jazz

Metal Jazz Trio -  Porporina - (Three Notes)

Waltz For Debby (Bill Evans)-- Monita Tahalea & Gerald Situmorang

Inference

What do you get when you combine jazz harmony and improvisation with rock grooves and instrumentation?

Well, you get the best of both worlds: all of the intensity and fullness of sound of a driving rock tune, with the harmonic complexity, motives, and improvisational elements of the jazz world. This happens to be great for me, because I tend to get bored listening to straight-ahead jazz, and yet conventional rock often never does anything interesting after the first chorus. So a fusion of the two is where I've settled for the moment, but where did I find the personnel for such an endevor?

Well it just so happens that I know some very talented musicians. Mack Williamson and Tyler Kingsland lay down a solid foundation on drums and bass respectively. I was blown away by how well they locked together on every tune, especially the rock stuff where the bass drum and bass guitar are so important to drive the groove. The second Williamson brother, Koby, put forth an awesome performance as usual. He has never taken to rock music and actually stays away from it in his playing, so it's a great surprise to hear his soaring solos over tunes like Flux and Glide Jam that really fit into the idiom and convey excitement and emotion. Trevor Kellum I knew through high school. He lays down some great funk improv in Stride and Stinky Sink, and produces a great commercial alto sound in T-Squared. As for me...I did everything you hear that is not a saxophone, electric or bass guitar, or acoustic percussion. Yes, that's a lot. :)

Heavy-Metal Jazz took about six months of work, from early sketches to the final mix. I won't write a tune unless I'm excited about it, and here's twelve of those tunes.

Turn it up,
--Peter


jazz

remmo!