TUNETOWN TRAVELS CHORD-LESS TRIO ROAD
Toronto jazz group uses unorthodox extended techniques to go ‘There From Here’
Individually, saxophonist Kelly Jefferson, bassist Artie Roth and drummer Ernesto Cervini have amassed impressive credits on Toronto’s jazz scene.
But after many years out and about, they recently joined forces as the collective trio TuneTown, which will launch its debut album this week with concerts in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. The band plays GigSpace, an intimate 46-seat venue on Gladstone Avenue, tonight at 7:30. Below, Roth discusses why the band went from a one-off gig to a full-fledged project and what distinguishes them from similar bands.
Q How and why did TuneTown form?
A We formed TuneTown in 2016. All of us have had long-term musical affiliations in various projects spanning as far back as 15 years, so there was already a bit of a history. I think there was one particular gig at the Rex. I had a month-long series of the early set on Fridays as a leader, and I was just experimenting with different configurations of musicians. I think at the time, Ernesto had recently moved back to Toronto from New York, or I think he was bouncing back and forth between the two places. On this Rex gig, we started to play, I think either a standard or one of my originals, and everything just felt really sympathetic, but not artistically safe. I felt like right off the bat, we could just go, take risks, help one another if one of those risks didn’t go as planned. Basically a scenario where really adventurous creativity happens. That gig was just this happening, and we all reminisced about it whenever we saw one another. In 2016, Ernesto took the plunge, and got in touch with Kelly and me and suggested, why not do that again? But with a goal of actually making it a project so that it happens a lot.
Q What’s the significance of the band’s name?
A The band name was Ernesto’s idea. Maybe my hearing is going — when he first told me, I thought he said Teen Town, a virtuosic electric bass piece by Jaco Pastorius. I thought, “Oh no, does that mean I have to try and play that on double bass? Yikes!”
The name to me epitomizes Ernesto’s sense of humour — a little impish, innocent, a bit off the wall if you weren’t looking. Like TuneTown is some place where crazy musicians go to create music in an entirely unselfconscious way.
On an even funnier note, Kelly, who was born and raised in Regina, told us later that people in the Prairie provinces call Saskatoon Toontown. Go figure.
Q What’s the appeal for all of you of this instrumentation, without a chordal instrument in the band?
A Playing in a chord-less trio is daring. I could never resist a musical dare. This instrumentation is extremely challenging for musicians and audiences. The biggest challenge is not making it sound like it was originally a quartet, but the chordal instrument player didn’t show up. When I first started playing, I remember my first sax/bass/drums trio gig and I felt totally exposed, vulnerable. To me, chordal instruments are often the glue holding all the disparate lines and rhythms in music together. So when you play in this chord-less trio configuration, you have to let go of that expectation/preconception and embrace the absence of a chordal instrument as liberating, and as an opportunity to bring together two or three melodic lines and make that sound like a complete musical entity.
Q What do you think makes the trio stand out compared to other saxophone-bass-drums trios?
A I think we could all reference some of the classic trios with this instrumentation. Standouts for me are the Sonny Rollins trio with Wilbur Ware on bass and Elvin Jones on drums, the ultimate Elvin Jones trio with Jimmy Garrison on bass, and
Joe Farrell on sax, and the Dave Holland trio with Steve Coleman on sax and Jack DeJohnette on drums. It’s hard for me to put in to words how awe-inspiring these groups are, so when you suggest standing out, well that almost feels presumptuous. One thing we did was personalize and experiment with the configuration sonically, using unorthodox extended techniques on our instruments. There From Here (the album) also uses studio post-production and effects to our advantage thanks to the help of our producer Roman Klun. We also decided to record some little free improv segues between the songs and do this in live performance. These little interludes act as preambles to the next song or sometimes a reflective postlude to what just occurred. I can’t think of a trio album of this instrumental configuration that has done this. Q What hopes do you have for the band and its album?
A TuneTown has a beautiful momentum. My hope is to continue this and develop a reciprocal relationship between us and the audience. I mentioned earlier that this is a challenging configuration for audiences without the binding quality of a harmonic instrument. Further to that, we are all developing as composers and contributing to this project in that capacity as well, so I hope the journey continues to be daring and fun for us. There From Here is really our opening statement, we have a lot to say, and look forward to sharing that with the audience.