Arts & Culture
(2009-11-11)
Listen Now:
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More music from Zach Brock
can be heard Saturday evening on WEKU. The jazz violinist a featured artist on the “Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour.”
Brock felt he needed classical training. Only then, he says, could he truly exploit his violin.
"The amount of time in the classical tradition that people have spent thinking about the violin is deep. It's definitely not something that I think one would discount if one were really serious about playing this instrument. It doesn't mean that you have to love classical music or you need to become a classical player, but, I think, at a certain level, if you're a violin player, you need to take a look at the longest traditions," he said.
Growing up, Brock was in music programs around central Kentucky. He attended High School in Lexington at Bryan Station, and, in 1992, left for Chicago, where he pursued a music education at Northwestern University.
He had another reason behind his move to Chicago. It offered him access to a big city music scene. After class, Brock went to jazz clubs. There is where the violinist learned his place in the music universe. He discovered his music was not as unique as he first thought. Then, he learned it was still valid.
"That's part of the certain positive nature of the ego. I spent a lot of years, especially in my 20's, thinking about the ego and examining the ego as a negative thing or something to overcome, but, it's also, I think the thing that is the creative spark, the impetus to express yourself and to differentiate yourself and to make some sort of a statement in society around human beings to be heard," he said.
His musical voice has matured, but, Brock is still looking for ways of expressing himself more clearly, with more refinement, and more finesse.
Brock has been recording for ten years and now operates from his studio in New York City. As he listens back to his recordings, Brock still hears influences picked up in Chicago and Kentucky. Now, though, he now owns his music.
"I think I'm starting to recognize at least a little bit more of the kernel of what it is that just makes me want to play music. This really doesn't have to do with jazz, it doesn't have to do with classical, or rock, or pop, folk, whatever. I think I'm starting to recognize the stuff that really excites me and the stuff that I want to play," said Brock.
Like many of today's artists, Brock tests the boundaries both of jazz and his violin. Labeling his music isn't necessary. Thanks to the internet, his influences are countless and labels almost meaningless
"I feel like I'm just swimming in this sea. It doesn't mean that the things don't retain their own distinct shapes. I'm not trying to say that all music is becoming like other music. I'm just saying our influences are just multiplied by so, so many more times I think than somebody coming up 50 years ago, for instance, or even 20 years ago."
Brock no longer swims alone. The violinist now performs alongside a bassist Matt Wigton and drummer Fred Kennedy in a jazz trio. It's so new, Brock says, it doesn't really have a name. The jazzman jokes "How about the Zach Brock Trio?" He suspects a real name will someday simply surface organically.
For now, the group is acoustic, working without an electronic safety net. He welcomes the limitation. Another limitation, he says, is the audience. As an artist, he must entertain audiences, challenge himself, and explore his violin's capacity. He thinks it can bring his best to the surface.
"Thinking about your audience, it's another limitation, it's another restriction and I think that's good. That's when your imagination really has to kick in, to find its shape," he said.
Brock is finding plenty of opportunities to shape his imagination. His latest project is the soundtrack he provided to the independent documentary film "Passion." It's a tribute to the late Polish virtuoso jazz violinist Zbigniew Seifert. Brock also takes his music overseas next spring for a pair of concerts in Singapore.
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