Q & A: Ben Huff
Tom Jakob | 6/30/23
Space is a commodity in Manhattan. But Ben Huff, a saxophonist, composer, and improviser who runs shows out of his one-bedroom apartment in Hudson Heights, proves that discipline trumps square footage.
Ben is a silly little guy; he loves to fool around with his instruments, peruse memes, and tease his tabby cat, Peanutbutter, with a broken zip tie. But discipline is something that Ben expressly maintains in his artistic exploits, even with his jazz improvisations. After all, it takes a lot of discipline to run a one-man operation of producing house shows. And it has certainly paid off for Ben who now finds himself preparing for an upcoming concert series this fall.
Art Grove Newsletter caught up with the artist to discuss Ben’s album Transmissions, the duality of discipline in free music, and the shows he is bringing to upper Manhattan this fall.
Art Grove: “Tell me about Transmissions… what are some of the ideas at work in the collection and where do they come from?”
Ben Huff: “So it was the equivalent of my senior [year] recital, which obviously got canned due to COVID. I originally wrote and recorded friends reading poetry by a different poet, and I reached out to their estate and they said, “No, you can't use any of their work.” So that kind of sucked. But I knew I still wanted to do something poetry related. So I went around it and read a whole ton of poetry and eventually found Charles Simic who I really liked, and composed some pieces based on his poetry. And then the rest of the pieces kind of came together one at a time. This was during COVID, so I recorded all the parts myself in my living room closet and I didn't really write anything down. It was mostly just a matter of going into my little booth to record one part and then layering it with another and then layering and layering and layering. The only music I wrote down was the parts for the strings, french horn, and flute on the first piece Impeturbation. Other than that, it was pretty much entirely improvised.”
AG: Was there something about Charles Simic’s work that you latched onto, or that you thought combined well with what you were trying to do?
BH: His work is strange. It's almost surreal in his use of language and metaphor, and you never really know if he's talking about something that's real or something that he made up or something that someone else made up. And so it's this cool blend of really human aspects and also strange otherworldly surrealist ideas. I'd also say the sounds I was going for kind of play on that blurring of the line between reality and surreal reality. I'm using acoustic instruments but I was running them through quite a bit of visual processing and effects. So yeah, kind of a combination of real and unreal elements.
AG: You like to blur the line between composition and improvisation, especially in Transmissions. Can you talk a little more about that?
BH: So scattered throughout are these graphic improvisations, which are tied to graphic scores that I made. Those are full improvisation, raw stream of consciousness… you know, more standard improvisation. But then, like in The Grass, for example, there are three bass clarinet tracks and two baritone saxophones, I think an alto in there too. Those parts were improvised in the sense that I made them up while I was playing them. I didn't sit down at a piano and figure out the harmonies and write it all out. But it is “composed” in that I'm not improvising a solo. I was improvising a through-composed part.
Usually, when we're improvising, especially in a jazz context, you're soloing and the rest of the band is playing an agreed-upon figure. But in these pieces, I was improvising the “through-composed” elements. And I was just kind of playing what felt right, laying down one track and then going back and laying down another, and having them layer in my headphones so I could hear everything going on at once. And the harmony just kind of came naturally through that. It definitely wasn't using my music theory knowledge to thoughtfully compose these lines. It was really just what I was hearing.
AG: For people who might be more closed-minded to improv, what would you say to open their minds a bit?
BH: I think a lot of jazz, especially from the later half of the 20th century and 21st century, you know, quote-unquote modern jazz is fairly inaccessible to the general public because people don't go to music school and study harmony and stuff. I think there is an issue with accessibility. And I really try to bridge that gap, where my music is very much improvised but simple enough so that the general public can listen and enjoy.
I think there is a gap in the scene between music that is really improvised and has the excitement of spontaneity and music that is so cacophonous that it turns people away. I don't want to sound like an old man that's like “Kids these days don't know how to play”––
AG: ––But kids these days!
BH: But kids these days. There's a large community of free jazz musicians. And I think some of them don't play with enough patience, and with enough intentionality. So oftentimes, free improvisation can so quickly go off the deep end and just be sheets of sound that aren't really accessible. It's like if you don't care enough about what you play to shape it into something memorable then how do you expect an audience member to give a shit about what you're playing?
AG: Before we wrap up, let’s talk about some of your upcoming fall house shows.
BH: Yeah, it's coming together! I put out to Instagram asking who would want to play and I was fully expecting like six people to respond. And 25 people reached out to me saying they would love to play! So that kind of lit a fire underneath and I was like, “Oh, shit, I actually have to, like, organize this now.”
So we're doing a show every other Friday night. Sept. 8 will be the first show all the way to November 17. It'll be six shows, two a month. Most of the shows are fully locked in. And I can’t reveal who it is, but I did just reach out to an actual, professional musician. And they said they were interested in doing it. So we might have a special guest at one of the shows. So now it's just about raising money to pay for it all.
AG: As far as the lineup goes, what can people expect?
BH: It's going to be mostly solo sets. Maybe some duos. It's going to be mostly free improv. I have a lot of folks from the New School community, Aaron Rubinstein, Cisco De La Garza, Pauline Roberts, Kirk Anderson, Marvin Carter, Kevin Murray, Sam Kochis is gonna play. And yeah, I mean, I'm open as far as like, genre and stuff. If someone wants to come and play tunes or whatever, that's totally cool. I just think most of my friends are more into the free music scene. So that's kind of what I anticipate it will mostly be.
AG: And as far as financing goes, how can folks support?
BH: I have a GoFundMe going. That's probably the best way. It's gonna be like $1000 to pay the artists and then any like food and drinks. And actually, a nonprofit called Jazz Wahi—It's a couple that runs this, they're a 501(C)3 up in my neighborhood, they run a couple of jam sessions and they do like concerts in the park and stuff—they reached out to me and offered to sponsor one of the shows. So at least one of them will be in partnership with Jazz Wahi!
Listen to Ben’s album Transmissions and many others on Bandcamp, and support his upcoming shows if you can!