Swiss artist, Grégoire Maret talks music, inspiration and about his journey
Sadly, the whole Covid-19 situation has hit the music industry and New York, your home of choice, especially hard. Where do you find strength and inspiration for continuing your work these days?
Grégoire: I have to be honest, it took me quite a while to be able to be creative and into playing anything again. But at some point, I looked at my daughter and thought, I had no right to complain and I needed to keep fighting and playing the most beautiful and meaningful music I can ever play.
Your latest album “Americana”, which you recorded with French pianist Romain Collin and American guitarist Bill Frisell, is marked not only by jazz sounds, but also by country, blues and gospel influences. How did this cooperation and this extraordinary album come about?
Grégoire: If you look at my musical path and all the collaborations I’ve had over the years, you’ll see I played all these styles of music before, and quite naturally. It was then sort of logical to do an album that combined all these styles. I loved to play with different artists like Cassandra Wilson, Pat Metheny or others. Romain and I knew we wanted to collaborate on some music and we both have a passion for beautiful melodies. We thought we should collaborate on a record, which could be our representation of the American songbook. With songs that represent our dreams, our longings, our quests and, if possible, something to unite us all in times of adversity.
You were born and raised in Switzerland but have lived for more than 20 years in the United States now. How would you describe the Swiss musical tradition in comparison to the U.S. musical tradition?
In terms of jazz it’s completely different. To be honest if we talk about jazz or improvised music it all comes from the USA. Then, different cultures took elements of jazz and adapted them to their own musical traditions. They took traditional songs and revisited them via the prism of jazz. But the essence is all in the Afro-American tradition. Having grown up in Switzerland with a father who is a jazz musician and a mother born in Harlem, I feel it was kind of natural for me to play this music. I was born into jazz music. There are great Swiss musicians now, who are creating beautiful music like Matthieu Michel and many others. But if you look at all the really good musicians of jazz anywhere in the world they all love and have a connection to the Afro-American culture. The Swiss musical tradition, like the rest of Europe, is more about melodies and harmonies, maybe. Afro-American tradition like jazz is about rhythms first and then melodies and harmonies.
The current crisis intensifies the transformation of the music industry into digital spheres all the more. Do you see the future of jazz on the net as well, and if so, how exactly?
Grégoire: No, internet will never ever replace the magic that can happen during a live performance where musicians and audiences really connect. Period.
A lot of people now are creating bucket lists: In your career you have already achieved a lot, of course, but what is something you still want to achieve that you would put on your bucket list?
Grégoire: I want to get to the essence of things when I play. So, no matter what style, I want to get to a level where I don’t need to play more than a couple of notes to express what I want to say. Kind of like Miles Davis or Wayne Shorter. When they play there is so much wisdom. If I never get there, it’s ok. More than the final destination, the important part is the path to get there.
