ECM50 | 1986 David Torn on Everyman Band, Don Cherry, Cloud About Mercury, King Crimson

[@maxinemckenzie6076]

"Best laid plans" and "Cloud about Mercury" made a huge impact on me, and my playing, back in '87. Love this man. 🎸🎶💜👌.

[@danieljsanders]

Incredible album. Cool to hear the details, even if I had to wait 34 years..

[@docnelson2008]

David Torn is a fascinating musician, a genius who brings something very special to the music he creates in his various projects. It's marvellous to hear what he has to say -I could listen to him talking for much longer-a great upload.

[@IJBiermann]

Thanks. There will be a longer edit of this 2-hour talk I recorded at his place in my book version of this 50-chapter ECM project.

[@cardboardmusic]

Very interesting, thanks for posting.

[@verngreenway1051]

That album is a treasure my Holy Grail the sound of that strat oh boy Ten thumbs-up. Never heard that sound since. Thanks Dave.

[@verngreenway1051]

That first album 👌

[@jonathanedwards8696]

In the winter of 1986, I was in my last semester at Berklee College of Music, and being a big Jan Garbarek fan, I had dutifully picked up the latest, "It's Okay to Listen to the Gray Voice." I'm thinking, "Who's this guy he replaced Frissell with?" Well, I loved the record. And David's playing is so fresh and exciting. I loved that "fusionesque" quartet Garbarek had for three records there. Although I did miss Jon Christensen's playing. (JC later told me why he wasn't on that record). Anyway, it was the end of the semester, I was graduating and then leaving for Norway for some post-graduate studies at Oslo University. I was lucky enough to catch the group once in Boston and twice in New York. Still, in 2020, it's one of the most amazing shows I'd ever seen. I've seen Garbarek 8 or 10 times, (before and after), and this was the best I'd ever heard him. They were on the edge. It was amazing! I can only compare it to seeing Rypdal with Palle Mikkolborg and Jon Christensen at The Bottom Line. It seemed like they were trying to re-invent the jazz quartet. Torn and drummer, (I forget the drummer's name, Micheal DiPasqua had been injured). as the rhythm section and Eberhard and Jan as melody! On a completely different note, oddly enough, I ran into The Everyman Band at a wedding and told them how much I liked their music. Sometime later I saw the "Cloud About Mercury" show at The Bottom Line. John Scofield was at the table next to me. It was such a great time of music in my life!

[@jonathanedwards8696]

I wish David would have talked a bit about what it was like to work with Jan Garbarek.

[@IJBiermann]

@@jonathanedwards8696 I'll have to check my recording if I have anything for you there. Sounds like a really amazing string of concerts you visited there. Bill and also David must have been incredibly young ... as someone born in the late 70s I got to know them only so much later and obviously was not around as a concert-goer when Garbarek was younger and a name of the cutting edge of jazz...

[@jonathanedwards8696]

@@IJBiermann Hi IJ.! Yes, in the mid-70s when I was just turning 20 a friend brought over Ralph Towner's "Solstice" and the Garbarek/Stenson recording "Witchi-Tai-Too. That was it for me. I was a big follower ever since. I don't know if you read my post about my college years. Starting September 1980 I was at Berklee College of Music in Boston. In the ensembles, we played all the Blue Note stuff over and over. It got really boring. The professors were clueless. They had no idea there was a whole revolution going on in Europe. Thanks for your work and I look forward to seeing more!

[@danieljsanders]

Were Everyman Band playing the wedding?! Or just attending?

[@chvrles.m00r93]

Great interview. I had the pleasure of meeting him at Big Ears. He was such a gentleman and genuinely friendly guy.

[@timmungenast]

Can confirm. I met him a couple of times and he was very friendly and funny. I love when I meet my heroes in real life and they’re just as cool as I hoped.

[@GuitarSoloReactions]

Great interview, love David and his playing.

[@nickgoogle4525]

How cool is that. I always wondered what instrument produces those sounds. Indeed a real musical genius. I once read that he had a pick which he wanted to bring to a specific shape, but then found out that the unfinished rough egde allowed him to create cool sounds he could not produce with a normal pick, so he left it that way.

[@DjsArtistRep]

I Bought this album after hearing its debut on a midnight Saturday jazz fusion radio show called Miles Beyond in St Louis; loved the guitar work. If my memory is correct:-)

[@EdHy509]

Thank you so much for the interview and upload. As a dt fan since 87, and "cloud abut mercury" still being one of my favorite albums ever, this is just great!

[@Apeskinny]

The man with the lightest touch! Ribot and Frisell might have gotten more fame but him and Mark Isham with Sylvian.... end of days..so good!

[@crieverytim]

Huge fan of Ribot and Frisell and just hearing about Torn and now Isham. 👍

[@halsinden]

so valuable to hear these stories.

[@user-uo8yh9tb8g]

I guess mother does know best... ha,nice, thanks for sharing these stories

[@franbanish]

I first ran into David Torn at the time I was an ECM freak, early-mid '80's: into Ralph Towner, Keith Jarrett, and Jan Garbarek. I grabbed Garbarek's It's Ok To Listen To The Gray Voice when it first came out. (Photo With...is one of my favorite records of all time.) I saw the band live in 1986 (with Torn) I reckon, and the whole thing blew my head off!!! It was at George's supper club in Chicago (no longer in biz) it was awesome: beauty and power. At the time, I'm in Chicago hanging at the best Blues, Jazz, and Rock clubs, playing, sometimes headlining, and sitting in...got the Cloud about Mercury record, stealing riffs from it. LOL. Several years later, I'm living and playing music in LA, and I had the pleasure of seeing/listening to Torn with Mark Isham, and most of these guys at the Roxy with Terry Bozzio on drums: a great and quirky choice. It was a delight to briefly hang with David and Mick Karn, (who I was listening to since 1982, when Julia, a fabulous young lady from NYC turned me on to the super cool and amazing Brit-New Wave band: Japan.) Check out the Tin Drum album! dummies. Ha! Mick Karn! is the connection between Jaco Pastorius and Pino Palladino. RIH Love you Mick Karn. PS: Love you David and best of health!

[@crieverytim]

What a comment! Just talking about Karn via Sylvian and Japan yesterday. And here I am, having just heard of Torn (via a Joey Alexander - Warna video). and would have otherwise had no idea such a connection existed if not for this. Fascinating. You're very lucky to have watched and participated in such affairs!

[@runefagereng6023]

This is so inspiring. Great storytelling from Mr. Torn. So enthusiastic and well spoken, as well.

[@rulde]

Resident Evil 4 memories

[@localnut1]

Thanks!

[@IJBiermann]

Thanks!

[@aspentreeisland8324]

Wow, this is the first David Torn interview I have watched and he is nothing like I imagined on the basis of his music. Very open and upbeat. Great to hear the background on this album, still sounds fresh and exotic. On a side note, congrats on these great interviews on ECM artists. Very well done and the interviewees get the spotlight. I checked out some interviews on Vimeo and they are even better. I am discovering a lot of new music from these.

[@IJBiermann]

Thanks a lot. I appreciate you telling me, as these are my principal reasons for pursuing this project in the first place. There are more to come. Several are shot but not finished editing.

[@jmaz1100]

Finally I know what that opening instrument is!!!!!!!

[@ronruth4639]

How Wonderful!!..David Torn has a very unique approach to music,totally enjoyable 'Cloud...' is among my favorites as well as 'Polytown'...there are others of course......Thank you (praying hands) IJ.Biermann...Excellent work!! (Two Thumbs up)

[@ponchofilm]

this is great... really great. Enjoyed it so much

[@rickvenlo1362]

Fabelhaft 🌟 🌏Fantastique🌟 Bellissimo 🌟

[@Kand1nSky]

"Cloud about Mercury" is one of the best if not THE BEST fusion jazz albums out there and also it was the record for hifi high-end equipment. "Best laid plans" and "What means Solid Traveller?" are also exceptional records and music expirience. One picture from "best laid plans" was very fascinating to me. No, not the cover, the one on the backside with Torn and Gordon @14:40, it says "buy art, not cocaine". It is still above my desk.

[@HamzaAli55659]

Because of this legend we got the sarinity theme in te4

[@volodyanikolaev]

Holy Shit. This is fucking amazing interview!

[@ZeeKat]

There's a cool interview with Mick Karn on innerviews where he tells the story of having a massive impostor syndrome facing playing with people of Bruford and Torn's stature, so maybe that's why he was a no show :)

[@aranyawaasii]

what is it that is stuck under the strings on that modified guitar in the beginning? i assume it is some sort of standard guitar bridge part? i need to make one of these effective immediately! sounds superb ...

[@ReinerDamisch]

... and out of focus - beyerdynamic M 160. My favourite too. Now pointing at the window since there is the Kemper. :-(

[@bluetv6386]

Mothers are the best….

[@cosmicpickle6562]

Personally I wouldn't want to hear the 'Cloud' album with the drums and bass higher in the mix-it would sound too much like 'fusion' or King Crimson and that's not the kind of thing I listen to David's music to hear. Plus some of the more subtle loops that David created on the album would be lost. What a great interview-too bad we didn't' get any exterior shots of David's house/surroundings though like we did in the wonderful Gary Peacock interview... I hope David continues to record (hopefully solo) for ECM-his best work is on the label, including the one he recorded as part of the Jan Garbarek Group, which contains my very favorite playing of David's career (he was quite a bit more subdued and atmospheric with his playing on that album).... P.S. Boy I would love to know how he made that 'harp guitar' that he demonstrates at the start of the video-it sounds great and i'd love to have one myself....

[@IJBiermann]

Hey, thanks a lot for your comment. I understand what you mean with the missing exterior shots. The thing with these is that I usually decide with each video/portrait individually what fits best. Here I focused on his studio and the interior atmosphere, everything takes place inside and very focused on this room, whereas the Peacock interview was happening outside on the porch - and with so many animals and exterior sounds happening, which are providing a lot of atmosphere, and so I didn't film anything inside (G.P. moved to his son's place not long ago, he had been living an hour or an hour and a half further out previously). Also, that day in Bearsville it was raining heavily, I had to walk through some mud and rain with my equipment to get into the studio, and also we spent a lot of time inside talking (the studio is in a different small house from the main building, and it would be kind of nice to see the place under better weather conditions), and afterwards I had to drive back to New York City (it was the final day of an extended stay in the U.S., so I had to return the car at one airport, pack all my things into several pieces of luggage and get from that car rental to the other airport, which took quite a while...) , so I focused on the whole interview and talk (I also had lots of other questions, such as about his work with David Bowie), so I did not film any exterior shots that day... BUT: I do have a few very nice shots from very close by which I filmed a few weeks earlier, when I went to visit Carla Bley & Steve Swallow (who are living only a few minutes away), but I felt they didn't really fit into this video. I might use them in another interview shortfilm shot in that area... I am hoping for David to continue working for ECM, too, but it doesn't really seem that likely at the moment, considering ECM has been reducing productions and releases, and M.E. does not release a lot of albums anymore he didn't participate in intensively. Tim Berne's latest album for example is now out on INTAKT, and a few other artists' albums are on other labels. I've got the Garbarek album, too, di talk about it briefly in our conversation as well, but it seems I forgot to include the cover in the video. Sorry about that.

[@cosmicpickle6562]

​@@IJBiermann Thanks for responding. You know the comment about seeing an exterior shot is such a small thing really, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it at all, it's really nitpicking. Because what you have here-and in your other ECM portraits-is something I am so excited about seeing that I can barely put it into words. I've been an ECM fanatic sinc the 1970's and seeing these musicians interviewed, especially with the slant focusing on their ECM recordings, is something I never thought i'd see in my lifetime. Really this IS a big deal for me and seeing the homes of these musicians-especially studio wizards like David Torn-is really indeed something special and more than I ever dared wish I could see... I've been to that area of New York myself so I know how it cam get during rainy weather, by the way. In such a big way these profiles are just about the best thing i've ever seen. In fact much better than the slightly disappointing ECM documentary of several years ago. This is more of the type of thing I hoped to see in that documentary. There are thousands of ECM fanatics like myself out there and i'm a bit surprised that you aren't yet swimming with comments yet on these videos, but i'm sure you will be eventually. Thanks also for the additional information here on David's studio being in a different house than his main one. I always pictured in my mind his home studio as being a kind of 'mad laboratory'. So nice to see it in reality and not just my imagination... Thank you for this work and these profiles. I know I will be re-viewing them myself for as long as you choose to leave them up. Thanks so much for your work here, I know I appreciate all the work it's taken to get these to see the light of day! And many others will appreciate irt once they discover it.. All my best -Gary

[@IJBiermann]

@@cosmicpickle6562 Thank you very much for your very positive words. And no, your remark on missing exteriors is totally plausible and a legit comment to hear (or read). Yes, I feel a bit similar about the feature documentary you mentioned, I liked it, but I wasn’t fully convinced; I felt it was mostly for people that were into these albums and artists already or people who are artists themselves. So indeed: I am making these portraits for people like you and me and the fanatics you mention, everyone who’s been into any of these ECM recordings and artists at some point in their lives - but I also think of them as introductions and invitations to discover more in the tremendous 50 year œuvre that is ECM, including the sound engineers, photographers and other cover artists, as they belong to ECM and Manfred Eicher’s idea of his life’s work as much as the hugely famous musicians. I have 15 or 16 more interviews filmed but didn’t find enough time and energy to finish all the edits yet. And unfortunately quite a few appointments already set up for this spring had to be postponed or cancelled, for obvious reasons. Otherwise 48 or 49 of the 52 videos would be filmed by today. I hope you also watched the shortfilms on my Vimeo account (vimeo.com/ijbiermann), as many of them include music selections, which I am not allowed to upload anything with someone else’s music here on KZbin. The list of the 52 chapters is basically complete, although not all of them have been filmed yet. I am also working on compiling them into a book, in which several of the conversations will probably a bit different and/or more extended than they are in the shortfilms.

[@cosmicpickle6562]

@@IJBiermann Well I do agree with what i've seen so far that you have succeeded with these films in making them exactly what the old ECM fans (like myself) would want to see as well as being fine introductions to the artists for those who aren't already familiar with them. I very much look forward the the ones which you have yet to finish the edits. In the meantime I will be catching up with the other videos of yours which you've posted here and on Vimeo (although I am far less familiar with Vimeo or how one would leave comments there, if even possible). Be be assured-I will be viewing them all the same. When the book does get done please make sure your viewers are made aware of it both on Vimeo and KZbin. Once again, thank you for your terrific work! -Gary

[@gentGTR]

[@BarbieChaite]

18:00 mick karn president