Wayne Escoffery is one of the most famous saxophone players of today. He won many awards, with one of them being the prestigious Grammy Award. He collaborated with a lot of prominent jazz musicians, such as Ron Carter, Ralph Peterson, Tom Harrell… The Nišville Jazz festival audience had the opportunity to listen to him live three times in the last seven years, with this year’s performance being his 4th time here, but the first one with the Black Art Jazz Collective, which we used as a perfect opportunity to start a conversation.
This is your 4th performance at Nišville Jazz festival but the first one with the Black Art Jazz Collective. Can you tell us something about this all star band?
Wayne Escoffery: I formed the group in 2013 and I called some of my closest friends Jeremy Pelt and Johnathan Blake and I expressed the need to put a group together, celebrating black culture, celebrating the origins of jazz. We all felt the same way and we called some of the best musicians we knew to form this collective, so that’s what we do. We want to be positive role models for younger musicians and for young black people. I think one of the great things about this band is that we all take where we go very seriously and I think we’re all great role models and I’m proud of us musically but also personally. I’m proud of what we represent. This is an important group to me and every time we play people love it and appreciate it so that just makes me happy.
How was your experience at Nišville until now?
Wayne Escoffery: I’ve always had a great time! The people are very nice – I always meet great people here. This is an amazing festival, it’s organized in a great way. I believe while jazz is very serious and complicated music with a rich history, it should also be fun, it should be music for young people. One of the reasons why I love Nišville is that the audience is young and they really appreciate jazz and that’s unique. I think that’s important to keep jazz alive. It makes me happy to be here and to see some of the young people enjoying the music and they’re enthusiastic – it’s really nice!
Can we talk about your 10 years long collaboration with Tom Harrell? How important was that to you?
Wayne Escoffery: It was very important for my career and also just for my musical development. In many ways I consider my time with him kind of like a graduate studies in music. He continues to influence me, just his writing, his musicianship and everything that he’s done. I really value that time with him. We are still friends, we still talk… I just talked to him a few weeks ago. I feel very lucky that I had that experience.
Are you still friends with Ugonna Okegwo from Tom Harrell Quintet?
Wayne Escoffery: Of course! Ugonna and I are very good friends, very close. I’m still friends with everyone in that band – Johnathan (Blake), Danny Grissett… Xavier (Davis) is actually joining someone else tomorrow and Danny Grissett is joining Black Art Jazz Collective for the rest of the tour… So, yes, we are very close.
How hard was for you to become a recognized and respected musician as you are today?
Wayne Escoffery: It’s hard in any art. It’s hard as a visual artist, performing musician… It’s a lot of hard work, but I’ve always been a hard worker and I just focus on the music. There had been many ups and downs and they continue to be there… Continue to be times where I have small failures and it’s important to learn from those failures and those mistakes and to grow. I must say, the one thing the people always tell me is that I always improve, I always get better, every time they hear me. And that’s my goal. It’s not to be famous, it’s not anything but to be a great musician. So I just try to always get better and to learn from people around me and from my mistakes.
Do you have any unfulfilled wishes to collaborate with someone?
Wayne Escoffery: Hmm… I mean, yeah, because I wanna play with everybody! I want to play with every musician out there, I would really like that. My goal is to be the ultimate sidemen so I really wanna have the experience to play as in many bands as it’s possible.
Do you regret anything in your career?
Wayne Escoffery: In my career? No.
What advice would you give to the young musicians whose careers are at the beginning?
Wayne Escoffery: Well, I think it’s easy to get caught up in fame and in promotion, especially these days with social media and things like this. And while it is an important part of the industry, I think it’s most important for young people to focus on the music and to focus on the intricacies of the art form. Like I said before – if you take care of the music, the music will take care of you. So if you focus and just try to be the highest level musician that you can be, and don’t worry about being famous or popular, everything else will come.
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