Guest Post: Kevin Sun NEW TRIO
"The trouble with most musicians today is that they are copycats. Of course you have to start out playing like someone else. You have a model, or a teacher, and you learn all that he can show you. But then you start playing for yourself. Show them that you’re an individual. And I can count those who are doing that today on the fingers of one hand." — Lester Young interviewed in 1949 by Pat Harris (DownBeat)
I certainly still feel like a copycat these days, but I feel all right with that for the time being. I don't believe in music or art ex nihilo—especially in improvised, centrally interrelational musical settings such as this trio and other bands that I've had the privilege of contributing to since moving to New York in the fall of 2015. As a composer, the strategy that's been most fruitful for me up to now is to generate something new from something old.For a few years now, I've been enamored with composing compact forms—cyclical rhythmic and melodic material that can be specific and complex, but also brief and conceptually straightforward enough to be written on the back of a napkin or communicated verbally. Most of the music for this trio was composed last spring with this in mind: short, distinct forms to be internalized in a group setting. I wanted us to challenge ourselves and explore these distinct musical environments while discovering what we can construct together in real time.Bassist Walter Stinson and drummer Matt Honor (and, on occasion, bassist Dan Pappalardo) have been my unwavering partners in transfiguring my notated ideas into living sound. Like me, both Walter and Matt live conveniently nearby in Brooklyn, and we've had the chance to grow together into this music for some time. This weekend, we'll be documenting the music you'll be hearing at The Jazz Gallery at Wellspring Sound outside of Boston (where I also recorded my last project, Earprint). The forecast suggests a late 2017 or early 2018 release on Endectomorph Music; stay tuned.
As I mentioned, I like writing and abstracting from pre-existing material. Much of the music you'll hear us play on Thursday will have been inspired by particular songs or fragments, so I've compiled a playlist below of a few of the songs that I referenced or cannibalized in some way for my own compositions. They're all paired with my own songs, which won't mean much if you haven't heard them yet, obviously, but hopefully you'll hear what I'm talking about on Thursday. We hope you'll join us.
"Thunder"
https://youtu.be/NEsRz25BeHo?t=29m26s
"Find Your Pose"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMkLGnopCQI&feature=youtu.be&t=1m8s
Transaccidentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIiv7EX5IBY
"Air Purifier (by Xiaomi)"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8mlVTMGBlI
"Bittergreen"
A kind-of-negative contrafact on "Sweet Georgia Brown"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JziEKRsTcrkKevin Sun's NEW TRIO plays The Jazz Gallery on Thursday, March 16th, 2017. The group features Sun on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Walter Stinson on bass, and Matt Honor on drums. Sets are at 7:30 and 9:30 P.M. each night. $15 general admission (FREE for members) for each set. Purchase tickets here.