Mark O'Connor

Mark O'Connor

FIDDLING WITH FRIENDS

Mark O' Connor Brings In Marsalis and Monheit to Play "Le Jazz Hot" on In Full Swing
Mark O' Connor gets around. This accomplished violinist and composer has performed on hundreds of albums, ranging freely across the musical worlds of country, pop, jazz, and classical, from his work with James Taylor and Dolly Parton to his acclaimed Appalachian Waltz with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer. With In Full Swing, O'Connor pays tribute to the propulsive yet romantically charged Gallic jazz of violinist Stephane Grappelli and guitarist Django Reinhardt and their Hot Club of France ensemble, who created some of the seminal sounds of O'Connor's youth. Augmenting his trio on the recording are two special guests, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and vocalist Jane Monheit. Ted Panken spoke to the prolific fiddler about a project obviously near and dear to his heart.

Barnes & Noble.com: How did you hook up with Wynton and Jane?

Mark O'Connor: Wynton had played on my Liberty album in 1997. Then I played on his Reeltime album. I arranged four of his tunes. Then we've been fast friends. Every time I'm in New York, we usually get together and hang out. Wynton and I have a similar philosophy behind jazz, in that it is an American folk music related to the folk music of the South, and we draw a real strong connection, where a lot of jazz players kind of avoid that. So few see the connection, and Wynton really does.

I was blown away by Jane's music, and it turns out, she admired mine. When I approached Sony, I told them there was this young singer, Jane Monheit...I was all prepared to kind of sell them on her. But they said, "Oh, yes, we're a big fan of hers; she's on Terence Blanchard's album." So it was an easy fit. Everything kind of went together.

B&N.com: How much work did you actually do with Grappelli?

MO: I actually did two U.S. tours with him in 1979 and '80. We also did two duets on my Heroes album.

B&N.com: Has the experience of playing this music changed since you were 17 years old?

MO: Of course. In a funny way, even earlier, when I was 14 or 15, I would play whole jazz concerts. I remember getting booked, not only around my hometown in Seattle, but even for a week's run in a club in Louisville, for instance, where I'd play jazz all night. It's part of my history, it's part of my training. But when I became more focused on my solo career, I didn't necessarily think that swing was going to be a part of that, or at least a major part. So one thing led to another. Also, I didn't really aspire to follow in Stephane's footsteps, and for some reason his death really shook me up. I took a look around and realized there aren't that many jazz violin players today, and I was kind of concerned about his legacy. And I felt since I was a significant part of that legacy, one of his few students or people he mentored, I felt I had a personal responsibility to do more of that. So that also went into it; I wanted to be there for my old teacher.

B&N.com: It seems in any idiom you play, you have the ability to follow musical logics and apply your thoughts about the violin to those situations rather than being a stylistic emulator.

MO: I think the style really is the key. Because I'm my own stylist, I almost make an impression with my style on anything I do and cause things to happen through my style. For instance, my style was so evasive, I suppose, that it had a great impact, for instance, on the Appalachia Waltz music. That music really sounds like I was there, even though I'm playing with two characters who are huge creative people. So the impact that I bring with this American music style that I play with I think manifests itself in the music, whatever style I'm playing. And I often try to relate to it so that I'm not so much jumping styles, but I'm impacting each genre with my style, and I've sort of developed a way to play that lends itself more to the different American styles. If someone plays with my technique, my phrasing, my approach to the violin, they could then more easily assimilate themselves into a country band, a rock band, a jazz band, or a neo-classical setting. Which is something I've been working on for a long time, and it's both something that probably comes a little natural to me, but also something I've worked on every day for decades, bringing things together.

B&N.com: You've said you're looking for ways to fuse all of these idioms into a single American vernacular or style or vocabulary. Has the experience of playing this music in the last few years, after all the experiences you've had and your evolution as a composer with a personal vocabulary, given you insights into ways this might be achieved?

MO: I don't necessarily think I'm trying to develop compositions where you can hear all the styles together. I think more it's an approach to playing the violin that can lend itself well to the different styles. For instance, if I sat down and wrote "Appalachia Waltz," I'm not going to make it a blues. I'm not going to put a bunch of blues phrasing in it. That's not really my goal. My goal is to make it possible for the same player to play "Appalachia Waltz" and play "Tiger Rag." I think those styles and possible styles were mutually exclusive to so many people for so many years, but it's really all part of the American vernacular. I think you can see relationships without actually trying to compose them in there.

B&N.com: So in playing the hot swing music there's a sense of coming back full circle.

MO: Yes. It's bringing up not only my training from back then, but really wonderful memories of loving this music, being so influenced by it. That's why this whole thing is like a sweet little side journey for me. As I said, initially it wasn't a career aspiration. But people seem to like the way I fit into this.

January 14, 2003