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August 18, 1999
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R i c h a r d E llio t;
Interview by Tony Washington
The following is an interview with one of the nation’s topjazz
saxophonists at the Mt. Hood Festival o f Jazz. During the
interview, Mr. Elliot showed himself to be very accommodating,
relaxed and candid.
TW: Over the last couple of
years, I see that you've been putting
out a lot of material and going in
different musical directions.
RE: Every time I do a CD,
I try to go another step. It gets
tough after doing 11 CDs. You
want each one to be a step up
the ladder, and, at the very
least, you don ’t want it to be a
lateral step. From my stand­
point, I try very hard to make
each CD another step in per
sonal growth. Whether or not
other people see it that way, I
of Power“ and then deciding to go it alone musically.
RE: I have been doing solo records since 1984, but never
really made my solo career a priority. It was always something I
did for fun. What I took seriously was being a musical sideman
for other people.
Being with “Tower
of Power” for five
years was like a
dream come true.
w aB
v-
\
v
**
invites you and a guest to any showing of
“In Too Deep”
compliments of the Portland Observer
at 4747 NE Martin Luther King Blvd. and
JP’s Custom Framing and Gallery at 418 NE
Killingsworth.
can only hope.
My CDs have tended to
cover a lot of ground on a single
release. For example, I’ll do
one R&B song then in a later
tune I’ll do something com ­
pletely different. Maybe it has
something to do with my Scot­
tish roots. T his latest C D,
“Chill Factor” tends to follow
more of a common theme; it’s
an Instrumental R&B record
rather than an Instrumental
Jazz record. My influences as a
young man were more steeped
in R&B than Jazz anyway, so it
seemed like a next step in evo­
Get posters while supplies last.
T h e m u s t f e a r le s s c a p is a b o u t t o t a k e a n
t h e c it y 's m o s t r u t h le s s c r im e la r d .
H e k n e w t h e p la y e r s , h e k n e w t h e ris k s ,
•— •-----*•
‘ • — • f a c —
J» h ,. e n a u t d h a v e t o y a
lution for me.
TW: Are you keeping real busy
performing?
RE: I’m trying to tour a little
bit less. In the past, I did about
120 tour dates a year. Now, I’ve
got a 10-month-old baby at
Richard Elliot
h om e. Be
cause of that,
my priorities
are different.
I still love to
tour, but I’ve
restructured
my
busy
lifestyle so
that I’m not
away from
the fam ily
for
any
lengthy pe­
riod of time
and 1 can still
do w hat I
love, which is
perform ing
on stage.
T W : TeU
me about your
involvement
with “Tower
/■ «
The group was doing OK, but I got to a point where I needed to
find out just how far I could take my solo career. I made the
decision to leave the band in 1987.
TW: Did you consider that move to be a big gamble?
RE: Oh yeah, very much so.
TW : Well, it's obviously paid off you are one of the most dynamic
artists on the scene today, and it’s exciting to see someone who obviously
cares about his family and uses that as inspiration for his music.
STARTS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25™, EVERYWHERE
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