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| EXCLUSIVE FEATURE for Ches Smith New Release - INTEPRET IT WELL Out On 6th May 2022 New York based percussionist and composer Ches Smith's latest album Interpret It Well – recorded with guitarist Bill Frisell, pianist Craig Taborn and violist Mat Maneri – is founded on an improvisational approach to composing, with all accompanying musicians interpreting Smith's scores with freedom to unearth unexpected outcomes. "Taborn, Maneri and Frisell are masters of 'compositional improvisation', " says Smith over email. "They are accustomed to working with spontaneously invented material to create unpredictable yet coherent music. They apply these tools to written pieces as well – fleshing out passages, exploring implications, travelling far and attempting to find their way back." The album's title track includes two movements: one slow, one fast. "Although the listener at times hears the movements the way I wrote them, " Smith continues, "crucial features are improvised by the group collectively, such as departures, arrivals, transitions, dynamics, and colour [...] I hear several concurrent tensions at work in this track: pointillism and lyricism; delicacy and bombast; all the time in the world and yet racing against the clock." It is this tension which inspired filmmaker Frank Heath in his visual interpretation of "Interpret It Well". "The experience of the music itself, " Heath proposes, "is one of being slowly drawn into the vortex of an awesome and powerfully destructive storm". "The resulting video "Protect Your Home (Interpret It Well)" is an archival montage on the subject of home security assembled from a torrent of commercials, public service announcements and DIY footage addressing a wide spectrum of possible threats, " explains the visual artist. "Test videos produced by research institutes and insurance companies were the first pieces of the puzzle I assembled. In these clips, full scale housing structures are demolished using simulated environmental conditions in an effort to develop (and sell) methods of reinforcing buildings from severe winds, flooding, fires, and storms. Maybe a lifesaving investment for certain homeowners, but a band-aid level solution when put in the broader context of destruction caused by the climate crisis." Ches Smith The 2021 release by his Vodou-inspired project We All Break, Path of Seven Colors, was named best jazz album of the year by The Guardian and was ranked #7 among all the year's releases in the international 2021 Jazz Critics Poll. Originally from Sacramento, California, Ches Smith is a drummer, percussionist, and composer based in New York. He has collaborated with a host of artists on many scenes since the early 2000s, including Marc Ribot, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Darius Jones, David Torn, John Tchicai, Nels Cline, Mary Halvorson, Trevor Dunn, Terry Riley, Kris Davis, Dave Holland, Secret Chiefs 3, Xiu Xiu, Good for Cows, Theory of Ruin, and Mr. Bungle, among others. He has nine records to his name as a bandleader that feature his writing and ensemble curation, and is a devout student of Haitian Vodou drums, performing in religious and folkloric contexts in New York and Haiti for the last decade. Pyroclastic Records Pianist-composer Kris Davis founded Pyroclastic Records in 2016 to serve the release of her acclaimed recordings Duopoly and Octopus (with Craig Taborn) with the goal of growing the label into a thriving platform to serve cuttingedge artists. In 2019, Davis launched a nonprofit to support those artists whose expression flourishes beyond the commercial sphere. By supporting their creative efforts, Pyroclastic empowers emerging and established artists — including those on its 2022 roster: Tony Malaby, Ches Smith, Nate Wooley, Kris Davis and Trevor Dunn — to continue challenging conventional genre-labeling within their fields. Pyroclastic also seeks to galvanize and grow a creative community, providing opportunities, supporting diversity and expanding the audience for noncommercial art. Additionally, its albums often feature artwork by prominent visual artists—Julian Charriére, Dike Blair, Mimi Chakarova, Jim Campbell and Raymond Pettibon among recent examples. write your comments about the article :: © 2022 Jazz News :: home page |