Catching Up With Don Aliquo, Jr.

Photo by Rod McGaha

The Aliquo name is akin to jazz royalty in the city of Pittsburgh. Tenor saxophonist Don Aliquo Sr., has been a fixture in the city's jazz scene for more than half a century. Don Jr. followed in his dad's footsteps, also playing tenor. After studying at both Duquesne University and the Berklee School of Music (where his roommate was drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts), the younger Aliquo spent time back in the Steel City, playing with people like drummer Roger Humphries, before heading to Middle Tennessee State University (in Murfreesboro, just outside of Nashville) in 1999. 

Working at the college level hasn't slowed Aliquo's musical output in the least. In addition to traveling everywhere from Denver to China and Spain, he released several albums. Growth, the most recent, came out earlier this year. The eight originals on the album feature him in two different piano-less quartets, freeing up the harmonic setting of the music in a way that inspires both groups to engage in close interactions. Along with the edgy groove of "Woman Clothed In the Sun" and a hat-tip to Sonny Rollins in "Lower Broadway Rundown," the album also finds Aliquo playing bass clarinet, as a background voice ("Pedal Taverns") and as a dramatic lead ("For the Vulnerable"). 

Aliquo returns to Pittsburgh on Thursday, May 25 at Con Alma Downtown, at 7 p.m. In anticipation of his visit, we caught up by phone last week, talking about his teaching work, the new album and some of his travels.

Were you brought down MTSU to start the jazz studies program, or was it something that happened once you got there?

It ended up - running the program - was not why I was originally hired. I was hired by my buddy, [pianist] Dana Landry. He was one of the people that was on the committee that hired me. and I was to be the saxophone professor and the second full-time jazz teacher. When he took another gig, out in Colorado, I took over the program. I did it about 10 years then I stepped away from it, because I wanted to play more. I'm still at the university and I'm teaching jazz courses and saxophone primarily. I just stepped away as the director

What's it like setting something like that up? Are you the kind of guy who can envision the way you'd like a program to go? How much of a challenge was it?

It was a bit of a challenge because I wasn't typically that [kind of] person. I enjoy teaching for sure. But I don't always enjoy the logistics side of it, not to mention the administrative side of it. Those things require a lot of time, a lot of patience, sometimes. You're dealing with a lot of people, not to mention trying to get the students up and running, so to speak. But, really, that's your primary job. That was another reason I stepped away from it, because I like teaching. I wanted to play more. And I wanted to be a more effective teacher. That wasn't my thing but I did fine with it once I figured it out. I felt like we made some pretty good strides when I was running the program

I'm also curious to ask people who are instructors, how do you teach jazz? There's a lot that goes into it, so how do you approach students?

That's a great question. I certainly don't have a cookie cutter kind of mentality about how I teach, in particular, teaching jazz. There's the aspect of playing a musical instrument that you have to deal with, with students developing technique and developing sound on an instrument. You know, mastery of the computer, so to speak if you want to use that analogy. 

That has to happen. And depending on the students, some students come in  with a lot more work that needs to be done while you're trying to show them tools to improvise, so to speak. But that part of it has to happen. And then as far as teaching improvisation, or teaching jazz, I try to see what the strengths are with the students and guide them to what I feel like is going to be the most beneficial for them to study. That could be transcribing particular players who they're listening to, what tunes they're learning. Those are sort of the main things, I'm dealing with my students.

Now that so much music is readily available, do you find that students are pretty well versed in the classic stuff? Like, you could talk about a Sonny Rollins album and they would know East Broadway Rundown?

I wish that were true but I don't see that as being the case!. It's interesting because everything is available now. But that hasn't necessarily translated into increased knowledge, just because it's available. And then I suppose the other aspect of it is, with streaming - and it depends on the kid too - they don't go deeper beyond having listened to the track. If you ask them, "Who was the trumpet player on that," they have no idea. Shouldn't you want to know that? So, without liner notes or the credits on a particular recording, often they don't do that research to find out. You have to encourage that really, and encourage listening. I find that we do that a lot. We're always encouraging the students to keep listening. That's the main tool, right?

It is important to know who else is on the album because there might be other leaders in the band.

Sure, and [it's important] how those people in the band impact the artist whose name is on the recording. That's such a crucial thing. If you're a rhythm section person...I was thinking about this the other day. If you think about all those classic Blue Note Records, some of those Wayne Shorter records, half of Coltrane's rhythm section and half of Miles' rhythm section [might be on them]. "Oh, wow, McCoy Tyner played with Tony Williams on this record. That's amazing." You don't really think about that. I find myself surprised like that, at times.

Growth is a really great album. I enjoyed it. What inspired you to do an album with a pianoless group? 

Well, I've been playing that way quite a bit over the last, maybe year and a half to two years. I've been playing a lot of gigs in the trio format. There's one really good club here in Nashville now that is a really fun place to play. Often I will take the 11 pm to 1 am slot and I think trio is great for that slot. You can play whatever you want. It's open and it's loose. I just really enjoy playing in that context. So I wanted to try to capture that. I never did a recording with that concept so I definitely wanted to try it. That was the main inspiration behind it. I was doing it so much and I was starting to get comfortable with it.

My original intent was to capture even more different rhythm sections because I was moving it around. I had different guys I was playing with here around town. I just couldn't pull it off logistically. The more I got into it, the more I realized, well, logistically that is going to be difficult to do if you want to get this thing done in a timely manner!

The trumpet adds something to it and the guitar, in a way, can be chordal but it's kind of like a second horn in a way too. 

That's a really good point. The trumpet player (Rod McGaha), he's somebody I've played with quite a bit over the last 10 years. I played on his record and he does his own music quite a bit and I'm usually part of that. And he's a really creative person. He did the art and the photography (see above) for me as well. 

The guitarist (Steve Kovalchek) is a good friend of mine as well. He's originally from out here but he's now in the Denver area. He's playing with Jeff Hamilton in a trio right now. He's quite a musician too. But he knew what I was going for. Originally I didn't intend to have him on the project. He just happened to be in town so I said, man, you might as well play on this record! Because we've played together so often. We just played together last weekend because he was in town again. He's a fun guy to play with, real musical.

Were the tunes on there things that you worked out a lot in a club setting, and then you just transferred them over to a quartet in the studio?

Yes and no. (Laughs) Some of them were, some of them weren't. Some of them were conceived for the recording. Some of them were things that I had written and played a handful of times. "Woman Clothed In the Sun" I've played a bunch of times. "Salt and Light" I've played a bunch of times. "Naked Statues," I think was another I'd played. But other ones like "For The Vulnerable" and "Growth," those tunes were written for the recording project. So it was a little bit of both.

The bass clarinet - is that something that you've been using all along or is that a relatively new thing?

The answer is, as far as my use of the bass clarinet on the recording, it came almost as an afterthought, while I was in the process of recording, I kept thinking, man, the bass clarinet would probably really good doubled on some of this stuff. So the next day, I went back and brought it to the studio. I wasn't originally intending to play the bass clarinet on this record at all. I had no intention until we got into the middle of recording it. Then I realized it would probably work really well. 

I've played it. My dad started me out on the clarinet. That was sort of the old school way of grooming a saxophone player, starting on the clarinet or flute. But I'm really glad he did, to be quite honest with you. I got away from the clarinet for 20 years, maybe more than that. I would say in the last five to ten years, I will practice it a lot, off and on. Especially the soprano clarinet, I really think it's an amazing instrument and it's a significant challenge. I even took a lesson with Eddie Daniels maybe five years ago. It's kind of an ongoing thing for me. It wasn't hard for me to put it together. I've been playing the instrument a lot. But it wasn't my intent originally to do it. It just felt right. I'm glad I did it. 

Since you've done the album, have you brought the bass clarinet to gigs more often?

Nope! (Laughs)

Aw, man!

I should. I'm glad you said that. That gives me a little bit of a push. I'll tell you why. Sometimes it's difficult to have it miked appropriately so it has the same amount of presence as the tenor. That's a difficult thing for the bass clarinet in particular. Well, the soprano clarinet too. But I've played it a handful of times live. And you're right, I really should start bringing it out more. 

This might be me hearing similarities. But the bass clarinet in "Pedal Taverns" and the chord progression remind me a little of the Thelonious Monk song "Brilliant Corners." I wondered if that was in your mind at all, when you were coming up with that song.

No but I read that in your review [note: I reviewed Growth in JazzTimes] and I was pleased to see it. [Brilliant Corners] is such a great record and if anything I've written comes close to anything by Monk, I'm totally happy with that. I guess I'd been listening to... I had been listening to Monk but also some more open tenor recordings like some of the ones that Joe Henderson has done, the one with Alice Coltrane. I'm trying to think of some of the other things. East Broadway Rundown [by Sonny Rollins] was another one, just a little more open conceptually. 

Also, music that would allow for more interaction - that's what I was going for, really. Both of the drummers on the album, I feel like I have a really good hook-up with. Marcus Binney and Danny Gottlieb, they're both really musical. I've had some really good experiences with them live. Especially during the time of the recording, I was playing with both of them fairly often. I think Marcus is now playing with [vocalist] Kurt Elling to I haven't been able to play with him. He's been traveling a lot. 

I really like the way Marcus is pushing you along in "Woman Clothed In the Sun." But it's cool because it's not overplaying, it's just pushing you.

Yeah, that was the idea. He knew exactly what I wanted. An interesting aside to that is he was in the first graduating class when I started teaching here. He was a student. He was one of the most gifted drummers I've ever seen. Well, [there's] Jeff "Tain" Watts, but that's a whole other thing. Marcus, I've watched him grow. He came from the Memphis Black church environment. Some of it's pretty adventurous, especially for a rhythm section. So he came to school with a ridiculous amount of technique. I've watched him grow, and be able to swing and be able to play jazz at a really high level. It's been fun to watch. He's a great guy too.

You've traveled to Columbia and China to teach there. What was that like?

It was pre-COVID and I did go to Spain, post-COVID. I'm hoping to back there in March. There was a gentleman here that studied conducting, he's a really fine saxophonist and he's teaching at a conservatory in Valencia. That was really fun. I might go back to China. I have a five-year assistant professorship, which is hilarious! It's at a university in Wuhan, of all places. I was in Wuhan before the proverbial stuff hit the fan. The students there were hungry for the music. 

One of the funniest things that happened, the first time I went to China. We did a tour where we played in a bunch of different cities. One of our last gigs was in the city where [the late Pittsburgh drummer] George Heid was playing. He had a gig in a club in this city. The whole band was from Pittsburgh. So I just dropped in. He kind of knew that I'd be coming. because once I found out I was in teh same city, I called [Pittsburgh-based guitarist] Eric Suseoff and said, "Is this the same city that you guys were playing?" He said, "Yeah. George is playing there tonight!" I said, "Aw, man, we're definitely going!" It just totally floored him. I said, "I just wanted to come and check you out and see what you were up to." (Laughs) 

When you come to Pittsburgh, who is playing with you?

Eric's going to play, which is really great because Eric was on some of my earlier records. I love playing with Eric. I'll also have Jeff Grubbs (bass) and Thomas Wendt (drums). We'll do some of the music from the recording. I enjoy trying it out with different people because you get different insights. 

Anything else you'd like to add?

It's interesting because I've done a fair amount of recordings but I had never done a project here in Nashville with musicians here. I thought it was about time I did. So that was one of the goals. And most of the titles had Nashville thematic. Not all of them, but "Pedal Taverns," I don't know if you've ever seen a pedal tavern. [A long bar with stools and pedals that works like a group bicycle.] We could do without them here and I'd be totally happy. [The song title] was kind of a tongue-in-cheek way thing, making fun of it.

[Two other titles have regional references. "Naked Statues" refers to controversy of a statue in Music Row Roundabout that features nine nude figures. "Blues for Duffy and Doug" pays tribute to drummer Duffy Jackson and saxophonist Doug Moffitt, who both passed during the COVID epidemic.]