Jeff Parker.

JEFF PARKER IS PERHAPS BEST KNOWN as a member of Chicago sound experimentalists Tortoise, but many folks are unaware that he is also quite an accomplished jazz guitarist who frequently collaborates with a lot of other artists. His newest solo record, Relatives, came out earlier this year on Thrill Jockey and features Parker playing in a more traditional jazz trio setting but still fooling around in new ways. Check it out.

Why the guitar? And why did you tilt more toward jazz than rock with it? How long have you been playing?

I started playing the guitar when I was nine years old. I picked up my sister's that was lying around the house, figured out how it worked, and started playing bass lines from funk and R&B songs that I heard on the radio. My folks saw that I had interest and a little bit of talent so they got me some lessons with a student of my father's at the college where he was teaching at the time. My first instrument was actually the piano, but I wasn't into it. It was always a real struggle when I tried to play it. But as soon as I picked up the guitar it felt really natural. I grew up with jazz music; my father was a fan and record collector so it was playing around the house all the time. I was always checking out all kinds of stuff, though, and I played in all kinds of bands growing up--metal bands, classic rock bands, fusion bands with R&B singers, rap groups, punk bands, jazz groups, a whole lot of shit. When I decided to study music, though, I decided to focus on jazz, particularly bebop, because it gives you a good foundation, a good way of knowing how the science of music works. From there it led, and continues to lead me, into a lot of different realms. I like to experiment and thrive on the energy from it, figuring out new sounds, different sounds, different approaches.

Jazz, unfortunately, has been plagued with a lot of elitist connotations. For some reason it seems a lot easier for kids to get into rock, hip-hop, or whatever. Why do you think this is? What do you think jazz musicians can do to correct the situation?

There was a time when jazz had a social relevance, it seemed like it was in tune with what was happening politically and socially, and it was the musical voice for a large segment of our society. Of course trends change, and people got more into rock and roll, R&B, etc. I don't think jazz music ever stopped being vital, but it did start to adopt the values and aesthetics of 'art music,' which is kind of a blessing, hut also a curse. I don't believe that jazz musicians can do anything to correct the situation, but I think that record companies can do more by finding creative ways of trying to get the music out to people. I'm excited and inspired by cats like Madlib, Jay Dee, Premier, and Prefuse 73 who have a real appreciation for the beauty and textures of jazz music but come at it in a creative and contemporary way through hip-hop.

Perhaps related to the above question is the fact that jazz groups often have leaders. Of course there have been rock groups with one dominant musician generating the majority of ideas, but largely, the idea of leadership seems to be more of a jazz thing. Could you talk about this?

A lot of the paths that I've chosen to take as a musician have been in direct response to this situation, but not because I'm opposed to cats being bandleaders. I've worked under some great ones. My own personal vision of music is a more collective approach. Out of respect for the other cats I'm working with I think everyone benefits from having full input in a musical situation. Everyone tends to be more comfortable, therefore they play better and the music is as good as it can be. I have always really liked the idea of being in a band. There's a lot of strength in numbers. For me it just makes a lot of sense. I'm always trying to learn from the other musicians that I work with, and I hope that they can learn something from me, too. For me, collaboration is about learning new ways to communicate with people to open new doors of self-discovery, and better understanding of the human condition. It always turns out just right for the simple fact that it always is what it is. It's not whether we win or lose, it's how we play the game, know what I mean?

What do you wish that you could do musically that you cannot?

I wish I could make beats as dope as Premier, and wish that I had had the chance to play with Elvin Jones before he died. I wish I could have heard Charlie Parker play live and seen Bad Brains or the Minutemen play in 1980. I wish I could write songs like Billy Strayhorn.

What do you think of skateboarding? Is it an art form? Do you have any skate roots, history?

Skating is definitely an art form. It's one of the ways that people have figured out to conquer the urban landscape. I was way into it as a kid, I used to get Skateboarder Magazine and I saved my money and bought a cheap board, but my cousin had a nice G&S deck with Tracker trucks and Kryptonics wheels and we would trade off. I idolized Tony Alva, Pineapple and Steve Olson, even though I was more interested in street skating, trying to do tricks and shit. I grew up in Virginia and we didn't have pools or pipes, just some old dirty holes in the ground. When I got more into music I got away from it (but I was never very good at it anyway). I took a nasty spill riding down a super steep hill that almost ripped off one of my nipples, and that was the end of that.