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265 Jacques Coursil A native of Paris, from a Martinican family, trumpeter Jacques Coursil came to New York in the mid-1960s and plunged into the free jazz scene. He recorded on dates led by Sunny Murray as well as Frank Wright, both for ESP, and even made a record of his own for the label in 1967, which went unreleased. Visiting Paris in 1969, he made two records as a leader and appeared on a Burton Greene date, all for the BYG label. Among other projects in New York, where he remained for the next several years, in 1969–70 he played alongside Sam Rivers in the city-funded Afro-American Singing Theatre, featuring operatically trained singers in such works as “The Black Cowboys” (music by Rivers) and performing all over the city. Then, for the next three decades, he left his music career to the side and became a university professor, teaching literature and linguistics. In 2004 he made a solo record, Minimal Brass, for John Zorn’s Tzadik label, followed by Clameurs (2007), recorded in Martinique for Universal France. That label subsequently released Trails of Tears (2010), an oratorio that commemorates the forced deportation in 1838 of the Cherokee nation from their native Georgia to reservations in Oklahoma; there he employs two ensembles, one recorded in Martinique and the other in New York and Paris, where he was reunited with some old free jazz associates, including Sunny Murray, Alan Silva, and Perry Robinson. Since retiring from teaching, he has been living in Achen, Germany. When did you first arrive in the United States? In 1965. I came to New York to play music—I was involved with the free scene at the time. But like many musicians on that scene, I had mentors. Jaki Byard was one of them. In composition, I was studying with Noel DaCosta, who was one of the founders of the Society of Black Composers. At the same time, I was also performing. 266 esp-disk’ as lived and witnessed How did you learn about the ESP label, and how did you meet Sunny Murray? We were all living in the same building on Avenue B at the corner of 9th Street, by Tompkins S quare Park [subst antial legac y within one short block: a f ew doors up, Charlie Parker had lived at 151 Avenue B for four years in the early ’50s; at 143 Avenue B, George Gershwin had given his first public concert]. On every floor there were musicians: Sunny Murray was li ving there, and many others. Byard Lancaster was around; Perry Robinson was around. So, we were playing improvised music day and night. Things like that happen only once in a lifetime! Next door to me was a b lues guy from the South; he p layed blues guitar, with steel strings and fingerpicks. He made such a sound that the whole building would be shaking, more than from any drummer. Day and night we would visit each other and play. Didn’t that building have other connections as well for you? It’s a funny story. I was playing in a club on St. Mark’s Place, the Dom, and I had to leave because I wasn’t a member of the union. The owner of the Dom also owned that building, so he was paying me at night and taking the money back at the same time for my rent. He managed to find many other things for me to do there, so that his rent would be paid. At that time, the Dom was a jazz club, next door was a discotheque, and on top was the famous Polski Dom [soon to be the Electric Circus], which had ha ppenings—Andy Warhol was t here. St. Mark’s Place was gr eat: across the street was the Five Spot Café, with Mingus sometimes, and Monk, and we would catch a set while we were working at the Dom. Weren’t you even washing dishes there? Yes! Stanley [Tolkin] was the owner of the Dom, and since I co uldn’t play legally , he made me a ba rtender. My English was not very good, and to make a Tom Collins and two Pink Ladies, it wasn’t easy. But everybody liked the way I was mixing drinks, because I put in more alcohol than usual. They would say, “I want Frenchy to serve me. Let Frenchy mix it.” And then I was a wa...

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