Interviewed by Anne Aufderheide

SV: Welcome to SmoothViews.com, Kyle!  We appreciate you taking time to speak with us today.  Several of the SmoothViews staff have seen your outstanding performance at the Zeigler Kettle Moraine Jazz Festival.  I've also seen you play the Berks Jazz Festival.
KE:  That was in Reading, PA?

SV: Yes, a few years ago.  It was a small venue, about 100 seats, and you blew us all away!  I think the band at the Berks was your European band. Most of them record with you, as I recall. In each instance, the audience was so impressed with your performance and your music.  I believe you're doing something that’s really important for jazz fans, bringing a level of invention and creativity that's very exciting.  With your music, one can expect the unexpected.
KE: Thank you.

SV: Some might say that the bass as lead instrument is a pretty risky thing.  You are the band leader, but, there’s an ensemble feel to the band dynamic.
KE:  I try to feature everybody when I write music.  I really like to pick players because of what they bring to the music and performance. 

SV: At Kettle Moraine, you were joined by Doug Webb on sax, Gale Johnson on trumpet, Dave Karasony (Rippingtons) on drums, and Bill Steinway (Down to the Bone) on keys.  This was more of a West Coast group.   
KE: The LA guys I’ve known for years. Doug and I have played together for a long, long time.  About 15 years.

SV: Doug’s been on all three of your solo records.
KE:  Yes.  It’s a pretty long history with him.  The other LA guys I’ve met over the last few years. 
I usually play with my band from Europe when I tour extensively.

SV: When playing in Japan, do you take your European band?
KE: Yes, they play Japan with me.

SV: I see that you have October gigs up and down the West Coast, Seattle, Olympia, and Catalina.  Will you play with the LA band or European band?
KE:  It’s going to be a little of both!  The guys are coming out from London.  And Doug will play with us.

SV: Will you tell us more about that funky stand-up bass you play?  It is often mistaken for a cello.
KE:  It’s my traveling upright bass - just missing a lot of it.  It’s not a cello, but an upright bass that’s had much of the lower portion chopped off.  Easier for travelling.

SV: I've read that you play custom designed electric basses and that you actually participated in the design.  What were you after when you were tweaking the designs? 
KE:  They way they hang on the body and the shape of the neck, things like that. I designed them with a friend of mine quite awhile back.  Also, I had someone design the pickups.

SV:  Sometimes you play a funky, R&B bass sound.  I’ve read that Motown is one of your biggest musical influences.
KE:  Yes, definitely.  It’s some of my favorite music.

SV:  Growing up, who were some of your bass heroes?  Who inspired you to pick up the bass?  Who did you want to emulate?
KE: Some of the first people I was listening to were out of Motown like James Jamerson. Of the jazz players, Paul Chambers and Ron Carter were big influences. I listened to a lot of Jaco Pastorius.

SV: The music you write and play is very contemporary jazz - full spectrum and eclectic, with influences such as old rock, R&B, Motown, and reggae.  I’m curious what you think of people who classify your jazz in a smooth jazz niche?  
KE:  I don’t really think that much about it.  I just like playing.  I like good music.  Yeah, there are influences of jazz, R&B, and funk in my work.  I just play the music I like.

SV:  It’s great that you are getting out there and playing at a wide variety of venues from the Blue Note and Ronnie Scott’s to Rams Head and the Catalina Island Jazz Festival.  Because of the various venues, a larger audience is  getting exposed to your music.  As I have experienced, they are very pleasantly surprised. And you look like you’re  having a really great time up on stage.
KE:  That’s what we’re trying to do, have some fun.  We just really enjoy playing.

SV:  In your music, I hear hard bop, blues, swing, bebop, world music, post bop, hip-hop breakbeats, and you can get very, very funky.  It’s a really great blend of music you bring.
KE:  Thank you.  That’s all music that I like to listen to.

SV: I love jazz so much, all flavors of jazz; it's given me so much pleasure over the years. It seems like it doesn’t get the exposure it deserves. What draws me to your music is the fresh edge you are bringing to the music scene - reminds me of the adventurous spirit of people like - Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, David Sanchez, Joshua Redman, Branford Marsalis, and, ultimately, Miles Davis.  People who are always pushing the edge.
KE:  That’s good company to be in.  Thank you.

SV: You have 3 solo recordings to your credit. From There To Here (1998), Paris Blue (2005) and Now (2006) I find each of the albums unique and wonderful in their own right.  On your first recording, Joni Mitchell recorded a Marvin Gaye song, “Trouble Man.” How cool is that!?!!
KE: Oh, it was great.  That came about because Larry Klein produced it.  He was married to Joni for a long time and they still worked together.  I didn’t know at the time, it turned out that she was a big Marvin Gaye fan.  I had already decided to do the tune and was going to do it as an instrumental, but she expressed interest in singing on the track.  It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass it up.

SV:  Your first record came out in ’98.  There was a long time until your next record, Paris Blue in 2005. What were you doing in between the first two solo recordings?
KE:  I had moved to New York and was playing with a lot of different people there.  I was concentrating on playing as much as I could.  Plus I had a band of my own.  I was playing with many different bands around New York, also Europe a bit.  It was a few years before I got back to composing.

SV:  I’m curious how you compose.  Your long time co-writer Michael Stevens appears to be a major influence in writing Paris Blue and the soundtracks you’ve written.  How much of composing is a collaborative experience?
KE:  Quite a bit.  We’ll sit down and start writing stuff together; or I’ll come up with part of a song or an idea for a song, and we sit down and work it out, change it, add to it.  We work well together that way.

SV:  Michael is part of your European band too, right?
KE:  Yes, he’ll be playing on the next few dates I’m playing.

SV: Your new record Now which came out October 2006 was again, a surprise. It is a delicious mix of your brand of contemporary jazz along with vocal tracks.  Was there some special inspiration to include vocals on this record?
KE:  Ben Cullum did most of the vocals on the album.  I had met him through his brother, Jamie.  Ben ended up coming out and sitting in with my band on several occasions.  I thought it’d be good to get together with him and write some songs.  We spent about 3 or 4 days writing.  He’s a really good songwriter.  He’s a very good bass player as well.  He writes a lot of songs for his brother and plays in his brother’s band.  He writes and sings some of his own projects and plays with a band around London.

SV:  You actually lived in London, right?  Did you play the music scene there?
KE:  I did.  I was there for about a year and a half.

SV:  Then you moved to Paris.  I was wondering about the motivation for moving to Europe.  Was it musical expression, personal expression?
KE:  A little bit of both.  I was working over there quite a bit when I was living in New York.  There were some people I’d met in Paris so I moved there.  My daughter was there in school as well.  I went back and forth for a while.  Then I moved back to Paris and have been there for a few years.

SV:  You play for both European and Japanese audiences.  How do they compare to the US crowds?
KE:  The Europeans, the French especially, and Japanese are really into jazz.  They have more of an open mind for that sort of thing.  We’ve always had good reception in those places.  There are quite a few festivals in Europe so we get the opportunity to play quite a bit.  It’s one of the reasons to live there.

SV: Being a musician, you've been at this for a long time. You declared yourself a musician at age 18.  As time goes by, are people judging your music on its own merits, for your own achievements?
KE:  I’d like to think so.  Obviously, who I’m related to comes up quite a bit, but when you’re related to somebody that famous, it’s hard to escape.  I think musicians know that I’m into the music for music’s sake.

SV: What's the first jazz album that you bought for yourself?
KE:  Some of the first ones were a couple of Weather Report records.  And Chick Corea’s Now He Sings, Now He Sobs was one of the earliest ones.  Around the house growing up, my parents played a lot of great music, big band stuff like Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton, and Count Basie.

SV: Growing up you had a close proximity to the Monterey Jazz Festival.  How many times have you attended the Monterey Jazz Festival?
KE: I don’t know (laughs) it’s quite a few times.  I was 7 or 8 the first time.  Probably over 20 times.

SV:  Did you say to yourself as a young kid, "I'm going to play there one day?"
KE:  Not really, at first.  I started entertaining the idea later, when I was a teenager, 16 or 17. I first played there in 1994.

SV:  You also played there in ‘96, ‘99, and 2005. That’s a pretty good track record for a young musician to play there that often.
KE:  Thank you.

SV: What's next? 
KE:  I’m working on some music for a couple of films and a documentary.  I’m just getting back to writing for the new album - trying to figure out where to go next.  Hopefully I’ll start to record that soon.

SV: You have written, scored and won awards for film soundtracks, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Letters From Iwo Jima and Flags Of Our Fathers. What do you like about scoring films?
KE:  It’s a different kind of thing, than writing for an album.  It’s an interesting challenge.  You’re limited to writing something that doesn’t get in the way and complements what’s on the screen.  Obviously there are a lot of time constraints, say, when you’re writing a 5 second piece of music as opposed to a 5 minute piece of music.  It’s a different kind of ball game.  I enjoy the challenge.

SV:  It’s a richer, deeper way of approaching music that provides an emotional vehicle for people, tapping into not only what they are hearing but what they are seeing.
KE:  Exactly.

SV:  Well, I think you are awesome! Thank you very much.  Here’s wishing you continued freedom of expression!  We’re the ones that truly benefit from it!
 
Visit Kyle Eastwood online at www.kyleeastwood.com and www.myspace.com/kyleeastwood