A FIRESIDE
CHAT WITH GERRY TEEKENS, FOUNDER OF CRISS CROSS JAZZ
This
week, I start profiling a handful of indie labels I think are superior
to most of the massive amounts of titles being released each week. I think
one week last year I counted more than fifty releases on tap. That is
saturating an already small market so most listeners have no clue what
to buy. So I will put in my two cents for your hard-earned stock option
dollars. You can thank me later. Criss Cross Jazz and its founder Gerry
Teekens are no nonsense. It is straight, no chaser jazz and that is how
I like my jazz, neat. After you read this one on one, you can take a gander
at my personal picks from the label's worthy catalog. The interview, as
always is brought to you in stereo, unedited and in his own words.
FRED JUNG: Let's start from the beginning.
GERRY
TEEKENS: It started a long time ago because I started listening to jazz
when I was about fourteen years old, Dixieland and then I started playing
myself. I am a drummer. I started playing myself when I was seventeen.
It went from Dixieland to Errol Garner and Peterson (Oscar Peterson).
So I heard that kind of music. I played in bands like that. Then came
bebop.
FJ:
Is that when your interest peaked?
GERRY
TEEKENS: Well, I was always interested in music, from the beginning on
because I really liked it, the rhythm and the whole soul feel of it.
FJ:
Is there another genre of music that has that soulful feel of jazz?
GERRY
TEEKENS: No. I mean, jazz had such an impact on me and I am so serious
about it that I am listening to other stuff sometimes, but I am a perfectionist
and you can only do one thing well. So I don't dive into other music seriously
because there is only one life.
FJ:
When did you start Criss Cross Jazz?
GERRY
TEEKENS: I started the label in 1981.
FJ:
You are coming on Criss Cross' twenty-year anniversary.
GERRY
TEEKENS: Yes, it was because I had all these idols. I used to play with
a couple of guitar players in Holland, very good guitar players. I was
a guitar freak also. Jimmy (Jimmy Raney) was one of my heroes and I got
hold of his address and then I got in contact with him and I flew him
over. I had him here for about three months and I lined up a whole tour
for him all over Europe. I think forty-one concert during that period.
The year was 1976. He came back in '77 and many years after until 1983
or '84. He was here for the last time. And I kept recording him. I also
brought over Konitz, Lee Konitz, who was living in London at that time.
I also, during the same period, I got the address of Warne Marsh and I
managed to bring a band together, to form a band of Warne Marsh, Lee Konitz,
Peter Ind, who was the bass player for Lennie Tristano for a long time.
Lee and Warne hadn't played for at least ten or fifteen years together.
That was the first time that they played together again and so it was
a big success. The concert was in Amsterdam and even journalists from
Paris came over. That was my second thing and then I kept bringing over
musicians like Warne Marsh and Teddy Edwards. I was a college teacher
by that time and all these guys played at my school. Dexter (Dexter Gordon)
played there, Johnny Griffin, a whole bunch of them. And then in 1981,
I had a whole tour with Jim Raney for about a month and then I decided
to make a record at the end of the tour and so that is how it started.
FJ:
What did you teach?
GERRY
TEEKENS: I was teaching German, Germanistic languages as a matter of fact.
I played the drums in a band in an American officer's club in Germany
for three years.
FJ:
When did you make the shift from vinyl to the CD format?
GERRY
TEEKENS: I had thirty-nine records on vinyl and then I started releasing
both vinyl and CDs at thirty-six and then when it got to thirty-nine,
I started releasing only CDs.
FJ:
It must have been a struggle to keep the label going initially.
GERRY
TEEKENS: When you have one record, nobody is interested because it doesn't
mean any profits for people if they import one record and try to sell
it. But the Raney record was kind of popular then because it was a very
good record. I had a lot of connections in the jazz world, so I could
sell it. Then soon after that, the second one with the Kirk Lightsey Trio,
which was in fact the rhythm section for Dexter Gordon and then I recorded
Johnny Coles, who played with Mingus, in a quartet. Then I recored Warne
Marsh with Hank Jones and Mel Lewis and George Mraz, so that is how it
started.
FJ:
The Warne Marsh records are a staple of the label.
GERRY
TEEKENS: Yes, my whole idea was recording Warne with different rhythm
sections because he always used to play with people from the Tristano
school, so I recorded Warne with Hank Jones and Mel and then a record
with Chet Baker. We did a ballads album (A Ballad Album) with Lou
Levy and then another one with Barry Harris (Back Home), totally different
schools.
FJ:
Has the vision for the label changed at all?
GERRY
TEEKENS: No, I record the music for the sake of the music. I don't record
musicians that I think I can make a lot of money on. When I like a musician
and I think that he is a real honest artist, in that sense, I record him
and I keep recording him. Hardly any musician that is on my label makes
only one record. I keep recording them either as sidemen, which is the
policy, then they have a record as a leader and another record as a leader.
Like John Swana, for instance, he did about six records for me and I used
the trumpet player on Eric Alexander's record, Chris Potter's record,
and so forth and so forth.
FJ:
If you were a scout for the majors, you would be recruiting for the Yankees,
because Criss Cross has been the first record for Chris Potter, Eric Alexander,
Peter Bernstein, Mark Turner, and Kenny Garrett.
GERRY
TEEKENS: Peter is still here. I just record the musicians that I think
are a great talent.
FJ:
How often do you go into New York to hear the talent?
GERRY
TEEKENS: I am there twice or three times a year, in May and beginning
of June and always in December.
FJ:
You record every time you are in New York?
GERRY
TEEKENS: Yes.
FJ:
How many records is Criss Cross Jazz releasing per year?
GERRY
TEEKENS: It just depends. I used to go in December only in the beginning.
I did sixteen, eighteen dates in a row. It is a lot of work. I have my
own engineer. I started out at Rudy Van Gelder's, well, as a matter of
fact, I started here in Holland, like the Jim Raney and Kirk Lightsey
and the Clifford Jordan was here with Junior Cook. I don't like to record
existing bands because there is always a musician in a band that can be
replaced by a better one. When I get in contact with a musician for the
first time, we talk a lot on the phone and I know what he is up to and
he knows what I like. I propose a rhythm section and if he likes it and
it is also important to not take two stars that don't have a hook up.
Famous bass players and famous drummers, you put them together and it
doesn't coincide. It doesn't match. I know what drummer fits in a certain
context and same about the bass player. These are the rhythm sections
that I use and rhythm sections have a lot of priority on my records. I
have to have a real burning drummer and a great bass player. That is the
basis of the orchestra. That is the art. That's the blood.
FJ:
Who has that burning swing?
GERRY
TEEKENS: The bass player who recorded forty records is Peter Washington,
who is a great bass player. He is the Paul Chambers of the label. I also
like Chris McBride and John Webber and Dennis Irwin and Scott Colley.
If you look at the label, you see what bass players I like. And the drummers,
that is very, very important. My soundman, who is from the Netherlands,
he has a great sound and that is what I go for.
FJ:
Let's touch on some of your latest releases.
GERRY
TEEKENS: I had five in January as a matter of fact, the street date was
February. The first one was a session that I did in '94, with Brad Mehldau,
Mark Turner, Peter Bernstein, Larry Grenadier, and Leon Parker.
FJ:
Good band.
GERRY
TEEKENS: A great session, beautiful. On the basis of that, the last thing
we played on that session was a duet between Mark Turner and Brad Mehldau
and I liked that so much because Mark Turner is a Warne Marsh admirer
and so am I. He reminds me so much of Warne Marsh. At the end of the session,
after the duet they played, I said that we should do a ballad album because
the duets thing was a ballad. And so four days later, we did a ballad
album and for the contrast, I took a second tenor, Tad Shull, who is kind
of a Don Byas tenor player. He recorded with me before in The Tenor Triangle.
That record is coming out this month. Mark Turner, Tad Shull, two tenors
and it is only ballads with Kevin Hays, Larry Grenadier, and Billy Drummond.
And what else did I do, a Steve Davis Sextet with Steve Nelson and Peter
Bernstein and David Hazeltine. There was a Ryan Kisor Quartet with John
Webber and Willie Jones. I did a record introducing Jimmy Greene.
FJ:
He is now on RCA Victor.
GERRY
TEEKENS: Yeah, I know, but I recorded this guy three years ago. And Jimmy
Greene plays here with John Swana, Steve Davis, who is Chick now, Aaron
Goldberg, who is with Joshua Redman, and Eric McPherson, who is Jackie
McLean's drummer. There is a record that I made with Jim Rotondi Sextet,
which is the same combination as One for All.
FJ:
Eric Alexander's collective.
GERRY
TEEKENS: Yes, and we have five new ones. In fact, in two weeks, I will
have ten new records on the market.
FJ:
How extensive is the Criss Cross Jazz catalog?
GERRY
TEEKENS: There will be 186. I will be back probably in May, beginning
of June and definitely in December.
FJ:
And how is the sales volume?
GERRY
TEEKENS: It depends. Sometime it is better in the States, sometimes in
Europe, and sometimes in Japan. I am not complaining. Jazz is always,
expecially my label, it is pure jazz. I don't make any concessions. Musicians
have to know what they are doing. I have a tenor player named Walt Weiskopf
that writes all his own music. He can just do it. I don't tell them what
to do. They are all responsibleplayers and so they know what to do.
Fred
Jung is the Editor-In-Chief and the man that shuts off the fridge light.
Comments? Email
him.