‘Every moment is sacred’

At 26, Detroit-based artist Marcus Elliot has developed a subtly complex, passionate, heartfelt voice on tenor saxophone that has gotten the attention of national critics like The New York Times’ Ben Ratliff. His two CDs, “When the City Meets the Sky” and “Looking Forward,” exude a quiet humanity and curiosity that rewards both casual and close listening. In a phone interview last week, Elliot was generous and open about a range of subjects, from his philosophy of life to his experience (solid but limited) studying jazz at MSU.

This is a big thing to bring up in a short interview, but your music has such a philosophical cast. Can you talk a bit about your approach to life, your philosophy?

I think the reason why I’m so drawn to music is, it makes me feel very human. It’s the most human thing I do, I think. What I want to do with my music is to remind people that we're human, because it's something that is obviously slipping from us. Whether it’s because of technology, or the way we treat one another, or the food we eat, or whatever it is, it’s something we’re forgetting, and I think music is one of the few things we have left that reminds us.

That’s what I want my music to portray. I want it to cause emotion, cause you to think, remind you that we're here, we're human, and this is a beautiful experience we're having. Music also reminds people how precious the moment is. It really forces you to be in the moment, really listen.

My favorite part of songs is the end of the composition. Say there’s some beautiful song going on, and somebody's just holding out this last note. Everybody's listening to that last note and it gets so intense. Why does it get so intense? Everybody's focusing on that moment. There's nothing special happening. It's just one note being held but everybody's focusing on it, waiting for it to end. Music just does that. That's what it does.

Those two things are, for me, my life’s philosophy. Remembering that we're human beings and remembering that every moment is precious and every moment is sacred.  Being in that moment and realizing that is what is important.

Where are you from and how did music enter your life?

I’m originally from Milford. I started playing the saxophone in middle school. Both of my parents are from Detroit, so I’ve been going to Detroit ever since I was a little kid. We were always visiting family, seeing shows. My dad took me to Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, Marketplace, spots like that. He introduced me to the music. I fell in love with it.

What really put the hook in me was seeing musicians my age play the music. I had a friend in high school who played in the Civic Jazz Ensemble, directed by Rodney Whitaker. I went down to the Max Fisher to see one of their concerts and I see all these young kids playing at such a high level. I was almost in tears at the end of the concert. I said, “This is what I need to be doing.”

So many greats have played at Baker’s. Who do you remember seeing?

I was impressed by (trombonist) Vincent Chandler. He had a group called Urban Transport every weekend at Baker’s. That, to me, was the first time hearing original music in that type of setting. They were taking things from jazz and hip hop and other influences and creating their own music. That really had an influence on me. That’s was why I decided I need to write my own music. It’s very important for me to express myself that way.

How about players from way back, on recordings?

My dad was playing heavy things from [Thelonious] Monk to Cannonball [Adderley], a lot of Motown, a lot of R&B singers like Luther Vandross. There was a lot of music in the house.

I loved Trane and Wayne Shorter and those guys, but honestly, the people that had the most effect on me were the people that were here in Detroit, like [trumpeter] Marcus Belgrave. Getting a chance to hear him play, and work with him these last few years before he passed — we became very close. (Author’s note: Belgrave died last year.)

(Saxophonist) Donald Walden — I got a chance to see him a lot. Those are really my heroes.

Obviously, you have to know about Trane and those great legends, but for me, it’s important to know about the legends from where I come from.Not only have they done as much as any of these other guys, but they’re right here, and I had access to them. To me that was important, to have access to the people I look up to.

But yeah, Trane, Joe Henderson, Lucky Thompson, Lester Young — the usual suspects.

Your voice on saxophone is very distinctive and confident. Was that hard to find?

It’s a cliche, but it’s always been really important that I find my own voice, dig deep and sound how I sound. I had a lot of teachers, specifically (MSU professor and saxophonist) Diego Rivera — he was a big believer that you don’t have to find your sound, you already have your sound, you just need to develop it.

I love what Trane and all those guys do but I’m not trying to do what they did. It's already been done and I'm just not interested in that. I want to play the music that I hear and I want to sound like the sound that I have in my head.

What do you do to develop your sound?

I spend a lot of time just doing exercises with the saxophone and just sitting with it, meditating on it. I do a lot of reading. I do meditation practice. I’m constantly reading about other thinkers or musicians. Lately I've been checking out a saxophonist and composer named Henry Threadgill.

How does your meditation, reading and life experience plug into the music as you compose?

My composition process is not something where I’m like, ‘OK, I’m going to do this thing.’ I just write. I don’t bring any of the philosophy or any of that stuff to the table when I'm writing. It’s going to get through, because it’s coming from me, but I take in all the information I can and I’m basically just improvising.

It’s going to be influenced by whatever it is I’m doing, if I’m true to improvising. Letting it kind of happen. I’m constantly feeding the analytical brain and learning a lot of things, but when I’m improvising it’s a completely different space. It’s a space of the unknown. I’m really just letting things happen and trusting that whatever came in the other side is subconsciously being fed into it. That's been a practice in itself, obviously.

All the musicians I admire, from Trane to Ornette Coleman to Henry Threadgill, that’s what they were doing. They were improvisers. Improvising is really important and necessary for all of us. We improvise every day. We do it to live. It’s a survival method. I’m doing those type of things through music.

These days, are you drawn to Threadgill's sound, which is more exploratory and less based on swing?

I’m definitely headed in that direction. I can’t tell you. I don’t know what direction I’ll go. I’m interested in being really honest with my music. It’s hard to just create and strip away all the outside noise of people telling you, “You should be doing this. People would like it if you did this.” That’s just not necessary, especially in the creative process.

It’s something I’m trying to pull away from and get through. My music, specifically the music on my recent album, I wrote two years ago. I have a whole new mindset compared to even that time. It’s constantly evolving.

Can you talk about the group you are bringing to JazzFest?

It won’t be the same group that’s on the album, because everybody is so busy, but I have friends coming that I’ve known and played with for a very long time. Ben Rolston, who is one of the original members, on bass, Glenn Tucker on piano — he’s another good friend, I’ve known him six or seven years — and Alex White on drums. I've known Alex since I was 15.

I'm excited to share the music with everybody in Lansing. Lansing is kind of a second home for me because I went to Michigan State and I got a lot of love there.

What was that like?

I went to State in 2008, studied with Diego Rivera and (alto saxophonist) Wessell ‘Warmdaddy’ Anderson. I went there to learn about the history of the music, and to study bebop especially, and that’s what I got. Diego and Rodney (Whitaker) and everybody taught me the importance of swing and the blues and understanding where this music is coming from. With Rodney being the director, there is a huge Detroit influence in the department. I felt like I was getting more of an education in Detroit history and the value the musicians gave to the tradition.

It was great for while I went there. It might not have been the best place for me to stretch and explore all the things I wanted to explore, but it was exactly what it said it was, which was an education in the history of the music and a large emphasis on bebop. I’m very happy I got that.

You've traveled all over the world playing jazz. How did that happen and what was it like?

I played with Anthony Stanco, the trumpet player. I’ve known him since I was 15. (Stanco will also appear at JazzFest, with a trumpet workshop Friday at 5:45.) We came up through [Detroit’s] Civic [Jazz Orchestra] together. When we graduated in 2012, he got his master’s [degree], he invited me to join him in the American Music Abroad program. They take groups from America and send them to different parts of the world and put on performances and master classes.

We got a group of musicians from Michigan State, Paul Bratcher on piano, Jordan Otto on drums and Sam Cooperman on bass, and worked really hard to create an educational program, and we wrote a bunch of music, got our music together, and we made it. That year about 300 bands auditioned and 10 bands made it. We went to South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. It was such a beautiful experience. It was my first time going to Africa.

The next year we auditioned again, got it and went to Egypt and Jordan. After that we went to Indonesia and we just got back from Namibia and Botswana again. It’s been a huge influence for me, seeing all these different cultures and to have all these different experiences with people from around the world who live in different countries.