MC: Which current musicians or formations do you think are doing something new musically? Are there things that surprise you?
CV: "Individually there are always musicians, but at the group level there are not a lot of things that I really want to listen to. But there is always something that I like a lot, but often they seem un-together, they don't seem to be constructed in real time, it's rather cut-by-cut. A theme with a certain sound on one disc, another one on a different disc, a musician who plays correctly here, but I do not see one approach to follow yet."
MC: Do you think it is essential to have an approach in order to make creative music?
CV: "Essential!? I suppose so. I could not confirm that, but it's true that all the great musicians that I know up to now have had a style. A clear approach at the time, whether it was the classical period, in jazz musicians, and the same for rock musicians. In the jazz field I always talk of the image of Coltrane, but Miles Davis also had a style in his own way."
MC: At the French level?
CV: "There are isolated musicians. But I think that at the jazz level, it is a little early. Again, this music is still young here; it is not totally assimilated yet. Our musicians still try to refine Be Bop, when there are other things to try to play, that's not to exclude Be Bop, but well ... The musicians here have a lot time to spend on rehearsing Be Bop, when the musicians over there, who created it, were without fail living on the tight rope, that's what made this style of music. I believe that you have to take a lot of risks to learn!"
MC: Precisely. Back to the music of today, whatever the style, from the small taste of it that you have already heard, do you think that the future will be more promising?
CV: "During the 80's there were many schools, and so the people learnt to play, but they played a little like the books they learnt from. Even in the same style, close to the same sound, and they produced nothing from all of that. I believe that occasionally it all needs to be relearned. I know many musicians who have returned to the clubs. In the clubs they try to rediscover or to forget what had been instilled in them, by force or otherwise, because the things they need are different in real life. One does not make giant steps every day, you have to like all the notes that you play, to take time to fully understand the value of one note, of one rhythm. For myself, I always want to learn, to be on stage. It's my life! As for the future, I believe in the victory of life, the creation!"
MC: You rarely see big names jamming in the clubs, like that, for pleasure. Why?
CV: "It's a fact that they often need to be pushed to do that. They either have no wish to be fulfilled, or it is due to fear. I know that there have been times when I played in a jazz club in Paris, the Sunset, and nobody wanted to jam. I had to provoke the thing because they were not bad musicians, and then finally when they were on stage, they could not stop! They were there on trust, and above all an appetite comes from eating, so they need to go there! These people lose the habit of jamming. There are some clubs that organize this once a week, but a lot of young people come to play just to release their surplus energy, instead of performing attentively within the music."
MC: You have just released two albums, '65!' with the trio and 'A Fiïèh' with Offering, what are your plans for 1994?
CV: "Already, there are the 7th Records concerts at the Bataclan, with twenty-five musicians and six formations. Each one will be a five-hour long festival, I hope! Five hours is a little short, I wish that they were longer. Perhaps next year... And then I think I'll make an album of songs for children, with atmospherics, some funny things or simply pleasant ones to listen to, also some mysterious things, all arranged in my usual manner... It is something I have wanted to do for a long while."
MC: What advice would you give to young musicians; you are one of the rare musicians who have never made any concessions?
CV: "It's true that in my most extreme phase, I even considered that it was dishonourable to earn money from the music! Now if I can earn money without making concessions that's great, but if that is not possible I have to continue anyway... This is the choice at the start! That is perhaps very, very hard! He also has to discover in the course of his music the value of some things, not to think that one can revolutionise everything in two seconds, because he has been to school. You must always be attentive, to avoid needless repetitions, learn to be lively, and also to create a sound, your own sound. Not everyone is called Elvin Jones or Tony Williams, but everyone carries a name which could become respectable in time, one respects his name, his sound.