The Guitar Hero series on Jemsite features interviews with guitarists and musicians who may not have star status YET, but their current situations have shaped them to be who they are--determined, fond of their craft, and heroes in their own right. Perhaps you'll see in these upcoming entries the next Jimi Hendrix, Melissa Etheridge, or Duane Allman. Or perhaps they'll become household names by doing what they do best--ripping a mean riff!
Who knew a Netherlands guitarist and jazz music could come together? Now they have! Despite the fact that Jens Larsen began his guitar playing skills studying classical guitar and later turned to electric to get out the Jim Hendrix he held inside, by the time Larsen moved to jazz guitar, he knew it was the right thing for him to do.
A Scandanavian musician who sees the beauty in jazz guitar? Now that's our Guitar Hero!
What’s your background in guitar and how did you decide to focus on jazz guitar in particular?
I started out having lessons in classical guitar when I was 12. Where I lived in Denmark you could not get lessons in any other kind of guitar at that time. I did not get an electric guitar before I was 17. And it was later when I moved to the city that I started lessons on electric guitar and playing in bands etc.
I started out with blues and rock like Clapton, Hendrix SRV. Looking back I was always interested in improvising and busy composing music, which is a sort of slow improvisation. I was also a bit surprised to discover that most rock solos were not improvised. At one time I was trying to find some fusion that I liked in the library and I found some Charlie Parker. Parker I right away could relate to probably because of his blues influence, His interpretation of Lover man or KC Blues especially. I had a similar experience with Scofield, but found his music harder to understand somehow. If music speaks to me emotionally I spend time figuring it out and absorbing it.
So in short I gradually realized that I wanted to spend my time improvising and Jazz seemed the perfect sort of music to do that.
How big is jazz music in the Netherlands?
Jazz is not big in Netherlands as it is probably not big in any country any more. Jazz is becoming culture or art instead of a sort of pop music. It has been like that for years though and jazz lives quite well here. The standard of music education for pop/rock/jazz has been going up over the last 30 years and therefore students get introduced to jazz by their teachers, that seems to be where the younger audience is coming from.
The Netherlands have a lot of jazz festivals and a fair amount of small clubs where you can play concerts. The amount of subsidized concert halls for jazz is going down and have been for years, but that is probably the same for all sorts of music.
What is Wijnen, Winter & Larsen?
WW&L is a trio I am in. I guess we are exploring more funk and soul inspired music and mixing it up with our own music. The band consists of hammond organ, drums and guitar, so the organ player plays the bass on the hammond or a synth. We have a lot of fun and have done some free form things once in a while too in between our own songs. Bob Wijnen and Rene Winter are two musicians I have worked a lot and I think the fact that we know each other so well really makes the band work, we are not afraid to take chances and change the direction of a tune in the middle of it. There are a few live recordings from a radio concert on my website: jenslarsen.nl. Explain how 50s jazz been inspired by Scandinavian folk music.
I don't think jazz in the 50's as a whole was inspired by Scandinavian jazz music. At that time when stars in jazz music (Stan Getz, Bill Evans etc. ) Would come to Europe they would play concerts backed up by European sidemen and there some of them was impressed by the melody and atmosphere of the folk music in Scandinavia. For example the song “Dear Old Stockholm” is often credited to Getz but is in fact a swedish traditional. Jan Johansson a swedish piano player also made jazz recordings consisting of re-interpretations of swedish folk music, and the records did quite well the world over. The Scandinavian music made a small impact on jazz as a whole, but it is something that speaks to me because I am originally Danish.
What kind of project are you working on with Olaf Meijer and Soren Ballegaard that includes Scandanavian songs with contemporary jazz arrangements?
The project that we are working on is in the meantime a band named Træben or Traeben. The band consists of Olaf Meijer - bass, Søren Ballegaard - sax, Thorsten Grau – drums and myself on guitar.We realeased in the beginning of this year with Scandinavian music arranged to fit in our modern jazz music. When I wrote the arrangements I tried to keep the atmosphere and the melody of the tune and then changing the chords, meters, play the melody over ostinato etc. Right now we are playing concerts with the band and gathering material for a next project. Probably consisting of our own music this time. Here is a youtube film of a live performance: Horoskopvisa What’s the Nordic project?
Nordic Project is the first cd of the band Traeben that I described. We released it on the label OAP records. Which is a small dutch jazz/world music label. It is available from the OAP website, at our concerts and on I-tunes.
So you play in a lot of different bands? How are they different? And what do you believe you add to each one?
For most musicians who are not doing one full-time project, I think it is the case that they do several things a bit in periods and a bit through each other. The biggest difference between all of the bands is that it is different people and different instrumentations, organ-trio, vocal-jazz, big band etc.
For me it is very nice to do a lot of different music, I change my playing depending on what style and what people I play with. I am very happy to get the chance to be busy with different kinds of music, whether it is funk inspired, Brazilian or world music or more mainstream jazz.
I think my input in the bands vary, in some bands I get to arrange, compose and bring in material while in others I am just showing up to play the guitar part and give it my personal interpretation to whatever degree they want it personally interpreted... Why be a guitar teacher when you could spend your time performing?
The reason why most people start teaching is that it is a steady income. That said, the reason why the keep doing that is that they like it. I find it interesting and rewarding to pass on knowledge whether it is a few power chords in a Green Day song or melodic choices over an altered dominant chord does not matter that much. I think it is fun to teach and be busy trying to figure out how to get students to pick specific things up, and trust me if you have a 13 year old sitting in front of you who just learned how to play the intro riff to Enter Sandman or Iron man then you have a nice day. I think the trick is to balance it with still being an artist/musician and therefore not do it too much. In jazz (and probably also all other kinds of music) you are also a student yourself. I am still trying to learn things and widen my musical vocabulary and teaching keeps me in touch with that.
A secondary bonus for me is that I get to check out music that I would otherwise not have discovered like Radiohead or Arch Enemy for example.
How would you convince a mainstream rock guitarist that maybe jazz guitar is something to also try?
I don't think I would. I think that jazz is something that you might want to check out as a style to listen to and then maybe not jazz guitar but a horn player like John Coltrane or Charlie Parker. The language of jazz music is more o r less the same on all instruments. I think jazz guitar is something you should try if you find that the music speaks to you on an emotional level when you listen to it maybe go to some different concerts, jazz is a style with a lot of different sub-genres. What are your upcoming projects and how are you further looking to promote jazz guitar?
Well as I mentioned we are playing concerts with Traeben and also with another band that just released a cd: yvonnesmeets quartet. I recorded a cd with the big band that I play in which is coming out in october: West Coast Big Band: “New Dutch”. For the rest you'll find me playing on festivals and in jazz clubs around the Netherlands. You can always check my website for more info.
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