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How has 2022 been treating you so far:
2022 has been a bit of a whirlwind. Right at the beginning of the year, my manager and I decided that there was nothing to wait for anymore. We set a date for releasing the new single and I was off to the races! The deadline gave me a burst of excitement and motivated me to complete the project. It’s been fun experimenting, pushing myself in new directions, and finding new collaborators I’m inspired to make things with.
Also, I began the new year with a great day practicing guitar (learning a Barry Harris solo!) when I was done, I felt a strong urge to play at a jam session somewhere. So the evening of the first I took myself to a club I heard recently opened in Bushwick, Ornithology Jazz Club, and completely fell in love with the place. I sat in with the band all night, playing and singing—it was magical. I’ve since become a regular there, it’s truly one of the funkiest spots for live music in the city. It carries the spirit of the best downtown jazz clubs (Ornithology is owned by Mitch, the guy who started Smalls Jazz club and his wife Rie) with Brooklyn flair. Plus they have a rotation of excellent vegan chefs!
What was the genesis of Sylvia (lost her sense of being a woman)? Is there a Secret Origin story you could share with us?
Years ago while on tour with bandmate Yammi Wisler, a raging storm turned what was meant to be a single night in a remote Swiss village into an entire snowbound week. Holed up in a small hotel, I met this local woman who was on the upswing from a deep depression. She had been torn between grieving her fading youth and fertility and feeling empowered by the new identity she was growing into. Our time together coincided with the moment she was truly breaking free, when she rose like a phoenix and transformed into a new and unfettered version of herself. The idea of losing parts of ourselves as we age—of shedding harmful expectations and finding peace—moved me profoundly. This song is for her.
Who was your producer on Sylvia and what did that collaboration look like?
(OR: How did the production of the song Sylvia come about?)
This recording of Sylvia was realized after countless false starts. I spent a long time working with established producers in New York, Berlin and Tel Aviv, testing out various worlds where the song could emerge. Being a jazz musician who naturally shines in situations where improvisation and mistakes are celebrated, I frequently felt I was a square peg in the round hole of conventional studio production.
I was planning to give up on Sylvia, sending the song back into the obscurity from which it was inspired. In this period, summer of 2019, I made an EP of bizarre electronic songs and was ready to go all the way in this entirely different direction, then the pandemic hit. In solitude I began recording at home, playing around with arrangements, and creating stripped-down versions of Sylvia. Without the extraneous production, these bare-boned recordings began to make sense; the song felt more honest this way.
When the song felt ready I called an engineer my friend had recommended, named Phil. We hit it off immediately, like magic, and booked a week at Eli Crews’s studio in upstate New York. It wasn’t until we were four hours from Manhattan when I discovered I had inadvertently called the wrong Phil – Phil Weinrobe (Adrienne Lanker, Damien Rice), while the recommendation was for Phil Joly. Deep in the woods in a car with the wrong Phil, it dawned on me that this was a mistake to be celebrated, in true jazz form. At that house upstate, next to a glowing green pool, we tracked the song as is, guitar and vocals together, no edits, no click, just me with my band; Guy Paz on drums and Andrew Forman on additional guitar.
Your home base is in Brooklyn. How does that very distinctive location inform you and your music?
I can’t imagine living anywhere else right now but Fort Greene. The neighborhood is so full of life; I love living steps from the park and being surrounded by so many fantastic artists and musicians. It really fosters a sense of creativity; during the pandemic, it felt like we were all keeping each other going. One day in May, I went for a stroll, listening to my own voice on my headphones, as I was experimenting with making these home recordings. I noticed a girl with a viola sitting on a stoop, and we naturally struck up a conversation and shared about our music. She offered to lay down some viola takes on a song, which ended up adding a psychedelic touch to it that I absolutely love. Thank you girl on the stoop!
The music video for Sylvia is a luscious and yet simple montage of striking and haunting images. How did it come about?
I was lucky to get to work with my dream director, Austin Vesley, who I’d been scheming to make a video with for a while. Austin is very selective though—I had to send him a lot of songs until he chose to work on Sylvia with me. He found this incredible house two hours south of Chicago that had just the vibe of the images we had pulled from our favorite movies, and it all came together from there.
Is it way too early yet to ask you about the possibility of a full-length album? Are plans afoot for such a creature?
You’ll just have to wait and see!
You’ve recorded with Jazz royalty such as Roy Hargrove and Gregory Hutchinson. Is there anyone else out there in the realms of Jazz that you’d fancy collaborating with?
I consider myself a jazz musician at heart, and I still practice every day and take lessons regularly! At the same time I feel like a “jazz dropout” as I’m currently wholly devoted to this new direction in my music. BUT—off the top of my head—if I was gonna work with a jazz musician anytime soon, I’d be excited to make a duo record with Gadi Lehavi, this phenomenal pianist who has the power to take a song and turn it into something completely different. It’s thrilling!
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO “SYLVIA (LOST HER SENSE OF BEING A WOMAN)”
CLICK HERE TO WATCH “SYLVIA (LOST HER SENSE OF BEING A WOMAN)”
