Composer and theremin/piano/guitar virtuouso Eric Ross is an innovative force in a multitude of musical realms. His career spans decades and includes collaborations with a who's who of musical masters, festival performances worldwide, and an opera in Esperanto. I first met Eric at age 15, when I studied bass guitar and theory with him in Binghamton, NY. His mentorship and lifelong friendship have been a consistent source of instruction, encouragement and inspiration. I recently had a chance to ask the maestro some questions about his life and music.
You play and compose for a variety of instruments including piano, guitar, theremin and voice. Which instrument did you begin with?
I started playing piano at age seven. My first teacher, Jean Krantz-Thomas, taught solid fundamentals of technique and a love and respect for the great works of the classical masters. A good early teacher is a key to life-long musical enjoyment, appreciation, development, sensitivity to inner feelings, ability to work with others, and other positive benefits. In High School, I played and sang in choruses. In college, I began to get serious with music. I played in bands on a Wurlitzer electric piano, sang and did a bit of guitar. After college, I wanted to continue on to find my own voice and identity in music. I got down to hard work and study to improve my knowledge and technique. I read, listened, attended concerts and played with a lot of musicians. I did miles of scales, chords, arpeggios, classics and situational improvisation. I began composing at about 19. I wanted to learn how to construct music that could incorporate the different things I’d wanted to say. From 1975-81, I was involved in classic analog electronic music studios with the Moog Synthesizer. The Theremin came about as a logical extension of that interest in electronics.
When did you start playing theremin?
I started playing the theremin around 1976 when I had one assembled from a kit. I realized it was difficult to play but eventually I was able to produce music with it. I put it through a Moog Synth, guitar effects boxes, fuzz, wah, ring modulator, full wave rectifier, etc. In 1982 I used it on my first solo album, Songs for Synthesized Soprano. The theremin blended into the mix well and gave it a special energy and atmosphere. I filtered the soprano voice through a Moog Series III synthesizer, with electronic and classic analog tape studio manipulations, backed with electronically processed instruments, synthesizers, Balinese and Javanese gender, trumpet, bassoon, percussion, guitar, and prepared piano. An objective of the Soprano Songs was to portray complex and varying psychological moods and states of being. The processed voice was used as timbre, color, texture, and for its emotive and expressive qualities. The theremin tracks blended into the mix well and gave it a special energy and atmosphere. The entire cycle of songs was unified by the presence of derivations from a single tone row. The row is presented in each song and developed through variation forms. There were jazz, rock, avant, non-western and other elements in each song as well. The album was released on Doria Records, a NYC jazz label. It helped get me started professionally. A number of people and musicians picked up on it including Pierre Boulez, John McLaughlin, BB King, Clara Rockmore, among others. Its since become a classic vinyl and a collector’s item.
In 1982, I met Yousef Yancy, jazz trumpeter and thereminist. He’d worked with Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, James Brown, and others. We began a long collaboration with concerts in Lincoln Center, Brussels, Berlin JazzFest, and elsewhere. I liked his approach to music and the theremin.
That same year, I met Clara Rockmore, the great virtuosa of the theremin. I was invited to her home in New York a few times. Occasionally, she’d played for me and was an absolutely amazing player. Her advice and encouragement was greatly appreciated. She said both she and Professor Lev Theremin were glad to know that I was writing new compositions for the theremin. Although she’d been retired for many years from the concert stage, she was interested in having me write a Theremin Concerto for her. Youseff Yancy and I later played parts of this Concerto (Op.24), at Lincoln Center. She always felt very strongly that the theremin was a serious musical instrument, not a fad or a gimmick.
In 1991, I met and played for Professor Lev Theremin during the making of Steven Martin’s award-winning movie, Theremin-Electronic Odyssey. I was filmed, playing my instrument for Prof. Theremin. At one point, I played through my wah-wah pedal. He hadn’t heard that before. He tried it himself and to good effect. He later told me of his plans to build a polyphonic theremin. He was in his nineties then but was still creative and forward thinking.
In 1995 I met inventor Robert Moog at Cornell University in Ithaca. I used one of his newer model theremins for my concert there. It’s interesting that he started and ended his career making theremins. He said that his synthesizers were inspired by Theremin’s designs, which were both simple and elegant. I got to know him better at a week long Theremin Festival in Maine in 1997. I played his MIDI Ethervox theremin, which was still in development. After my concert, Bob said the music, Theremin playing and use of electronics was beautiful. Coming from him, it meant a lot to me. I’ve been inspiried by these people to continue using the theremin as a voice in my own compositions. I’ve used it in all my major compositions since the ’80s and plan to continue to do so.
Which composers influence your work?
I’ve always tried to listen to everything, but not be too influenced by anyone. I wanted to find my own voice and identity in music. Of course, I have favorite composers and eras in music. But if it’s good, in any style, I like it. I’ve been fortunate to have been able to have met composers Pierre Boulez, John Cage, Iannis Xennakis, Milton Babbit, Otto Luening, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Earle Brown, virtuoso players Hendrix, Zappa, Garcia, John McLaughlin, Clara Rockmore, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Youseff Yancy, Andrew Cyrille... blues men: BB King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Jack Dupree among many others. I’ve learned something from each of them.
I find inspiration in nature and in quiet places and also in the center of modern cities where theres lots of activity and pace is fast. I like the visual arts, painting, photography, sculpture, video, and movements such as Expressionism, Surrealism, Abstraction, Modernism, Post-modernism, contemporary etc. I don’t know how it translates into music, but I feel its enriching and must be positive. I met poets Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Amiri Baraka, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, and have tried to understand how to use the rhythm and sonic impact of words in my music
What is your attraction to music?
Everybody has a certain aptitude, a certain affinity. I felt that music allowed me to do something that no one else was doing, would be creative, expressive, put out a positive energy into the world and reach other people.
How do you describe your compositions and performance style? What is the atmosphere you are looking to create?
In each of my compositions I like to play something that’s never been heard before. The pieces that I perform are a combination of both written and improvised music. I have specific objectives thematically that musically define each piece. I like spontaneous composition, organization, arrangement, editing and performance. There is an element of risk involved in concert so I have to be creative and adaptable at every moment. To do that consistently demands a certain level of virtuosity. In performance it can create a sense of involvement and excitement for the audience. Ideally I’d like to have us all transported to a state of highened sensory awareness beyond heat and light. In fact, I have a set of musical guidelines for myself. These include:
1. Remember, the single most important element in a performance is
intensity, in expression, speed, dynamics, phrasing, etc.
2. Energy, energy, always more energy
3. Play something you've never heard before.
4. Display and extend all your playing techniques, use all your colors,
timbres, and effects. Use the principles of unity and variety. >
5. Play with fire, speed and accuracy. Jump in the stream of sixteenth
notes. Faster overall thought, quickness, deftness, grace and expression.
6. There is no subsitute for certainty. Be precise.
7. Careful use of resolution notes.
8. Think of "The Disappeared" , and be more expressive. Play with
conviction, as if it's the last time you'll ever play.
9. Hit the central note in the mix to energize the blend. Hit notes "out of
the blue," "self-destruct" type notes to stun myself and audience. Jazz is
spontaneous composition, organization, arrangement, editing and performance.
What you play at any moment is a measure of yourself as an artist.
10. Maintain a sense of the elements of drama in performance, attitude, and
feeling , total concentration/relaxation from the first note to the last.
11. Get to the next level of transcendence. Notes form the capacity
to please or delight. healing powers, the concept of "Swara" meaning
self-illuminating or self-shining.
12. Generate light beyond heat.
What lead you to compose this type of music?
My attraction is towards music that is deeply felt, expressive, has unity of form and content, and is well played with a high level of expertise. I got involved in jazz for the expressive spontaneous aspects and into electronics because it was and remains a new palate of sonic color. I didn’t know anyone who was hearing this music exactly the way I was hearing it, so it became important for me to do it.
In addition to being a composer, you are an electric guitar virtuoso steeped in blues, jazz and rock. Who are your guitar heroes?
I don’t know if I think of guitar players as “heroes”. I like them. When I was 14, I saw Bo Diddley. At 19, I was given my first guitar by a Hell’s Angel. As a young musician, I saw and met many guitar players including Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, Frank Zappa, John McLaughlin among others. They’d developed their own sound and technique using different styles, including jazz, blues, rock, electronic, avant, non-western, classical music in their playing. They incorporated virtuoso technique with emotional content. The message I got from them was basically, “Get into your self, get into your instrument and don’t be a copy of anyone.” I knew what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go with it. I was able to use my knowledge of the keyboard to transfer ideas and develop my approach to the guitar. Having the sound in my mind at the time was important because it evolved through different equipment, and instruments over the course of time. It took years of physical practice but it’s been worth it. BB King told me in 1982, “Stay with it, Eric. If you believe in something, follow it through.” I’ve worked hard for good technique on all my instruments. Expression without technique is inarticulate, just as technique without expressiveness is empty display. When I played with blues artists, Champion Jack Dupree, Lonnie Brooks, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, I learned that intensity, in all the elements of music: energy, rhythm, expression, phrasing, etc. is the most important ingredient in a successful performance. There’s so many great guitarists out there worldwide, some complete unknowns, who can do incredible things. We’re lucky to be able to see so much on Youtube. I was fortunate to hear many great artists in live situations before “real-time” audiences. I think that was most valuable in my development as a musician.
You saw Hendrix perform live?
A friend and I walked into a club called the Café Wha? In New York City in July of 1966. I don’t know why we went there now, I’d never heard of the place or the band. There were about a dozen or so people in the club. A five piece band was on the stand with Hendirx going by the stage name of Jimmie James and the Blue Flames. He did a excellent blues and then “Hey Joe” for about 20 minutes, loud, fast and high up the neck, feeding back with great emotion, played behind his back, with his teeth, tapping, bending the whammy bar in and out of control and in the most remarkable thing flipped it over and played it right handed backwards and upside down, just as good. Beyond the showmanship there was a solid musician with amazing abilities, expressivness and attitude. He went over to London shortly thereafter and became the great Jimi Hendrix. It was very inspiring to me as a young musician. He set a standard for guitarists everywhere.
Do you compartmentalize your musical worlds or do they compliment each other?
I try to respect stylistic differences. But overall, music will merge, mingle and cross-pollinate each other in my mind and change shape in each piece.
You've worked with a number of notable artists over the years and you've performed in many countries. Could you list some of your favorite projects and some your favorite places you've performed?
It’s exciting to play big venues like Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Newport Jazz, Berlin, Monreux, North Sea, etc..
I have to be be at the top of my game and perform at my best. Last year’s concert at the Guggenheim-Bilbao Museum in Spain was excellent acoustically with big video projections and a enthusiastic audience. Smaller festivals or venues can be great as well. I began playing at colleges, art centers, museums, then bigger jazz and new music festivals. People naturally bring their own expectations to a concert. Some come out wanting to hear something new, others may want to hear something familiar. My ideal audience is one that wants to be stimulated and challenged by music. I’ve had groups through the years with Andrew Cyrille, Oliver Lake, Leroy Jenkins, John Abercrombie, Youseff Yancy, Byard Lancaster, and many other wonderful players. Performing with great artists has enhanced what I do and has been a continuing inspiration.
Your wife Mary is a video artist and frequent collaborator. How do you influence one another?
We’ve been working together and doing multimedia performances since the 1970s. Mary’s video is another line in the score, I see it as color, texture, light and movement. Also for me, of course, it’s a bit more. I become immersed in it in performance and it becomes a bit surreal, an autobiographical montage of memories compressed, shuffled, rearranged and re-examined I’ve done a few projects for visual other artists, but I’m more interested in developing this. We’ve worked together for so long that we kind of know intuitively what we want in terms of the merger of music and video to make the atmosphere that we’re trying to create. The editing process is very demanding. It’s the result of hard work, tough decisions and careful thought. In concert, I seldom have to change anything in the music to fit with her videos because at that point, it flows together rather naturally. Synergy arises when persons with different complementary skills cooperate.
Mary’s early work with video synthesizers (limited edition, hand built machines that used electronic circuits and devices to manipulate the TV signal) resulted in a style of video art called “image processing.” Her manipulation of the video signal to make abstract imagery closely paralleled my work with analog audio synthesizers and the Theremin. As our work developed separately and collaboratively over the years, both the imagery and music has evolved into non-literal, non-narrative forms. Mary describes her work as “imaginary narratives.” She uses her own vintage, enhanced and “distressed” footage. Composing or deconstructing shots. A shot from the 1980's may be preceded by a shot from 2009 or 1990s or vice versa. There is no fixed time and material is not mixed or laid out in a set chronological manner. In the music, a theme from another decade can be re-expressed in a new context, resynthsized and reused anew. While the video is fixed, my relationship to the video is ever-changing. I compose specific themes for some parts and improvise other sections. In performance, I like to create unexpected relationships musically to what is on the screen.
You've been classified as an avant-garde composer. Do you think this term is relevant? If so, what's avant-garde in 2011?
I think of avant-garde historically as being pioneers in the arts, breaking new ground, showing ways forward, taking the arts into unknown areas of beauty and expression. The term is still relevant, it’s always important. Otherwise, form and content stagnate. These artists and how they express themselves has impact across the arts and, sometimes, across society. Sometimes, they’ll start up whole schools of followers. Their ideas have impact. I think the term is still relevant as always only ever changing.
You were one of the first to embrace the midi guitar or guitar synth. How has this affected your work?
I’ve been playing MIDI guitar since the 80’s. It’s a instrument distinct from the traditional guitar but a natural sonic extension of it. Usually, I have the synth parts as background or accompaniment with the guitar as a lead voice, or switch the guitar as a backing and a synth voice in the front but generally I like both voices together to create a different sound timbre. Being a keyboard player and familiar with analog synthesis, was an advantage in that I knew basic synthesis, generation and mixinig. My no.1 guitar itself is a TD (Tom Dobrovich) Custom Strat, with a Super-Tele neck, custom electronics, 3 pickups, 17 different combinations and switching, with a Roland GR. I run the guitar throught effects units with the distortion, modulation, time processing, etc.
What was the inspiration to write an opera in Esperanto?
In RimnVornl (Op.37), and Boulevard d’Reconstructie (Op.54) the vocal parts have several different languages including Esperanto. They’re set in a stream of consciousness form. The texts are a surrealist biography. In it, a cry, a whisper, a scream all mean certain things regardless of the words used. The tone is as important as the words. The opera has Esperanto as well as fourteen other languages, so far. Esperanto sounds familiar, but it’s not immediately understandable. I learned to sing in chorus and rock bands. In my compositions, I write vocal parts to my strengths and the notes in my range. With different effects, I can sound like an electronic instrument. On Songs for Synthesizer Soprano (Op.19) there was one point where I sang the line, processed it, transposing it up two octaves to double the real soprano. I use processing in my studio voice tracks but I don’t do a lot of processing on my live voice , I just try to sing the part clean with a bit of reverb or delay. I want the voice to convey a human tone in the electro-acoustic mix and the words to be there on the edge of understanding.
You've appeared as a solo pianist and most of your recordings have piano in them. Clavier Magazine’s review of your concert at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival said Piano Preludes (Op.44) were “an attractive set, extremely difficult with many wide and unusual leaps.”
I wanted to play them there especially well. I knew there ‘d be many excellent pianists in the audience. There’s a high degree of technical difficulty involved, not just for display but for some deeper emotional content to contemplate as well. That’s an important balance. Technique and expression. I like to write pieces that are a little harder than I can play each time to make me work up to a higher level of playing. The piano is an orchesta in itself and has been a foundation of ideas. I can write and play to my strengths. I can be relaxed in performance or improvisational situations and I can play what I hear. On my CDs, you’ll notice, the piano generally is driving the band forward.
What is the artist's role in society?
To put out a positive message to the world.
What would your utopia be like?
A place where every man, woman, child, animal, plant and the entire planet would be treated with dignity and respect. Where each person could achieve their full creative potential in peace and harmony. Everyone would have enough to eat, a place to live, safe, warm, dry, medical care, and meaningful work to do. Clean air, water, land. No dictators, oligarchs, or fundamentalist ideologies. A redistribution of wealth so that the mean income was more evenly distributed across the world. Massive humanistic education free, full and for all. Peace is prevalent. Violence becomes a thing of the past. Compassion for all, the golden rule. Liberty,equality, fraternity, pursuit of happiness. A government structed to protect and provide services to everyone. Full human (and animal) rights. I think it could be achieved. But perhaps that’s utopian.
