Fuzing Influences: David Fiuczynski in Conversation with CJ Shearn
David Fiuczynski (“Fuze”) is one of the most open musicians in any genre. The guitarist, who is also a professor at Berklee and the recipient of the 2011 Guggenheim fellow award has played with everyone from keyboardist John Medeski on the classic Lunar Crush (Gramavision, 1994) funk icon Bernie Worrell’s Woo Warriors, Hiromi Uehara in her Sonicbloom band to Hacidic New Wave. Fuze, most known for his genre bending Screaming Headless Torsos, released a new project March 25th for London’s RareNoise label entitled Flam! Blam! Pan-Asian Microjam. The followup to 2012’s Planet Microjam is inspired by French composer Olivier Messaien, and the beats of the late visionary hip hop producer J Dilla. Fuze blends his unique concept of microtonality on this album combining through composed and freely improvised elements, with three tracks featuring the searing alto saxophone of Rudresh Mahanthappa. I spoke with the guitarist about the album, his microtonal concept, music education and an upcoming session he is recording with legendary drummer Jack DeJohnette, and Georgian microtonal keyboard star Giorgi Mikadze among the cast.
My thanks to gracious, wonderful, humble David Fiuczynski for taking time out of his schedule to speak with me and to Antje Hubner and Gille Amaral for coordinating this interview.
ADDENDUM: I would like to clarify the album title is Flam! Blam! Pan-Asian Microjam not Flam! Bamm! Pan-Asian Microjam as referred to by me in the conversation, my media player incorrectly titled the album and apologies for that error.
I have been the staff writer for the New York Jazz Workshop School of Music blog in midtown Manhattan since 2014, and that has broadened my freelance writing skills considerably. In addition to writing artist bios, and articles of interest that pertain to the mission of the school, I have interviewed (in print on the site) legendary guitarist and NEA Jazz Master Pat Metheny, trumpeter Cuong Vu, and in 2015 embarked on producing a podcast for the school where I have achieved my dream and interviewed jazz giants such as Dave Liebman, Lenny White, rising talents like Thana Alexa, Logan Richardson, guitarist and bassist Brian Kastan, among others. I also work on SEO optimization for the blog. In 2015 I started my blog Jazz Views with CJ Shearn, and have written liner notes for 5 time Grammy winner and Oscar and Golden Globe nominee, Antonio Sanchez (for his latest recording “Channels of Energy”) and guitarist Gene Ess for his latest recording, scheduled to be released in November 2018.
My passion for jazz music is what drives me, which is an interest I’ve had since I can remember. I initially began writing about jazz at the age of 13 for my high school newspaper, and in my late teens contributed occasionally to jazzreview.com. In college I was member of the Harpur Jazz Project which brought jazz acts to campus. I’ve also contributed in the past to AllAboutJazz where I was mentored by John Kelman. I decided to focus on my passion for jazz music journalism after a job in the social services field as a caseworker went south, and as a person with a physical disability I work on going against the odds, living independently and having accomplished things people had said I’d never do.