Enter The Anomaly
The jazz-prog guitarist discusses her hot new album, Anomalia.
After emerging from New York’s fusion scene in the late 90s, Jane Getter has been venturing further and further into the world of progressive rock. The guitarist and bandleader talks to Prog about the inspiration behind her new album, Anomalia, breaking out of jazz clubs, and why she’d rather write about the real world than unicorns.
“You don’t want to be stuck in the same old thing and be stale and not grow,” says Jane Getter. Known for her impressive fusion chops on her first three solo albums, the guitarist has been moving deeper into prog rock territory since introducing her group, Jane Getter Premonition, with the 2015 album On. Now, with Anomalia, she continues to grow as a songwriter, showcasing her voice and lyrics alongside her fearsome playing. “I feel like it’s the next step in that stage of my creativity,” says Getter, speaking to Prog from her home in The Bronx, New York. “I was really proud of On, I thought it was really great, but I feel like this is an even stronger piece of work.”
Anomalia features Getter’s husband and co-producer Adam Holzman on keys, Alex Skolnick on guitar, and two rhythm sections – the first with Stu Hamm and Chad Wackerman, the second with Mark Egan and Gene Lake on bass and drums. The music features lively interplay between the musicians, from grooves to trading solos. “We were lucky to have done the basic tracks before the pandemic hit because that enabled us to actually finish the album,” says Getter. “I just like the live feel, you get inspiration and stimulation when you’re actually playing it live with someone. The grooves feel different when people have all played it together rather than: ‘Okay, send me your drum track, send me your bassline.’ That still sounds good, but it always feels like a different vibe.”
Perhaps it’s the greater number of tracks with vocals, whether sung by Getter or guests Randy McStine and Chanda Rule, but Anomalia feels like Getter’s most personal work to date. The track Answers, showcasing jazz and gospel vocalist Rule, deals with empowerment and the search for purpose and meaning. “I think we all go through this,” says Getter. “You’re trying to figure something out and you’re looking elsewhere for the answers, but actually if you look inside yourself and follow your intuitions and your feelings, that’s the way to go usually. Trust yourself.”
Getter met Rule at a music festival in Austria. “I’ve always wanted to have another singer, like a real singer in my band, because I just feel like sometimes my voice is a little bit limiting and she’s got an amazing voice,” says Getter. “Answers, I could that sing that and
I will be singing it when we play live, but I just wanted to have an amazing voice on that song.”
Some tracks tap into the zeitgeist too, from Alien Refugee about someone displaced by war, to Dissembler, a barbed jab directed at a certain former president. “I feel when I wrote those lyrics, it helps me deal with the situation,” says Getter. “It’s almost like, he doesn’t deserve a song written about him. It could apply to a lot of politicians and a lot of people. Alien Refugee, that’s about a Syrian refugee girl. That’s just so sad to me. I get inspiration from things that are going on in the world and personal things that I’ve experienced. I’ve always found that writing lyrics helps me process things, helps me to express it in a way that I get a song out of it.”
Alien Refugee and Dissembler include McStine on vocals, his deeper, rougher delivery contrasting with Getter’s cleaner tone. “Randy has done a lot of shows with us,” says Getter. “We’ve done Alien Refugee live as a duet already and for Dissembler I wanted an angry, raspy voice that I couldn’t do.”
“I like the live feel, you get inspiration and stimulation when you’re actually playing it live with someone.”
The third guest on the record is Living Colour’s guitar wizard Vernon Reid, who takes a featured solo on Dissembler. Reid had sat in with the band during gigs at The Iridium in
New York, so the chemistry between the three guitarists was well established. “The shows at The
Iridium, it’s me, Alex and Vernon, and we’re up there trading,” says Getter. “On Train Man [from On], the three of us traded on the shows and that was maybe the best time I’ve ever had playing live. It was so fun, those guys will kick my ass, just trying to step up, they’re so inspiring.”
Alex Skolnick is renowned for playing heavy metal with Testament, but he’s thoroughly versed in jazz and fusion, all the qualities Getter was looking for. “When I was putting together Jane Getter Premonition, my newer songs had some metal elements in them,” says Getter. “I can play that stuff but I’m not a metal player, so I wanted it to sound authentic. Then he’s got a jazz background, there are a lot of jazz elements in my music, he can read, he’s just perfect for my music.”
While the playing and performances are full of energy and invention, Anomalia is a sombre album, but
Getter isn’t an artist drawn to flowery expressions of devotion or flights of fantasy. “I have written a couple of love songs, but not in a while. Some prog songs create this whole world and a story about the unicorns and all this kind of stuff, that’s not me,” she says. “I probably listen to more sombre and dark music. I love some dark, heavy grooves and lines. I also love really rich harmonies moving around, like some of Keith Jarrett’s solo records. That really inspires me.”
Unicorns notwithstanding, Getter is keen to expand her reach with prog fans. While to date Jane Getter Premonition have played a lot of jazz clubs, she has her eye on proggier horizons. “I feel that my music is more in that vein now than it was, but I’m not going to turn down a gig if it’s a cool gig and the money’s okay and I feel like we’re going to get a good response. I’m open to it all, but I do feel like pursuing more of a prog rock world at this point,” she says. “We did our first prog festival in 2019, ProgStock on the East Coast. We got such a great response and there were some other festivals booked for last year but because of the pandemic everything got cancelled. I want to get out of those jazz fusion clubs because they’re pretty small, which is fine until our fanbase really expands. I’m hoping to tour in 2022 for this album, so I’m just starting to think about that and seeing what kind of venues are interested in us.”
Getter started her guitar-playing career touring with jazz/blues organist
Brother Jack McDuff, but she’s travelled a long way to arrive at the prog fusion of the Premonition band. “When I listen to some jazz records and the band is swinging so hard, oh yeah, I love that stuff, but after doing that for a while, I was growing out of it,” she says. “I think artists do that, they evolve and change. I find that most artists I admire do the same thing, changing, evolving and growing.” That constant evolution shows a truly progressive spirit, so hopefully prog fans will prove receptive to what the Premonition has to offer. “I think there are some strict prog fans that aren’t going to get my music,” says Getter, “and then there are some other ones that are more open-minded, they like a different approach or they’re more eclectic in their tastes in music. That’s fine, not everyone is going to like my music, but it would be great if one of my songs did work for the masses and I made a million bucks!”
Anomalia is out now via Cherry Red Records. See www.janegetter.com for more.
“We did our first prog festival in 2019, ProgStock on the East Coast. We got such a great response.”