by Sarah Thomas

On Thursday, the Chris Tordini Quartet plays The Jazz Gallery, bringing four longtime collaborators together as a quartet for the first time. Performing regularly as a side person across many bands in New York and beyond, bassist Chris Tordini features his own works on this show as a bandleader. We caught up with Chris about his writing process, collaboration, and the responsibilities of bandleading.

The Jazz Gallery: Could you start by telling me about the music you're going to play on Thursday?

Christopher Tordini: Sure. It's going to be mostly my compositions. There’s one brand new piece I've been working on lately. Some are a little bit older from the 2016-2017 era. Then there are a couple that I had gotten ready to play right before the pandemic happened. I actually had one gig at The Jazz Gallery in January of 2020, I think, and I played some of these pieces at that show. I was excited about them, then the pandemic happened.

I'm mostly a side person and I don't book shows of my own music very often. So this will be only the second time since the pandemic that I'll be able to perform in public these pieces that I was pretty psyched about before.

We're also going to play one or two pieces by Steve Lehman, the saxophone player who is playing in the band. He's one of my favorite musicians. I'm super happy that he's able to do this gig because he lives in LA. I always reach out to him whenever I have a gig of my own to see if he's going to be here, and he happened to be around. So I took the opportunity to ask him if he would be down to play one or two of his pieces.

TJG: Programming this music ranging from very recent back to 2016, how do you feel the tunes relate to each other? Are there specific changes you’ve noticed in your compositions?

CT: One thing I'll say is that the two older pieces are more rhythmically free. There's some melodic material that we will play and improvise around with a lot. Those two are from around the same time.

Then the two from right before the pandemic are much more rhythmically rigorous, in a way. There are a lot more rhythmic ideas. There are melodic ideas as well, but they're not these rubato melodies like in the other ones. And the brand new tune is somewhere in the middle of those two things. So it is interesting to combine all those different things.

I've never played any set of music with this specific band of people, although I've played a bunch of times with all of them in different settings. To me, yes, I've written these compositions over a long period of time. But they're all going to come together and have a new life, because we're all playing them together for the first time as a group. So that’s exciting.

TJG: What do you feel this particular combination of people and instrumentation allows you to do musically?

CT: I've played a lot with Matt Mitchell and Dan Weiss, the piano player and drummer, respectively. The three of us have played a lot together in different groups. We’ve played in Matt’s band a lot together. We've played some of Dan's music together. We've played in other people's bands as a rhythm section together. We definitely have a rapport.

It’s fun to play with people who you have a vibe with. I know they're going to play my music very well and “accurately,” whatever that means. But they're also both incredibly creative improvisers who are going to do unexpected things and bring a lot to the table. So I have that confidence with them.

Actually, Steve told me that he's never played a gig with Dan before. I think he might have played with Matt in some settings. But that's a new factor. I’ve played with Steve a lot in other things—I’ve played in his bands before. And all three of them are friends of mine. I love them. They're all super funny people. It's going to be hard to rehearse the band because everyone's going to be trying to make the funniest joke, and I'm going to be like, “All right, guys. Come on. We have to play through this stuff.”

It's interesting to have these friends of mine that I love and who are absolutely three of my favorite musicians on the planet, but some of them have not played so much together. So it'll be fun to see how that comes together and a little bit of an X factor, which I like to have. Unpredictability can be fun.

TJG: How does working as a band leader with these folks change your collaborative process?

CT: Steve lives in LA, so the first and only rehearsal we're doing is the day of the gig at The Jazz Gallery, just because that's the only thing we're able to do. I definitely trust everybody to come prepared enough to get through the music at that rehearsal, and then we'll just play it. So I'm not too worried about that.

In terms of the dynamic, because I am usually a side person I put a lot of effort into making the music and the rehearsal process as clear as possible. I value when band leaders do that, especially if you have to get through some potentially challenging music in a short amount of time. So that’s something I think a lot about whenever I do this sort of thing as a band leader.

It always feels very different to me leading a band than being a side person. I get really anxious about it leading up to it because it's my name on the band and I want it to go well. But at the same time, I tell myself that the people who are going to be playing are amazing and it's going to be fun no matter what.

TJG: What do you see for these compositions in the future?

CT: I don't have any specific plans for them. Sometimes I get in my head that I really want to make a record of my own music. But then life comes and gets in the way. I also have a young daughter, and being a parent takes a lot of my time these days.

I feel deep down that if and when it becomes important to me to document my music, then I will feel that urge more and I won't get distracted so much from it. Right now, when an opportunity comes up I’m happy to seize it and book a gig of my own music, and hopefully people come out and enjoy it.

I do have a collaborative trio called The Choir Invisible with a couple other friends of mine, Charlotte Greve and Vinnie Sperrazza. One of the older pieces I was talking about is on a record of ours from back in 2018. So I have documented some of my music before, but there's no full record of my original music out there. Who knows? Maybe someday. But I’m not in a hurry for that.

TJG: Were you imagining a quartet when you wrote these tunes or was it more open?

CT: I never think of specific people or a specific band when I write music. But I think of how many voices would be needed to execute a composition. Sometimes I'll write a composition that ends up having a bassline and a melody. So that can be a trio, that can be a quartet—it can be anything. But sometimes I'll write something that has three voices. So for something like that, I can't play it unless there are at least two other musicians. So that's how I think of it—not necessarily whether it’s a quartet or trio, but what's the minimal number of musicians that are needed to execute all the material that's there.

TJG: Do you have any other projects you’d like folks to know about?

CT: In terms of my own projects, The Choir Invisible just recorded our second record a couple months ago. That will be coming out in spring of 2024 on Intakt Records. Other than that, check out all the music of the people who are playing in my band—Matt Mitchell, Dan Weiss, and Steve Lehman. They're all amazing composers in their own right.

Chris Tordini plays The Jazz Gallery on Thursday, July 20. The group features Chris Tordini on bass, Steve Lehman on saxophone, Matt Mitchell on piano, and Dan Weiss on drums. Sets are at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. ET. $20 general admission ($15 for members), $30 cabaret seating ($20 for members), $20 Livestream ($5 for members). General Admission & Livestream: Free with SUMMERPASS. Purchase tickets here.