Smitty: Wow, unbelievable. And, Chris, talk to me about when you hear of all these things that Taylor’s doing after he left the fold, how does that make you feel when you had already said you knew that he was going to be a star, and he truly is. How does that make you feel when you hear all the wonderful things he’s doing?
CB: Well, it makes me feel proud and also reminds me that I’m not an idiot (all laugh), that I could hear everything that was going on. I mean, it was always remarkable when I first heard him and yet I knew that there was potential for him to do even more. One thing you were just saying, Taylor, you mind if I repeat what I said to you when I got out of the car?
TE: Oh, yeah. No, that’s fine.
CB: Because I was telling him about in one of the tracks on his CD, he wrote a suite and I think it was I was saying that it was the second movement of the suite, and is that right, Taylor?
TE: Yeah, I’m not lost yet.
CB: But I was thinking, on the surface it almost feels like a funky smooth jazz kind of thing.
Smitty: Yeah.
CB: In terms of like it’s got a high phat back, you know, piccolo snare drum thing going, and it’s got this calm thing going on, but I said there’s so many layers of deep intellectual things going on beneath it and melodic content, and I said it’s really interesting that you’ve got that texture on the surface, which is sort of a comfort lure, but if anyone actually turns their brain deeply on, they’ll see there’s so much information going on underneath there.
TE: I try to give them some options. (All laugh.)
Smitty: And that’s the cool thing, you’re so right, Chris because you don’t hear that every day, and I especially gravitated to that entire suite because the movements are incredible.
TE: Oh, thank you.
Smitty: Yeah, and then when I read the liner notes about the brick steps, it’s like, okay, this guy’s got a fetish for bricks. What’s going on here, you know? (All laugh.) But I truly get it when I listen to the music and then reading your story and how you go back to those things that really comfort you and help to reassure you about your life and where you’re going and those different directions and letting life come to you. I totally get that and I think you interpreted that beautifully in the music.
TE: Oh man, well, thanks. That suite was kind of created—I always have like hundreds and hundreds of song fragments that are just scattered about the floor or in stacks or whatever else, just little songs that I can’t finish, and I had these three songs that I really wanted to do on the recording but they all kind of had a similar theme, similar instrumentation and vibe and everything, and I hadn’t named any of them yet too, and once I figured out a goal and a direction to kind of take the meaning behind those tunes, that kind of solidified their purpose as a suite and the song “Let it Come to You” is a ballad that I wrote, it’s right before the suite on the record, it’s kind of an honorary part of the suite. Because it came out of the same kind of meaning, the same source and everything, and has the rhythm piano faded way back in the mix in there as well, but we just decided to not include that as part of the suite, so it’s just three movements.
Smitty: Yeah, but it’s a great connection, a great sort of a lead-in, you know?
TE: Oh, thanks.
Smitty: Yeah, and it reminds me of Chris on Classified, “Friends Beyond Time.”
CB: Yeah, we were just thinking that. I’m thinking like, yeah, I have a ballad that’s the connective tissue to “Vignette.”
Smitty: Yeah, and when I hear the horn, it reminded me of Sinatra taking a break and saying “Chris, can you do the lyrics on the trombone?”
CB: Oh, well, thanks. That’s a nice compliment.
Smitty: Yeah, man, it’s beautiful. I mean, it’s like if ever the trombone did say a word, it was then, you know, it’s talking to you, it’s like a romantic kind of “come into my parlor” kind of thing, you know?
CB: Oh yeah. Well, or definitely to have one last Scotch with me tonight.
Smitty: (Laughs.)
CB: As the bar is closing. I mean, that’s what we were kind of after. And we’ve all kind of probably done those gigs where there’s just the band who are just so tired on their third or fourth set and just the real diehard fans and everyone’s quite well lubricated and in the jazz zone and then just that kind of intimate thing can happen.
Smitty: So true.
CB: So yeah, that’s what I was going after, so I guess it worked. I mean, when I was a kid I listened to lots of Louis Armstrong and Trummy Young , who was an influence for me as a trombonist, and also hearing tons and tons of Paul Desmond, and they were all players that put emotive content way above technical flash.
Smitty: Yeah, Trummy was great, still remember his hit version of “Margie”.
CB: And that certainly has influenced my feelings about music, and the older I get, the more I see it played out that the ability to have a connection with the audience.
Smitty: Mm, yeah.
CB: Well, this is very true in classical music too, not just jazz. I mean, either could be an incredible display of craftsmanship, but that doesn’t replace just connecting as a musical spirit in some way. That’s the most important thing for an audience.
Smitty: I agree, yeah.
CB: And actually ultimately as a musician it’s the most important thing. When people want to come out and see a musician, like many of them might appreciate “Wow, this guy has blazing technique” or “Wow, is that guy inventive,” but on a certain level, what they really think is “Wow, this guy has this musical spirit that I really want to be around and enjoy.” And it’s not necessarily “spiritual,” but that’s that sort of, you know, sometimes we say “That player’s got a lotta soul,” that’s all part of the same way of giving a different name to the same kind of musical essence that I’m talking about.
Smitty: Yeah, it develops such a common ground, such a connection when you’re listening to both of these projects, actually, because it has something, it has an appeal that you don’t get with every project. It’s that good. And “Dance of the Shadow,” whoo, what a great track, man!
CB: Oh, man, thank you. I’m glad you liked it.
Smitty: Yeah, and is Dan around? My Gosh, is he a bad boy or what?
CB: (Laughs.)
Smitty: Whoo!
CB: Yes, he is. Yeah, he’s up in Canada at the moment. Actually, he’s on a river. He’s Kayaking or something, river rafting with his son Trevor in the wilderness.
Smitty: Wow, man, well, when you see him again, you tell him I said he is a beast. Man, he is incredible, and I still brag about Dan from the first time I heard him a few years ago. I tell everybody when we get on the subject of drummers, it’s like, man, wait, you haven’t heard a drummer yet until you’ve heard Dan. My Gosh. (Both laugh.)
CB: Are you thinking of that 7/4 funky tune “Parade du Funk” from the Intuition project…
Smitty: Yeah, and the first time I heard Dan was the solo he did on the live version of “Take Five.”
CB: Uh-huh.
Smitty: Whoo! It was like “Play that again,” you know?
CB: Yeah, well, he’s been around Joe Morello and studied with Joe and Alan Dawson, two great jazz players and teachers, and heard that all of his life and has been hearing like how you mess around with an odd time signature and how you stretch it and polyrhythmically overlay it, and that’s sort of his—kind of his specialty as a drummer.
Smitty: Let me tell ya. And talk to me about Classified. Why the title Classified?
CB: Well, it was just because I wanted some way referring to the fact that—we’ve mentioned this earlier in this interview, but for your readers, “Vignettes for No Net” is kind of a classical piece. I mean, it was commissioned by classical forces: the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra Society, and Bay Chamber Concerts of Maine, and it was like one of the best phone calls that a composer can get and I hope it happens to Taylor someday where a guy calls you up and says “We would like to pay you a nice amount of money to write a woodwind quintet and jazz quartet piece work that’s really challenging and difficult because we have some of the best players in the world and we want you to figure out how to integrate those two chamber music forms.”
That’s woodwind quintet chamber music and then stretching the definition a tiny bit, although it’s getting more and more common to look at jazz as chamber music. And so that’s what that piece is all about and when we first did it, it was very successful and that was about four years ago and we’ve been trying to find a way to record that, and because it’s a classical piece, we said we were gonna call this record Classified just so many people, even when they pick it off the shelf, might think that there’s something going on here than a typical jazz record.
Smitty: Wow, well, it’s not just a normal jazz record, that’s for sure. And what can you say about the Imani Winds? My Gosh.
CB: Well, you haven’t had the pleasure of working with them too because besides being great musicians, they’re really fun and they’re classical musicians that understand the jazz world. Even though some of them improvise a little bit, but several of those beautiful women in that group are dating jazz musicians, so I know they know what’s happening.
Smitty: Oh, man.
CB: And it was funny. This is a statement that came from the oboe player. She said to me “You know, there’s this note here at this certain spot in ‘Vignettes.’ Do you want me to put the stank on it?” So I said “The what?” And so like that was her way of just saying that she was gonna do something beyond notation, you know, kinda just give it a dip and a twist and an inflection.
TE: That’s putting a stank on it.
