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INTERVIEW

FAMILY

AC K
R
T

Mark Guiliana discusses his two latest releases Family First


and Alternate Takes, and maintaining the balance between
his acoustic/electronic and sideman/solo projects

Words: Brent keefe images provided by: The Good Music Company and Gretsch Drums

fter a 15-year career, split between being


an in-demand sideman with artists
including avishai Cohen, Donny McCaslin,
Phronesis, Gretchen Parlato and David Bowie,
and leading or co-leading his own cutting-edge
electronic projects including Heernt, Mehliana and
Beat Music, drummer Mark Guiliana releases his
first acoustic jazz album, Family First with the Mark
Guiliana Jazz Quartet. Mark recently discussed the
project and began by explaining why he chose to
take the acoustic path at this point.
The most intense time I have spent practising
and developing a relationship with the drums
was at college, studying for my degree in jazz
performance. During that time, I listened mostly
to acoustic jazz and really tried to digest that
vocabulary but I also knew I wanted to play
other styles of music. When it came time to start
presenting my own music, it felt more comfortable
at that time to do so in the electronic world
because that is an equally important influence
on me. My first band, Heernt, released its first
record in 2005 and, although Ive been a sideman
on more acoustic sounding records with avishai
Cohen, Gretchen Parlato and Phronesis, I had
been presenting my own music in an electronic
setting exclusively for the last 10 years. Now that
I have my own label, I have the flexibility to really
make anything I want and release it under this
one creative umbrella. I released two electronic
records last year so I wanted to immediately
do a 180 and build the opposite pillar to the
label. The time felt right to challenge myself to
create an acoustic ensemble, write music for that
band and make a record using a very traditional
instrumentation. also, as Ive largely been visible
in a more electronic setting for some time, it was
important to me to display this equally valid side
of my influences, and its certainly my goal for the
future to have both co-exist. For example, I will be

in Europe for two weeks in October with the Jazz


Quartet but the day that I get home, I play that
night with Beat Music. I will also be back in Europe
in December with Beat Music and back in March
next year with the Jazz Quartet.
When asked if he felt he had to brush up on
any aspect of his playing to straddle both styles,
Mark replied: Thats a good question. One of
the main reasons that I wanted to return to this
set-up was that, with Beat Music and the more
electronic playing, I felt that my touch was starting
to suffer. When I was in college and later playing
with avishai Cohen, I worked very hard to really
play extremely quietly and with a great touch but
the more electronic music required me to play a
little louder. also, the way that the drums were
tuned with the floor tom tuned very dead and low,
it didnt allow me to play with such a soft touch
because that wouldnt produce a sound. On the
Beat Music kit, I needed to play a little louder and
use more wrist but I wanted to be able to have the
full range of expression, so I started practising on
the jazz kit even before I created this band, just so
that I could re-acquaint myself with that touch and
playing quietly. as I started practising that way,
it was incredibly inspiring and made me want to
practise again. I was going to my rehearsal space
more and playing along to art Blakey records
and exploring those sounds again and that was
definitely a big deciding factor in pushing me
down the acoustic road.
It requires some adjustment to flip back
and forth between the styles but both are very
comfortable for me and the adjustments can
largely be made by preparing mentally for each
situation. Both situations are quite different but I
am playing a different instrument for each, so the
instrument itself really suggests what should be
played. For the Jazz Quartet, I use a fairly traditional
bebop tuning with an 18" bass drum, 12" tom, 14"

FIRST

WITh BeaT mUsIc In hoT pUrsUIT

TR AC

marK DIscUsses each


TracK on famIly fIrsT

one monTh
This track contains elements of my electronic
repertoire. I wrote the music for the guys
(pianist Shai Maestro, saxophonist Jason
rigby and bassist Chris Morrissey) specifically,
and Chris also plays with me in Beat Music,
so weve developed a great comfort in that
style of playing. knowing that this quartet
would be with him, I was encouraged to write
something in that style. It wasnt until mixing
that this song really started to pop out as the
first track and, if you are more familiar with the
Beat Music repertoire, then I would hope that
this song could be your bridge into this more
acoustic world.
The whole song is in four and the full cycle
of the form, as it appears later, was conceived
as an eight-bar section played three times with
the fourth time being a variation, almost like a
last ending but, just for the intro, I deleted the
first time simply to make it shorter. The band
actually comes in on beat three, so the two
beats of my fill are the first two beats of the
form, with the first chord being on three and the
next being on one.
I play all the syncopated bass drum figures
heel down simply for the musical function. I
have my 18" bass drum tuned fairly open with
just a tiny cloth wedged between the bass drum
head and my pedal for minimal dampening,
so its really important that I dont leave the
beater in the head to get the best sound for that
drum and, for me, thats much easier to do if Im
playing heel down.

aBeD
all of my compositions for the record were
written within a six-month period at the end
of last year, except for this song, which I wrote
about 12 years ago the only other time it was
performed was at my senior recital in college.
The title combines the initials of anthony
Braxton and Eric Dolphy. They were my two
references and I wanted to create this angular
feeling within the melody. Its essentially a
quirky blues with a 16-bar head and 14-bar
solo form somewhat similar to the way that

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Mark Guiliana

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INTERVIEW

Thelonious Monk would have his quirky take on a more


traditional form. The first four bars are an intro comprising
two bars of quarter notes, followed by the last two bars of
the melody. The penultimate bar of the melody has a push
on the and of three, and every other take began with a bar
of quarter notes followed by the last two bars of the melody.
This was actually the last take that we played and, just for fun,
I decided to play two bars of quarter notes before those last
two bars. after the push, the time starts on beat two and the
form begins on the one after that two. Chris and I then play
two choruses (14 bars) of time before the melody begins.

2014
This ballad is titled 2014 because my son was born in 2014.
Its really just a little song and it goes through the full form
once and ends. When we play it live we extend it but, for
this record, it felt right to just present the song and just let
it be that.

lonG Branch
This is all in 4/4 in a four-bar cycle and Im just using different
groupings of sixteenth notes the entire time. Its mostly

floor tom and just two very thin ride cymbals with
rivets. For Beat Music I have a 22" bass drum with
a pillow inside, some stacks and the floor tom is
tuned very low, so each instrument helps me make
the right musical decisions for each situation.

alTERnaTE TaKES
Mark has also recently released alternate Takes,
a companion album to Family First with four
alternate takes and two new tracks. Mark explained
the ethos behind it:
The problem that arises when you call great
guys is that everything that they play is great. We
recorded a handful of takes of most songs, apart
from One Month, which was just one take, but
there is no editing within or between the takes;
it was just a matter of selecting the preferred
ones. On a few occasions, however, I felt almost
as connected with some of the takes that didnt
make the record as I did with the ones that did.
When I was buying the Blue Note records of the
60s, which are some of my favourite records, on
CD, many of them included alternate takes and
I found that sometimes I almost enjoyed the
alternate takes more. also, getting an alternate
perspective on how someone is attacking their
improvising is invaluable, I think. as I now have
my own label, Im trying to take advantage of the
freedom with which I am able to release things
and I just wanted to share those other versions.
also, I knew we were going to record too much
music for one release, so we have two extra songs
on alternate Takes. The main difference between
the albums is that there is quite a different mix
on alternate Takes. I made the record with a great
engineer called John Davies who owns a studio
in Brooklyn called The Bunker and also plays bass
in Jojo Mayers band, Nerve. We wanted to make
it more of a tribute to those records that we love
and have a little more room in the sound. Its not
that we wanted to make it sound old but we used

groups of fives but, in order to make it fit inside four bars, I


also used a few threes in the turnaround. Compositionally,
thats definitely me stealing a page out of avishai Cohens
book. avishai often uses that as a compositional tool and I
feel very comfortable playing in that style because I spent so
much time with him. Im also playing the same hits in my solo
at the top as when the band comes in.

Johnny Was
Ive always wanted to cover a Bob Marley song but not in
a reggae style. However, I found that the ones that have a
reggae beat, which is the vast majority of them, feel a little
strange without it. This song, from rastaman Vibration,
is really just a pop song with a drum machine playing a
traditional back beat, so it isnt reliant on that classic reggae
feel that they pioneered. We play it a little bit slower and it felt
good to play it in a slightly more solemn manner.

from yoU
This is in seven throughout but the specific hits, where the
chords lay, arent very friendly in terms of letting you know
that its in seven.

slightly different microphone techniques and I


think people will be able to hear a bit more of
a throwback.

a BalanCED FuTuRE
In closing, Mark gave a glimpse of his future:
There are no ocial plans to make the next
Beat Music record, but that will probably be the
next record and there will be plenty of touring
with both groups. Theres also sideman work
with Donny McCaslin, Dave Douglas and some
other pending projects brewing for next year. The
last few years have been about trying to tip the
scales from the sideman world to presenting my
own music. I will never stop doing sideman work
because there are many projects that I always
learn from, am really proud of and give me a lot of
joy but Im trying to do as much of my own music
as I can.
www.markguiliana.com

GEaR BOX
Drums: Gretsch
Brooklyn Series Drums
18"x14" Kick drum
14"x14" Floor tom
12"x8" Tom
14"x 5.5" Snare drum
Cymbals: Sabian
(All very thin prototypes)
14" Hi-hats
2 x 21" Ride cymbals
Sticks: Vic Firth 85As
Heads: Evans
Coated G1 heads on all batters/resonants
Mono Cymbal Bag

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Mark Guiliana

The Importance Of Brothers


This really turned into a showcase for Chris, Jason and Shai, so the title
certainly applies to them, as well as my actual brothers. Compositionally
we play the page down, which is a march feel and then, at the end of the
composition, we play free for about 10 seconds and then back to the top.
The free section is built into the composition.

Welcome Home
Some people have noted a Coltrane influence on this track and Im
certainly not hiding from that. If you make a saxophone/piano/bass/
drums record, I dont know how you cant pay tribute to Coltrane as thats
the ultimate example of this instrumentation. The melody gets delivered a
few times throughout this song, with the last time being the most intense
and, to my ears, thats where the Coltrane influence may be most evident.
I always think that, when playing music, its important to acknowledge any
influences and beautifully accept them, as opposed to forcing yourself to
turn away from them.
Its all in 4/4 triplets or 12/8. The bass-line starts by playing the first two
notes of each triplet and then the whole line shifts an eighth note triplet
into the future. For the drum solo, everything is in time but Im playing quite
freely, thinking solely of shape, intensity and orchestration, as opposed
to the time. In this case, when Chris and Shai are playing the chords, they
almost become the drummer and Im floating on top, choosing when to
reunite with them just for compositional effect.

Family First
This is a slow 4/4 ballad where I play mallets on toms. I wanted something
repetitive a loop of sorts but to stay out of the way as well. Its essentially
a through-composed song there isnt any improvising and I thought it
would just be a nice way to close out the record.

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