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Moran's "Milestone"
by Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio
May 20, 2005

Famed jazz pianist Jason Moran. Moran was commissioned by the Walker to write a piece based on its permanent collection. (Image courtesy of the Walker Art Center)

When some people see art, they wonder what the artist was thinking when they made it. The Walker Art Center asked a famed jazz pianist to take that one step further. Jason Moran has created a piece of music inspired by work in the Walker's collection.

Minneapolis, Minn. — 30-year-old Jason Moran is hailed by most jazz critics as one of the finest pianists of his time. Moran is praised not only for his virtuosity on the keys, but his inventiveness as a composer and independence as an artist.

He brings those credentials to "Milestone," a piece the Walker commissioned to celebrate its re-opening.

In preparation, Moran sent a laundry list of works in the Walker's permanent collection he wanted to see, by names such as Joan Mitchell, Jasper Johns, and Mark Rothko. He ended up going down to the Walker's basement and getting a personal tour.

"And you get to see it housed like basically you're in a grocery store of like millions and millions of dollars worth of art," he says. "And amazing pieces."

One piece Moran eventually encountered was by Adrian Piper, a conceptual artist he already greatly admired, especially for her work on racism and racial stereotyping.

He was particularly inspired by something Piper wrote in conjunction with the work, having to do with artists being willing to share their creative processes with their audiences. Moran has it committed to memory.

"The quote is 'Artists ought to be writing about they do,'" he says. "'What types of procedures they go through to realize a work. What their pre-suppositions in making the work are. If artists intentions and ideas were more accessible, I think I might break down some of the barriers between artists, the art world and the general public.' Like, that became our theme."

Moran decided he would create a conceptual piece of music that explores what it is to be in a band, in this case his group, The Bandwagon.

"It's an examination of musicians and how they function," he says. "It's a shedding of some light of what it is to be a performer, what it is to be an audience member, what it is to start to investigate yourself as an artist."

"As a musician you play, people clap, and sometimes you get to find out what they actually think," he says. "And sometimes the audience maybe gets to actually feel what a musician feels or hear what they think. But it's very rare, and we wanted to make that a very obvious part of the show."

Without giving too much away, Moran's "Milestone" is designed to make the audience feel as if it's part of the band.

It begins with his wife Alicia getting a call from Moran on the road, telling her his next show is at the Walker. After one set the band takes a break and sits quietly in an elevated row of chairs as unedited audio from one of the group's gab sessions fills the theater.

Moran says he isn't telling people how to feel about the music, just giving them an insight on how it's made.

"We are just innately curious about certain aspects that go into making a work," he says. "So we're exposing just a few of those, you know, it's not overbearing with explanation about everything. And we present them in a very interesting way during the show. I think it will be a fruitful experience."

Moran says working on the Walker commission has been fruitful for him too. He says it's forced him to delve deeper musically, and truly examine his relationship with the audience.