It’s only a four date schedule now, with plans for more. I was going to ask if you wish you had more than just four dates to play?
Well, yes and no because there’s some other Dave stuff coming up, we have this cruise thing at the end of October. We don’t get home [from the summer tour] until October 5th. So then to get home and go right back out, I just can’t do that. So it only leaves that weekend to do anything. From the beginning of November, we’re going to be doing a lot of clinic stuff, so it’s kind of a good schedule. But we figure that when the beginning of the year rolls around and everyone is available, which I think they will be, that we’ll be able to do some stuff during the year also. That’s one of the things that I’m looking forward to, even though the whole concept of the Mu’tet is that it’s kind of an ever-evolving facet of musicians, I still feel a desire to still work with some cats for a while because it’s all original music. I’m teaching the music to everybody each time. But because everybody has played my music now, there will be a familiarity that’s there with everybody, and it will be different, which will be interesting. To me, that essential change—that’s always going to be there, even if it’s rotating somebody out or bringing someone extra in.
Do you write all of the parts on Mutopia?
No. The concept that I know more about the drums than Jeff Sipe, or Kofi, or Felix, or whoever I’m playing with, I don’t know more than they do about their instruments. Every now and then there will be something based off an idea, so there might be a guideline to go from. On a song called “Turiya” there is a bass ostinato that is kind of impetus for the tune. But on a tune like “The Mad Hatter Rides Again” or some kind of New Orleans-based tune, usually I let everyone just figure it out for themselves because I don’t want to put any barriers up. That’s something I learned with the Flecktones: you can have an idea that’s not going to go away, but if you allow everybody else to come up with some ideas very organically also, there will be some nice surprises along the way. And it’s not like you won’t retain your ideas, that you can’t try it, but allowing everyone to have that process of discovering the music—that is the important thing.
You’ve been working on the material for Mutopia for a while and you finally recorded and released the record last year. But because you got a call of duty from DMB, you weren’t able to support the Mu’tet release with live performances. What is it like to revisit that material after a year away from it? Has your approach changed?
Well we’ve been playing that music for a while. There’s some new stuff that I’ve written obviously since then. When I got a called to do the Dave gig, it was the beginning of July. Two weeks later, that record Mutopia came out and it was about the furthest thing from my mind at that point. I was excited to have it out, but I was kind of like, “Okay, well here we go. It’s going to be a couple of months before I can tour this.” But I had intentions of touring in the fall and obviously, tragically, Roi [LeRoi Moore] passed, so I’ve been just trying to roll with it and just allow the process to open up when it’s supposed to open up.
So to revisit the music, I’m kind of always revisiting it. Even with the Flecktones’ schedule, it’d be months before I have a chance to go back in and play it. It’s very interesting to see how the music progresses, but also the next stuff that comes out. Conceptually, things have started to change also over the last few years musically, as they have to. It can never stay the same, and even though there will be tunes that I have done all along, they will still transform and transfigure as that happens. But there are certain tunes that I really love, and certain tunes that I’ll pull out with certain groups that I want to revisit. So I think it will be different. I’m excited about it, for sure. I’m excited to hear how everybody will play this music together. But it’s like any certain situation, you change members and it changes the sound of the group, it changes the chemistry and the feel and the concept of all of this. So it’s exciting, it’s really exciting.
There are a lot of guests on Mutopia. Of all of the collaborations, which one surprised you the most or lead to the most unexpected results?
That’s a great question. Well I think one of the moments on the record that I’m really proud of is Victor and Felix trading on “Al’s Greens.” That tune was actually based off of a Joe Henderson tune. It’s a descending progression of dominant chords, kind of a cool motion for a song. I thought, if I slow it down, I’d kind of like to have a different melody over it. And I’d like to slow it way down, almost to like The Roots tempo. So in writing that tune, I wanted to have a really fun progression of changes to blow over, but have the melody be really interesting and have it sort of wide open that you can do a lot with.
So when I asked Vic to be on that tune, we left the solo section open. But to me it kind of connected three generations from Jaco to Vic to Felix in this kind of particular way and I thought it was really interesting to hear them to play together and I MPGed it. And we went in and tweaked it a little bit, and said, “Let’s get this little section again, blah blah blah.” But the general shape of everything from the beginning is right there, and to hear them feeding off of each other is really beautiful, so that’s a really special moment for me on the record.
There’s a piano player that I play with a lot from Nashville, nammed Chris Walters. He’s a pretty stunning musician and there’s always stuff that he’s done on my records that almost literally shocked me, because I always think, “How did you hear that?” So that’s kind of a real interesting kind of thing too. When we did “Sweet Magnolias,” that tune was a first take and I knew that if we didn’t get it on the first take that we weren’t going to get it. So I’m really glad that we got to capture that because it came from a particularly personal place for me, and I’m glad we got it. That was a very nice thing to have on there.
Can you elaborate on the inspiration for “Sweet Magnolias”?
I’d rather not. It came from a kind of uniquely personal place, and I knew that if we got it, it was going to have that kind of heightened sense to it, and we got it. I think it’s a beautiful version and it’s one of those tunes that just came out, and those tunes are kind of rare, but it came out just as quickly as I could write it. There have been a few tunes that are that way for me, and those tunes seem to stand the test of time for me also.
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