Andre Canniere on musical routines and Bandcamp Friday picks
Photo by Monika Jakubowska
Trumpeter, composer, and educator Andre Canniere is an acclaimed player who began his career in New York, working with artists like Maria Schneider and Donny McCaslin, but now resides in London. The Scotsman called him “one of the most compelling artists on the current London Jazz scene”, and his latest album, Ghost Days, received four star reviews from UK Vibe, The Jazz Mann, and Jazzwise. Ahead of his performance at NQ Jazz on Monday 23rd August, we asked Andre about the return of live music, and he told us about his cycling, and Bandcamp Friday favourites.
Q. What are you most looking forward to about the return of live music?
Having had only one live performance from March 2020 to present, I am very excited to make music with my band again. For me, and I believe many others, jazz is social music and it is all about the connections and interactions that happen between performers and the audience - experiences that can’t be matched in any remote or live-streaming platform. I am also looking forward to the opportunity to go out and hear other people play music. It’s been challenging and there has been a lot of anxiety; musicians may have gotten rusty and venues have struggled to stay alive, but I think if the past 14 months have shown anything, it’s that we are resilient. I think there has been a lot of creativity brewing during the lockdown and I’m excited to play, see and hear as much as I can!
Q. What can audiences expect from your NQ Jazz performance?
We will be playing music from our latest album, Ghost Days. We were set to tour the music around the UK just as the lockdown started in 2020 but sadly it was all postponed indefinitely. This is officially our first rescheduled gig of that tour and we are ecstatic about being able to share this music with a live audience.
Q. What has kept you busy during the last 12 months?
I’ve been lucky enough to retain a fairly busy teaching schedule, which I was able to carry out remotely when everything was shut down. After having a bit of a practice break last summer, I have tried to stay disciplined with my routine to keep in shape both technically and musically. The rest of my time was ‘skillfully’ divided between spending time with my family and getting out for long rides on my road bike. Thankfully, keeping busy was not an issue for me!
Q. Has your musical perspective or perception of the industry changed over the past year?
I’m not sure I could fully answer this right now - come back to me in a year when things have returned to ‘normal’! What I can say now is that I’ve been impressed with the dedication and resilience of some of the smaller venues who have kept going without much help or support from the government (especially compared with other industries). While it is uplifting to see things opening up, I think we have to accept that the music scene might be in ‘recovery mode’ for a while.
Q. Who has had a significant influence on your music?
An easier question to answer would be one that asked ‘who hasn’t had an impact’. There are too many to list but here are some of the most important and impactful ones: The Beatles, Miles Davis, Kenny Garrett, Joni Mitchell, Radiohead, D’Angelo, Maria Schneider, Dave Douglas, Ralph Alessi, Cuong Vu, Donny McCaslin, Becca Stevens, Kneebody, Mahler, Shostakovich… ask me tomorrow and I might have a completely different list!
Q. What music are you listening to at the moment?
Having just reignited my love of vinyl after purchasing a new Rega turntable, I’ve been taking advantage of the Bandcamp Friday sales so a lot of stuff that’s fairly new. Some great stuff from Whirlwind Recordings (the label that put out Ghost Days) including Walter Smith III, Matt Gold and John Turville. Chapters by Kneebody on Edition is great. I’m also a big fan of Sault’s latest album Black Is as well as Phoebe Bridgers latest The Punisher.