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Q: Thurman is a product of Chicago, Illinois, and a founding member from a very young age of the AACM. It's there really that the sources of his music are to be found. So I'd like to now start to talk about your early years in the music in Chicago, when you were coming up, even before you became a member of the AACM -- how you picked up on the drums and began in music. TB: Well, I first used to take tap dancing. That was my first exposure to a form of art, you know, was tap dancing. I really got into it. Of course, I'm in grade school now, and I'm taking these tap dancing lessons about three days a week. But during my eighth year in grade school, we used to have these concerts on Fridays. They called them assemblies, you know, the drama department would put on a show or something. This particular afternoon, it was a drummer, and he came up with a full drum set, and it was just him by himself. His name was Roy Robinson, and he left a very big impression on me at that point.
So when I started high school, I started taking private lessons. I studied at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, under James Dutton, who was head of the percussion department there. I feel I got a very good training, because for the first two years I really didn't see a drum set. I worked out of these workbooks for harmony and learning the basic notation of music and things like this, and just working on rudiments on the snare drum. So I really didn't see a drum set until later on.
Q: Were you also working with musicians your age, doing gigs? TB: Well, sure. But at this time you've got to remember, the first couple of years I wasn't really playing any gigs. But I was very active on the session scene in Chicago. Monday nights were the big nights for sessions. Club De Lisa, which was a very famous night-spot in Chicago, the Coral Club on the South Side, the C.C. Lounge at 66th and Cottage Grove -- a lot of these places had sessions every Monday. In any other city, probably it would work the same. You would go down, you'd meet people, you'd get up and you'd play. So I was very active, and I made sure that I got there. Of course, I wasn't thinking of working; I just wanted to play. Fortunately, the activity was there for it to happen. I got to New York in the fall of 1979. I don't know if that kind of activity is still going on in Chicago. But at that time it was like a training ground for me. Q: Let's narrow down the years we're speaking of right now. TB: Oh, it was '62, '63, in that period. You had a lot of jazz clubs that were still very big at that time, which the most famous one, where Miles Davis recorded, was the Plugged Nickel . . . Q: Which was on the North Side. TB: Which was on the North Side. So I got very active on the session scene. Later on I started jobbing around with people. People would meet you at a session, and they would give you a Saturday night, a party to play or a wedding. One thing led to another, and the next thing I knew, I started working with this saxophone player by the name of John Epps. He was a big local guy in Chicago that did a lot of parties. And that was my first steady employment, I would say, from music, was with this saxophone player. We used to work at a North Side Club in Chicago; I can't think of the name. I was still young now. I was still in high school, you see, really my sophomore year. Q: Who were some of the musicians in Chicago who you admired at that time? TB: Well, Eddie Harris was a big idol of mine. Because my drum teacher used to work with Eddie Harris. His name was Harold Jones, and he was the drummer with Eddie Harris at the time. And Don Patterson, the organist, was around a lot. Of course, Von Freeman was very active. But I didn't know Von; I knew his brother, George Freeman, who was a guitarist. So during those years I was pretty much working few jobs with George, and I didn't get to meet Von until later on.Anyway, so I had my first employment with John Epps, and we had this four- night gig on the North Side. I made $7 a night. And that was a big deal for me. In high school . . .
Q: This was pre-OPEC. TB: So I had this gig, and my parents, of course, were into it, because they used to have to take me there, and go back home, and three or four hours later come back and pick me up . . . So it was a reassurance, of course, for my parents that I was getting active. Of course, for them they weren't really concerned about the money I was making, but just the fact that I was getting active at something that they had taken some money to give me music lessons, and they were beginning to see it pay off. One thing led to the other, you know. Q: You mentioned Eddie Harris. And in 1961, he and Muhal Richard Abrams began to form a rehearsal band that eventually became the core of the Experimental Band, and that became the core of the AACM. TB: That's right. Q: This is a convoluted way of asking how you first encountered the Experimental Band and got into the AACM. TB: At this time the Experimental Band was functioning. Of course, I didn't know, but it was functioning. And how I got to meet Muhal was, when I was in high school, one of my best friends turned out to be Muhal's son, and he knew that I was in the band in high school. And in high school, you know, you hang out together at lunch periods, and talk. Of course, I was a little different, and he wanted to find out what I was always doing after school. I was going home practicing, you know. And he told me that his father had a band rehearsal and was a bandleader, and for me to come down and check it out. So I said, "Wow!"So of course, I took advantage of it. One Monday night he took me down to the rehearsal. Now, at this particular time the Experimental Band was rehearsing every Monday night at [the Abraham] Lincoln Center in Chicago. Lincoln Center is one of the cultural centers on the South Side. So they were in rehearsal. And that was my first encounter of the AACM.
Q: For people who don't know, just describe what the Experimental Band was. TB: The Experimental Band was a band put together of a lot of musicians on the South Side, including Eddie Harris, Phil Cohran, Roscoe Mitchell, Delbert Hill . . . Q: And Muhal, of course. TB: Muhal, of course! The Experimental Band was a band where musicians could come together and work on their own music. At that time there was a lot of energy among the musicians I just spoke of, Roscoe and Muhal, and they were at the point that they were doing a lot of writing. They were also jobbing around in Chicago and playing gigs and everything with big bands. Morris Ellis was one of the bandleaders around at that time that a lot of us worked with.But this was a place, though, for everybody to come together and work on some of their original compositions that they normally wouldn't get a chance to perform. It was run very orderly. Whoever had their composition up would direct it (of course, they would explain it first). Because we're talking about people who had really gotten up into their music, man. In fact, they had changed the music notation. They used different music notation! At that time, you had a few people who just didn't like the . . . Well, I'm not going to say they didn't like it, but they just had their own symbols, you know. So they had to explain this, you see.
And of course, this was very different for me, because I'm a kid. For me, it was something really different and brand-new, you know. And I got such a big charge out of the fact that these people, not only was the music different, but they were serious about it. I mean, they could explain what they had on paper, and they had a feeling about what they were explaining and what they were doing.
Q: So you had musicians of different predispositions coming together in a rather unique situation. . . TB: It was very unique! Q: What do you think were some of the forces in Chicago that enabled this? Is it possible for you to say? TB: Well, yeah. I'm sure a lot of it had to do with the fact that we were equal in terms of coming and discovering new ideas and new concepts of expressing and writing music. It's funny how it seemed to all happen with everybody at once, you see. The period that I knew of was '65. That was my first year of visiting the Experimental Band. So I think a lot of it had to do with, well, gee, nobody had any big record contract or nobody had 20 tours looking at him . . . Q: It took some of the pressure off. TB: It really did, I think. And the fact that we were all there together, and we were all equal in terms of discovering these new ideas. So there was no interference, I guess. Q: Also there wasn't that much work in Chicago at that time, was there? TB: There wasn't that much work. Q: The urban renewal on the South Side. TB: That's true. Q: The organ trios had changed. TB: A lot of the clubs. . So it did affect the music. So right there at the Lincoln Center we were able to just start sharing these ideas, and it was like school, you know. Because I used to come down to rehearsal, and here was Henry Threadgill, Vandy Harris, Roscoe Mitchell and Delbert Hill, the first time I heard a saxophone quartet. I never even thought of it. Then I came down and hear these guys, four of them in a corner, going over these quartets, and it was just great! It was just something that I hadn't seen.But sure, I think a lot of the fact that it was easy for us to come together, there wasn't a lot of work happening at that time, and it was just the opportune time for us to come together.
Q: Within the rehearsal band, there were different configurations and smaller groups that developed. I know you were playing with Joseph Jarman, and in 1967 you did your first records with Joseph Jarman and Muhal. TB: That's right, Joseph Jarman. Song For. Q: Tell us how you met Joseph, and some of the connections with Joseph and with Muhal. TB: Well, Joseph was right there in the woodwind section in the Experimental Band. Of course, he had a composition. Of course, by me going to school at the Conservatory, see, I had been introduced to playing mallets, like for tom- toms and tympany, you see. So he had a chart for mallets, you see. So we went through this chart, and he was a little amazed maybe, surprised that I had a touch for playing. Q: You could play the charts. TB: Yeah, I could play the charts. I could read. Q: Your rudiments were very developed. TB: Yeah, they were pretty developed at that point, that I could read, you see. And he had music; I mean, music for the drums. Of course, I had played all these other gigs with people, and there was no music. I would just go up and play. But here I come down to the Experimental Band, and these guys not only have music for the brass and woodwinds; they've got a chart for me. So that was in itself different.But anyway, after the chart he came over and told me how much he really liked the sound, and what I was into. And I told him that, well, I would like to play some music, I'm not playing with anybody. So he asked me to come down and start rehearsing with his group. So I would get down on a Monday early. At that time in the Experimental Band there was a bassist by the name of Charles Clark. He was a very exceptional player, and he also was in the string section in the Experimental Band. Obviously, Charles had done some playing with Joseph before, because I could see that they knew each other, see. And Fred Anderson, a saxophonist in Chicago, also was in the woodwind section. So when I got to our first rehearsal, well, Fred Anderson was there, Billy Brimfield, the trumpeter who lives in Evanston, and Charles Clark and Joseph and myself.
Q: Was Christopher Gaddy on that also? TB: And Christopher Gaddy, who was an exceptional keyboard player at the time. But we were all at this rehearsal, and that was the first time that I had got together with some people who were really playing some serious music, and I could see that it was just different. So I really wanted to be a part of that, you know. Q: Let's hear "Adam's Rib" from the first LP on which you participated, Joseph Jarman's Song For. Say something about the LP. TB: First of all, I was going to say that after four or five months of getting really active with Joseph and playing some gigs around Chicago and the Experimental Band, the surprising thing came up one day that Joseph said, "Look, we've got a record date." Q: Had you been gigging? A few jobs here and there? TB: We had a few gigs here and there. And it's funny, my only experience with gigs were in clubs. All of a sudden, I look up and we're playing in a bookstore. So immediately I knew that this music was going to take me in a different place. It was different, and it was exciting, you see. So just to make a long story short, I looked up one day, after I'd known Joseph four or five months I look up, and there I am in a studio making my very first record. Q: Do you think that Song For is representative of the music that Joseph was doing at the time with the group? TB: Yes, it is. Because the music that you're about to hear is the music that we were playing during this period, and this is 1967 in Chicago. [Music: "Adam's Rib"; example of TB'S percussion music; Muhal Richard Abrams, "The Bird Song"]TB: This is the stuff that was going in Chicago during this period. Q: Programmatic music of all idioms. TB: That's true. Of course, during this time, we were doing this in clubs! We didn't only do concerts at Abraham Lincoln Center. Q: There were concerts at the University of Chicago campus. TB: That's true. There were a lot of concerts. I can remember most Fridays there were concerts at the University of Chicago. Also, the Student Union there used to put on a lot of concerts that the AACM members participated in. So we had some people that liked this music, and supported it, and wanted it to be heard. Q: Meanwhile, the big band was still functioning. TB: The Big Band was functioning every Monday. And believe me, no matter what happened, we all made that Monday night available for the Experimental Band. Because hey, that was the time that somebody got their music played, and that was a real serious and big deal then. Q: Is Levels And Degrees of Light in any way representative of what was going on in the Big Band? TB: Yes, it is. Because in the Big Band we had people like Henry Threadgill. Well, you know Henry, he's really into theatre, you see. So for him to use the Big Band and use some recitation and some theatre, and be able to combine it, he definitely was one who would do it -- and of course, Muhal. And Joseph was doing a lot of theatrical material. A lot of stuff.
So this was all a brand-new experience for me, and I had never seen it anywhere else. Of course, by the time of this recording with Muhal Richard Abrams, Levels and Degrees Of Light, my second record, I am really involved musically and, you know, as a group. I really felt I wanted to be a part of this movement here that was happening.
Q: I neglected to ask you about some of your musical influences outside the Chicago music scene? Who were some of the tough drummers who you thought well of? TB: Well, the first guy that stands out is Cozy Cole. Cozy Cole was a very big influence on me, because in that period Cozy Cole made solo 45 called "Topsy." That was the very first drum solo that I memorized, beat for beat and rhythm for rhythm. I mean, I got that down. Because it just had a lot of emotion in it. So Cozy Cole was a very big influence on me at that time.Also Roy McCurdy, who was the drummer with Cannonball Adderley. And of course, my drum teacher, Harold Jones. During the latter part of the '60s there was a TV show that used to come on an educational station in Chicago, WTTW, a program that used to come on once a week called "Jazz Casual." This was my first time actually seeing the music on TV. Of course, Ed Sullivan and all them people were on TV, but the band never really got featured. But here was a TV show that featured music, you see. So I was influenced a lot by, of course, Philly Joe Jones, Roy McCurdy with Cannonball, and Elvin Jones, who was with John Coltrane's Quartet. I saw the original quartet on this show "Jazz Casual." The host of the show I think was Ralph Gleason. Anyway, he ran this show once a week, and I saw Nancy Wilson, Cannonball Adderley, the John Coltrane Quartet, the pianist Bill Evans.
Now, these people were coming to Chicago, but I could not get in the clubs. There was this one club that they used to play at called McKie's on 63rd and Cottage Grove, right there by the El. The El train is the elevated train that runs in Chicago, for those who don't know. But I used to catch there right at 63rd and Cottage Grove, and I used to pass by this club, and I would see these names in big letters: The John Coltrane Quartet, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Sonny Rollins. And this was the club.
Q: And cats would be jamming there. TB: Of course they might be jamming there. Q: Gene Ammons might be strolling by and give a lesson for out-of-towners. TB: That's right! Q: Were you playing in venues outside the AACM? Were you playing classical music at this time? I know you said you studied at the Conservatory. TB: Well, mainly it was private training and ensemble classes at that time. At this time, '66, '67, '68, those three years, most of my activity was with the AACM, with Muhal and Joseph Jarman. Those three years most of my activity was that. And we got some gigs! Q: You went to Detroit, for instance, in 1967 and ran into John Sinclair. TB: Yeah, exactly. John Sinclair was an organizer in Detroit who used to organize concerts at Wayne State University, and one year, I think it was '67, he got us a big gig at the Ann Arbor Jazz Festival. And you know, this is my first big out-of-town gig now. Joseph Jarman, the late Christopher Gaddy, the late Charles Clark, and myself on drums. So this music that we're hearing on Delmark is a very good representation of the music scene in Chicago. Q: And you've filled us in most thoroughly on things that were happening. TB: I hope so. Q: We'll progress now and move to events that happened later. TB: Sure. As If It Were The Seasons, that was my third album at this time. This was a session that was put together by Joseph Jarman. We have Charles Clark on bass and cello, myself on all kinds of drums, a vocalist named Sherri Scott, Muhal Richard Abrams on piano and oboe, a very good flutist who really never got any attention named Joel Brandon, and Fred Anderson is on tenor sax, John Stubblefield, who has a big feature here, is also on tenor sax, and the late John Jackson on trumpet and Lester Lashley on trombone. This composition is written by Joseph Jarman, entitled "Song For Christopher." Q: Everything changed in Chicago after 1969, because that's when Anthony Braxton, Leo Smith, Leroy Jenkins, Steve McCall and the Art Ensemble left for Europe. TB: That's right. Q: This, of course, would have had its effect on Thurman, who was still a very young musician. TB: Well, Joseph in '68 had gotten involved with the Art Ensemble, and they were really into some intensive rehearsals. So boom, there I was, the late Charles Clark had died, the late Christopher Gaddy had died -- and these two people were like my brothers; we did everything together. So it was a real lonely period for me, because Joseph now, you could say the quartet had broke up, and Joseph had joined forces with the Art Ensemble . . . Q: They were lacking a drummer, however. Did the possibility of your performing with them ever come up? TB: Yes, it did. And it came up at a bad time. And I swear, it's one of the biggest mistakes that I regret in my life. Because the group had gone to Europe, and you know, they were pioneering some areas. They didn't have anything really guaranteed, and they had been to Europe for a few years now. We're talking about the years 1970-'71. So they were in Europe. But at this time, I had gotten involved with theatre, you see. In 1968 I started doing the Broadway production of Hair. Q: As a musician? TB: As a musician. I got a call, and I was playing percussion, okay, so the Broadway show Hair was in Chicago at the Schubert Theatre -- and I looked up, and there I was in theatre now. Q: With a good union job! TB: With a good union job! And see, that was a big deal for me. See, my father is a retired union man, so he was very pleased and very happy. So here I was working downtown at the Schubert Theatre at this time, doing Hair. That job lasted two years, from 1968 to 1970. Q: Naturally, you didn't want to leave that for the insecurity of roaming Europe. TB: Well, of course. So what happened was, I get this call in the wee hours of the morning, something like two or three o'clock in the morning, and it's from overseas -- and this was Roscoe Mitchell. And Roscoe Mitchell expressed, "Well, look, T-Bird. . ." That was a nickname that came from Roscoe. He calls me T-Bird, and now it caught on, and everybody calls me that, now, you see. But he gave me that name. And he said, "Look, we've been over here working, and we've been thinking about it a lot, and we would like for you to join the Art Ensemble." So of course, the first thing I said was, "Well, look, do you have any gigs?" And Roscoe was really honest. He said, "Well, no, we don't have any gigs, and we don't know where our next gig is, but we're working on some things that we're pioneering, some new areas." So I said, "Well, look, I've got a gig; I'm doing this show" -- and I never knew! Well, I had this full-time job, and I didn't think I should leave it. Q: It happened to a lot of musicians in Chicago, what happened to you. TB: Yeah! So I said, look, I couldn't make it, but I would like to join them if they got back into town. So Roscoe said, "Okay, I understand." And the next thing I knew, months and months up the road,they came back. Q: They came back in '71. TB: They came back in '71, and they had Don Moye. Q: That was that. TB: That was that. I kissed that gig goodbye, and that was that. Q: What else was happening as far as gigs in Chicago after they left for Europe? You were playing with Kalaparusha [Maurice McIntyre]? TB: I was playing with Kalaparusha, and I was doing a few gigs with Leroy Jenkins now. He was still there, you see, after the Art Ensemble had cut out and everything. So we had these gigs at clubs on the South Side. I'm trying to think of the names of some of these places; it's been so long. But George Freeman, Leroy Jenkins, myself, and. . . Q: George Freeman playing the AACM type of music? TB: Yeah, he was into it. He plays guitar, and that was the first time that I saw guitar into the music. Q: Was Cosey doing. . . TB: [Guitarist] Pete Cosey was doing a few things. At this time, Pete along Sherri Scott. . . Q: Who played with Earth, Wind and Fire . . . TB: At that time she was rehearsing with Maurice White of Earth, Wind and Fire, and he was getting the band off the ground. They were doing a lot of rehearsing.But mostly in this period I had really gotten involved in theatre. Not saying that the AACM was not functioning. It was still going on. It was just that we were still doing our concert series. . . You know, a lot of people had left, like the Art Ensemble, but at the same time we were recruiting new blood. Like Douglas Ewart, who came in at that time. So we were getting new blood, and the organization was still moving on along with the times.
Q: And the Big Band was still functioning. TB: And the Big Band was still functioning. And you've got to remember, even though we had this concert series happening, we were very, very supported by the community which we lived in and participated in. And I think that was one of the main differences between then and now, was the fact that. . . Q: In New York City. TB: Yeah, but . . . Q: But then in New York City as well. I think New York City is just not that type of town. TB: It just isn't that type of town. And at that time in Chicago, we were very well supported by the community. And we used to even go outside and play outside and jam. I don't know, this was with Muhal, Muhal would bring his clarinet out, and Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors, Kalaparusha, Charles Clark -- We used to take our instruments out there in Jackson Park, which is a large park on the South Side, and just sit out there and play. For me it was like a rehearsal. Maybe for people like Roscoe and maybe Muhal, maybe they were thinking of, "Well, this is a way of getting this new music out to the people." See, for me at the time, I had a comfortable gig, and I was getting gigs, and I was playing some music, and I was active. Q: So you were active in theatre throughout the '70s, is that it? TB: Most of the '70s. Q: What made you decide to return to performing creative music, then? And let's talk about some of the circumstances that led you to return actively to the scene. TB: Well, one thing was that after playing in theatre, I had learned a great deal. Number one, I learned how to play with a conductor. I learned how to play in a section. Because in theatre, not only do you have a trap drummer, but you have two or three percussion players. And a lot of my training, and a lot of music that I was studying at that time, I'm having an opportunity to really try out now. But I learned a lot in the pit orchestra. And one of the main things was being able to play in a section.So after, say, 1975-'76, I started getting back to the AACM, into that music. Because I had gotten all of this training, you see. And for the first time, I felt like I wanted to add something to the music of Muhal and to the music of Joseph Jarman and Roscoe, or whoever was doing something. The music took on a new meaning for me at this time, because I had the years from '71 to '75 to really think about all the music that I had performed in the late '60s with Muhal and everybody. Because at the time I was performing it, I really had on clear idea of this new music, you see.
Q: I can think of an analogy. In the 1950's, and in the '60s, for that matter, a lot of musicians after their initial apprenticeships in the Army, and got their rudiments very much together in the Army by playing all the time. TB: That's true. Q: And it sounds like this theatre job performed a similar function for you. TB: It really did. And I was just able to sort of get a clearer understanding about the music. And keep in mind, I'm still studying, I'm practicing very hard. . . So when I returned in '75, that was really a very progressive year for the organization, because everyone had really gone out and developed their personal concepts. Q: George Lewis had hit the scene . . . TB: George Lewis hit the scene in that year. So it was like a revitalization of everything, you know. And I think especially the Art Ensemble, Muhal, Jenkins, they all had had a taste of getting their music performed and recorded, and gotten a taste of the business, gotten a taste of the music scene outside of Chicago. Because you've got to remember, before that time nobody had left Chicago. Q: And that was a time when musicians from all over the country began converging on New York. TB: Exactly. Now, I must get in here that during the early Seventies, like '72 and '73, there was a collaboration of musicians from St. Louis, like for instance, Oliver Lake. Oliver Lake had formed a new music organization I think called X-BAG . . . I think that's it; I'm not sure. But I do remember that there was a collaboration with the St. Louis musicians. Q: I remember Julius Hemphill was coming to Chicago in the '70s. TB: Exactly. Julius Hemphill. We're talking about Oliver Lake, we're talking about Charles Bobo Shaw, Baikida Carroll. Who else? Q: Joseph Bowie. TB: Joseph Bowie, of course. So the AACM members even went to St. Louis. And they produced a concert in collaboration with both groups, and also we did the same thing for X-BAG, and Oliver Lake and Baikida and everybody came from St. Louis to Chicago to participate in a concert series that we did. And that was a real strong thing that happened in '71 and '72, or so. Q: Let's get back to some music. TB: I was going to go with some more of my percussion duet record.[Music from Muhal Richard Abrams, LifeaBlinec, "JoDoTh"]
Q: Now we're in 1978, and in 1978 Thurman joined Anthony Braxton's working band. TB: That's right. Q: That was a very tight band. TB: Yeah, it was. It really began in 1977. Anthony Braxton had come to Chicago, and I guess at that time he had just broke up the quartet that he had with Barry Altschul, Dave Holland and George Lewis that was his working band, they'd made some records for Arista. There was an AACM Festival I remember at McCormack Place. Q: I remember that. Braxton played a gig all on clarinets, with you and Malachi Favors. TB: He played a gig all on clarinets. And part of that concert was a quartet with Leroy Jenkins on violin, Leonard Jones on bass, Anthony and myself. After that concert, Braxton asked me if I wanted to join the band, and I was just thrilled. I was ready. So that's the beginning of how that started. We went out. That was the fall of 1977. I remember my very first gig with the quartet out of town was the Quaker Oats Jazz Festival, which was in Philadelphia, I think. And that was my first big out of town gig with the Braxton Quartet. I must say, at that same time Ray Anderson also was very new in the band. Q: Another Chicagoan. TB: So Ray Anderson and myself were the new members of the quartet in 1977, and Mark Helias had joined the quartet a few months prior, so he had already played a few gigs. But for Ray Anderson and myself, the Quaker Oats Jazz Festival was our first gig. Q: How did you like playing with Braxton? What's the relationship of his music to a drummer, in some sense? TB: Well, it was really interesting, because Braxton had a way, first of all, of notating his music. He gave me the same part that Ray Anderson had or that Braxton had, see. That was one of the big differences, see. It wasn't a drum part. It was a part that everybody else had. So now for the time in playing improvised music, I could not only create my own drum part, but I could follow along with all the other instruments to see what they were doing. So it was exciting, it was different. In a way, it was a lot easier for me to adapt to his music, because this was, I would say, my first feeling how jazz and classical music could mix together. This was my first introduction. Because a lot of Braxton's music had these sounds and compositions that were very close to classical music for me. So for the first time now, with all that training that I watched the percussion players play in the orchestra pits in Chicago, and watching my percussion teacher at the Conservatory. . . For the first time now, I was able to start executing a lot of the knowledge and strokes, and the finesse and touch on my drum set playing jazz. Q: Did Braxton produce a lot of new music during that time? TB: He was writing a lot during this time. And I think the way the band was going. . . I know we used to travel a lot. And he would be so occupied with turning out compositions every day, just for this band . . . Q: And he'd play them on the stand that night? TB: He'd play them on the stand that night. Q: Nice for Braxton, to have a band like that. TB: It was great for Braxton! I hope he had his ASCAP and all that stuff together. But it was great for me, for everybody, because we were not only playing some new music, but we were working, we were out on the road, and we had an opportunity to perform it that night, and to see how it would go for the first time.So for me, for the first time now, I was able to start executing a lot of the percussion concept on traps. All those years with Joseph Jarman and Muhal, I didn't really know how to. . . I mean, this music was brand-new. I was trying to find my way, you see. One thing about Muhal and Joseph at this time, one thing they did give me, and that was a lot of support. Even though I didn't know what the hell I was doing -- I was trying. But they gave me a lot of support. But by the time '77 came around, I had a pretty clear idea about how I wanted to perform and how I wanted to construct.
Q: You were a mature musician at this time. TB: Yeah, of course. Now I've learned a lot. I've played a whole bunch of gigs, and I've learned a lot. And believe me, that's the best training you can get, is right there on the bandstand. Q: Just playing. TB: That's true. [Music: Braxton Quartet, "W6-4N-R6-AH0"]TB: That recording was done while the quartet was on tour, so it was a real special time for me. Even though I had recorded with Joseph Jarman and Muhal, it was a very good time for me. Because to record with Anthony Braxton who at that time had risen to be a very popular figure in new music, and number two, he had a record contract at the time, so that was a little different. Q: And later that year you recorded with Sam Rivers. TB: That's right. What happened was that the AACM gave its first concert on New York territory in 1976, right here at Columbia University. We were able to perform our first jazz festival right here in New York. And in the audience, of course, was Mr. Sam Rivers. I had performed with some of the groups and with the Big Band. So Sam was in the audience -- and this was in '76.
A few years later, I get this call right out of the blue. It was Sam Rivers, and he was asking me to come to New York and to make a record. Of course I was floored! I said, "Sure, when are the rehearsals and when can we get together, because I need to learn your music." He said, "Look, we'll just rehearse in the studio. But can you be here by this particular date?" I said, "No problem." So my very first contact with Sam Rivers was in the studio, and we made the record that we are about to hear called Waves on Tomato Records. Of course, I am now very familiar with Sam Rivers in terms off what he's done, and all the Blue Note records that he appeared on with Andrew Hill and Tony Williams -- the early Blue Note dates.
Q: Not to mention that he had used Braxton's previous bass and drums. TB: Exactly. Now here I go, I'm beginning to think that I'm in a circle here, because somehow Anthony Braxton's rhythm section went with Sam Rivers -- and we're speaking of Barry Altschul and Dave Holland. At the time I joined Sam, Dave Holland was still there. This recording features Joe Daley on brass, Dave Holland on bass and cello, and myself on drums and percussion, and Sam Rivers. Like I say, I was really back, because this was my first contact with Dave Holland and Sam, and here I am getting ready to make a record. So it was quite a special event for me. [Music: S. Rivers, "Surge"]Q: Thurman, you played a gig this past weekend in Boston with Sam Rivers as guest artist. TB: Exactly. It was my gig. I was able to get two nights at a club in Boston called Charlie's Tap, Friday and Saturday, the Thurman Barker Trio featuring Sam Rivers. Anyway, I had an opportunity to be able to join forces with an artist who I was able to learn a lot of music from, and we played a lot of gigs. As a matter of fact, after the Waves record, we went on tour. Contrasts was also done while we were on tour. Sam did spend a lot of time in Boston, studying at the New England Conservatory, and then throughout the '50s.
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