Bright Dog Red – Thanks for Asking!

Bright Dog Red – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.

RRX: We all get a little support from those around us. And we also can be impressed by our fellow performers. Who do you admire in your community, and why?

Joe Pignato: There are a lot of folks in the world of improvised music, and we admire many of them, so it’s hard to narrow it down but in short, we have gotten support from the late Jack DeJohnette, who encouraged when we were just starting out, from Matthew Garrison, the virtuoso bass player who also runs Brooklyn’s ShapeShifter Lab, which became our venue home away from home, from Tim Lefebvre, the first call bassist whose credits include Bowie’s Blackstar album, Tedeschi Trucks Band, among many others, who started recording with us in 2020 and has been on each of our albums since, and, most importantly, our label, Ropeadope, who committed to our particular brand of improvised music by signing us in 2018 and sticking with us for the release of 8 albums, including our laters, Never Would We, released in October of this year.

RRX: A band is a business. A business of love, but you got to work for it. Let’s pretend, instead of a band, you all owned a business. What would it be, and why would it be good?

JP: A fine yet hospitable restaurant, with a menu that changes daily, drawing inspiration from a variety of disparate yet well threaded cultural traditions.

RRX: Cover art is cool. It shows listeners what the artist thinks the album is all about. Because music can be felt visually. If you had to give the public a visual image that you think they would see and just “get” your groove right away, what would it be?

RRX: Artists, musicians, we immortalize. We set it in stone. Is there anyone who has passed that you feel you have immortalized in your work? If so, can you tell us a little about them?”

RRX: Stereotypes are a bitch. I mean, aside from the really bad ones, you have cultural stereotypes about everything, including music. Would do you think is the stereotype for the music you play, and how far are you away from it?

RRX: Our style comes from the extension of our influences. It’s like an evolution. We’re influenced, and it inspires us to influence. What can you say about your influences, and what you feel you’ve done with their influence as a musician or band? Have you extended their work?

JP: I wouldn’t feel comfortable to say we have extended the work of any influences but many have informed our work, some that come to mind include Miles Davis, David Bowie, The Tony Williams Lifetime, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets, Jimi Hendrix Experience….hmmm I could go on and on. I know I’m going to think of like 5…10…20…more as soon as we’re done with this interview.