The Jazz Half

Cincinnati's Jazz Showcase

jh:  We’ve seen you perform now twice and I have to say you’re a very talented bass player.

JA: Thank you.

jh:  No doubt you support jazz / what advice to young people?

JA:  Learn something else as well. (laugh) And I’m not kidding, I’ve got to give you the real…it’s tough. It’s gotten tougher. The promoters and the clubs have gone down…I think corporate America has taken over some of these clubs and I just don’t think they have the respect for the musician that was once there.  Aside from that, I would say get an education degree because you can fall back on teaching. But if its your love, I mean, definitely do it, regardless of whatever. You know, just do it.  I just hope there’s enough things out there that would keep them busy because you will have to do other things. I’ve had to play other…I’ve played plays and different things, and sure, I always wanted and loved to play jazz but, you know, you have to do some other things to eat and keep body and soul together.

jh:  Jim, you’ve lived in Cincinnati all you life, right?

JA: Born and raised.

jh:  You appear at first glance to be a home town guy, and from our interactions, We know that you’re just that; you’re very accessible…that’s a pretty impressive resume

JA:  You know, again, I was fortunate, blessed, everything….a lot of those were one night-ers; some of those were short tours.  I also played with Pharo Sanders, Kenny Burrell, gosh, you know I don’t want to sound like I just played with everybody. I’ve been extremely, extremely fortunate, and one of those areas that I was able to get a lot of playing was the Greenwich Tavern in Walnut Hills, where I played with a trio. And we backed local artists coming in on the weekend at least...at one time we had artists coming in almost once a week and, again, with the Joe Hendersons, the Woody Shaws and, gosh, Ursula Duziak (sp.), Bobby Watson, Sonny Fortune…there was just a lot a lot of people that I was very fortunate to play with, and the trio that I was part of, that backed these people was Art Gore on drums and Bill Connelly was on piano. And you know we really didn’t make much money, I mean it was quite stingy, it was about the music though. You know I had a day job, and I guess I looked forward to it in a sense, but in another sense I knew, ‘ok, Friday and Saturday I’m going to play with some great people, maybe even Sunday we’re doing some kind of festival or some extra thing later on,’ but after doing eight-fifteen to five at some desk, you know, its like you’re trying to get that out of your head and be the musician or the artist. So that was tough sometimes. And a lot of times, the first time we saw the music or played it would be that night. So that was a character builder as well as a music builder.

jh: Of those big names, the groups or band leaders, who influenced you most professionally or personally.

JA:  That is hard; it really is.  Bobby Watson came there quite often. We had him two, three times a year. Hank Cawford…I got a little something from each of them and, again, we didn’t get a chance to spend a whole lot of time, I mean we would make the hit that Friday night and Saturday night, and then they were gone. And then Monday I was back at my desk, you know, unfortunately, or fortunately. So it…I’d have to say a combination of all of them because I did learn something good, bad or indifferent from all of them.

jh:  We’ve spoken a few times in the past about Cincinnati not having the jazz scene of other cities.  ….is it the same thing that’s kept you here over the years?

JA: Boy, good question, because I definitely always wanted to go New York, Chicago, Europe, Asia. But I had a young family and I guess I wanted to be responsible for them.  I have two beautiful daughters and of course a wife. And I had some opportunities, I had some calls; I could have done some things but…you know sometimes one can get kind of comfortable, and its not that I was scared, because I knew I was going to come out there with an attitude of wanting to learn and wanting to play because, you know, I just always wanted to play. But I guess you get to a point where, at least for me, I just felt like I didn’t want to leave my family and not know whether I was going to make some money or whether this, that or the other could happen. Because even young then, we can all be influenced; again I wanted to feel like my character was strong enough that I wouldn’t let a lot of things influence me on the negative side but still I guess the thought of leaving my family and my young daughters at that time, I just couldn’t do it. It’s the way I was raised, you know, the responsibility and this, that and the other. And I just wasn’t that cold hearted I guess (laugh). Not really that. The urge was there, believe me, I really wanted to go but also this drummer and I, Bobby Scott, we had started the Cohesion Jazz Ensemble, which was started in 1973. So we did that, you know, it kind of kept me there too because I was teaching at Community Arts Center and that’s where the Cohesion Jazz Ensemble was formed. That kind of kept me busy.

jh:  What does Cincinnati not have that those other jazz cities do have?

JA:  Jazz radio stations.  I mean we used to have WNOP and even WVXU would play jazz with Oscar Treadwell. And even WCIN, the all-black station, the rhythm and blues station, would play some jazz. But its gone. That’s probably one of the most hurting things, and not only this city but there’s a lot of other cities that its totally gone by the wayside.

jh: And what’s most needed here that would help us break through to another level of jazz in our city? Is it simply the radio play or is there something else?

JA:  I think the radio play is a good start because then the local musicians would be able to get their music heard. The internet is OK but everybody does and doesn’t read that or look at that, and whether it stays. So we need the radio stations to promote local musicians and regional and national musicians that come in, so people can hear their music and say, ‘oh, that’s so-and-so, that’s Mulgrew (sp.?) Miller, or that’s Gary Barst,’ or something like that. So you can go buy their records – cds rather – and, you know, get a chance to hear them, so when a promoter wants to bring them into town, then they can do that and people will have had a chance to hear them.

jh:  One of the projects that you’re most associated with and well-known for is having co-founded the Cohesion Jazz Ensemble with your long-time friend and drummer Bobby Scott. Along with Bobby you played with Cohesion in one form or another – different personnel and such – for over 30 years. Is that right?

JA: Right.

jh:  What is Cohesion all about?

JA:  Well it all started when I was trying to go back to school, back to Boston, to Berklee, when Bobby approached me on that, and again, I didn’t really want to stay in Cincinnati. My family hadn’t started yet and I just wanted to get back to school. I wanted to get back to Boston.  So we talked and we wanted to do something with some originality. Not that nobody else has done anything, but we had a certain concept. Because we played together in this group, John Wright Quartet for a number of years back in the mid-late sixties. Actually after I got out of high school I started playing with them. And we wanted to present not only original material but an original approach to some of the more and less known jazz songs and material out there.  So we just had a concept that we wanted to try and foster and see what would happen. For years we were more of an underground group than anything else, because when people heard us, they were impressed and they knew they were listening to something just a little different than the norm – bebop or this, that and the other – because we had a more progressive and aggressive approach to the music.

jh: Thirty four years is a long time. What’s changed, or what’s change the most about Cohesion Jazz Ensemble?

JA:  When you have to reinvent yourself as many times as we’ve had to over the years, to be quite candid, you just wish you could get personnel that had your same kind of love, respect and approach concept to the music, to jazz. That didn’t, and doesn’t always happen. But then also you get good players and so you’re working together but then also they have ideas of what they want to do.  So sometimes we’d have a group of guys for a year or two. Sometimes even three and four. The Steve Schmidts, the Mark Fields, the Ed Oxleys, Areo (sp.) Lathan and some other people had been with us for a number of years so we were able to be, excuse the pun, cohesive. You know, we were able to have a very identifiable sound. So today its harder to do that because everybody or other folks, you know, want to do their things. Also, being able to rehearse consistently and work on material; that gets to be hard.

jh:  Last question: whats on your turntable or cd player right now?

JA:  Oh man. I just took some stuff off. Joe Chambers – I just got into Joe Chambers. I put a lot of Donna Reed, Rufus Reed who was the bassist. Buster Williams. I mean, I go from Trane to gosh, Sonny Fortune.  At any one time it could be anybody, you know. And its not always the usual suspects.

jh:  Hey listen. Thanks so much for your time. We appreciate that.

JA: You’re quite welcome. Thank you.