 Jack Wright is either a very serious musician or else, uninterested to carry that burden, he could hardly be considered serious at all. In the eighties he called himself "non-commercial, not interested in the marketplace", what today is known as diy. Nonetheless, he has a huge vocabulary, which comes from reaching out as widely as possible for new experience, as if seeking to know his music for the first time, rather than demonstrating a pre-constructed aesthetic of conceptual music. He is motivated to put his love of playing in front of people. He has been a full-time saxophonist of improvisation since the late 70's, beginning with the saxophone as a ten-year-old in 1952. He quit, basically because he couldn't play chord-change jazz. In the long hiatus that followed he studied and reflected on history, philosophy, culture, which he continues to do. He taught and quit that, engaged in radical politics and quit that when the left lost its revolutionary edge (for good reason), began playing again as a free improviser, has been regularly discouraged but has not stopped. Now he is known to a few people and seeks to keep the low profile, which is the easy way to go, business-wise. He used to rage and stomp around like a Dionysian; now he makes soft cuddly and squeaky sounds, with occasional lion roars and dog barkings. His appearance is normal--no big beard, no tattoos, usually wears shorts, always a hat. He doesn't often stand when he plays but sits crouched down, with the bell of his horn pressed against his bare thigh and muted sometimes into silence. He is known to play with everyone, but in public only with people who interest him musically and personally. That's still a lot of people, since he plays a lot of different ways, from free jazz to no-recognizable-sax-sound. He may be obscure but he comes close to doing exactly what he wants in his life, and that is no simple matter for any of us. |
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