There are rare moments in life (far too few) when we encounter an artist, and we know right then and there that we’re experiencing something individual—something that matters and will change our way of experiencing everything else. I had this great good fortune listening to the saxophone of Eric Wyatt live for the first time.

It was not an auspicious evening for enlightenment and connection. Shanghai in winter. A night of bitter sleet. I’d just been in New York and LA, listening to big names at famous jazz venues. But I’d heard good things at my hotel about this club called CJW (Cigars, Jazz and Wine) atop the glittering Bund Center, and I was curious about their promotional description of the headliner. So, out into the freezing Chinese rain I went. I figured if nothing else, I’d get at least some misty view of the lights of Pudong, the futuristic space age business district across the Huangpu River.

I got much more than that. And much more than my money’s worth. I wish everyone who enjoys jazz music could discover the buzz of hearing Eric Wyatt. His playing and composing displays a unique, quiet, textured strength. Unpretentious but powerful. Graceful. Generous. Emotive. Constantly inventive. Always making the music—across a range of styles, new, fresh and compelling. This is a guy who loves jazz—who knows music and writes beautiful music—and who goes out every night to bring the whole thing to life once more.

In keeping with the tradition of the very best, in a field of absolute giants, Eric attracts and thrives on the competitive and collaborative energy of other exceptional artists. His vocalist on the night, Ptah Brown, a Harlem-based singer who performs regularly in Europe was simply outstanding.

America may be sending a lot of bad messages around the planet—but in Eric Wyatt, there’s an ambassador of true goodwill, sincere respect and a passionate commitment to reaching audiences, moving audiences and making music matter. 2 Fork Hwy is very proud to share with you these insights from someone who knows a little bit of something about a lot of somefn.

KS

What do you think the peculiar power of the saxophone is? Every instrument has its own special virtues, but the sax seems to capture so much—human sexuality—our most basic emotions and feelings, while also soaring and leading us to more spiritual heights.

EW

The sax is the instrument that’s closest to the sound of the human voice. The reed that you put on a mouthpiece is made of wood. Before the wood was cut down and made for the mouthpiece it came from a living plant or tree. Sax music is also a sound that with care and practice can be broadly manipulated. It can be harsh, sweet, smooth, sexy, abrasive, loud, soft. It’s possible to really speak to people with a sax in the same way a skilled vocalist does.

KS

When did you first hear a saxophone speak to you?

Eric with trumpet and family

EW
My father was hugely influential. He’d always play music with saxophones in the house. Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker. I heard these sounds from a very early age. They connected with me and made me want to find my own voice. I’ve spoken many times with Sonny Rollins about working on my sound. I practice long tones for one hour still today before I even play anything properly. That’s something you do when you start off, when you have no idea what your sound will develop into. It’s hard to do because it’s very tedious to just play one note and hold it as long as you can, but the discipline pays off. It gives your sound depth, and it’s depth that audiences connect with. I really pride myself on making sure my sound connects with the audience.

KS

Reviews highlight your “big tone” but they also remark on the delicacy of your playing. That’s what impressed me—the gentleness and ease of your style. Many of the greatest sax players, including one of your big influences in Sonny Rollins, are known for an intense athleticism in their playing. You make it sound so natural and fluid. How hard is it to make it sound so easy?

Eric and the great Sonny Rollins

EW

To play the saxophone with delicacy you must learn to play BALLADS! This always will come back to the music I heard as a child. The songs that I’d hear from my father’s record player. When I began to play the sax at about the age of 13, my father would play this album by Lou Donaldson. There was a song that he had me play, “Polka Dots and Moonbeams.” The melody is a classic and I’d listen to it over and over to learn how to play it, because I didn’t have the sheet music.

KS

Years ago I worked several shows as the backstage manager for the great Oscar Peterson. Beyond his amazing artistry on the piano, he was also a pretty fine singer and he recorded a wonderful version of that song. He said the same thing—he used that melody as a touchstone for feeling and style.

Playing for the old dog who won’t stay on the porch…Eric, Bill Saxton
and the legendary Jimmy Heath, one of the all-time greats

EW

It was during this time I could hear how the texture of notes can be used to relax the listener. I started out playing the alto sax. It is by far much harder to find a voice with that instrument, because of the high register. I’d been listening to Charlie Parker records right from the start, and Bird with strings was something else—where you can hear the beauty and texture that he’d use on ballads. A very different approach than up-tempo tunes. There were times when my uncles, Leroy, Bubba and Homer would come by. My father was not a big drinker but I can recall these family get-together’s very clearly because my father would always have a few beers with my uncles and then have me pull out the horn and play something to let them hear how well I could play for my age. I could see that the beauty of playing a ballad connected with them more than trying to show how fast I could play. The response I would get from my uncles was important, and also got me some quick cash!

I can almost remember hearing Uncle Bubba saying “You’re gonna get all the girls playin’ like that, man!”

My father is no longer with me, but my wonderful mom makes me remember some of the things that made me want to keep working on being a complete saxophonist, not a one trick pony—playing real fast or screaming notes or just loud with no real direction. What she’d do is come to my shows with my aunts or her friends that have known me from a child and I could see that they would like to hear something to make them feel good—for me to play something beautiful to show my range not just blowing crazy stuff to make people say “Wow, he sure plays fast.”

MONTE KROFT - VIBES - ERIC - JAMES SPAULDING alto sax

KS

Your composition “What Would I Do Without You” is a tribute to your mother. A beautiful ballad.

EW

I met some filmmakers on vacation in San Francisco. They heard me play at Pier 23. They were looking for some original songs for possible use in a film. That was the one they liked the most. It’s about the power of melody and the feeling a ballad delivers.

KS

You seem deeply relaxed and also sincerely energized by the collaborative nature of ensemble performance. For people struggling with the issues of collaboration in other art forms (like writers working in the film medium) what do you have to say about the matters of ego management and the enjoyment of other people’s talent that you’ve learned from music?

Eric playing live in NYC with George Gray on drums (drummer for the
legendary Abdullah Ibrahim) and the famous bassist bob Cunningham

EW

I always had great musicians around the neighborhood where I grew up. I got a chance to play in local bands. Also, my brother Charles played trumpet, so at an early age we would play songs together from groups like Kool and the Gang, Earth Wind and Fire, The Ohio Players. I always enjoyed playing ensemble with other horns. I also played different styles of music like reggae and was exposed to Haitian music and groups like Taboo Combo and The Skatelites. The goal in ensemble playing is to sound like one horn. You have to try and breathe just like the other players and phrase the melodies together. All great horn sections have this going for them. Tower of Power, James Brown’s horns, Chicago, Brass Construction. The ensemble becomes great when there is mutual respect for your band members and there can’t be an ego problem because the horn section would suffer and the guy with the ego would always STAND OUT! Also, when you think about great ensembles that had more than one horn, I always wonder in say, the Miles Davis Sextet, which features John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly, WHO COULD POSSIBLY HAVE THE BIGGEST EGO? All could solo with incredible fineness, texture, raw musical power and intense technique. If these cats could play together and sound like one horn that’s the standard to reach for with every ensemble. There are a lot of great ones but this one comes to mind because each member was such a strong improviser. Also Sonny Rollins and Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, James Spaulding…and without question Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. In these ensembles, who do you think had the biggest ego?

KS

I heard you play in Shanghai. That’s a long way from Brooklyn or a club in the Village in Manhattan. Beyond the personal buzz of world travel, do you feel in those situations like you’re a cultural ambassador? What is it you would most like audiences outside America to take away with them from your playing?

Haruhisa Takakamichi at Jazz Club Red Crow

EW

When playing outside the USA, the goal is to give the feeling to the audience of what a true messenger of the music is. The promoter is presenting you to his country as a specialist on your instrument and your goal is to always remember that you are there to tell the stories of your life through music. I take any offer to play abroad very seriously. It doesn’t matter if the weather is bad or the audience small. You must represent your self to the best of your abilities. I’ve been to Europe to play as a leader and pride my self on the fact I was always asked to come back the following year. This is my third time playing for the Chinese and I hope to play here again.

In some way, I feel more like a representative of my parents and the family name WYATT. I want my mother to be proud of her son that took on my father’s dreams to play this music, because I was introduced to this art form from his experiences. I’ve heard from many musicians who knew him say that he was a great sax player. Sonny Rollins has said this—Billy Kay, Paul Jeffries, Roland Alexander. These gentlemen have all been documented and their history is there to read about and listen to. I’m proud to be part of my daddy’s legacy, the one the jazz world never got a chance to hear.

KS

Some people think jazz is a cultural artifact—that it’s frozen in time. And yet it keeps reinventing itself while staying true to its origins. And it keeps reaching new audiences. How do handle the search for newness and the “staying true” issues in your own musical/life journey?

EW

The tradition of jazz is very solid because the great ones who created it loved the beauty of the sound and really had respect for mankind. You have to love the whole world and people from every culture. Jazz always reinvents itself because people from all over the world love this music. I’ve been to China playing in an establishment that is run by people who want to hear you play this music every night with one day off. This is China. A place where you wouldn’t think they would know that much about the music, but they are extremely advanced. The owner of CJW, Eric Zhang and booking agent/ piano player Carol Chang seem to have a vision about enlightening the people to this great music. I also make a practice of hiring and recording with the young musicians that I meet that show promise and respect for the art form. The future of jazz is in great shape because no matter what country I play in there is always some one requesting some great standard song they heard or grew up with and are always willing to hear fresh new interpretations. The standard of expectations for this music is as high as it comes—from NYC to Beijing, Lebanon, Greece, Hong Kong, Japan. This is world music and I’m totally honored to do my part to represent it wherever and whenever I get that chance. I want to share this music and my music with the world as long as I can put air in the horn.

KS

Do you have a final word about what you’ve learned as a musician, that other musicians and other people working in other art forms might benefit from?

Eric in Berkeley – Jakob Schiller, used with permission

EW

Traveling around the world and always listening to the sounds of the various countries I’ve played in has helped me to be very conscious of my audience. Certain sounds connect with certain countries in some very spiritual or mystical way. My composition “Tears for Baghdad” really connected with the people of the Middle East. I had to play that every night, every show when I played the Blue Note in Beirut. It got standing ovations.

I played many different styles of music in my developmental years: reggae, zook (Haitian), Latin, blues. I’ve never forgotten to really embrace the different sounds of these different styles from a cultural point of view. I didn’t learn jazz at a conservatory and I really don’t think a school can teach you to have a sound. You need to get some different reeds, try them on a mouthpiece that you feel comfortable with and start playing LONG TONES EVERY DAY!

So, I guess I’m saying don’t be too proud to practice hard and always experiment. And always respect your audience. You never know who’s listening. The great horn men could play one note and you know instantly who it is. This is what I’m striving for. You can blow fast as shit and play a thousand notes but if you have no sound, no depth of your own, who are you trying to connect with? How can you connect? Everybody trying to make real music, true art, is trying to connect.

This portrait of Eric - painted by the Lebanese (now German-based) artist
Farah Momtaz

We are pleased to present three examples of Eric’s artistry.

“Strode Rode” (Sonny Rollins)

“All Because of You” (Eric Wyatt)

“You Don’t Know What Love Is” (Gene DePaul, Dan Raye)

These tunes all feature on Eric’s CD GOD SON, produced by Shinobi Ito (who also plays a pretty sweet guitar.)

Listeners can catch up with more of Eric’s music on a new CD entitled DECADE that will be released later this year on Sonny Rollins’ record label Doxy Records (it doesn’t get much better than that!). The record will feature leader Clifton Anderson, Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride, Al Foster, Bob Cranshaw, Stephon Scott, Larry Willis, Steve Jordan and Sonny Rollins’ well-known percussionist Kimati Dinizulu. What a line up! Check it out.

We are grateful for the permission to use two special images in this feature: