CS: What has been inspiring you lately?

BL: I’m fortunate enough to be surrounded by people I find inspiring, or maybe, I’m inspired by the people I’m fortunate enough to be around. That might just preempt the next question.

CS: Favorite musicians, artists, thinkers and why (current or general)?

BL: It’s hard for me to state my favorite “anything” because I feel like my mind changes drastically. Again, I’m surrounded and playing with living and hypothetical members of my favorite musicians and thinkers. In some kind of constant dialog with them whether they’re in or out of the room, or alive, or real.

I’ve recently been listening to Maria Teresa Vera, which is part of a larger trend of listening to music from the Spanish Antilles, and in particular, the working people’s music of Cuba and Puerto Rico. It’s interesting to me that in the face of these long traditions of poverty, state abuse, brutal forced labor, occupation, and ethnic cleansing, which were in the service of extraction of something as ridiculous as refined sugar, that in the face of that shit that people could make, what is to me, some of the baddest music people have produced!

CS: Favorite films, books, etc. and why (current or general)

BL: One of my favorite films is Michael Haneke’s “Code Unknown”. To me, it’s an extremely nuanced view of how xenophobia, class and racism are bound together and how this problem manifests in western neo-liberal societies. Thinking about it now makes me kind of seasick at this current cul-de-sac of human history.

I just finished reading Frank Moya Pons’, “History of the Caribbean” which shows the region as one mass, rather than as separate colonial societies, from first colonization until the US occupation and corporate takeover of the region after the Spanish American War. It details how bound the region was to the sugar trade, and how a multinational elite, through mass logistics of the trade of slaves and sugar, effectively created the first multinational corporations… which were and still are fundamentally bound to the immiseration and destruction of these people far from the consumers of the product.

I’m about to start reading “Jazz Diplomacy” which details the state department’s effort to use jazz as a tool for US imperialism.

CS: Favorite record no one else has listened to?

BL: I like to buy new and early music LP’s from record stores because they’re usually under 7 dollars and it seems like no one has listened to them. They’re sometimes in the original shrink wrap packaging. Listening to composers like Frescobaldi or Nono on LP is a pretty fun experience. I like the warm fidelity of LP even though it’s not nearly as clear as CD or high quality digital files. Also, the tactility of starting a record and the difficulty of picking specific tracks. It’s also interesting to hear interpretations of pieces from the 50s through 60’s. The notion of “musicality” varies pretty wildly depending on what ideas are in vogue, and I like to think about that.

CS: Best thing you’ve seen on Youtube (recently)?

BL: There’s too much to list, really… My favorite thing about YouTube is this glut of information that’s been uploaded. I’ve been watching so many lectures, performances, abridged histories, travel shows, the Pink Panther… You name it. Never has there been such a wealth of interesting and terrible material at your fingertips. I am deeply afraid to see the long term effects on my brain.

CS: Dream trio/quartet/quintet with historical figures?

BL: I’d like a cage match with Teddy Roosevelt, Henry Kissinger, and George Washington. I’d have a baseball bat, the rest on their hands and feet.

CS: Last performance you saw that expanded the way you think about your own work?

BL: I think every performance I attend has some expansive effect on the way I think about making things. Whether the performance kicks my ass or sends me running for the door, I try to process what’s happening in front of me. Why do I like this? Why don’t I like this? If I like it, what are the problems with my own taste and how does that affect my experience of this performance? Do I believe in my own taste here? Am I having a good time with this shit because I’m having a good time? Why do I like this shit? Why  don’t I like this shit? Is it pushing me? Do I really understand what’s happening here? Though, I will say, the best shit just kind of leaves me stunned and stupefied until I’m out of it.

CS: Record you most wish you had played on?

BL: I’m really not into placing myself into hypothetical historical musical ventures because it’s not going to happen and it’s sad that I won’t be able to participate in the stuff I’ve looked up to. I just want to be able to live up to the music and musicians that fucked me up and expanded my experience and, hopefully, supply the same kind of spiritual/intellectual nourishment to some other people. That being said, I wouldn’t mind being in the ring with Cecil Taylor.

CS: Recording people would be most surprised you listen to?

BL: For the last 3 years, I’ve almost exclusively listened to popular and folk music from Latin America. Before that it was late renaissance and baroque music. I like some 90’s Mariah Carey. I don’t really listen to improvisation anymore, possibly because I’m trying to rid myself of some obvious influences. It’s easy to lift shit from others and this culture we live in loves easy extraction, though… It also loves individuation. I guess I’m dealing with this.

—

Enjoy Brandon’s Artist Profile at the Soundstream!