Alex Henderson

Encore: Karen Borca 

By Alex Henderson

The bassoon has never been a common instrument in jazz and most of the players who drew praise played it as a secondary instrument (Illinois Jacquet, Garvin Bushell, Frank Tiberi). Karen Borca has been making the bassoon her primary instrument for well over half a century, building an impressive resumé in avant garde through associations with pianist Cecil Taylor, alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, bassist Alan Silva, percussionist Paul Murphy and others.

“It’s an instrument that hasn’t gotten much exposure ever,” observes Borca, who turned 76 in September. “I don’t have a lot of competition on the bassoon, that’s for sure. But there are a few other people who have been around. And of course, Illinois Jacquet played the bassoon.”

Although Borca has been a part of New York City’s avant garde jazz scene for 47 years, she isn’t a native New Yorker. Borca’s hometown is Green Bay, Wisconsin and she was a student at the University of Wisconsin when she met Taylor in the late ‘60s. She became one of his students during his years in the Midwest, playing in the Cecil Taylor Unit and various ensembles and big bands the influential pianist led during that period. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1971, Borca joined Taylor in Ohio when he was leading a free jazz outfit at Antioch College in Yellow Springs.

Some of Taylor’s admirers have incorrectly described his Antioch band as a “student band”, but Borca stresses that the outfit was by no means limited to students.

“People came from all over the country to be in that band,” Borca recalls. “It wasn’t just students. In fact, students were the minority in that band. They were serious musicians. People came from the West Coast to be in that band; people came from Boston to be in that band. [Trumpeter] Arthur Brooks came from the East Coast to be in that band; I think he was there for one or two semesters. People came from all over to play in that band. And Cecil didn’t stop people from joining. If you could play, you could be in the band.”

One of the musicians Borca played with in the Cecil Taylor Unit during the ‘70s was Lyons, who she married. And apart from Taylor’s outfit, Borca played in a ‘70s ensemble Lyons had with Murphy.

Borca moved to NYC in 1973, living in the Bronx with her husband until his death from lung cancer in 1986 during which time she played on his records for hatHUT, Black Saint and, posthumously, Ayler. During her 47 years in NYC, Borca has often played with bassist William Parker, guitarist/bassist and sometime drummer Joe Morris, alto saxophonist Marco Eneidi, trumpeter Bill Dixon, large ensemble Earth People and other exemplars of free jazz. Along the way, Borca played the soprano and alto saxophones as secondary instruments. But these days, she is concentrating on the bassoon exclusively.

“I’m not a multi-instrumentalist,” Borca explains. “I sold my soprano saxophone and way back when, I sold my alto to buy this bassoon I’m playing right now. And that was way back in antiquity when I did that. I don’t even have a saxophone right now. I haven’t doubled for a long time. And when I doubled, it was usually in larger groups—or if somebody asked me to do it in their groups. I didn’t usually double in my own groups.”

In recent years, Borca has led a quartet with Hilliard Greene (bass), Warren Smith (vibraphone) and Jackson Krall (drums). This month Borca will perform a live-streamed concert leading a trio with Greene and drummer Newman Taylor Baker. The concert is being presented as part of Vision Festival’s Art for Art (AFA) series of events. Borca points out that AFA founder/dancer/choreographer Patricia Nicholson Parker has been one of her major allies, as well as an ally of many other avant garde jazz improvisers in New York City, and was the one who encouraged her to use a trio for the upcoming performance, “Patricia said, ‘Do a trio, do a trio.’ And with a trio, I can pay everybody a nice amount. So, I’m going to do a trio.

”Looking back on some of the avant garde greats she has played with over the years, Borca emphasizes that as experimental as Taylor and Lyons were, both of them had a deep reverence for the musicians who came before them.

“Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk were Cecil’s heroes, especially Monk,” Borca remembers. “Cecil went in a whole other direction in the ‘60s, but he had feelings about the history of this music going all the way back to Africa. These things were very important to him. And as you probably know, he loved to go and hang out and hear these musicians play—the ones who came up before him. That’s why he’d go hang out at the Village Vanguard and Bradley’s; that was just part of his existence. Part of being a jazz musician was that he loved the music that came before him. And he always went and checked these guys out—all the time. That was just part of Cecil’s routine, part of his modus operandi.”

In the months ahead, Borca says, one of her goals is to release some of the recordings that have so far remained in her private collection. “I have a lot of recordings on tape,” Borca explains. “And William Parker has been telling me I should either put them out myself or find somebody else to put them on their label. There are quite a few tapes, including things I did at the Vision Festivals and things with William Parker and [late drummer] Denis Charles. And they were recorded well, too.”

For more information, visit karenborca.com. Borca live-streams Dec. 1st at artsforart.org/onlinesalon.html



Recommended Listening:

• Jimmy Lyons (featuring Karen Borca)— Riffs (hatHUT, 1980)

• Paul Murphy—Red Snapper: Paul Murphy at CBS (Cadence Jazz, 198)

• Cecil Taylor Segments II—Orchestra of Two Continents: Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants) (Soul Note, 1984)

• Jimmy Lyons Quintet—Give It Up (Black Saint, 1985)

• Marco Eneidi Quintet — Final Disconnect Notice (Botticelli, 1993)

• Bill Dixon—17 Musicians In Search Of A Sound: Darfur  (AUM Fidelity, 2007)