Phase 1 started with me doing an off-the-cuff, low-quality recording of myself improvising on trombone. I then chose some of the best moments, and sent them to bassist Joel Kerr in Montreal. A week later, I came to Montreal and recorded Joel in a more professional setting (with gear borrowed from both Craig Pedersen and Matt Ouimet). He played along with the tracks I'd sent and with some I hadn't, and he did a few solo improvisations as well. Then I went home, discarded my original layer, chose some of my favorite moments from what Joel had done, and sent those to Montreal trumpetress Amy Horvey and Berlin-based clarinetist Christian Dawid. I returned to Montreal a week later, recorded Christian (who was, luckily for me, on a visit to Montreal) one day and Amy the next - sometimes with Joel in their headphones, sometimes not, and sometimes recordings they'd heard before, sometimes not. I then took bits of everyone's sessions so far, and sent them to Ottawa power couple Mike Essoudry (drums) and Megan Jerome (accordion, voice), and also to vocalist Sasha Lurje in Riga, Latvia. Today I recorded Mike, then Megan, in my living room (which, strangely, used to be their living room, but that's a story for another time). I'm going to record myself tonight. Sasha's going to record herself tomorrow, and with the 7-hour time difference, will probably have emailed me the files by the time I get home from work.
Then I'll take everything I've recorded - roughly 7 hours of recorded improvisations - extract the best bits, and mix it together in unexpected ways. When I'm done, my goal is to have a 30-to-40-minute piece.
It's been a very fun process, and I appreciate everyone's contribution more than I can say. Still, I should try to say something.
Joel Kerr - Thanks for the generous use of your Montreal studio to record you, Christian, and Amy. Thanks for letting me crash at your apartment. Thanks for doing your usual (and yet massively unusual) job of playing the bass mind-blowingly well, and being exceptionally creative and sensitive while doing it.
Christian Dawid - Thanks for agreeing so quickly, from the very beginning, to be part of this project. I feel very lucky that you were in the right place at the right time, after having been in another right place at what turned out to be the wrong time. Thanks for reminding me that we should play with music like a child plays with a favorite toy. And thanks for leaving a few seconds of silence after each take, before exploding with your signature deep-throated laughter.
Amy Horvey - Thanks for taking the project in a whole different direction, and opening up doors I didn't even know were there. You are truly an innovator. You're doing such important work, and I'm honoured to be a collaborator. Making music with you - hell, sitting around and drinking beer with you - forces me to think in new ways, to consider and reconsider things I took for granted, and I look forward to each and every time. Oh, and thanks for letting Anna and I crash at your place.
Mike Essoudry - Thanks for scheduling and rescheduling, and for being one of the most melodic and sensitive drummers on the planet. Thanks for putting so much thought and feeling into every sound you make. It's incredibly weird that we've only played together in two very separate contexts: this sort of eyes-closed, heart-open kind of stuff, and extremely loud (though intricate) music for drinking and dancing and drinking some more, performed while dressed entirely in bright red costumes and silly hats. I guess the common denominator is that in either genre, I'm having the time of my life.
Megan Jerome - Thanks also for scheduling and rescheduling. Thanks for putting 100% into all your beautiful sounds and into all your beautiful silences - you are a musical beacon, and a frequent inspiration to me. Thanks for being brave, and trying new things when I'd throw you a curveball, and for just being generally amazing and supportive. Thanks for your hair! Thanks for representing your hair through music! Even if I don't find a place for that little tune in this project, I will keep it on my iPod, and keep my iPod close to my heart.
Sasha Lurje - I haven't heard yet what you're going to do, but I'm pretty damn excited. You've been important to this project since its inception, and when I thought I'd have to go ahead without your participation, I was determined to make it work - but I'm really, really glad that I don't have to. Will you come to Canada for the CD release party?
Some really interesting stuff happened over the course of Phase 1. Whenever, for example, Christian would seem to anticipate what the recording of Joel in his headphones was going to do, or Megan anticipated Amy (and something similar happened with each of the 5 players I recorded), I'd wonder - after picking my jaw up off the floor - what was causing this? These people are lovely, but they aren't psychic. And they certainly weren't relying on standard licks, riffs, or any other kind of cliché. So what could account for musician B playing something that musician A had recorded previously, which was about to occur in musician B's headphones??
And in thinking about this, I realized why I really chose these particular people: not only are they great musicians, they're great people to work with, and why's that? It's because they listen to what's going on around them, and they think/feel/intuit where the music is going next. Each person had listened in advance to recordings of at least a few minutes of the player(s) they'd get in their headphones, and when they really listened, they picked up a sense of that player's voice, their tendencies, their choices. Then, even if that "live" player didn't feel the need to build toward a modulation, or a sudden drop in volume, or a change in articulation, they sensed something in the other player's sound - who wasn't even there - that required it. These musicians are 100% team players. They understand that it's more important for the music to sound good than for their ego to get what it wants. That happens less often than you'd think. And when it does, the rewards are so great that it's hard to believe anyone would do otherwise. But ego-driven players never really get to experience it in the first place, and even if it happens - I mean, even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? - they don't hear it, because they're not seeing the big picture; they're only focused on how they fit into it.
Phase 2 of this project could take a while, and it deserves to. Each of these great artists gave only 2-3 hours of studio time to this project, but they filled every minute with egolessness, openness, risk, respect, trust, and patience. Sometimes they played with great solemnity, sometimes with great humour, and sometimes with both. Whatever comes out of this project, I'm better for having had the chance to work with these absolutely beautiful artists.
