ISJAC Artist Blog

I used different compositional strategies throughout my upcoming tentet album Server Farm, which comes out on February 21st on my label Irabbagast Records. The album features some of New York City’s finest musicians and improvisers – Mazz Swift on violin and voice, Peter Evans on trumpet and flugelhorn, Miles Okazaki and Wendy Eisenberg on guitars, Matt Mitchell on piano, Fender Rhodes and Prophet-6, Michael Formanek on acoustic bass, Chris Lightcap on electric bass, Dan Weiss on drums and Levy Lorenzo on kulintang gongs, laptop, electronics and vibraphone along with myself on tenor and sopranino saxophones and effects. Not only is the diverse instrumentation a great starting point for creating different sounds and textures, but knowing and performing with them all (in some cases for over twenty years) also helped shape the writing – I was able to be comfortable in writing less (and ask them to feel free to mess with the written parts) than I might have otherwise. Further, knowing the musicians’ strengths and tendencies enabled me to take advantage of compositional directions I hadn’t before.

Staring down the logistical reality of creating and self-releasing a big band record is enough to deter even the most steadfast of us. From the creative side (composing/arranging a set of music that works together to provide a clear and satisfying narrative and designing the visual aesthetic of the record) to the administrative side (the logistics of staffing the ensemble, booking the rehearsal space/recording studio, hiring the engineers, etc.) to the final boss fight of the project’s financial burden, there is no question that those of us who decide to move forward on this journey are motivated by love of the art and absolutely not at all by practicality.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.