Frank Presley's interview with guitarist James Muller 24

Historical article recovered from a Wayback capture dated 2018-02-24.

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April 2005

“The first music I really loved was Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. All that hard rock stuff.”

Frank Presley:

In terms of recognition, how important are all the awards you have accumulated over the past 5 years?

James Muller:

Those are useful for people that aren’t part of the jazz crowd. It’s a nice thing to put on your CV basically. It’s also a very nice thing to have anyway - the recognition.

FP:

Recognition by your peers and recognition in the jazz industry market place?

JM:

Yes absolutely. That’s right.

FP:

As a guitarist, your first choice of music was rock music but tell us how you discovered jazz?

JM:

The first music I really loved was Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. All that hard rock stuff. I was always really interested in the complexities of music to begin with. I remember one of the last bands I listened to before I got into jazz was ‘Queen’. A lot of their music gets a little bit harmonically and melodically - it gets a little bit complex. I was very drawn to that. For some reason I just loved the sound of modulating stuff. I guess that’s what drew me to jazz. Jazz is quite a complex style of music. I’ve always liked that sort of sound. Musical sophistication I guess, I was very drawn to.

FP:

You have a very easy and relaxed almost laid-back manner when playing the guitar. Have you always been like that or does it come with playing jazz rather than rock?

JM:

I think a lot of that comes from the fact that I’m actually innately sort of lazy as a person. I don’t want anything to be too difficult while I’m playing. It just comes from practice. When you’re improvising which is what people do when they are playing jazz, you can’t be struggling with your instrument because you’re really thinking off the top of your head a lot of the time, so everything’s got to be coming pretty easily. I have just worked at it hard enough to get it to that point where I can, as you say, play pretty relaxed.

FP:

Tell us about your tune ‘Kaboom’ (recorded with Bill Stewart and Matt Penman in New York)

JM:

It was actually a tune that I wrote just before I left for New York. I didn’t have quite enough tunes to record before I left so I quickly sat around the last few days before I left and madly tried to think of something and this what came out. It’s a pretty standard 4/4 jazz tune. Bill Stewart on drums and Matt Penman on bass who is originally from New Zealand and has been living in New York for the last ten years or so.

FP:

Bill Stewart also learnt the piano and has been described as a very melodic drummer by greats like Joe Lovano and John Scofield. Given Bill Stewart has been so closely associated with one of the biggest names in jazz guitar in John Scofield over the years, did you in particular seek out Bill Stewart and how did that come about?

JM:

The reason the whole thing came about is that I won the Freedman Fellowship and part of my proposal for the competition was to record with a New York band. I’d been listening to Bill Stewart ever since I got into jazz really. As you say he’s worked with John Scofield and Pat Metheny who are two of my favourite guitarists in the whole wide world and Joe Lovano who I love and also he’s played with Maceo Parker and on billions of records that I’ve got and I’ve always wanted to play with him. I plucked up the courage one night when I was in New York last September to ask him if he would play on my record and he was very ‘not sure’ ‘who the hell are you’ sort of thing. I said look, can I send you a CD from Australia and you can make up your mind whether you want to do it and I did and he said he really liked it and agreed to do the session. That’s how it came about.

FP:

What particular CD did you send him?

JM:

I made up a compilation of various CD’s and live things on my computer. All of the stuff that I thought represented me the best.

FP:

As a jazz guitarist, are you influenced by guitar players only or do you list other instrumentalists or even vocalists as influences?

JM:

Initially it was very much the guitar. It was Jim Hall and herb Ellis and Joe Pass. The mainstream guys but I very quickly got into saxophone. John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker. The saxophone things a big thing and Michael Brecker was another person that I really love. I transcribed all these people and learnt their licks and translated that to my own playing. Also piano players have been really important and drummers. The Rhythms that I play often come directly from drummers. Tony Williams is one of my big big idols as well as Bill of course and Elvin Jones.

FP:

Tell us about the tune you recorded in New York ‘Honeycombs’?

JM:

This is actually a tune written by a great Sydney keyboard player Sean Wayland. Sean is a really big hero of mine. He’s a bit older than me and picked me up when I first came to Sydney from Adeliade and gave me some gigs and I’ve been playing with him ever since. He of course spent a lot of time in New York City. He lived there for three years I think. Matt Penman, the bass player is a great friend of his and has played on the last two of Sean’s New York recordings and that’s the whole reason I met up with Matt and played with him.

FP:

What’s the future hold for James Muller?

JM:

I’ve got two records in the can. I’ve actually done another one with my Australian band. Felix Bloxom drums and Brett Hirst bass, which we recorded last September (2004). I’m really keen to get that out. I’m really going to make a good snap at getting my own music out there around Australia. I’ve been a bit lazy in the past where I’ve just let the phone ring rather than actually being proactive about it. So that’s my big goal, to get my music out there.

FP:

What record labels will the albums be released on?

JM:

The Australian one, I’m still not sure. With the one recorded in New York, I’m actually trying to get put out on a label called ‘Fresh Sounds New Talents’, which is a Spanish label, which have been putting out a lot of the younger New York musicians. Matt Penman himself, Brad Meldau, Kurt Rosenwinkel and through Matt, I think I’ve got a really good chance of getting that put out which would be really great because it would be world wide distribution which is what I really need. All Australian jazz musicians need to get their music outside of Australia.