March 2005 Interview
Arts Journal: Raymond, tell us a bit about the An Tobar commission
in March.
Raymond MacDonald: We are going to be working on Mull for a week on
a project. We were up there last year and had a great time, and Gordon
McLean was very encouraging. We said than that we must do it again,
and a couple of months ago Gordon raised the possibility of a week-long
project in March in which they would commission some new work, we would
work with some local kids, and do the concert. We would also make a
CD there.
AJ: Is there a theme to the commission?
RM: They have a large clock in the middle of Tobermory, and they want
us to do something around the idea of the clock, which is quite interesting,
because we already have a tune I wrote called ‘Behind the Big
Clock’, which was actually written about the clock at the Musee
d’Orsay in Paris. We’ll do a bit of advance preparation
for that, but again we will leave things open, particularly for working
with the school kids. It’s important to leave space for things
to develop in that context as well.
AJ: As well as the Burt-MacDonald Quintet, you have been very active
in organising the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, which is a very large
ensemble dedicated to free improvisation, an area of music a lot of
both musicians and listeners find daunting.
RM: Quite a lot of the people involved in this music feel that once
you get past eight or nine players it is problematic to play completely
free, but we are very committed to that, and that may be one of the
main ways that we develop from here. I see an increasing interest in
improvisation that is across the spectrum. I do a bit of television
and film soundtrack work, and people I worked with there wanted to do
some free improvisation. At the same time, I was working with Future
Pilot AKA, and the same thing was happening there, so I was having the
same conversations with musicians who were not involved with free improvisation
or with each other, but were interested in exploring it.
AJ: Was that part of the point of forming the Glasgow Improvisers
Orchestra?
RM: Very much so. The GIO was a way of bringing people together to explore
that, and the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow have been very
encouraging right from the start. They have been instrumental in making
it happen as it has.
AJ: And you have had the chance to work with people like Evan Parker,
Maggie Nichols, and shortly Gunter Sommer, who are all revered names
in free improvisation.
RM: We really enjoyed working with Evan and Maggie last year, but we
feel it is important to do some gigs without the star names as well.
The band needs to maintain and develop its own identity.
AJ: There is a parallel situation with the Burt-MacDonald Quintet, isn’t
there?
RM: That’s right – we have worked recently with both Keith
Tippett and Harry Beckett, and we have an ongoing relationship with
Lol Coxhill. I think it has all grown out of working with Lol, and the
fun we have had doing that. It has given us the confidence to approach
these artists. At the start of last year George and myself drew up a
list of people we would like to work with, and Keith was at the top
of it. That worked out really well. We would love to take the project
with Keith further as well, and we are talking about that. He is really
keen to visit the Highlands and Islands, actually. In fact, we had hoped
it might be possible to do something with Keith for this project on
Mull, but it was just too short notice this time. We all felt it was
a successful project, and it worked well with our vocalist [Raymond’s
sister, Nicola].
AJ: How did the Harry Beckett link come about?
RM: I was lucky enough to get an invitation through Evan Parker to go
down to London and work with the London Improvisers Orchestra at the
Red Rose Club. On the gig I found myself sitting between Lol Coxhill
and Harry Beckett, which was quite an experience. I had seen Harry play
with Bill Wells during the Glasgow Jazz Festival a few years back, and
Lol had always said that Harry would be a good person for the band to
collaborate with, because he has an interest in free music but is also
a very strong melody player. When I was sitting in between them having
such a great time I just said to Harry that if the opportunity arose
would he like to come up and play with us, and he did.
AJ: How much of what happens in these collaborations is mapped out in
advance?
RM: What we tend to do is to prepare a range of possibilities in advance,
and then in the time before the concert we will rehearse and see what
works and what doesn’t, and we’ll leave space for things
to develop, so that we are not going in with too rigid an idea of what
to do. To be a true collaboration you have to leave that space for things
to happen. I think one of the challenges for me and George [guitarist
and co-leader George Burt] as we move forward is to try to synthesise
the free stuff with our songs. With Keith I thought beforehand that
we would do more free material, but he was keen to work with the more
structured songs as well, and we ended up pretty much alternating them.
The Burt-MacDonald Quartet will be in residence at An Tobar from 13-19
March. The Quartet features Raymond MacDonald (saxophones), George Burt
(guitar), George Lyle (bass), and Allan Pendreigh (drums). The Quintet
version adds Nicola MacDonald (vocals). The band have a new CD, One
Bloke, scheduled for release later this year.
© Kenny Mathieson, 2005