Maria Schneider Orchestra comes to Carmel's Sunset Center theater
The Maria Schneider Orchestra comes to Carmel's Sunset Center theater Wednesday, March 1 presented jointly by Monterey Jazz Festival and Kuumbwa Jazz Center. This is a rare opportunity to hear a master composer and bandleader perform award-winning music at the helm of a stellar group of jazz musicians.
The relatively intimate space at the acoustically endowed and comfortable Sunset Center offers music fans of all stripes a chance to enjoy a multi-faceted program that will be anchored by several pieces from the composer's latest doublealbum, Data Lords (2020). A Pulitzer Prize finalist, winner of two Grammy Awards, named Jazz Album of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association and NPR and winner of France's prestigious Grand Prix de L'Académie du Jazz, Data Lords is an astute musical statement of our times, combining Schneider's passions for music and advocacy for the responsible use of the Internet.
The 62-year-old 2019 NEA Jazz Master has received high praise for this recording. Her profile in the jazz world, as well as classical and popular music, has been elevated many times over for the work she's put in and her ability to rise to whatever challenge and opportunity she's been offered. From assisting legendary jazz composer Gil Evans, to collaborating with legendary rock musician David Bowie on a piece titled “Sue (or In A Season of Crime)” and subsequently referring him to her saxophonist Donny McCaslin to work with him on “Darkstar,” Bowie's last recording released days before his death (Jan. 10, 2016) , she's realized an incredible life and learned many lessons along the way, all of which come out in her music. In a phone conversation recently she described how it felt for Monterey Jazz Festival's Artistic Director Tim Jackson to have awarded her the first big commission in her career.
“I was utterly terrified,” she shared from her home in New York City. “It was a piece I wrote in three parts called `Scenes From Childhood.' Maybe we'll have to play the last piece from that in Carmel. That's kind of a celebration of Tim. I'm always scared when I get commissions and I was really in a crisis, and I was crying. I have a friend here and I would cry to her, `Oh my God, I'm so scared,' because I felt so under pressure when I had never written that way in my whole life.
It's just scary. I was so sure that that piece coming about and the last movement was just not good. And it's become one of my favorite pieces. We still play it all these years later, 30 years later. And I love to end the concert with it because it's so uplifting … It's a piece I would never have written without Tim Jackson coming to me and inviting me to do that commission.”
On the topic of what music she might bring to the Carmel concert, she brought several ideas to the table and backstories.
“When I do a tour like this, I bring a whole lot of music and then
I kind of change it from night to night to keep it fresh for the band,” she said. “But largely we will be representing music from our latest double CD, Data Lords. I think it's what they're most interested in hearing. I always include a couple of older pieces. I really like to highlight all the musicians in the band, there's such a tremendous variety of improvisational expertise and personalities that are so amazing. And I'll probably do something new that has not been recorded. The music has a wide range.
“The whole point of the `Data Lords' album was that the first album was music speaking to the inundation of the world by big data, and the usury of that in many cases. And the contrast on the second CD is when you disconnect; there's literally this piece that is called `Look Up.' There are pieces inspired by poetry, by pottery, by nature, and silence. So for sure we will play those pieces. The band is not a typical big band, it's more like an orchestra. It has the capability of being intensely powerful and shocking and then to be very nuanced and beautiful and graceful. And the musicians are so great at that. There's a lot of space and then a lot of density, it varies.”
When asked about those musicians, she relayed the names of only some, although it's clear she has the greatest respect for every single one of them.
“There's 18 musicians. They're just extraordinary musicians,” she enthused. “There's saxophonists Steve Wilson, Dave Pietro, Rich Perry, (Santa Cruz born-andraised) Donny McCaslin and Scott Robinson. And Mike Rodriguez (trumpet), who is with SFJAZZ in their group. And Jonathan Blake, an extraordinary drummer. It's a magnificent group of improvisers, listeners and generous musicians. I can promise anybody who comes to the concert that they will feel really uplifted afterward. That's pretty much a guarantee. I've never said that before, but I can guarantee it because I hear it every time we play somewhere. Of course, the people who hate it never come up to you, I guess. So there is that, but a lot of people come up in tears, literally crying, that they were moved. These days doesn't the world need a little of that? We aim to give.”
The conversation blossomed into some amazing stories that she was eager to impart with the heart that is a hallmark of her music. It's one of those things that clearly demonstrates how sometimes a composer's art is inextricably tied to their own
lives and experiences. And only one as amazing as Schneider could so accurately reflect in her music, known for its unique voice and attention to writing for her musicians.
“David (Bowie) came to me to collaborate on `Sue,' the original version, not the version on `Blackstar,'” she said. “The version we do with the band has a very orchestral section in the middle after Sue gets murdered by her husband, and it's a very dark piece. He wanted to write a dark piece and we did. Donny (McCaslin) soloed on it. He loved Donny. David had wanted to do more music together. But I was just going into making an album called The Thompson Fields (2015) that I did. I had everything scheduled and literally for months I didn't have a day on my calendar I could do it.
“I said to him, and it came to me right away, from David showing me things that he was interested in musically, and I said, `You have to hear what Donny's doing with his small group,' and I played him some, and I said, `I feel like this is a great direction considering all that I'm learning about you now.' So we went to hear Donny's group together. And he said to me so humbly, `Do you think they would want to?' And I said, `Oh my God, of course.' … And so they started working together, and it was such a great album. I do feel amazed and happy that somehow, me, the most unlikely person maybe, would help bring David his final collaborators.”
And I just couldn't let her go without hearing about her time with acclaimed jazz composer, arranger, pianist and bandleader Gil Evans, who was widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators in jazz and was important to the development of cool jazz, modal jazz, free jazz and jazz fusion. His collaborations with trumpeter Miles Davis are legendary. I asked her whether she considered the years working with him as pivotal to her career.
“Oh, absolutely. I would say it was a pivotal moment in many ways,” she said. “One was the fact that I worked for Gil. It was like Gil giving me the stamp of approval and that gave me a stamp of approval in everybody's eyes. That was major, just in terms of that. I wasn't thinking of that at the time, but in retrospect I know that. He gave me a gift. Forgetting that, although that's not a small thing, just being around somebody with such a definitive, unique sound and perspective and just persona, was so powerful for me.
“The other person, too, was Bob Brookmeyer, he was my teacher at the time.
And the two of them both were such powerful people. The fact I got to know these people, not just know them, but to really be close to them. I was just out of grad school, like 24 years old. But what I got from being around them was, I really wanted to find my voice. Is it possible for me to have a unique voice? The thing I believe is everybody is unique. All those forces that make a life that we were talking about. That made my life, that made your life, anybody, it's all unique.”
Don't miss this chance to experience one of the premier jazz and classical composers of our time on Wednesday, March 1 7:30 p.m. at the Sunset Center in Carmel. Tickets range from $59 — $89, available at www.sunsetcenter.org or by the Box Office phone, 831-620-2048, Tuesday — Friday, Noon — 4 p.m. In person by appointment only.