The following is an interview between jazz journalist Morgan Enos and pianist Spike Wilner, who co-owns and operates the indispensable NYC clubs Smalls and Mezzrow.
Wilner’s new album, The Children and the Warlock – a tribute to his late mentor, pianist and composer Harry Whitaker – features his Trio Contrafactus ensemble in bassist Paul Gill and late drummer Anthony Pinciotti, as well as guest saxophonist George Garzone. It will be released 25 April via Cellar Music Group. A link to pre-order the album can be found at the end of this article.
“The thing about this particular project that kind of got lost,” Wilner clarifies, “is that it’s actually a tribute to my teacher, Harry Whitaker.” That was before his drummer, Pinciotti, audibly capable of swinging the world off its hinges, up and died on him.
“It really threw the whole project into a tailspin,” he continues. “Because I was going to tour with this band, and Garzone, and it stopped this project in its tracks.”
As much as tragedy permeates The Children and the Warlock, joy suffused it as well. “I call the record [that] because it’s kind of like me, Paul, and Anthony are the children,” Wilner says. The album is titled after a Whitaker tune of yore.
Read on to learn about Wilner’s inspirations and execution.
UK Jazz News: Pinciotti passed away not long after this session. Will Trio Contrafactus continue?
Spike Wilner: I don’t think so. Anthony’s death has left a huge hole in my personal musical world. We had 25, 30 years of touring and recording together, playing at my clubs on a regular basis. He was just an incredibly sympathetic and intuitive musician; he bolstered my confidence to explore myself.
In my mind, Anthony really represents the ultimate New York jazz musician. A warrior guy who would be on every gig, night after night, without complaining. Kind of unheralded. Like a gunslinger who comes into town, fights the bad guys, and leaves town.
He was a wonderful, profound artist, and he didn’t get the recognition that he deserved. But we had a memorial for him, and the universal love that was expressed there was just unbelievable.
UKJN: Nice guy, I’ll bet.
SW: Well, yeah, a very beautiful guy, but a mysterious guy. A classic kind of guy – an independent warrior type, just strong. Everyone really loved him, me most of all. Besides being one of my best friends ever, he was the cornerstone of my music; the music I’ve been trying to develop my whole life.
In my mind, I’ve always just been a jazz musician. People give me a lot of credit for running Smalls, but it’s just a job, in a lot of ways. I’m still just practicing and trying to strive for personal perfection.
As I’ve worked to keep Smalls operating, I’ve also kept my own trio operating, and Anthony occupied a lot of that time over the years. You can go into the Smalls archive and see how much he’s contributed, and how much we’ve worked together during that time.
UKJN: Where does Garzone fit into this equation?
SW: In his way, he’s a lot like Anthony, in that he’s an iconoclastic, kind of stand-apart guy. And what I love about George is how powerful his musical feeling is; he has the ability to go to a place and just take you there.
Comping for him is really part of the arc for me, to create behind him. We do two cuts on [The Children and the Warlock] that are duos: completely improvised, three minutes along, all gorgeous. We can play anything together, and make it so cohesive.
It was really the height of jazz improvisation, in my own personal sphere. I really felt like this record allowed me to get into a creative place that I hadn’t allowed myself to go before, and it’s opened me up.
UKJN: I’ll bet those qualities in Garzone made him ideal for a tribute to Whitaker.
SW: Well, you know, Whitaker was on a spiritual plane, like the name of his band: Moment to Moment. That described his approach to jazz, which was to never have prepared much in advance. You just show up, and whatever you guys can throw at the wall is going to be what it is, and you try to find something incredible together.
As his student, one of the things I was most impressed by was the spontaneity of his expression. The way to do that is by playing songs like ‘A Night in Tunisia’ or something. They’re so familiar to everybody; no one needs to worry about what that is. So, you can really get to something crazy.
I try to take that into my own playing, having a level of complete spontaneity at all times. I never want to plan anything too far in advance. And the real trick in jazz is to see what happens when two or three or four people do it together at the same time. If the minds are aligned, it’s powerful.
You know, Harry could do it. He was a powerhouse. George is like a power-master. Anthony and Paul, too.
UKJN: To back up a little bit, how did Trio Contrafactus come together in the first place?
SW: Well, it’s kind of a joke. I had a trio before that; I called them Ancient Aliens. That was with bassist Tyler Mitchell and Anthony. Then, I changed the bass to Paul Gill, who’s another old colleague of mine, and I needed to change the title of the band.
A contrafact is something you do at jazz school, where you take a piece of music that’s already in existence, write your own melody on it, and call it whatever you want. Charlie Parker would do that with ‘All the Things You Are’; it became a very common contrafact.
I’m a big fan of J.S. Bach, and he has what is called contrapunctus – Latin for ‘counterpoint.’ So, I just said “contrafactus,” as kind of a joke, and that became the name of our trio.
UKJN: How was the session? Where did you record this?
SW: We do all our work at a place called GB’s Juke Joint. This is an old friend of mine named Glen Forrest, who runs a fantastic studio in Long Island City. He does basically all the SmallsLIVE stuff. He really knows how to record acoustic jazz, and how it should sound.
