Name: Phil Dawson
Nationality: British
Occupation: Composer, improviser, guitarist
Current release: Phil Dawson's new album Don’t Waste Your Ancestors’ Time is out via Funkiwala.

If you enjoyed this Phil Dawson interview and would like to know more about his music, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram, tiktok, and Facebook.
 


What were some of the musical experiences which planted a seed for your interest in jazz?

I was into piano initially, not guitar.

There was only one teacher where I grew up who had a broader view of music. I was lucky to have lessons. This guy made us play in groups as kids and transcribed stuff for us to play I could therefore play a bit of Larry Carlton and suchlike but without having a clue about how they might be created. I had to work that out for myself later.

Later, our teacher got into 12 tone composition, and said you could get everything from Bach, Bartok and Miles Davis. My dad liked Fats Waller, so I heard that a lot.



The first modern jazz record that I heard was Mingus’ Paris Concert with Eric Dolphy and Jaki Byard, whose stride piano breakdown I loved, but the rest went over my head of course. Before that time I preferred punk rock.

How do jazz and jazz culture factor into your artistic processes and the music resulting from them?

Subconsciously I guess.

What does the term jazz mean today, would you say?

Same as it ever did IMO – spontaneous music originally created by afro americans but adopted and transformed by people everywhere.

Jazz was about a lot more than just music in the 60s and 70s, from politics to fashion. For you personally, is jazz still a way of life – and if so, in which way?

I tend to wing it generally, for better or worse. Also, I struggle with authority and hierarchies, so it fits with that for me.

Anarchy or  holarchy might be a more mature mindset than top down rule politically, as everyone has to be responsible. Improvised music could be an expression of that mindset.

Many people perceive jazz as a genre with high barriers of entrance, both for listeners and musicians. What have your own experiences been in this regard?

A good artist can draw an audience in, I think, even if they’re doing out-there stuff. For musicians, anything worth doing obliges taking the time and attention. It’s clearly not the sort of thing that you bother trying to do long-term if you don’t truly love it anyway.

However, to even make such a decision possible, young kids should have exposure to live music, and most are not getting enough. They are excluded from even experiencing it.

This is an urgent matter of class and economic circumstances as well as of all the competing distractions…

Derek Bailey defined improvising as the search for material which is endlessly transformable. As of 2024, what kind of materials are particularly stimulating for you?

I appreciate DB, saw him play and have some of his recordings, but I find that music transforms anyway as you play it, without the need for micro-attention. Add ingredients, taste it, repeat. Like cooking, so the cliché goes.

I suppose I try to convey an overall feeling and always try to perfect something or other (perfection never arrives, but something else you didn’t expect often does.)

How would you describe your relationship with your instrument – is it an extension of your self/body, a partner and companion, a creative catalyst, a challenge to be overcome, something else entirely?
 
A challenge.

Piano is my natural first instrument, and I always found that much easier.

How, would you say are your live performances and your recording projects connected at the moment? How do they mutually influence and feed off each other?  

I tend to rope in more people to record than I have the capacity to on a typical gig, so I have to do much more on the guitar when performing live.

For recordings, it’s just one of the textures. The new LP doesn’t have many guitar solos, let’s put it that way.

There are various models to support jazz artists, from financial help  to mentorships/masterclasses. Which of these feel like the best way forward to you?

No-strings-attached patronage from any of the wealthy foundations that exist to divert attention from class struggle to cultural matters ha ha.

Seriously though, money from such sources could easily be granted generously and used to fund professionals who should then use it to perform in primary and secondary schools, to give next generations a feel of it.

Are there approaches, artists, festivals, labels, spaces or anyone/-thing else out there who you feel deserve a shout out for taking jazz into the future?

I can’t give a straight answer to that without thinking ‘whose future’ or even ‘what future’. I’m sorry to digress.

The futuristic visions we are fed tend to be dystopian or anti-life. Watching concerts online whilst not being able to attend in person? Zoom masterclasses? Digital ID to get into a festival? Screw that.

Shambala is one of my favourite festivals in the UK, mainly as it has managed to keep corporatism out, but progressively-minded people should be careful what they are welcoming in (cashless society – cui bono? Not us.)

The Montreux Festival intends to preserve its archive of recordings for future generations. Do you personally feels it's important that everything should remain available forever - or is there something to be said for letting beautiful moments pass and linger in the memories of those that experienced them?

There’s no obligation to use an archive as an excuse to market an art form as a museum piece.

I don’t believe that (say) playing the whole of ‘Kind of Blue’ note for note (to use a real life recent example from a UK show) contributes to progress. Maybe if someone did that with ‘On the Corner’ though …