by Allyson Lipkin

Epistrophy Arts has done it again: a great gathering of jazz loving people at a new space called The Off Center, where Suzie Ibarra (drums) and Assif Tsahar,(tenor sax and bass clarinet) hashed out a headlining show with Austin's own Will Greenstreet opening. Suzie and Assif have been making avant-garde improvisational music with other New Yorkers like William Parker, David S. Ware, Wilber Morris, Denis Charles, John Zorn, and Mathew Shipp, among others. Epistrophy Arts has been doing its best to keep Austin up on new and improvisational jazz. P.G. Moreno of Ephistrophy states, "Our goal at Epistrophy is to demonstrate that there is an audience for underground music in Austin. We need to work together to build and strengthen this adventurous music community, most importantly by showing our support and encouraging our local musicians to play creatively." Yes, Hallelujah, praised be!! After the jazz show, Assif, DiverseArts, and Will Greenstreet had a chat to discuss current events while Suzie was putting up her drums. Later she and I had a conversation which I have entitled "Suzie and Me" due to the fact that she is so on the level.

ADA: What precipitatied your tour to Austin?

AT: We did a tour in Israel. That's where I'm from. We played to the film of Stan Brackage. That was the first time I had played there in nine years. Nine years ago I left Israel.

ADA: As a student?

AT: I am still a student, but I was really a student then. There was no one in Israel that was playing this stuff. It was the first time in nine years, so I was very excited.

ADA: Who organized the Stan Brackage Combo?

AT: I just wrote him...to ask him to do it.

ADA: So you produced it?

AT: Yeah, I did it. He said fine, do whatever you want to do, you know it's your business. It was amazing that I met with him and talked to him. I still have to send him everything I did because I promised him but I have had no time.

ADA: So what other projects do you have in mind?

AT: I'd like to do what [P.G. Moreno] suggested with this orchestra, CO2 [The Creative Opportunity Orchestra]. I like orchestras. Mostly what I do now, it's a duet or a trio in small settings. I have this brass band that I'm working with now. I have played in Cecil Taylor's big band and William Parker's. That's kind of what started it. See jazz music started from big band music...bigger ensembles. I really have an appreciation for that. Like the first bands I played in New York were big bands.

ADA: Will, is it totally different, like going from one end of the spectrum to the other?

WG: Well, you get the reading, you know, people supporting what your doing.

AT: You know it's kind of like a community. Like when you play that music you have the reading but more importantly it's like when everybody is together. It's larger than somebody. When it really works it's magical because it's so hard. You know you have to give up your ego.

WG: It's easier with two people, actually.

AT: I talked to Mal Waldron once, he's a piano player, he said it's the easiest thing to do -- express.

ADA: When you and Suzie are playing in the moment, do you have a structure that you are going with, a composition, or a feeling? Suzie has ultimate control and stream of flow...

WG: Whatever she wants to do she can do. That she thinks it and does it. The whole thing about recording music like this, improv, is that it's a record of the time. That's all it is. You know you don't think we're gonna make this glossy record or anything like that. It's really just a record of the time, so quality of what you can do is all that's important.

Suzie and Me

At this point in time, Suzie was ready to grace me with her soft-spoken presence. We continue talking -- just us -- about recording improvisational jazz and her roots.

ADA: I was talking about recording with Assif and Will. How would you tend to prepare for it?

SI: Well, there is always a different feeling when you're in a studio than when you're playing for people. And, you know, jazz is largely based on improvised music but also we have pieces, melodies, or structures that we work from. Sometimes these ideas are worked out from just playing a lot. These ideas, or say, tunes, will go into a free tune -- which will be worked out in the moment by improvising. And the version that's played that day is the version that gets the recording. And you know that's what it is. You can't really stress about it because music tends to be about that moment. And whether it's a studio or live performance -- I always just try to go and just play my best and from the heart.

ADA: I think it's great, because you are one of the only women players! Your name comes up a lot and it has to do with style and interpretation. I don't know who you consider your mentors, but there are not that many women who have busted out. I think it's great. What can you say about what you've done to prepare yourself?

SI: You know, you are who you are. Being raised from my family I had a very strong mother. She was very bright. She's a doctor. I'm a first generation American, they are from the Philippines. During WWII she went through med school. She was really bright -- I could never be this bright! She had great grades. They said to her in med school, "You know, we would rather have some mediocre guy come in [even though] you have the grades." My mom said, "I have the grades, I want to go in!" So that stuff she was going through in the fifties. And I guess music hasn't, I feel, really been through a feminist period; not to say that all women who play music are feminists. A lot of other art forms have gone through femenist and post femenist movements but in music, it didn't even happen. I think you have to wonder why, because there are a lot of women musicians out there, a lot that can play. But it's still not that many.

ADA: Especially in the jazz world. Because there are a lot of them when you look at the full spectrum.

SI: In music you have to cosider that there is a lot of tradition, if you want to go way back to traditional music. Actually, in April, I'm curating a women's music show at a club called Tonic. I haven't finished booking it, so I can't give out any names.

ADA: Keep us posted, we would love to hear about the event!

There was a little more dialogue in "Suzie and Me," but my recorder started slurring all her words. I refer to Suzie as "the Zen mastress" of drums due to the control and velocity for which she expells her rolls. Her chop is mean, too. We ended the interview with me handing her a plastic glitter star ring to wear. (She put it on her pinky.)

Check out Suzie and Assif's selected discography:

• Suzie Ibarra and Assif Tsahar
  Home Cookin' (Hopscotch)
  
• Assif Tsahar Trio
  Ain Sof (silkheart)
  Shekhina (Eremite)
  
• Susie Ibarra and Denis Charles
  Drum Talk (Wobbly Rail)
  
• With the David S. Ware Quartet
  Go See the World (Sony Columbia)
  Godspelized (DIW)
  Wisdom of Uncertainty (Aum Fidelity)
  
• With William Parker
  In Order to Survive Compassion Seizes Bed-Stuy (Homestead)
  William Parker (FMP)
  
• With Wilber Morris and the One World Ensemble
  Breathing Together (Freedom Sound)