Words by David C. Obenour
Disconnecting from familiarity can be a strong catalyst for growth. While formatted practice and performance can be powerful in fostering skill and techniques, if not expanded or challenged, it can also threaten to ingrain or stagnate. Creativity requires many approaches from the artist. Sometimes an almost mantra-like focus and attention. Sometimes decidedly not.
Throwing herself into a studio filled with new approaches, saxophonist Nicole McCabe entered Lucy’s Meat Market to record A Song to Sing with Pete Min. Following the format of other releases from Colorfield Records, what she experienced was a recentering from her principal instrument to explore warped electronic jazz through synthesizer, piano, woodwinds, and more.
Off Shelf: I love the cover for A Song to Sing – could you talk about it? What did you liked about it for this collection of songs and how you see it connected to a lineage of jazz album art?
Nicole McCabe: When thinking about this album I knew I wanted some sort of painting for the cover. I’ve been inspired by a lot of my peers not putting their face on an album cover and giving a deeper look into the aesthetic of their records. I immediately thought of Karl McComas Reichl to do the cover because he is an incredible human, bass player, and I already have three of his paintings hanging up at my house. A lot of my music has to do with nature, landscapes, and the world around us and I think Karl did a great job adding a surrealist aspect to it.
OS: Thinking more on the continuity of jazz, a lot has been said in the press about your playing’s connection to the origins of the genre. What has and/or hasn’t resonated with you about that?
NM: I am really grateful that people can see the connection to the origins of the genre in what I’m doing now. There are a lot of people who think that if you are doing something different in the jazz world that you didn’t study the tradition but it was something that I took very seriously and that is very important to me. It was important to know where everything came from to then extend from it.
OS: Do you think your role as an educator gives you a different perspective or approach in how you play and compose?
NM: Every time that I teach I usually learn something or have a deeper understanding of a concept, so I think teaching has helped me solidify a lot of my foundation. Explaining things to others requires a need to understand different perspectives, and has widened my perspective on how others learn and how things are connected.
OS: Through Pete Min, Colorfield has a format for challenging artists in the studio. How did you connect and what excited you about working together for A Song to Sing?
NM: I had a great time working with Pete. His trust in me gave me a lot of confidence to explore these new instruments and sounds. This album was especially full of synths and piano, something I usually only bring out for the composing side of things – and a few dolphin hyperspace songs. [laughs] I loved getting to create progressions and melodies on the piano in real time and Pete would arrange them in a way that sounded like a full-fledged song.
OS: Are there songs or moments of songs that you could point to that were encapsulations of this experience? Things that only could have aligned from this experiment?
NM: I wrote a piece, San Benito that turned out totally different than I expected. After the woodwind recording day we starting adding piano and that chromatic bass line riff came out. With the woodwinds and piano sound it became really nostalgic for me and reminded me of the childhood neighborhood on San Benito Way. I had no intention of it coming out this way and it’s so special that it did!
OS: The melodies on Mystic Mountain catch me every time. It both fits within the context of the album but also stands out. Can you talk a little on how that hit you?
NM: That was the song that we used the omniharp for! It’s such a unique sound, I think of Pearl and the Oysters and the world they create with that instrument. I think the song turned into something magical because of the texture of the instrument.
OS: Can you talk about the band you pulled together for this recording? How you thought of them and what made them the right fit for these songs?
NM: Justin [Brown], Logan [Kane], and Paul [Cornish] are people that I really enjoy playing with right now and I knew they would give the songs a lift. Justin came in separately and Paul and Logan came in together. It was fun to see how everyone reacted to the already recorded music and added the organic aspects that the record needed.
OS: Did anything about the experience push you outside your normal way of doing things? What do you think you’ll carry with you as a musician?
NM: This experience pushed me into a different way of creating that I hope to bring into my more composed and acoustic records. It was fun to not see the end of the tunnel and start with just a few chords or a simple melody and see how we could expand the ideas into compositions. I will carry more confidence and trust within myself as a musician after this process!