Will Hudgins, Diane Taraz, Fall wish-list
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. August 27, 1998)

Will Hudgins: Straddling classical and jazz

The very embodiment of the unfortunate term “crossover artist,” Will Hudgins is at once a classical musician and a jazz player. On alternate nights in the percussion section of the Boston Symphony Orchestra he adheres closely to the written score, only to let loose on other nights in the Boston-based jazz quintet Pursuance, for which he plays vibes.

To Hudgins, however, it doesn’t make much difference which group he’s playing for on any given night.

“The two musics are just music,” said Hudgins in a recent phone interview from his summer home in Stockbridge. “And I don’t really draw any lines or make any distinctions between them. There are the obvious changes in feel, or improvisation -- which certainly doesn’t happen too much in classical, except in extremely modern classical.

“But even in the orchestra, in a piece like Concerto for Orchestra, if the ensemble is together it’s rhythmically swinging and tight. That’s a sensation that certainly the orchestra can have as much as can any jazz group.”

After years of playing in both styles, Hudgins sees the differences between the two musics as being more subtle than profound.

“Jazz players like to talk about `orchestra time,’ which means playing on the top side of the beat, whereas jazz players tend to play on the back side,” he said. “But having said that, there are times in the orchestra when I play on the backside of the beat. The groove is the same but it’s just maybe a different style.”

The greatest difference between jazz and classical, of course, is the centrality of improvisation -- or in-the-moment composition -- in jazz.

“Improvisation is something that obviously I’m having to do with the jazz band that I don’t do with the orchestra except rarely,” said Hudgins, who has been with the BSO since 1990, and who teaches at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

“If I had to say there’s one thing that sets the music apart that’s it -- responsibility for improvising.”

For Hudgins, it may have been easier to straddle both styles of music than for others, as he was to the manner born -- his father played oboe and tenor saxophone. Whatever the case, it seems to him that whatever barriers might have existed between the two musics in the past are steadily crumbling.

“ I know there are string players who improvise, and bluegrass fiddlers who play in the orchestra,” he said. “And Wynton Marsalis is pretty much the beacon for guys playing both sides.”

The group Pursuance is primarily a vehicle for the adventurous compositions of guitarist/leader Ron Bosse who, like most of the band members, is a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston.

At 39, Hudgins is the eldest member of the group and the only one with one foot in jazz, one in classical.

“They are all primarily jazz players,” said Hudgins, whose primary residence is in Dedham. “There is a certain amount of levity regarding my position with the orchestra, but probably no more than other people who might come to a concert and note that there’s very little percussion other than when I stand up and hit a triangle and sit down.”

Pursuance’s first recording, “Next Level” (Thinking Man), was released in November 1997. The group plans on recording a follow-up this fall for release before the end of this year.

After only a couple of years together, the group’s live gigs are improving, both from a number and quality standpoint. With a dozen shows this summer alone, Pursuance will probably clock in at about 40 shows by the end of the year. “That’s pretty darn busy,” notes Hudgins, for a regional band playing original material. In addition to dates at local venues such as a recent one at Barkley’s in Lenox, Pursuance has recently graced stages at the Knitting Factory in New York and at the Litchfield Jazz Festival. On Sept. 9, the group makes its debut at Boston’s famed Regattabar.

Diane Taraz: Folk homecoming

Pittsfield native Diane Taraz plays a homecoming gig at the Lion’s Den in Stockbridge on Tuesday, Sept. 1, at 8. The graduate of Pittsfield High and Berkshire Community College, who now lives in eastern Massachusetts, boasts a clear, fresh voice suited to her original and tradtional folk songs, as heard on her latest CD, “Gathered Safely In” (BCN). Since 1993, Taraz -- who plays guitar and lap dulcimer -- has been a member of the Gloucester Hornpipe and Clog Society, a band of five who perform traditional and original music on fiddle, guitar, banjo, flute and a variety of other traditional instruments. Taraz isn’t above tossing a ringer into her repertoire -- she tackles Marvin Gaye’s “Heard It Through the Grapevine” on her recent album.

Autumn wish list

The fall concert season is fast falling into place with lots of great shows being announced for the Capital District and Northampton area. Before the Berkshires are left with nothing but the castoffs, how about some local venues taking a look at any of the following acts touring this fall: Lucinda Williams, Cowboy Junkies, Laurie Anderson, John Scofield’s Jazz-Funk All-Stars, Cornershop, Yo La Tengo, Jennifer Kimball, Martin Sexton, Susan Werner, John Zorn, Lounge Lizards, the Klezmatics, Masada, Bap Kennedy, Greg Brown.

If you would like to purchase Diane Taraz's latest CD on-line, please click on the SoundStone logo to the right.