Earlier, I posted an article describing a fantastic brass quartet which I introduced as “Possibly The Best Quartet- Period”. Photo taken by Sasha Arutyunova
After posting my material, I was lucky enough to get in contact with this ensemble and they agreed to answer a few questions I had about their group.
Here are my questions and their responses-
How did you all get together?
We all grew up in Seattle, Washington playing music in the public school system. Seattle has an incredibly ecosystem and history of music education and we were all lucky enough to be immersed in that community growing up!
Three of the members of the ensemble (Riley, Willem and Zubin) went to the same middle school and high school. Andy was at the cross town rival school.
We got to know each other through the scene, interacting at festivals, workshops and at clubs around town.
After high school, we all made our way to New York to pursue degrees music conservatories. Two of us were at Juilliard and two were at Manhattan School of Music. It actually wasn’t until we got to New York that we formed the group.
We were the Seattleites in the big city. Zubin had been the first to arrive in NYC, so when the rest of us got there we found ourselves hanging out at his apartment all the time, eating dinner together, going to shows. Then one day, Willem had the crazy idea that maybe we could make music together, just the four of us.
It wasn’t that we set out to create a new body of music or new sounds. We were just four friends who enjoyed spending time with each other and happened to all play brass instruments. Sort of more like a garage rock band mentality.
How was your ensemble accepted when you first began working together?
We’ve been extremely humbled and frequently surprised and by how favorably our music has been received in various circles over the years! As I mentioned previously, we simply formed the ensemble to make music with our friends and find an honest means of expression. We really don’t think in terms of genre distinctions, so often its difficult to describe what we do. We just do our best to get people in the room and share something personal, and that seems to really resonate with folks from all sorts of backgrounds. In addition to performing in traditional chamber music and jazz settings, we love bringing our music to people in unexpected places: house concerts, rock clubs, barns, farms, rooftops, art galleries and guerrilla fanfares. We’ve found that if we can just get people into a room to experience the music, none of the genre distinctions or conventions really matter.
Who does most of the arranging?
Our arranging process if very democratic. Depending on the nature of the work, we might bring in a fully realized arrangement or a very basic sketch. But the work always evolves dramatically in the rehearsal process. We like to experiment with various configurations both orchestrationally and arrangement wise, with the rule that we must always try any idea that is suggested, and then let the composer of that particular piece have the final say.
Because we all improvise, we are always looking for ways to crack open arrangements and inject character and personality into things. That holds true when playing our own compositions and other repertoire.
On average, how long does it take to work up an arrangement?
It can take months and months of experimentation to fully settle into a new piece. Often a piece doesn’t truly come to life until after we’ve toured it a bunch. There’s something about playing a piece in a bunch of different spaces for different audiences and feeling how it lives and breathes out there that really shapes the music. There are pieces we’ve been playing for four years, and we are still discovering new ideas and directions to explore with them. The music is constantly evolving.
How often did you rehearse at the beginning and how often are you rehearsing now?
Our rehearsal process has shifted with our personal lives. For most of our first few years, while we were all in school in NYC, we generally had two weekly rehearsals. Now that we’re all out of school, our schedules are far less predictable. One of us is based mostly in Seattle and we all have other commitments that take us out of town for periods of time. So, we generally schedule more intensive rehearsal periods, either leading up to a tour/recording session or to create a new body of work. In preparation for this last record we were able to have two separate dedicated two-week rehearsal periods: one outside Seattle to work on the compositions, and one at Avaloch Farm in New Hampshire to tighten everything up before the recording.
I noticed some unusually long phrases in your playing, are you all or some of you using circular breathing or is it done in the editing?
Riley will sometimes circular breathe, but not generally as part of the arrangements…I think I’ve only heard him do it in solos. And we don’t pull out breaths in editing; we may have ducked the volume of a few that were especially abrasive, but definitely didn’t edit to make it sound like we don’t breathe. So, unless I’m mistaken, we’re playing all those phrases in one breath.
In the recording “Interlude”- What electronics and effects were used?
For those interludes, Wayne Horvitz joined us for some late night jams on the form of his composition “Wish The Children Would Come On Home”. The electronics are him running his synthesizer through an effects board. I want to say he was using his DX7, but that could be wrong…definitely some rad ’80s digital synth tho. And the effects I think are basically just reverb/delay/distortion.
On “The Band with muddy”- were the repeated, muted trumpet notes recorded or punched in?
Haha a great magician never tells his secrets…
In “Barber Shop”- Was the trombone solo written or improvised. If written, what instructions were given?
The trombone solo was completely improvised. Wayne really pushed us to experiment with our solos and try different approaches and different thematic variations. I think we must have done three or four takes of the solo, and ended up choosing the one that felt the most cohesive.
In “Love, Love, Love” were the changes from the original (Piano) form made by the composer or did you all decide on playing the coda the first time and then repeating the A section and then end? Was the time signature change your idea also? I noticed Mr. Horvitz’ original piano version is in 4/4 and you were in 3/4.
The arrangement of this piece was done by one of our trombonists, Andy Clausen. The change in the time signature was completely his idea, although some elements of the arrangement, including the form/structure of the piece, were decided upon as a group.
In “Waltz From Women of Tokyo”- What are the time signatures during the middle section?
The time signature through most of the piece, as the title indicates, is 3/4. However, the middle section has a shift to 4/4, and then there is an improvised section following that shift which does not have a meter.
In the recording of “Home- Folk Song- the Bass trombone ostinato sounded impossible. How were you able to do it? Also, “Bitchin’ trumpet solo!
The trombone ostinato was played by both trombone players, with the lower trombone playing the “booms” (the downbeats) and the higher trombone playing the “chucks” (upbeats).
“Wish the children would come home”- What nontraditional effects were used in the opening? How was this notated?
It’s funny that “Wish the Children” is the title track, because the piece is almost completely improvised. After long days and nights of recording every other track, Wayne got out his electronics and we jammed on “Wish the Children” until three or four in the morning. The piece opens with us playing the fully notated tune – an eight-bar loop – with Wayne improvising above it. Everything after that was improvised, and we used moments from the alternate takes as interludes throughout the album.
“The Store, The Campfire”- Why was the Major 7th sustained at the end and not resolved to tonic? Is there a hidden meaning?
Good question! I’m not sure if Wayne has some hidden meaning in there – in the original recording from Wayne’s album “Film Music 1998-2001,” the final chord isn’t resolved either. The only element we added was the final trombone pedal, which we used as a recurring theme throughout the piece.
How did you link up with Prof. Horwiz?
Wayne has been a huge mentor and influence to us, both individually and as an ensemble. We all studied with him growing up in Seattle, and when we formed as a band four years ago our first show was at his club in Seattle, The Royal Room. I’d even say that his dedicated belief in us as a band from day one helped convince us that we weren’t crazy for starting a brass quartet. Eventually, he approached us with the idea to play an album of his music, and it was a natural fit.
If you have not heard this amazing young ensemble, be sure to follow them on
and their Web Page
