GB. First, let's talk about your recordings.
NG. Okay.
GB. You made your first records with Harry Connick no?
NG. Yes. Blue Light Red Light was the first. You can basically break my recordings down to three categories; those with Connick, my groups, and Ben Wolfe. I think the one I made with Neal Caine is coming out at some point also.
GB. Talk about the Connick ones first.
NG. Alright. On Harry's I usually got one tune per CD where I'm heavily featured . Some of the solos sound pretty good. I especially like "It's Time" and "Change Partners". The albums, "To See You" and "Other Hours" feature me throughout.
GB. Did you perform these live?
NG. The records I just mentioned had short tours so I obviously played a lot on those. As for the rest, it was like the late Beatles; studio only.
GB. You made how many with Ben Wolfe?
NG. Three that were released, one more that I haven't heard.
GB. Are you happy with these?
NG. They have their moments. He's an interesting composer. I play okay on them for the most part.
GB. I gather you'd rather talk about yours.
NG. I would.
GB. Okay, what about Gooold?
NG. Gooooooooooooold! I'm not that crazy about that one. Although it seems to be the one that most people like.
GB. Why?
NG. The recording is better than the others, the drums are really exciting, and my 12 tone ramblings are mainly confined to the heads (melodies).
GB. People don't like the 12 tone stuff?
NG. Apparently not.
GB. It has more original compositions than the others.
NG. That's because, at that point in my development, I wasn't able to improvise with my system so it had to be written out. Then I would solo conventionally over the changes of the tunes. Actually, "Epistrophy" is somewhat of a departure. It took years to be able to play that as poorly as I do on the record (I still can't play it). "Hazmat" was hard too. And you read where Arch, poor guy, talks about the drawing board? That's what "Entropy" is all about.
GB. How so?
NG. That whole date, which was recorded very cheaply (I wasn't working too much at the time), was a demonstration of what I was up to as far as implementing my theoretical researches which involved fitting 12 notes in the space of 8 which entailed speeding up the tempo proportionally but playing the new tempo in 4 which is the innovation because there's nothing new about playing in that particular different time.
GB. But all the tunes aren't like that.
NG. Right around the time of that recording I started playing the patterns in four which is more abstract harmonically than the polyrhythmic way because the harmony isn't designed to coincide exactly. Which is the next step amply displayed on "Thanks Ira".
GB. Which?
NG. "Thanks Ira". It's not released. My other record is called "The Flows", which is a collection of live performances collected from when my trio opened up the show for Harry Connick. There's some new unrecorded tunes on there and live versions of already recorded ones. It took me months to pick out the particular tunes for it since I had 47 shows recorded. I can't really tell if I like it anymore, I go back and forth.
GB. It sounds like you don't like much you've done.
NG. I tend to wear them out. I also have very high standards for myself, I'm competing with people like Bach in my mind. So you can imagine my disappointment. Although I like "Thanks Ira" a lot and I'm excited about my new group. Also, I won a grant that I had to write an extended piece for. I'm proud of that one.
GB. What's your new group?
NG. I've added piano, which seems to work well. My latest CD is called "Variations and Get Your Groove On". This is a combination of my grant piece and a session I did with my new quartet, which I plan to make my new working band.
GB. Sounds exciting, good luck with all that.
NG. Thanks.