Douglas R. Ewart Home Page

Pulse of The Twin Cities

Beyond Jazz
Douglas Ewart's Crepescule

By Jon Jon

Douglas Ewart is truly an original- To simply call him a musician is a disservice. Ewart is also an educator, composer, and inventor. On his new recording Angels of Entrance (Aarawak), Ewart has enlisted some of the most adventurous players in jazz, including Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Don Byron and Henry Threadgill. Ewart has not only created a symphony of clarinets, but has arranged them in a way that doesn't easily fit into any jazz category. Although jazz is his major influence, Ewart draws his inspiration from a variety of cultures. Among the many boards that he sits on, Ewart is a longtime member of the prestigious Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, which encourages musicians to explore the boundaries of sound. Ewart is also responsible for Crepuscule, an interactive fall ritual now in its fifth year, held in Powderhorn Park. (The word crepuscule comes from a Thelonious Monk composition and means 'twilight activity"). I spoke with Ewart recently about his new recording and the event at Powderhorn.

Jon Jon. What are some of the events that take place in the park?

Douglas Ewart: This is the fifth year that we've been doing this. What it is basically are all the art forms that I can possibly get. I have martial arts, poetry, and music. Some of the activity takes place on the water and around the lake. We start off as a group with the boats placed in the water as the music begins. There's a procession around the entire circumference of the lake. The people are in groups called pods. They have designated, but before they go we make one revolution around the lake. Then each group goes to their area and performs their activity. At the end there's a whole interaction among all the groups.

JJ: Your new record is quite unconventional. It's made up entirely of clarinets, no percussion. What inspired you to use all clarinets?

DE: We're utilizing the entire family of clarinets. We have the sopranino, the b-flat, the alto clarinet, the contra bass. So we have the entire family. The instrumentation of the group leaves out percussion because each musician is capable of sustaining his own rhythmic pulse. Certain types of percussion cut off the frequency of the other instruments. With this type instrumentation you get the opportunity to hear aspects of the clarinet that you wouldn't hear if you had percussion involved.

JJ: Angels has a sound that may be foreign to most jazz fans. Does that make it difficult to market?

DE: I don't think so. Actually this recording has a number of participants who are successful individuals in music. The area that we're in, we don't call it jazz. We're black composers and many of our influences come from what was labeled jazz. [But] many of the composers cover a wide and vast area of music and that definition was inadequate.

JJ: Are you at all worried about the sales potential of Angels?

DE: It's going fine. It has several people on it who are successful. So that helps with the selling aspect. Edward Wilkerson is a well-known composer from Chicago who's a member [of the AACM] We have Henry Threadgill, Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Malachi Favors, J.D. Parran, and Don Byron. So some people may know Byron from klezmer music or they may know Braxton from orchestra music. The people involved with this album have very diverse range of activity. That helps.

JJ: What kind of support do you get from the local music community?

DE: There's a certain openness here, concerning the arts and culture in general. It's not a musically developed city such as Chicago where I lived for many years. The support the community gives here compared to other cities is tremendous. The changing influences from new groups here contributes to the musical growth. The cultural activities among the new groups helps make Minnesota a great place to live. At Crepuscule we seek diversity. In terms of the arts, we have people from various cultures and religious backgrounds taking part in these activities.

JJ: What about the younger generations? How do you feel about the growing hip-hop community?

DE. I think it shows creativity. Because when you think about what many of the young people have had to work with, their musical resources in a sense have been limited. Many of them have never had the opportunity to study music. Some of this music is thoughtfully done with a lot of energy. Some of it is to be trashed, like any genre - not every be-bop player is worth listening to. Not everyone's rendition of Beethoven's Ninth is worth listening to either. It takes skill to make the Ninth hip. In fact people often come to me and suggest I do certain songs that are considered standards and strike it rich. I don't believe in playing down to certain kinds of demons or gods. I don't see that as being valid to what I do.

JJ. How do you feel about the lack of originality in music today?

DE: Everyone can't be original. Everyone can't manipulate or develop their individuality to the point that they make this striking statement. People do have to imitate. You could sound like Ella Fitzgerald, cool. People want to hear that. Some want to be reminded of that. My brain doesn't work that way. I wasn't sent here to do that. That's what I believe.