AprilCadence2013

Interview Buster Williams
out of the student population. people were amazed-it was incredible. one of the
trumpet players went off to Berklee, another, a piano player went on to oberlin. a
few others are graduating from the creative arts school this semester. i want to be
able to take students at all levels—intermediate and advanced—they can be under
17 too. These students that are in the creative arts school—it’s elementary to high
school, and they are from the urban sector, and they have no money, so i had to
charge something—i did this thing for $400.00 for eight days. it was a giveaway
but it allowed me to hire my instructors and then to have all of these other students
come in for free. i had just a handful of paying students, and instructors who did
this as a burden of love. But going forward, i’m getting my 501-c3, and we’re
gonna’ be getting grants, and i’m putting together my board, and i have people that
have money that are interested in working with me on this.
i got a lot of work to do in preparing this for the summer, because i have to have
housing—i had a student that came down from new York everyday. hopefully i can
have some housing for out of town students this time.
AS: I heard you at Sweet Basil’s in the Village, with Ron Carter’s group. Was
Carter inspired by Oscar Pettiford’s cello playing?
BW: Well, we were all inspired by oscar pettiford. But, he [carter] wasn’t playing
cello. he was playing a piccolo bass. it’s tuned sort of like an upside down cello—
it’s tuned c-G-d-a, the low string is a. Where the high string on the double bass
would be G, on the piccolo bass it’s c—so it’s tuned like a fourth above the bass.
size-wise it’s sort of like half the size of a 3/4 bass—so it’s bigger than a cello.
The length of the fingerboard is still basically the size of a bass, which is 40-41.
AS: That was a very unusual sounding band—did you have to sometimes stay
away from the upper register of your bass to keep the clarity between the
piccolo bass melody and your bass accompaniment?
BW: definitely—it was very challenging. i remember [laughs] i got a phone call
one day from ron, and ron asked me could i come to his house, say monday at
3 o’clock in the afternoon. i said: “sure.” he says: “and bring your bass.” i said:
“oK.” so, ron, you know likes to create a little mystery sometimes, so i didn’t ask
him too many questions, i just accepted what he said. he and i had been friends
since 1968 when i first met him. so, i went to his house and i got there, and there
was Kenny Barron, and there was Ben riley, so i don’t know what where gonna’
do maybe we’re going to play a trio and maybe ron’s gonna’ sing! [cracks up] in
fact i looked at him and i said: “ron, are you going to sing?” he laughed. so,
you know when guys get together we’re laughing and talking, and then ron brings
out this piccolo bass. Kenny sits down at the piano, Ben sits down at the drums
and i had taken my bass out of the cover, and ron brings out the piccolo bass, so
now we’re set up like a quartet—and ron is the horn—it’s quite interesting! and
we proceeded to have a rehearsal. ron had some gigs set up, and that was the
beginning, and we stayed together for five years.
We had sort of like a home base at sweet Basil.
AS: I know, you were there all the time, and the audience¬—like you could
89 | CadenCe Magazine | april May June 2013