Phil Haynes: Banging the Drum for Liberty Now (The Tonearm Podcast : 286)

The drummer and composer discusses how Liberty Now!. Free Country's first album in a decade, transformed from celebration into unintentional protest, shaped by Herb Robertson's death and a fracturing democracy.

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Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on drummer Phil Haynes.

Since moving to New York from Oregon in 1983, Phil's played on scores of recordings with artists like Anthony Braxton and David Liebman. Phil has joined me once already, in March 2024, to discuss his memoir, Chasing the Masters: First Takes of a Modernist Drumming Artist.

Phil’s with me today to discuss his band Free Country, which takes American roots music and runs it through their particular jazz lens, using cello, guitar, bass, and drums to create something called "jazz-grass."

Their new album Liberty Now! did not set out to be political. Phil planned for the group to record original compositions, a departure from their previous work. But then the last US Presidential election happened. And then the band got word of the passing of their trumpeter, Herb Robertson, as they walked into the studio. The music and the plan changed. Phil paired the new recordings with songs from Free Country's catalog into a double album that runs from Revolutionary War tunes to "What a Wonderful World."

Phil's here to talk about grief, protest, making art when the ground shifts under you, and one of my favorite topics: the role of music in addressing contemporary political and social challenges.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Phil Haynes & Free Country's album Liberty Now! )

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[00:01:55] The Album They Didn't Plan to Make
[00:02:11] Free Country's American Trilogy
[00:05:23] Phil Haynes Before and After Herb Robertson
[00:05:55] Loading Into the Studio with Devastating News
[00:09:06] Vulnerability and Wrong Sounds
[00:14:03] Americana Meets Jazz Facility
[00:17:10] Finding the Right Chemistry
[00:20:08] When Democracy Feels Fragile
[00:25:09] The Music Becomes Protest
[00:27:21] Liberty Now vs. Freedom Now
[00:33:08] Teaching Young Musicians in Uncertain Times
[00:38:35] Spiritual Coincidences and Fifty-Year Cycles
[00:41:09] Sequencing a Two-Disc Set
[00:47:40] Making Space to Talk About It

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Visit Phil Haynes at → https://www.philhaynes.com
and on Bandcamp → https://philhaynesmusic.bandcamp.com

Purchase Phil Haynes & Free Country's 'Liberty Now!' from Corner Store Jazz → https://www.cornerstorejazz.com/produ...
or Bandcamp → https://philhaynesmusic.bandcamp.com/...

For extensive show notes, links, and podcast information, go to https://podcast.thetonearm.com

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