mediocrity. You know, it’s
advanced to the point now, where you have shows on television…everything has
got to be immediate….you know, star search and all this stuff. The whole idea
of “mentored disciple” has sort of been lost. The whole idea of effort, of putting in
time, and creating a foundation of a future, and a foundation of a career—it’s sort of
been lost—it’s all instantaneous. it’s all about buying the right equipment, pushing
the right buttons. as we talk about these generalities as far as where the music
has gone and the whole societal way of doing things now; there are those little
bonfires where you see this real development of creativity happening. for example,
in 2009 my wife and i decided to leave new York and come back down to south
jersey where we’re both from. and this was encouraged by the fact that my wife’s
mother was ill, my mother was ill, and we wanted to come down here to take care of
them. fortunately we did, because within six months after we were here they both
passed away. But being here i found a pocket of creativity going on which was sort
of reminiscent of what was going on when i was coming up in the 50’s. There’s
a school down here called the creative arts school, and it’s really honing and
nurturing young talent, that it’s really like bright stars in a dull sky.
it’s prompted me to do what many people have been asking me to do for the
last few years, and that was start a school. i decided to do a prototype this past
summer, and so i did it in august. i had a two week jazz camp, and 22 of these
students from this creative arts school came to my camp. i had a student that
came from Germany, one from new York; i had students that came from all over
the place. it was so well received—i wanted to see two things. Whether or not
it was something anyone had cared about it, and then how much did i care about
it. and i found out that there was exuberance on both ends, so i decided to go on
ahead with really developing this school. i’m going to do another jazz camp in the
summer of 2013, and i’m working towards having the school up and running on a
year-round basis.
i’m saying all of this because there is hope!! There is hope, i mean, you know.
and these students are being nurtured under the concept of “mentor-disciple.”
They’re not about expedient means, and they’re not about looking for instant
gratification.
When we finished the two-week camp we had a concert, and these students, they
created little groups among themselves we had about four or five bands created
88 | CadenCe Magazine | april May June 2013