Words by David C. Obenour
The magic of a live performance can be hard to capture for a studio album. The live interplay of musicians. An audience’s equally live response and reaction. Bringing it all together and sinking deep into the groove, the solo, the adventure – whatever that moment presents and permits. All of this is no small part of what makes SML nearly self-titled debut, Small Medium Large, so enchanting.
Taken from two performances at the beloved – and sadly, now shuddered – ETA in Los Angeles, Small Medium Large uses the benefit of hindsight and production to stitch together a hybrid approach of stage and studio. Guiding the process all along the way is the artistry of five remarkable talents in Anna Butterss, Booker Stardum, Jeremiah Chiu, Josh Johnson, and Gregory Uhlmann. The result is as sprawling as it is inventive, connecting a deep understanding of jazz with an adventurous connection to new sounds and electronics.
Off Shelf: With base recordings taken from two performances at the now closed ETA in Los Angeles, can you talk about the significance of that space? Both in terms of its history and how that impacted these recordings?
Anna Butterss: ETA was hugely significant in a whole lot of creative music in Los Angeles and over time, really became a focal point for a specific community of musicians and listeners. More than any other space I’ve played in, ETA allowed us full freedom to explore, experiment and create, and I think that energy attracted an audience who could see that something special was happening. From very early on, Bryce Gonzales was recording shows there and it’s great to see that music and that space continuing to be a part of the community. SML formed towards the end of ETA’s existence so I think we were all very familiar with the possibilities and energy of that space by the time this group came together. I’m not sure if this music would exist in the same way if we hadn’t had that space to facilitate it.
OS: Created from spontaneous compositions, did you originally think of this group as more of a limited and live assemblance?
Booker Stardrum: There was no conceptualized origin besides wanting to all play together. In fact, I believe Anna and I met for the first time only minutes before we started playing. So nothing was discussed prior to our first gig. We were lucky enough to have these first meetings captured in a really beautiful way, live to tape at ETA. The second batch of live recordings we did were perhaps a bit more intentional, going into it with awareness of the group synergy and perhaps with the suspicion that a good recording of the group could become something exciting.
OS: Thinking back on those performances, was there anything that surprised or delighted you in what the others brought on those two nights? Any particular thing you might be able to remember as fun or inspired?
Jeremiah Chiu: For me, listening back to the recordings is always really special because you hear a level of detail and precision that sometimes feels quite different from your memory of the live performance. Greg and Josh have this amazing ability to improvise together in a way that often feels like a singular voice. I love trying to decipher “who played what” in the recordings because each of us bring a wide sound palette and contribute through different modes from electronics to live-sampling to live processing.
OS: Though a blended effort of live and edited, I wanted to ask about the importance of live albums in jazz. More so than any other genre, these recordings really seem to capture something that a studio album can’t. What do you attribute this to? How does this still live on Small Medium Large?
BS: Things happen live that just don’t happen in the studio. Playing in front of an audience and receiving that spontaneous feedback is magic. We fussed over certain edits and in some cases used the live recordings to develop moments that are more studio composition than live documentation, but the raw, spontaneous performance was the seed for everything, so I think that energy exists throughout the album.
OS: The press release mentions the process of editing these recordings as a “stunning expansion of the Teo Macero / Miles Davis editing concept” – can you unpack what that means?
BS: With the exception of a few overdubs, this music was engineered and recorded live to Nagra tape by Bryce Gonzalez at ETA and given to us as pre-mixed stereo files. So we were working with several hours of music that we wanted to weed down to an LP’s length. We wanted it to sound like a developed album, not just a document of the live gig. Working with only a pre-mixed stereo file of an entire band as a starting point to making an album is a major limitation, but it was also an opportunity.
We took inspiration from Teo’s collaborations with Miles. On albums like On The Corner, Bitches Brew and Live Evil, they cut up – actually spliced tape – long performances and studio jams and stitched them together into more succinct compositions that would fit onto vinyl. Taking cues from electronic composers like Stockhausen who were experimenting with tape manipulation in composition, they pioneered this technique of splicing and editing jazz and improvised music. So, while we were not splicing actual tape, we worked in Ableton and edited long form improvisations down into shorter arrangements, sometimes leaving longer passages, and other times creating shorter loops or manipulating the original recording in some way, adding over dubs, etc.
OS: How do you think that approach worked well for this album?
JC: It seems like improvising is this group’s approach… for now. To Booker’s note, there is a spontaneity and synergy that is both hyper-intentional and off-kilter, simultaneously. What I mean by that is, when we’re improvising, we have to be quite focused and observant, especially in front of a live audience. However, each of us is bringing a different feeling or idea to the moment: sometimes this is hearing a different “1”, other times, pursuing an interlocking groove, or a musical argument. It’s great fun and I think that comes across on the record.
OS: Was this process still a band effort or was it handed off to select members? How did the collaboration look after the original live performances?
Josh Johnson: Jeremiah, Booker, Greg, and I were all involved in shaping the live recordings into what became the album. Some of the editing/sculpting/expansion happened in our separate home studios, and some happened with a few of us in the same room – taking turns at the helm, experimenting, and exploring ideas. To me, one of the coolest things about the record is that it features layers of vibrant collaboration. Everyone in the band has a uniquely developed and informed presence as an improviser, and also as an editor/producer.
OS: Can you talk about the sequencing of the album? How closely did that follow the flow of the original live recordings? Do you feel there are different considerations in establishing the sequence of a live set to an album?
JJ: In sequencing, we weren’t too concerned about preserving the order in which things happened during the live recordings. The spirit and energy of the live recordings is foundational, but we really wanted the album to be a dynamic, free-standing document and journey of its own. Special shout out to Scottie McNiece of International Anthem for helping us crack the code on the sequence!
OS: Starting from live recordings and now returning to live performances, did listening back to the album change or further inform how you approach playing them now?
Gregory Uhlmann: I think for me it definitely did. It kind of crystallized these different zones we can get to naturally as a band. In some ways it makes it easier and some ways harder because we know we can get to that spot, but I think we all are always wanting to push into new territory. I think it’s making us explore new possibilities and sounds which is exciting. We’re doing some new little experiments.
OS: Knowing that you all are very busy with a number of other projects, how do you see SML evolving from here?
GU: I think there is a little bit of a mystery to it, which I like. Part of the idea of the band was to have a core, but then have some flexibility of bringing people in or shrinking or expanding depending on the situation/availability. So I imagine we’ll be doing various versions of SML in the next year.