his sound
 
his style
 
his range
 
his growth
 
his quest
 
his songs
 
 
 
<< back

Chris’s Quest

When Chris is given the chance to talk about his own work, it soon becomes apparent that his musical growth is something to which he has given a lot of thought, and that he has definite ideas about what he wishes to achieve. This focus and dedication accounts for much of his steady and impressive growth as a musician:
1996 [re his reversion to classic-quartet format for Moving In]:  “I wanted to use the most common group of instruments, so that there wasn’t going to be a new sound. But within that context, I wanted to try and establish a voice. I felt that I was on some sort of path that could lead to my finding my own coherent musical language.
“It’s actually pretty easy to do something new. But to really hear what’s in your head, what you feel really expresses you, that rises in an organic way and takes a lot of time and a conscious effort toward that goal.
“[I’m interested in] the possibilities that lie in the relationship of harmony to rhythm, the way Charlie Parker sort of put together a language that really depended on landing on certain notes on certain parts of the beat. I want to find a new way of doing that. Bird’s playing never loses its newness. There are so many seeds in his work ... and I think that there are a lot of things left to do in that sort of direction.”
more >>