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Frank Presley's interview with saxophonist and clarinettist Adrian Cunningham 24
Frank Presley's interview with saxophonist and clarinettist Adrian Cunningham 24 th April 2005 "Writing and performing my own music, that's one of my…
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th
April 2005
“Writing and performing my own music, that’s one of my real joys in life.”
Frank Presley:
Your working band has been together now for three or four years. It must be very satisfying to be able to maintain the same working band for this period of time and record a second album with the same line-up? Adrian Cunningham: We got together to record a previous CD a couple of years ago and since then we’ve been performing and writing and it’s come to the second album. A lot of tunes we’ve been playing for a year or two and we went into the studio and put a few new songs on there as well, but they are just fantastic musicians to play with because anything that I put in front of them, they make sound fantastic. So when I’m writing a tune, I have no limits in terms of what I’m thinking up so it’s a real pleasure.
FP:
Tell us about the island Suite?
AC:
That was a lot of work and I’m really happy with the result. It was something that was conceived a long time ago and really had a lot of hours of input in terms of making it come to music, because I was inspired by two islands in the South Pacific. It took a while to translate those experiences into music. I’m happy with the result.
FP:
You studied with the great American clarinettist Eddie Daniels. Tell us about that?
AC:
It was years of education condensed into one or two weeks. It was that intense and that fantastic. I came away from those lessons a completely different musician with things that I’ll still be working on for the rest of my life. Eddie is without a doubt one of the most incredible clarinettists on the planet. He is capable of classical music and jazz music. He really has no limits and to be in a room with him and to watch him play and to watch him talk about his approach to the instrument was inspiring. I’m always thinking about that when I’m picking up the instrument.
FP:
Who are your main influences in jazz?
AC:
I grew up with Benny Goodman, Woody Herman and in terms of tenor players, I really love Joshua Redman. I think Joshua Redman is an incredible musician. I love the spirit of his playing there is a lot of joy that I feel when I hear him playing. A lot of the greats. I love Sonny Rollins. Sonny Rollins really makes me smile too. I’ve gone through stages of listening to many many musicians. I think a lot of guys do (listen to many musicians) just discovering as much as we can. Cannonball Adderley is another musician that I really love as well.
FP:
What are Adrian Cunningham’s future plans?
AC:
In the immediate future, I’m off to Hong Kong for five weeks to do a show over there ‘Saturday Night Fever’. That’ll be great. I’m really looking forward to it. Hong Kong is an incredible town. Long term, just to continue writing and performing my own music. That’s one of my real joys in life and it really makes me happy so I think more of that and as much travelling with my music as I can.
