![]() Steve is currently preparing new music to record in New York with the Steve Fishwick/Osian Roberts/Frank Basile Sextet. ‘You see promising young players coming out of college and you think “wow these guys can really play! I wonder what they’ll sound like in ten years” but in ten years time they sound the same’. to make a living, leaving their jazz playing to fall by the wayside. Nevertheless, a lot of promising young jazz musicians are coming out of college seeking commercial gigs: shows, weddings, pop bands etc. ![]() It’s tit for tat really’, Steve comments. ‘There are a lot of things that make it extremely difficult that are easier over here. That isn’t to say that it’s easy to make it as a jazz musician in New York, however. Jazz doesn’t get nearly as much press in Europe for example and there are still big record labels in the USA signing jazz musicians. Some things are more difficult for European musicians, such as getting European festival slots, and the same opportunities simply don’t exist here as in America. I’m going to seriously focus on it’, says Steve. Their outlook is ‘I’m going to do this, I’m going to play jazz. Many American musicians take a more serious point of view towards making a living off jazz alone. In the UK, jazz is often seen as something to be done for fun, for the players’ own satisfaction, or art for art’s sake that the musicians must fund themselves while playing other gigs to make a living. There are some differences in the attitudes of musicians in the UK and USA, Steve says. Steve has performed numerous times in America and has released two albums with Welsh saxophonist Osian Roberts which were recorded in NYC. Steve has also cited Lee Morgan, Art Farmer and Freddie Hubbard as influences and experimented extensively with inventing his own licks and patterns, giving him his distinctive sound. The style of Steve’s playing has been influenced by Kenny Dorham, who was the first trumpet player he got heavily into, feeling he had a natural affinity for the sound and time feel. He also teaches on the faculties at Leeds College of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and London City University. ![]() Today, Steve is at the forefront of jazz in the UK, running many of his own projects as a leader and sideman as well as acquiring some impressive credentials including Sir John Dankworth, the BBC Big Band, Stan Tracey, Peter King and Mike Carr. After meeting Steve Waterman, who showed him how to make transcriptions of solos, he began to improve quickly and his jazz career was off to a promising start. He began to buy records and play along with Aebersold backing tracks. At this time, Steve had received no formal training in jazz. At the time, jazz was enjoying a resurgence with figures like Wynton Marsalis and Courtney Pine appearing regularly on the television and jazz groups enjoying a much broader media coverage than they do now. Steve began his trumpet career at age 8 but he didn’t develop his passion for jazz until a few years later. Steve Fishwick is a busy man, but I managed to catch him for a chat between tour dates to ask him about his life as a trumpet player and playing jazz for a living.
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