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Mike Gordon takes a short solo jaunt
BY CHRISTOPHER BLAGG
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Skies are brightening in Mike Gordon’s world. On September 19, the Phish bassist was cleared of all charges involving an unfortunate incident in New York, where the performer was found photographing a 9-year-old girl. The incident, dubbed a "misunderstanding" by Gordon in a public statement, couldn’t have come at a worse time, as Gordon had just released his first solo album and was in the midst of planning the subsequent tour. Understandably, he’s anxious to put the misunderstanding behind him as he readies for the series of nine live shows that will bring him to Avalon October 15 in the wake of the release of Inside In (Rope a Dope). Indeed, considering what he’s been through, Gordon sounds surprisingly refreshed, eager, and most of all, relieved, during our phone conversation. Three years ago, Gordon first ventured out on his own with his first feature film, an experimental narrative titled Outside Out, which centered around a music teacher who instructs his pupils to "unlearn" everything they’ve been taught. The score for the movie was then rearranged, re-edited, and overdubbed to form songs that became the basis for Inside In, which hit stores in August. Though he’s spent over 5000 hours working on the film since 1995, Gordon says he’s more drawn to the album. "I almost feel like it works better as an album than as a movie," he admits. Outside Out (released in 2000) wasn’t his first foray into filmmaking. Gordon directed Phish’s first music video, "Down With Disease," in 1994, a venture that struck fear into the hearts of dreadlocked, television-snubbing Phishheads around the country. While the song didn’t exactly make the TRL grade at MTV, it only whetted Gordon’s appetite for visual media. He later created a documentary based on the late Allen Woody, of the power trio Gov’t Mule, called Rising Low, which was released in 2002. When Phish recently went on a sabbatical, there was even talk of Gordon leaving the group to pursue a career in the visual arts. But with Phish now back together and Gordon launching a solo musical career, those fears have been put to rest. "Filmmaking satisfies a different part of the brain, but music is my deepest passion," Gordon explains. "If forced to choose, I’d always pick music." The concept of "unlearning" music was taught to Gordon from guitarist Col. Bruce Hampton, who not so coincidentally stars as the teacher in Outside Out. While this concept may make Gordon an enemy of school band directors and surly old piano teachers throughout the world, there is an odd logic to the philosophy. Explains Gordon, "You have to learn your scales to be a musician. And, when you’re onstage, it’s not as if you have to forget all that stuff. But you have to deconstruct it and find the core elements. . . . You have to learn the rules, but you don’t want them to confine you." As anyone whose head hasn’t been stuck in the sand for the past 15 years knows, Mike Gordon and his band Phish are fond of what is commonly referred to as "jamming." Improvisation is a key element to their performances. So it makes sense that Gordon gets off on the unexpected musical moment. "A musician has a library of licks, and if they get onstage and just play their library of licks, then they’re not really playing," he says. "In a sense, it’s not really music. The special stuff happens when you’re in the middle of a jam and you play something that may not be complicated or difficult, but it is not a riff, it’s truly spontaneous and of the moment." Of course, in order to unlearn you must learn how to play in the first place: Gordon’s philosophy is not a lazy man’s manifesto. And Inside In, with its unorthodox sonic pairings and bizarre fusions, is a testament to how much Gordon has learned about playing and arranging over the years. The disc moves seamlessly from traditional bluegrass instruments playing spacy jazz fusion to a Grand Ole Opry romp as interpreted through electric guitars and keyboards, and so on. "I really like unexpected juxtaposition," says Gordon. For the tour, Gordon’s hired James Harvey, an exceptional jazz piano player with little experience in roots music. Says Gordon, "I want to encourage him to do what he normally does, which is jazz piano, but to do it in a bluegrass setting. Not to be weird, because weird alone isn’t necessarily good, but to find a new juxtaposition." Along with his eight-piece band that he’s created for the tour, Gordon has added a vaudeville component to the show with tap dancer and vocalist Jeannie Hill. And, if you can’t make it to the solo show, don’t sweat it: he’ll be back in December when he returns to Boston with Phish to celebrate the group’s 20th anniversary, at the FleetCenter. "About 16 years ago," Gordon says of the anniversary show, "when I began to realize that our music was weird, I’d say, ‘Yeah, this is fun, but we’ll never be an arena band.’" Mike Gordon plays Avalon on October 15; call 617-423-NEXT.
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