Guitarist Daniel Marmer just received a $10K artist grant

BC-raised guitarist and current McGill University jazz student Daniel Marmer is the recipient of the 2023 Oscar Peterson Jazz Award from the Hnatyshyn Foundation's Developing Artist Grants. Daniel gets a $10,000 grant and joins several other winners who originated from here in recent years. We talk about that and much more in this interview.

I'm working on my classic-style longform interview chops, where the text sticks close to the words we spoke in conversation, with only light editing. But before we get into that, you can check out the three pieces of original music that Daniel submitted in his application:

"Slapstick" - a Kurt Rosenwinkel medium-up swing

"Hear We" - deconstructed with a unison melody

"Solemn Embrace" unaccompanied intro then slow tune with hand drumming

Interview

Daniel and I spoke on Saturday, October 14, 2023.

WILL CHERNOFF: So, congrats! Should have said that right away. When did you find out?

DANIEL MARMER: I found out closer to the beginning of the summer, actually, and they told me I can't really tell anyone until they release their newsletter with it. But there were a couple people that knew aside from me as well.

Nice. Now, the $10,000, does it go to tuition pretty much? Is that what it's used for?

Yeah, it can be tuition or living expenses or anything that supports your music education, is how they put it for me.

Did you know that out of yourself and the previous five years of people who received the Jazz Award, four out of the six are BC-raised student instrumentalists. Do you know the other BC recipients from those past five years?

Yeah, I know [bassist] Evan Gratham and [saxophonist] David Hodgson.

And then there's [saxophonist] Thomas Daudlin from Victoria.

Oh, okay. I don't know him. And [saxophonist and the other winner] Jacob Chung, is he from BC?

Nope. He was in 2021.

Yeah, exactly.

So you've played with some of those people and you may have known them back in BC, too, in the case of David or Evan, right?

Yeah, I knew them through the VSO School of Music when I was in high school.

Yeah. I always ask about the VSO School, because it didn't exist back when I was a student. So I like to ask people what it meant to them and what it was like when you were growing up, because it's not an experience that I had. What did it do for you?

It kind of did everything for me. I was on this path where I wanted to be a physicist, and I was hard set that I'm going to do that, or math or something.

When I started taking lessons with Bill Coon and David Blake, I fell in love with it immediately and joined a combo that Jodi Proznick is coaching. Then I started doing the summer camp and just met all these people who were so welcoming and enthusiastic about the same thing as I was.

It was such a strong education for jazz because you learn so much about, well, playing, first of all, free from marking or any judgment, just kind of exploring your own thing; but also learning the tradition, the history, and the culture from people who are pretty connected to it historically. Jodi, Bill, and David and all of them have studied with, played with people who have really been a part of the music. I think it's the way to go if you're really passionate about it. It was so instrumental.

Nice. I think your guitar tone kind of sounds like David Blake. Would you say that's accurate?

I'd be complimented at that. I look up to him as a musician and as a guitarist so much. Going to his gigs and his friends' gigs at the Tangent Cafe, it shaped my taste in more modern jazz. So I'd love to hear any time that I sound like David...

Okay, so you've got a Tangent poster back there. I know you played at the Tangent at the end of last year. Is it from that month when you played there?

Yeah, this is from the December [2022] one. It was, it was one of the last days of the month and I asked if I could take one and they let me.

Yeah, I know from the gig list you played there with Margaret Donovan, who's from New West, just like me, and Raf Agustin and Karl DeJong. And then I know you played, more recently, one of the monthly Pass the Hat gigs at the Lido presented by The Infidels, and you also played with Raf, played with Julian Ferrer and Gordy Li in your quartet, right? You as the leader there at the Lido for that series. I didn't go to that. What kind of stuff did you play?

We were playing a lot of original music of mine mixed in with hard bop tunes and some standards. We played one of Gordy's tunes as well. I've been writing some more music recently, and I've been playing with Raf and Julian since I was in high school. Playing with them is just so comfortable and familiar, it's so easy to bring new stuff and try new things with them.

Yeah, so when you were coming up here, what school did you go to at that time when you were meeting them?

I went to Eric Hamber Secondary. It has a pretty good band program and I'm still in touch with the band teacher there. It was great.

And then you would have met people like Raf and Julian when you were doing stuff at the VSO School, things that brought everybody together [across different schools], right?

That's right, yeah.

That's great. Yeah, I had my own versions of those things for sure a little bit. But coming up in New West was great too, because there were a lot of people there.

Oh, the band program is amazing there.

Yeah. It says that you were nominated for the award by Jean-Michel Pilc. What does that mean?

He was my first year improv teacher, so I started forming a relationship with him through that. I think one student per program, per school, in Canada can get nominated to apply. I'm still not exactly sure why, but he chose to nominate me, and I'm so grateful for him to do that and for him to see something in me.

Okay, cool. I did watch the videos of all three of the tunes that you, that you sent in. What were the guidelines for what you had to record and send them?

There weren't any guidelines really. I actually spoke with David Hodgson before deciding what to do. Based off what he told me, they like to see you stand out by maybe bringing original music, trying something new. So I decided to bring those originals where some of them are really traditional in the form of how you kind of structure a jazz tune, and others stray off from it: a little bit folky, a little bit chant-like.

Nice. Was there anything else you had to do? Like, did you have to write?

Yeah, I actually misread what they asked for. I thought they said they wanted 2,000 words, and then it turns out it was 2000 characters! I wrote this whole thing about myself and what the art form means to me, how it connects, and I wrote this whole long history. I had to shorten it down to 2,000 characters.

Wow, well, hey, maybe that's the trick. Maybe you edit it down into something really concise, right?

Yeah, but I was so happy with how it turned out at 2,000 words!

No kidding. Oh, that's funny. And that group you recorded with, you got Lucas Dubovik, also from BC. You've got Ben Boardman on bass. You've got Eamon van den berg on the drums. Is that a group that you play with often?

They're all musicians I've played with for quite a while, I've known Lucas, and Ben actually, since the VSO School days. I did a gig with Lucas, Raf, and Julian at Tangent the summer prior. I love Ben's playing. He throws so many ideas to you that really push the music forward.

Eamon, he's from Alberta, and he's someone I met here [at McGill]. We're super close friends now, and he's in my alternative rock band as well. Sam Baglier is too, from Vancouver.

Okay, yeah. Speaking of, when is the next time you're coming back here? Would it be Christmas kind of time again?

Yeah, it'll be around the winter break, and hopefully I'll get to play somewhere.