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Willy Schwarz Written by Warren Senders I first encountered Willy Schwarz as a voice on the telephone, announcing himself in Hindi as the friend of a friend. A few days later we met for the first time, and I was bowled over, astonished, and delighted. Almost a decade later, I'm still knocked out by the man and by his musical spirit. It's not just that Willy's a passionate and sublimely gifted musician; there are plenty of great players around. Neither is it that he knows musical styles from all over; there are plenty of pan–global musical epicures around, too. What amazes me about Willy Schwarz is the meta–cultural tightrope act he carries out every day with such ease and grace. I've never met anyone so completely at home in so many different places. Name a country; it's a pretty good bet that Willy knows, not just a song or two, but a solid evening's worth of performable repertoire. He'll know the old traditional songs and the new variations on them, and he'll sing them with impeccable pronunciation, heartfelt emotion, and a real and pervasive joy; the world's music is a continuous wellspring of delight for this multi–instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter and composer. Over the years we've worked together, I've come to appreciate his artistry even more. Willy's original music builds from his intimate connection with the singers he's sung with and the songs he's absorbed from them. He knows the music so well because he knows the people so well, and he knows the people so well (aw, hell, it's one of those chicken–egg things!) because he knows their music so well. When telling the story of an Eastern European expatriate, he can frame it with asymmetrically idiomatic rhythms and the lonely wail of a Bulgarian flute; when speaking with the voice of a Mexican immigrant stuck in a crappy dishwashing job, he does it in authentic corrida style. And perhaps most importantly, when the first–person voice of one of his songs is that of Willy Schwarz himself, the music is that of a genuine world–traveler, a wandering spirit who moves freely from idiom to idiom with the same unconscious virtuosity a great pianist brings to movement from key to key. It's always seemed to me that "interstitiality" depends overwhelmingly on where the boundary lines are: you can't get between things if you don't know where the divisions are. But Willy's perspective is a different one, based on his lifelong experience of the practical necessities of a working musician. I enjoyed posing questions during our long email conversation; I suspect you'll have as much fun as I did. Warren Senders Read the interview with Willy Schwarz |
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