Sara Caswell: Jazz violinist

Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman

10/05/24

•

68m

About

Comments

Featured In

I was honoured to have this opportunity to record this conversation with the phenomenal violinist Sara Caswell, who is a GRAMMY Nominee for the Best Improvised Jazz Solo. We focused on the recent 9 Horses album, Strum with mandolinist and composer Joseph Brent, and she also spoke to me about some of her other collaborators including esperanza spalding, Chuck Owen, Nadje Noordhuis, and mentors including David Baker, Mimi Zweig and Josef Gingold. She shared how she started playing the 10 stringed Hardanger d’amore, her rich early musical life in Bloomington, and how she is grounded and inspired from her family and friends.

You can read the transcript or watch the video, both linked here on my website: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/sara-caswell

https://9horses.bandcamp.com/album/strum

https://saracaswell.com/

Merchandise store: https://www.leahroseman.com/beautiful-shirts-and-more Buy me a coffee? https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman Thanks!

Newsletter sign-up: https://mailchi.mp/ebed4a237788/podcast-newsletter

Catalog of Episodes: https://www.leahroseman.com/about

photo: Shervin Lainez

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(02:19) 9 Horses album Strum, Joe Brent

(07:12) clip from The House that Ate Myself, 9 horses album Strum

(08:30) 9 horses trio and different recording projects

(11:50) clip from Americannia from 9 horses ablum Strum

(13:09) acoustic versus electric violin

(15:06) about Sara’s Hardanger d’amore fiddle

(23:00) clip from Long Time Away

(25:27) Sara’s approach to teaching jazz

(28:33) GRAMMY nomination, Chuck Owen the Jazz Surge

(32:59) Sara Caswell quartet The Way to You, Nadje Noorduis

(34:26) excerpt from South Shore Sara Caswell quartet The Way to You by Nadje Noorduis

(37:30) early musical life in Bloomington, David Baker, supportive parents, Mimi Zweig

(40:55) Josef Gingold

(48:14) related episodes and ways to support this project

(48:57) Bloomington years with David Baker, Jamey Abersold, Janis Stockhouse, Stanley Ritchie

(53:32) New York early years, John Blake, Sylvia Rosenberg

(56:47) clip from Jennie Pop Nettle-Eater

(57:22) meeting Joe Brent

(59:18) esperanza spalding

(01:02:54) the joy of collaboration

(01:04:31) clip from Strum

(01:05:19) work-life balance and self-care

Previous Episode

Mark Deutsch and his Bazantar

September 30, 2024

•

132m

Mark Deutsch is a brilliant and unique musician who has devoted the last 3 decades of his life to his instrument the Bazantar, which is unique to him. There is only one Bazantar, which is a double bass hybrid with elements of the sitar: it has 6 main strings, 4 drone strings, and 29 sympathetic strings. Mark grew up as a multi-instrumentalist, but primarily a classical, jazz and rock bass player, and gave up a successful career as a performer to devote himself to the Bazantar. While studying sitar with Ustad Imrat Khan, Mark begin delving into the universal fundamentals of music and its underlying frequency structures. The nonlinear mathematical patterns that exist in sound are found universally in the natural world, includeng seashells, and Mark goes into some of the math of the overtone series in some detail, as well as fascinating specifics of how the Bazantar and his playing of it have evolved. You’ll hear Mark talk about how he developed his patented engineering solution to construct a separate housing for the sympathetic strings. In this episode, Mark demonstrated live, and also is sharing not only excerpts from previously released recordings, but a preview from an upcoming album.

Mark Deutsch website https://bazantar.com/

Podcast website with Transcript and Video link: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/mark-deutsch-and-his-bazantar

Buy me a coffee? https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman

Merchandise store to support the podcast: https://www.leahroseman.com/beautiful-shirts-and-more

Newsletter sign-up: https://mailchi.mp/ebed4a237788/podcast-newsletter

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(03:16) Mark’s background, sitar, and inspiration for creating the Bazantar

(10:52) Bazantar music: excerpt from Lahja from the Picasso Tunings

(12:13) studying sitar with Imrat Khan

(14:10) Alain Danielou’s book Music and the Power of Sound, the math of frequencies and music

(18:14) building the Bazantar

(22:17) excerpt from Avodah from the album Fool

(23:32) Prehistoric Planet

(25:09) 8Dio samples, different tunings and playing techniques

(34:19) Bazantar demo

(39:37) Other episodes you’ll like and different ways to support this series!

(40:54) sympathetic strings with demo

(44:09) excerpt from The Crooked Road from The Picasso Tunings

(45:04) prototypes and the patented engineering solution to the Bazantar

(55:55) different bridge designs

(58:46) improvisation plucked Bazantar

(01:04:13) cross-country tour stories with the Bazantar, Mark’s musical interests

(01:08:38) different approaches to improvisation, learning to play what you’re hearing

(01:14:05) Mark’s approach to teaching and playing

(01:21:50) first album “Fool” with both sitar and Bazantar

(01:25:40) excerpt from Painted Bird on Fool

(01:26:58) fasting

(01:29:00) Picasso Tunings albums

(01:31:45) Antique Slippers, 8th movement from the Picasso Tunings

(01:35:25) decision to move to San Franciso, different tunings

(01:39:18) special effect with just the sympathetic strings with demo from unreleased recording Bardo

(01:42:29) Jaron Lanier, Quincy Jones disbelief

(01:44:13) more Bazantar demos, ideas about improvisation, background to Kundalini Rising

(01:51:54) excerpt from Kundalini Rising from Fool

(01:52:55) more demos and the math of the harmonics and frequencies, developing the Bazantar

(02:08:25) Mark’s approach to improvisation

Next Episode

Gilad Weiss: Moving Strings

October 14, 2024

•

101m

Gilad Weiss takes us on a visit to his music studio and improvises on several of his instruments, including the fretless guitar, and some of the instruments from Turkey and Central Asia, such as the kopuz, the baglama and the Turkmenistani dutar. He also spoke to me about his duo project with the Anatolian kamanche player Melisa Yildirim and we’re including a track from their beautiful album, which is linked below, along with Gilad’s album Improvisations on Fretless Guitar Volume 1, and the ways to connect with Gilad. He shared his valuable insights about teaching music, and teaching the guitar, improvisation and interesting details about the modes and tuning systems for the various instruments he demonstrates. This episode has a lot of improvised music; Gilad spent much of the interview with an instrument in his hand; please use the detailed timestamps (below) to navigate the episode, which like all my episodes you can either watch on my YouTube or listen to on all the podcast platforms, and the transcript is here too: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/gilad-weiss

https://giladweiss.bandcamp.com/album/improvisations-on-fretless-guitar

https://www.youtube.com/@TheShfanfan

https://www.facebook.com/giladweis

https://www.instagram.com/gilad.weiss.hadad/

https://talus.info/

It’s a joy to be able to bring these meaningful conversations to you, but this project costs me quite a bit of money and lots of time; please support this series through either my merchandise store or on my Ko-fi page:
https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman

Here's the merchandise store: https://www.leahroseman.com/beautiful-shirts-and-more

Newsletter sign-up: https://mailchi.mp/ebed4a237788/podcast-newsletter

You may be also interested in my episodes with lutenist Elizabeth Pallett, guitarists including masters Derek Gripper, Daniel Ramjattan, or Marc van Vugt, along with many episodes featuring traditional and improvised music from around the world. Catalog of Episodes: ⁠https://www.leahroseman.com/about⁠

photo: Daria Perelmuter

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:24) saz, dutar, guitar, fingernails

(06:31) intro to “Late Night” from Improvisations on Fretless Guitar, Volume 1

(07:16)fretless guitar “Late Night” from Improvisations on Fretless Guitar, Volume 1

(11:50) Gilad’s fretless guitar, Erkan Oğur

(14:29) fretless guitar improvisation

(16:30) album with kamancheh player Melisa Yildirim

(24:49) Yeldeğirmeni Zeybeği | Windmill Zeybek from Talûs with Melisa Yildirim and Gilad

(28:11) musical experiences in Turkey, Engin Topuzkanamış

(33:40) kopuz (tambur) history and demo, tuning system