It’s been a few years since Jazz Mandolin Project played in New York City, yet many of your band members are based in that region. Has the nature of your music made it a challenge to gets gigs in the city? Has there been another factor that kept you away or has it all been happenstance?
Partly happenstance. Part of that was due to my “nest building” and part has been due to just focusing on performing “How Much Land does a Man Need”? (which we have performed twice in NYC in the last four years). I wanted to try to put my music in a new setting other than the club circuit and to learn some new things (such as soundtracks and editing film and all the technology that goes along with them) but I also wanted some new experience such as attaching my music to a great story and doing something education-related that would throw us into settings more like performing arts centers, grade schools and colleges. So this is a big part of why we havent been out there getting to all those great towns to play club dates.
It’s been a while since you release a JMP studio album. Do you have plans in the works?
Yes, I do have plans in the works. I have a very unusual album about half done and I’m hoping to finish it this winter. It’s very different than the previous six that JMP has put out. It’s a concept album of sorts which I would put in a category I’m calling “minimalist electronica.” Every song within the group has been written around a specific sound source and that source material is also manipulated and examined in each song. Of course I’m keeping it a secret as to what this family of “sources” is until it’s released but it’s being done through a cool music program called Abelton Live which alot of musicians are using now that are experimenting with grooves, loops, djing, etc.
Have changes in the music business since you first started JMP in 1993 had much impact on you? If so, can you talk about your perceptions?
Yes, the biggest challenge here is to mention them without going on and on. I do think that I was fortunate to come along when there seemed to be a surge in interest in improvised instrumental music. At first it seemed like it was just here in Burlington, VT but as I was able to perform in more and more places in the country, it became apparent that it was a nationwide interest. It seems like these things swing like a pendulum and I’m not seeing that level of interest presently. I think things shifted which is certainly natural. But of course technology has changed our perceptions as well. The age of the album is over and now each individual tune fights for its own life on the internet. Another technological change is that we now can own far more music than we might even care about. Suddenly we have so much food that we maybe don’t eat with the same hunger or relish the different tastes of different delicacies…ah but now I’m pontificating!
You played with Jon Fishman earlier this year. Did you notice any stylistic differences on his side now that he returned to the stage with Phish?
I remember one quote from him this spring when he said, “I’m more into music now than at anytime in my whole life.” I thought that was amazing and very inspiring for me to think about. I think the guy is a very happy camper.
Have you ever contemplated a Bad Hat reunion {a group which featured Fishman, Trey Anastasio and Stacy Starkweather)?
Sure but so much has changed now. I do have a lot more Bad Hats I could wear if need be.
Okay, final JMP question. Beyond these dates what do you have in the works for 2010 and beyond?
Well, I guess I’m really fixed on finishing this recording which has been a new and fun creative process that I think will be pretty unique.
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