Mark Wingfield began his fascination with guitar after hearing a neighbor playing blues guitar. “I thought it was amazing,” the British guitarist said of the sound. Wingfield heard the same tonal qualities the first time he came across Jimi Hendrix. Though his music is often jazz-based, he also incorporates classical and world music motifs, as well as making the most of modern technology.
He has played with artists such as Gary Husband, Asaf Sirkis, Iain Ballamy and Markus Reuter, the lattermost as the duo TEAR. His most recent albums have been released on the prog/jazz label Moonjune, including his work with Reuter.
Now, Mark Wingfield joins Ross Boissoneau to discuss career-shaping albums by Kenny Wheeler, Miles Davis and Jan Garbarek.
JAN GARBAREK – TWELVE MOONS (1993): I like so much of his stuff, what was possible to do with just one note. He can express a huge amount of emotion, just like Hendrix. What I really like is the way he uses changes of tone, from a flutelike sound to big and brassy. That’s his soul. He translates what he is feeling in that moment. A long time ago, I stopped listening to guitar players. I had my own ideas, then I’d pick my guitar up and was so full of other guitarists that that’s what came out. But I can copy sax and trumpet [while being original]. The last time I saw him was three years ago with the Hilliard Ensemble [vocal group]. It was incredibly beautiful.
MILES DAVIS – BITCHES BREW (1970): That echo-based line on “Pharaoh’s Dance,” there’s something about that. It’s the fulcrum of evil and beauty. That’s just so cool. I analyzed it to death. It’s a symmetrical scale used as a way of getting out of tonality. The atmosphere, it creates pictures in my mind. “Sanctuary” [another track on the album], the density with two drummers, two keyboard players – you get cacophony that builds up. Then it stops, with a long, lonely trumpet note and beautiful chords. It builds to almost chaos, then beauty.
KENNY WHEELER – DEER WAN (1978): I love Kenny Wheeler’s playing. His writing is just amazing. I think he’s an amazing composer. The harmonies he’s created with sax and flugelhorn, long notes on the tip of moving – to me it really created a place I could imagine. The beauty of the way his melodies move, each note [reflecting] irony, pathos, there’s a lot of depth. Plus I love his solos.
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