{"id":134474,"date":"2018-02-20T09:36:50","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T14:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=134474"},"modified":"2018-02-20T09:36:50","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T14:36:50","slug":"open-borders-interview-professor-earl-macdonald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2018\/02\/open-borders-interview-professor-earl-macdonald\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Borders: an Interview with Professor Earl MacDonald"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pianist Earl MacDonald, Director of Jazz Studies in the School of Fine Arts, released his fifth album, <\/span>Open Borders<\/span><\/i>, on November 21, 2017. Involving collaboration at its core, from the diverse band to the wide range of UConn School of Fine Arts faculty members that united to assist in Earl\u2019s creative process, the premise of the album is to build bridges and not walls. In his own words, stated on his website, \u201c<\/span>Borders, restrictions, divisions, limits, boundaries, barriers, separation, walls \u2014 to me, all of these words have such negative undercurrents. Maybe I\u2019m oppositional by nature, but just reading these words arouses some unrest within me. I feel myself bracing, preparing to question, plot and defy. I see this oppositional trait in my children too, and frequently have to remind myself that obedient conformers don\u2019t typically become world changers.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What does Open Borders mean to you?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I knew what made the project special was the diversity of the band, in every sense \u2013 age, race, sexual orientation, gender, life experiences etc. What\u2019s interesting though is in jazz, diversity isn\u2019t new or all that unique. There\u2019s been so many people that were trailblazers beforehand. Racially mixed bands are not a new concept. Complete integration might be new in other aspects of American culture but not so much in jazz. At the same time, that still didn\u2019t diminish the fact that it\u2019s special societally, with what\u2019s going on in our current political culture. I\u2019ve learned the importance of diversity by working in a university environment. Drawing upon the ideas of individuals that don\u2019t think like yourself can form and shape your thinking in different ways. So, from the onset, diversity was a goal for this ensemble.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: How was the name Open Borders chosen?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The title was actually chosen very late in the process. Speaking of drawing upon the ideas of others, I really struggled finding the right name for the album, so I sent out invitations to some of my favorite thinkers within the School of Fine Arts faculty to gather for a brainstorming session. It actually took a little while for <\/span>Open Borders<\/span><\/i> to come to the surface. It\u2019s really a unique way to present the notion that I had an especially diverse band. The band\u2019s diversity didn\u2019t come about by accident; it is the result of deliberate actions of people in the past, and the way America\u2019s history has unfolded. There\u2019s people that fought those fights. Billy Strayhorn, for instance, was one of the first jazz musicians to be openly gay. He created inroads for other people to come out now. Also, I imagine Mary Lou Williams struggled in working her way into a male dominated workforce. It\u2019s not a closed border mindset that led to these developments. As artists, we want to fight borders and restrictions, because that\u2019s what\u2019s going to make you a great artist. <\/span><\/p>\n

Q: How did the cover art come about?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Cora Lynn Deibler, UConn Professor of Illustration, was in that group of brainstormers who helped come up with this <\/span>Open Borders<\/span><\/i> idea. When I handed out the notepads to everyone, she doodled all over it, and there was an image of this sole person standing there who is seemingly presented with options in terms of direction in this open landscape. This image spoke to me, and was ultimately selected because it is representative of us, as artists, in the sense that we are faced with choices and possibilities. I also really liked Cora Lynn\u2019s bird idea. There are birds and flight paths throughout the CD packaging. I think it is an ingenious way to avoid clich\u00e9s pertaining to open borders, like \u201cthe wall\u201d and border crossing signs. Birds don\u2019t adhere to borders; there are no restrictions on them. I\u2019ve always been a fan of Deibler\u2019s drawings. She has illustrated children\u2019s books, but at the same time if you look at her website, she\u2019s not afraid to tackle political and controversial subject matter. I like that her illustrations disarm you. For example, if you\u2019re looking at the <\/span>Open Borders<\/span><\/i> title, and you\u2019re politically right-leaning, I imagine you might be more open to considering another viewpoint through her clever artwork. She had tons of ideas for the cover, it was a fun process. She\u2019s a great thinker! You can imagine how powerful it was to have ten people like her gathered around a table presenting ideas and helping me get \u201cunstuck.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI started to think about the things that are borderless,\u201d <\/span><\/i>Professor Deibler stated. <\/span>\u201cPeople have borders, we make them, so what does not recognize borders? Animals, birds, mammals, insects, plants, weather – those things aren\u2019t contained. They go wherever they feel they need to be. I started to work with the idea of the birds representing the musicians Professor MacDonald pulled together.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Q: What was the timeline of making this CD?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

This project has spanned many years. I imagined the group\u2019s instrumentation in 2009. I was working with the Hartford Jazz Society and pitched the idea of forming a band to represent them and help them accomplish their goals. We made our debut performance in Hartford\u2019s Bushnell Park and over 5,000 people attended! Then I just kept adding to the repertoire, expanding and writing a few new arrangements for every subsequent performance. I also workshopped the music with my UConn jazz students, which was a win-win situation. I could hear and develop my music, and benefitted from their input. They got the experience of working firsthand with a composer in the act of creating. In the process, I fine-tuned the pieces. This saved a lot of rehearsal and studio time later, with the professional musicians. The recording session itself was one, long, intense day. At times it was stressful, but everyone worked well together. I spent a lot of time in the editing process, but the music is accurate and how I envisioned it. I spread the editing and mixing of the album over a year\u2019s time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What is your creative process when writing music?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I usually start by making lists of things related to a topic or the song\u2019s title, like literary references, visual images, or emotions. Sometimes I think more like a storyteller. I think about where I want a piece to go, and how I will get to its climax. Often, I\u2019ll imagine different characters interacting with one another. Once I have several pages of non-musical ideas, I might go to the piano to improvise, or I might sing something into the voice memos recorder on my phone. Sometimes I\u2019ll dance around the room, singing a rhythm, trying to capture the ideas as they come to me. \u00a0If I come up with something that really catches my interest, I might try to develop it. I\u2019ll play with it backwards, expand it, put it into another key. Writing music definitely draws upon both sides of the brain. There\u2019s definitely an intuitive side, but it\u2019s then those instinctive ideas need to be developed tactically. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What\u2019s your favorite song on the album and why?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if I have a favorite song. The songs are kind of like my children because I\u2019ve invested so much time into each of them. There are certain songs I like for different reasons. I do like <\/span>Mirror of the Mind<\/span><\/i> because it sounds expansive; it reminds me of Aaron Copland in some ways. I think of mountains and picturesque nature. There are other songs that are really driving and swinging that I like, <\/span>Sordid Sort Fellow,<\/span><\/i> for example. It\u2019s kind of simple in a jazz-sense, but sometimes simplicity is attractive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What song was the hardest to write?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Dolphy Dance<\/span><\/i> was a tricky one. A lot of these tunes developed over quite a bit of time. I like to write my stuff and revisit it. I presented <\/span>Dolphy Dance<\/span><\/i> in a few different ensemble settings, and one was for the UConn Symphony Orchestra. I was thinking of the saxophonist Eric Dolphy, who leaned toward the avant-garde in jazz. His music will really stretch you. It\u2019s aggressive and outside the normal parameters. I was picturing what he would sound like in a Salsa setting. That\u2019s one of the things I like doing in my composing — fusing two styles that might not naturally fit. Presenting the Symphony Orchestra\u2019s classically trained musicians, with Latin, dance-like rhythms, helped to develop the piece into something outside of what I would normally write. It also opened my imagination to some different orchestration colors and possibilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What do you think your next project is going to be?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

As much as I enjoy recording, I now plan to switch gears for a period, and devote my time to composing and arranging for big band. Almost every university in North America and Europe has a 17-piece big band, so there\u2019s a market in education for this music. In addition to having my music performed by other groups, I will be focusing on marketing my skills as a guest pianist or conductor. It is always fun working with different groups of musicians and experiencing how they interpret my music.<\/span><\/p>\n

Q: What was the most special part of this project for you?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Collaboration with UConn faculty was a definite highlight, and it led to making the album unique and special. My colleagues from the School of Fine Arts had so many great, inspiring ideas. One of the things I like about working at UConn is that I can collaborate with experts in other areas. I was really stuck in trying to find an album title that articulated the project\u2019s essence. I was going in circles, but drawing from the brain power of these highly accomplished, award-winning artists who were willing to come together was one of the most special parts of this whole project. <\/span><\/p>\n

Links for more information: <\/b><\/p>\n

Press release: \u00a0<\/span>http:\/\/www.earlmacdonald.com\/open-borders\/press-release
\n<\/span><\/a>*Album liner notes: <\/span>http:\/\/www.earlmacdonald.com\/open-borders\/album-liner-notes
\n<\/span><\/a>About the music: <\/span>http:\/\/www.earlmacdonald.com\/open-borders\/about-the-music
\n<\/span><\/a>The musicians: <\/span>http:\/\/www.earlmacdonald.com\/open-borders\/the-musicians
\n<\/span><\/a>The band\u2019s history: <\/span>http:\/\/www.earlmacdonald.com\/yankee-gumbo
\n<\/span><\/a>The recording process: <\/span>http:\/\/www.earlmacdonald.com\/open-borders\/recording-process
\n<\/span><\/a>Download or Purchase the CD: https:\/\/store.cdbaby.com\/cd\/earlmacdonald5<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pianist Earl MacDonald, Director of Jazz Studies in the School of Fine Arts, released his fifth album, Open Borders, on November 21, 2017. Involving collaboration at its core, from the diverse band to the wide range of UConn School of Fine Arts faculty members that united to assist in Earl\u2019s creative process, the premise of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":134476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1914],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2060],"class_list":["post-134474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sfa"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 01:50:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/134476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134474"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=134474"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=134474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}