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Mondays with Morgan is a column in LondonJazz Information written by Morgan Enos, a music journalist based mostly in Hackensack, New Jersey. Therein, he dives deep into the jazz that strikes him – his major focus being the scene in close by New York Metropolis.
This week, Enos spoke with Jana Herzen – the founding father of the revered jazz and world music label Motéma Music, who offered a launchpad for jazz greats from Joey Alexander to Gregory Porter and are celebrating their twentieth anniversary this yr.
Hyperlinks to Motéma’s web site – in addition to a compilation spanning twenty years of the label – could be discovered on the backside of this text.
When interviewing a musician and label proprietor like Jana Herzen, the query naturally arises: how does one sq. these two roles? That query is likely to be a bit pat; in any case, numberless artists have launched different artists’ work. Nonetheless, Herzen provides a shocking reply.
“My childhood have been all in theatre, and I take a look at music in a theatrical approach,” Herzen explains to LondonJazz. “That’s crucial factor to me – that persons are moved, and {that a} story is being instructed.”
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And throughout Motéma’s two-decade historical past – which each helped ship the aforementioned Alexander and Porter into the stratosphere, and offered platforms for visionaries from Geri Allen to David Murray to Charnett Moffett – they’ve lived as much as that edict.
And it extends past theatre, to mere logistics. “I recognize on each stage how a lot effort needs to be made to make the music,” Herzen says. “I’ve all the time mentioned, from day one, that the musician makes the noise, and the job of the label is just to amplify it.”
Learn on for an interview with Herzen concerning the genesis of Motéma Music, its development to the present day, and every thing in between.
LJN: How would you describe the music business ecosystem 20 years in the past, and Motéma’s position inside it?
Jana Herzen: I used to be not anyone who aspired to begin a report label. [As far as] my early skilled life – from after I was, like, 15 till I used to be 30 – I ate, breathed, and slept theatre. I helped to begin a theatre firm, which is now MCC Theater. They’re some of the revered corporations for releasing new performs in New York. It’s led by one of many high casting administrators within the metropolis, who I had gone to high school with, so I had some expertise with beginning an arts firm.
I made an album, and I wished to get it out. I attempted to get a deal, and I obtained a few good feedback from folks, however they have been saying, “The business’s in bother; we’re not signing this proper now.” I wound up realising I would want to place it out alone.
However I all the time wish to discover a information for the jungle, if I’m going into it. So, I wound up reaching out to some folks. Susie Reynolds, who produced our first report, launched me to lots of people on the scene, together with David Neidhart, who had labored at GRP and Verve.
He was telling me how so many individuals have been being let go from the music business; as a result of the digital revolution fully decimated the music business at the moment. So, after I was going into it, lots of people have been going out.
LJN: So how did you break via?
JH: I went to Midem – a giant commerce present for report labels – with our first two releases, which have been by [percussionist] Babatunde Lea and [pianist and composer] Lynne Arriale.
Simply by luck, or destiny, we wound up getting a chance to showcase our artists on the one jazz showcase there. Midem is admittedly not about jazz; it’s concerning the music business typically.
I met folks there, and one of many fellows who had been concerned with a jazz label heard that I used to be beginning a brand new label. He mentioned, “Don’t you realise that this business goes into the bathroom?” I mentioned, “Nicely, possibly folks simply aren’t it the precise approach. Perhaps they should have a recent method.”
I knew nothing about it. And that was each my weak spot and my energy, as a result of I used to be recent in what it was – I approached it far more like a not-for-profit music firm.
It was a time of turmoil after I first stepped into it. Then, streaming got here alongside, and that modified issues once more. Now, the bigger labels are making some huge cash from streaming and possibly not sharing fairly as a lot as they need to with writers and gamers. That’s one thing that’s being addressed and advocated for.
LJN: Are you able to converse to how the aesthetic of the label coalesced within the ensuing years?
JH: I believe it’s simply an outgrowth of my style. I signal issues that I like, and I’ve all the time had a fascination for issues which are on the border of issues.
That’s been our aesthetic: jazz with out borders. Whether or not it’s jazz that’s mixing with world music, or impressed by a particular nation.
Proper now, we’ve obtained [pianist and composer] Shuteen [Erdenebaatar]. Though she doesn’t have that a lot Mongolian affect, she’s nonetheless Mongolian; she’s bringing her aesthetic from her nation into it.
And we’ve got [the trio] FlamenKora, which is a mixture of choral music from Senegal, a German jazz trumpeter who has quite a lot of expertise with African music, and a flamenco guitarist.
You’ve got people who find themselves actually masters of their craft doing it, and that’s all the time been necessary – that individuals have excessive artistry.
LJN: Inside the realm of “excessive artistry,” what particularly speaks to you?
JK: I actually fell in love with polyrhythms and African music. That’s an underpinning that you’ll discover in Motéma – that just about every thing has this delicate polyrhythmic groove. Any individual’s in there, doing that one way or the other or different. I began actually understanding the decision and response of African drums – the intricate communication that’s occurring.
LJN: How would you describe the label’s latest years?
JH: Principally, I had an workplace, and I had this employees, and the writing was on the wall. I couldn’t afford it. I needed to let employees go, after which Covid hit, and I used to be like, OK, I’m letting this workplace go. As a result of what was I going to do with an workplace?
I used to be already in California when Covid hit, so I’d name this the “return to San Francisco” interval of the label. I’m working it out of San Francisco, [out of] the single-family home that I’ve lived in, every time I’d come again right here.
I obtained married [to Charnett Moffett] in 2019, like a month earlier than the pandemic hit and the lockdown occurred. He and I had been taking part in music for like 10 years earlier than that; he was an excellent good friend for a lot of, a few years.
As we began dwelling collectively and being locked down collectively, we have been simply making music, and I used to be working the label. We had some good releases in [large ensemble leader and composer] Jihye Lee – we put out [2021’s] Daring Thoughts throughout that interval – and the Royal Bopsters, and a few various things that I had commitments to.
However fact be instructed, we’d determined to wind issues down on the label for some time, and give attention to our duo.
When he immediately died, we had began that plan. I didn’t actually have any commitments to different artists – just some artists on the label who had issues popping out. However at that time, with shedding him, after all, that plan went out the window.
I spent about eight months recovering, and doing quite a lot of cleanup of the label’s infrastructure. And different issues that I had [on my plate] – household and no matter.
LJN: And now we’ve reached the label’s twentieth anniversary.
JH: Round November. I wished to place out the music that Charnett and I had made, for positive. And another folks – [Flamenkora trumpeter] Volker [Goetze], and [pianist/composer] Shuteen [Erdenebaatar] confirmed up.
I went, Oh my goodness, she’s so great. I’d like to debut her on our twentieth anniversary yr.
There are some attention-grabbing issues within the pipeline. Nothing prepared to speak to the press but. It’s quite a lot of work working a label, and now I’m all the way down to a really small employees, so it’s actually on me to do quite a lot of it, and I simply can’t do it except it’s finished to a sure stage.
It’s notably particular [to witness] what the artists have now change into. I ‘ve been thrilled to see [alto saxophonist and composer] Lakecia [Benjamin]’s rise. As a result of despite the fact that she hasn’t been on the label since I first launched her debut [2012’s Retox], she’s somebody I’ve all the time believed in.
[Drummer and composer] Terri Lyne [Carrington] is doing so wonderful. Like quite a lot of artists who’ve been via Motéma and are possibly releasing some other place, she’s having fairly a second proper now.
My favorite factor is to search out somebody who’s simply wonderful, and assist introduce them to the world – [pianist and composer] Joey Alexander, [singer/songwriter] Gregory [Porter], [saxophonist and composer] Melissa Aldana… they’re stunning folks.
LINKS: Motéma Music’s web site
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