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Friday, March 23, 2018

How To Be The First-Call (and still be a jazz artist AND a family wo/man)

(by Meg Okura)

The Four Questions Series Pt.1
Ben Kono

multi-woodwind player & jazz saxophonist/composer


Ben Kono is undoubtedly one of the best multi-woodwind players in New York, if not in the history of music. I have known Ben since the very early 2000's, but when I heard his compositions at Shapeshifter Lab in Brooklyn several years ago, he blew me away. Thrilled to have him back in my big band, the J-Orchestra, for the upcoming concert on May 17th at JCC Harlem! 


Question No. 1
You have achieved many successes in your career as a bandleader/composer and also as one of the best woodwind players in music today. What do you consider your most significant achievement?

BK: It’s difficult to pin down any one event or achievement as being the most significant as a musician’s career is an ever-changing continuum. Receiving a grant from Chamber Music America to write and perform for my own band was a big one for me, but I am equally honored to have had a rich and varied career playing for my peers and mentors over the years. To raise and support a loving family while enjoying doing what I love to do, I would have to say that’s the most significant achievement I could ever dream up!

Question No. 2
Have your goals and dreams as a musician changed over the years, or you have always had one vision and stuck with it?

BK: My singular vision of having a career in music I have stuck with for over 35 years. Within that vision, however, things are always changing. My first dream of being a musician was to play clarinet in a symphony orchestra. Then I discovered jazz, picked up the saxophone and decided I would become a teacher. I went to college to become a teacher, then went on the road with various big bands, and moved to New York to redefine myself as a jazz musician and composer. After all these years, I feel I’m finally getting back to teaching as my focus. If there is any one thing, I have stuck with it’s to take every opportunity seriously and bring my absolute best to it, because you never know where it will lead you to.

Question No. 3
What would you like to change about yourself or an aspect of your life?
BK: I think achieving a healthy balance between work, family, and play is particularly challenging in a musicians’ career and I would like to become better at that. As my daughter gets older and more involved with music and art studies herself, I am enjoying being able to share more of my world with hers. But I’m also finding it increasingly difficult to spend meaningful family time as both our schedules become busier. Being able to say ‘no’ to professional opportunity occasionally is something that every musician has to struggle with.

Question No. 4
Besides being the best woodwind player, what makes you different as a jazz saxophonist of our generation from all of the other ones in the U.S.?

BK: Developing an individual voice is perhaps the greatest challenge of any artist. I can’t say that, as a saxophonist, that I would stand out in a crowd (and it is certainly a huge crowd in New York City!). What I do offer, and have worked very hard at, is being able to project my individual voice across multiple woodwinds. Aside from the versatility and wide palette of color afforded by this, I have found that the discipline I bring to the oboe or bass clarinet, for example, may find it’s way into my saxophone or flute playing unconsciously. I think doubling as a jazz musician is fascinating and so few people do it well, but I am always blown away when I come across, say, a trombonist who whips out an accordion and you can’t tell which instrument came first. 


Find out more about BEN KONO @
www.benkono.com
http://dontblinkmusic.org/

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