Like most musicians, I had a pretty uneventful year. But I did get some music out there. Here are 8 of my favorite tracks I played on that were released this year. I’m happy to have these out in the world.
“Bad Rap” - Kelly Jones
Kelly Jones is my wifey. She’s also one of the greatest musicians I know. Her songwriting is smart and thorough. Her voice is soulful. And she’s a kick-ass guitar player. This is our daughter’s favorite song on the 4-songer Big Dogs Die Young.
“Parallax” - Matt Mayhall & Dan Rosenboom
Dan and I had talked about making a drums n’ trumpet duo album for at least ten years. We finally did it in August of 2019. When we recorded I was in the middle of reading Val Wilmer’s As Serious As Your Life, an incredible on-the-ground account of the avant garde jazz scene in New York in the 1960s. The music of Milford Graves, Rashied Ali, and Sunny Murray was fresh in my ears at the time. It was fitting. Dan is a born and bred avant garde musician. His first trumpet teacher was Wadada Leo Smith. As a child, he got to listen to his father play duo with Anthony Braxton while he played with his toys in the other room. I’m really proud of what we captured. “Parallax” might be one of my favorite drum performances on record.
“Witness Mark” - Paul Bryan
Paul’s record was the culmination of 10 months of playing every Tuesday night at ETA in Highland Park. All the music we recorded was developed and workshopped there, and we really got to drill down on the kind of players we wanted to be. Such an invaluable experience. I think this was the first track we did in the studio… I remember feeling like I didn’t really have my bearings yet. But listening back, I love it.
“TV Baby” - Paul Bryan
This was my one contribution to the session as a composer. To me, this song feels like I didn’t write it. I swear this melody exists somewhere and I’ve just unwittingly plagiarized it. But I feel like this one shows me getting better at writing chords and forms that feel good to play over. Lee Pardini’s solo is perfect.
“Longview, TX” - Matt Mayhall, Jeff Parker, Chris Speed
The first proper track on Fanatics and hence the one that has the most plays. I also had a video made for it. The music on my first record Tropes had a lot of chords in it. This time around, I wanted to write more “lines” and experiment with textures and open spaces a bit more. So this one is a unison line with no chords, followed by a fun and kinda-dumb-in-a-good-way vamp to blow over.
“Heliotrope” - Matt Mayhall, Jeff Parker, Chris Speed
A few of the tunes on Fanatics are born out of improvised moments I transcribed from a recording of the three of us playing a live improv gig. The melody of "Heliotrope" was one such moment. Jeff played a line during an unaccompanied solo that really struck me; it was so simple and logical and song-like, as his improvisations often are. I took that, and had to compose a tail-end to it to kind of round it out. I harmonized it, and this is the result.
“Yr” - Matt Mayhall, Jeff Parker, Chris Speed
Listening to the playback after we tracked this one, Paul said “This is like Talk Talk jazz.” BINGO. This is my favorite track on the record. I think it unfolds perfectly.
“Remedy” - Emm Gryner
My one “L.A. Session Cat” offering in the bunch. Emm is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multiple Juno Award nominee, and former David Bowie band member. I did most of the drums on a record of hers called Northern Gospel about ten years ago. This one, produced by my good friend Joe Corcoran, is a simple bossa w brushes with some triangle overdubbed onto it. Turned out nice!