How did Bellingham become your home?
Like a lot of other people, I first came to Bellingham to pursue a bachelor’s degree at Western Washington University. I was fortunate to meet and start performing with musicians around town quickly after arriving. It wasn’t long before these relationships, my function in the Bellingham musical community, and the beauty of Whatcom County made this place feel like home.
Tell us about your journey to the drum set as your instrument of choice?
The drums called me in a rather organic way. My dad used to play the drums when he was younger but “hung up his sticks” to go deeper in his non-musical career and start a family. Around the time I was eight or nine, he wanted to get back into playing and bought himself an electronic drum set. I remember watching him play the drums and wanting to learn to play myself. He taught me a few grooves and fills, and the rest was history. I spent most of my days playing along with recordings, getting involved in school band, community ensembles, gigging, etc. Playing the drums was fun and challenging—it was a way to engage in community, learn, and never fell short of giving back as much as I could put in.
Do you remember a time when you were young and something musical just grabbed you?
It was more of a season than an acute moment, but I remember “catching the bug” while hearing the Mike Allen Quartet perform at the old Blue Horse Gallery on Wednesday nights from 2011 to 2012. His quartet played music like I’d never heard it being played before…it was Jazz, but it sounded completely new…Face-melting, yet sophisticated and tasteful…Raw and emotional, yet always controlled. These paradoxes, along with a level of musical and technical mastery I still aspire to reach, flooded my brain with happy chemicals and left an indelible desire to walk that same path.
Are there any musicians or teachers in particular who have played important roles in forming your thoughts as a musician?
Absolutely. I am beyond lucky to have had some excellent teachers/mentors. My junior high band teacher, Dan Kim, was the first. He would let me hang out in the music room after school to practice and oftentimes would pop out of his office to have a musical discussion or play a record for me that he liked, helping to train my ears on how to listen. His generosity and nurturing spirit set me up with a beautiful foundation and planted seeds of my musical values. Another influential person was my first drum teacher—Seattle-drummer, Eric Eagle. Eric got me going on playing Jazz, helped calibrate my brain to learn deeply and efficiently, and encouraged me to start playing in bands outside of school. He also was and is a fantastic musician…thoughtful, sensible, a good listener, aware of tone, and a major team player on the bandstand. The third person I’d like to mention is Mike Allen, who I met in 2010 when he took over the Jazz program at Western. It’s hard to capture the things I’ve learned from Mike, as our relationship dynamic has evolved a few times over the years from “student/professor” to “friends/colleagues”. Mike has been such a positive figure in my life, that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn someday that he was just a figment of imagination, created to guide me towards my greatest good. Mike has helped me form a lifelong relationship with music that’s based on reaching for greatness, going deeper, taking the wins and accepting the losses, seeing the big picture, and serving the music. He’s also taught me a lot about being a human being and friendship. Short of turning this into an essay titled “Why Mike Allen Is The Man” I’d highly recommend checking out some of his recordings or catching him in a live performance.
What are among your favorite classic jazz musicians? Any contemporary favorites?
What are among your favorite classic jazz musicians? Any contemporary favorites? The list is long, but I’ll try to highlight a few with a brief description of what resonates with me in each person. As far as “classic” jazz, which I’ll loosely define as everyone that was established before 1970, it’d have to be: Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis. Not the most original list, but to me it’s almost a no brainer that these musicians are household names even outside of the Jazz enthusiast circles. Bill Evans (piano) was an intellectual, a practical philosopher, and an enigma of a human being that had a sensitive soul and a deep devotion to music. His mastery of harmony and ability to authentically improvise without the slightest hint of error is almost non-human. He’s one of my favorites not only for the music he made as a band leader and sideman, but for his reflections and thoughts on the process of music. He has an interview with his brother Harry that I’ve watched at least a couple dozen times; it has the same clarity and potency as Bernstein’s Harvard Lectures. Keith Jarrett is another piano player who, like Bill, was a huge force for interactive playing in his trio. Both musicians craved spontaneous, creative input from their bandmates and shifted the role of the bass and drums being accompanying instruments towards more equal voices. The amount of emotion Keith can get out of a phrase could be compared to hyper- or neo-romantic compositions…they just crawl inside of you and you feel it in your whole body. Speaking of strong emotions—Coltrane ballads have a spiritual yearning quality to them…so much rawness and so much beauty coming out of his saxophone with as much weight as a universal truth. And Miles…Miles brought his classical training (like Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett) to jazz, creating new colors and opportunities for expression. He cut his teeth playing blazing Bebop lines and decided “hey, we’ve got to slow this down…” His cool jazz period and the earlier years with his second quintet are my favorites of his.
As far as contemporary musicians, there are so many heavy hitters. My favorites are pianist Brad Mehldau, who followed a similar path as Keith Jarrett in terms of an interactive trio. He’s covered so much musical territory, but my favorite stuff of Brad’s is with his trio. Two of Brad’s drummers also make my favorite list: Jorge Rossy, for his organic and intuitive sound, and Jeff Ballard, for his earthiness and limitless creativity. An incomplete list of names whose musical contributions resonate something in me: Julian Lage, Brian Blade, Kenny Wollesen, Ambrose Akinmusire, Rita Payes, Wynton Marsalis, Paolo Vinaccia, Ethan Iverson, Esbjörn Svensson.
What do you love to do besides music?
I love to cook… It’s its own channel for creativity and experimentation. I love the smells and flavors, and cooking is one of my favorite ways to connect and serve others. I also love to learn, and spend more time than I’m willing to admit watching instructional videos on YouTube. My dog Vincent and I are outdoors quite a bit, enjoying a morning hike/jog or slow walk through the trees. Recently my hobby energies have been focused on woodworking and nurturing houseplants.
What’s next for you?
In the immediate future, it’s a mix of gigging and going into the recording studio with various projects I’m involved in. Looking out a little further, I’ll be diving deep into preparing for the second season of a concert series I started last summer called Connection Jazz Series. Last year was an encouraging success, and I’m excited about how the 2024 season is shaping up. I’ll be posting more information about the Connection Jazz Series and about other gigs I’m playing around town on my website: http://www.christiancasolary.com