Ian Smit – The Art of Improvisation
1. The title of the album, ¿QUÉ?, suggests curiosity or even surprise. What does that word represent to you in the context of this project, and how does it reflect the spirit of the music within?
Originally, the title was going to be called The Missing Q because it was important to me that our names be in alphabetical order since everyone involved made an equal contribution. I had to abandon the title because Q has unfortunately become associated with some nefarious conspiracy theory malarkey which I in no way wanted to conger any association.
We then thought Quiet, but even though there certainly are quieter passages, the recording is dynamic, so such a title would be misleading.
Finally, ¿QUÉ? still maintains the alphabetical aspect, but thematically, it is also consistent with my first solo recording What…is. What on earth are these players doing? And yes, some of it is surprising in the way we utilized space, noise, spontaneous melody, call and response conversations, and how effects played a role as the “5th and 6th members” of the quartet.
2. You mentioned that the only instruction before recording was to “be conversational.” How do you personally approach musical conversation in an improvisational setting, especially with players of such strong individual voices?
David, Tom and Scott have their own personal sound. The mark of a great player, at least for me, is that you can hear it’s them almost immediately. I call it the “One note and it’s all over” syndrome! The fellas are top of the line improvisers and partake in group improvisational settings all the time. I really didn’t need to say anything, actually. There are many moments of conversation between all of us interacting with each other. Yes, there were times when one of us soloed in a traditional way, not that it sounded traditional, nor blathered on for too long, but there was always a dialog of support.
3. This album reunites you with David Torn and Scott Petito decades after Ping (1987). How did it feel to reconnect musically after all those years, and how have your interactions evolved since that early session?
Funny, just the other day I listened to the Ping recording with my pals Peter Biedermann on guitar and Steve Meltzer on percussion for the first time in decades. David produced it at Scott’s first studio. David played lap steel and Scott played bass on one of the tunes, but they overdubbed their parts, so we never actually played together. I maintained a friendship with David over the years, asking advice, geeking out, etc. Only recently did I reconnect with Scott, as he mixed an improv recording, I played on with my buddy Brian Kastan, so I tagged along with the chance to reconnect with Scott. I’d been thinking about doing another solo recording in a live setting for a while, so when I walked into Scott’s new studio, I thought immediately, if I’m gonna do it, this is the studio! Those guys are such awesome and humble Dudes, as is Tom, they made everything easy.
4. Tom Rainey was “number one on the list” for this project. What was it about his drumming and musical personality that made him so essential to ¿QUÉ??
Tom has a long history with David, and I really dig Tom’s playing a lot; he’s a top notch improviser and a top notch Dude! He is such a dynamic and responsive player who throws lots of colors into the mix for all to play with. I’m very fortunate to play with many great players outside of this project, but a drummer like Tom has lived in the improv world his whole life, so I asked David for Tom’s number and fortunately, he was into it!
Even though, I knew which studio to use, and Scott would be the bass player, if Tom couldn’t do it, as he’s always in demand playing with another favorite, Nels Cline, around the time we were considering everyone’s schedule, there would not be ¿QUÉ?, at least not now.
The tough choice for me as a guitar player was to have an influential, innovating monster player like David on this thing because he is such a force. When I was initially conceiving this whole project, I thought about piano, as Scott has a beautiful baby grand in the studio. But then, I got over myself, put on my big boy pants on and asked David…Gotta let Torn be Torn, because when one has the opportunity to have a player like David, who also happens to be a friend, ya gotta do it, as all I can do is play like myself…it’s not a competition, it’s a conversation!
5. Two of the tracks, “Bee Still” and “Raindrops and Waterspouts,” began from loose harmonic structures, while the rest were entirely improvised. How did the dynamic shift between these lightly guided and completely free moments?
For both tunes, I was messing around with tunings on my Martin D28 to come up with some chordal ideas. On Bee Still, the low E string was tuned down to B, and the A was tuned down to E. So, the bottom of the guitar was tuned like the top 4 octaves apart. Raindrops and Waterspouts was low E string down to D, which I’ve used a lot. At first, I was considering those two ideas could be a duet between David and me. The only preliminary thing discussed was David made a sound and a voicing to hit with me in unison on Bee Still and what the general key was. We decided to have all of us play, so I just played my ideas for the two tunes and they reacted.
The other excursions had no harmonic discussions, as we just started playing instinctually.
6. The album was recorded live with minimal separation between players, even using feedback intentionally. How important was the physical setup of the studio in shaping the sound and energy of the record?
Since Scott played acoustic bass on several of the tunes, he was in a booth. When David played national steel or I played acoustic guitar, we were in a separate booth, but we did not play acoustics together. Tom was set up in the main room which has a high ceiling as were the electric guitars separated by gobos. We all had a line of sight, although when David or I played acoustic, it was a little difficult to see Scott, but that wasn’t too much of an issue.
Being next to our amps was crucial for both David and me so we could get feedback when we needed but ultimately, an electric guitar sings more when the guitar pickups and the amp speakers are in close proximity. There wasn’t much bleed and only on one tune did the guitars end up in the drum overheads when we needed to make an edit, which Scott was able to “fix in the mix.” We weren’t very loud, actually.
It should be noted that several of the tunes were cut into smaller bits from long excursions, and this worked mainly because we played dynamically with lots of peaks and valleys, so the editing was rather easy and obvious, mostly. Of the eleven total, it was important to me to have shorter-ish tunes that were manageable for the listener with lots of conversations and events along the way. Yes, there is one 11, and two 8 minute tunes, but there was enough dialog within to hopefully retain interest.
That 11 minute tune, Next is a Good Place to Be, is nuts! There’s a sound coming out of David’s amp speaker that I’ve never heard before and is absolutely insane. The same can be said for Wizard of Wut, where he sounds like he’s having an MRI, and I sound like the marching soldiers and the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz… That solidifies our non-jazz status for this recording, for sure.
7. You’ve described yourself as a “closeted folkie” who doesn’t adhere to any one genre. How does that open-mindedness manifest in ¿QUÉ?, and how do you balance structure and freedom in your work?
I think all of us in this project were very fortunate to have grown up in a time of amazing music and artists in all genres to be influenced by the likes of Miles, Coltrane, Ornette, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Motown, R&B, Prog, great rock, jazz, folk bands and solo artists, modern classical, electronic music, amazing music from around the world, etc., etc., etc.
I love the acoustic guitar and always try to use one in any project. Every tune I have ever written for Ping, my band Monkeyworks, So It Goes, or other projects, all were conceived on my Martin D28. It all starts there. So, the chordal, harmonic and melodic ideas come from me trying to voice new sounds and voicings acoustically. Of course, sometimes ya just need C, F, and G to do the trick.
I’m much more influenced by Nick Drake, John Martyn, Joni, CSN&Y, David Gates, Cat Stevens, early acoustic blues players, field recordings, or anything written by Burt Bacharach, etc. than my peers when growing up. But my guitar listening journey, aside from the folk-sters, all started through, in loose order, with AM radio, Glen Campbell, Roy Clark, Chet Atkins, FM radio, Santana, Hendrix, Akkerman, McLaughlin, Fripp, Connors, Di Meola, Holdsworth, Benson, Martino, Pass, Abercrombie, Rypdal, Torn, Tibbetts, Frisell, Aarset, Ali Farka Toure, and those are just guitar players from my formative years when I was trying to figure out what the heck I was doing. I’m still trying to figure that out, although it’s a little bit clearer these days. The Irony is, I don’t, or more accurately, can’t play like any of them, which is probably a good thing, but they are all in me…part of the “smit soup,” the closeted folkie with a fuzz box and some toys that go twiddly dee!
So, all of that informs a vocabulary for improvising from scratch. Try to make a spontaneous composition, and even when playing very outside weirdo stuff, I always attempt to organically balance with some sort of melodic content, without thinking about it too much, just react, as thinking can interrupt flow…Yep, that’s really hard to pull off. I played some stuff on this recording that I wish I hadn’t. That’s the risk you take in improvised music, but every now and then, when you’re flowing, playing stuff you’ve never played before, that’s when you’re in The Zone…That’s Freedom!
8. You’ve chosen to collaborate with musicians known for their fearless creativity. Was there a particular moment during recording when you felt that everything “clicked” a point when the improvisation truly transcended the expected?
The first tune we played was Bee Still. It was the first time Scott and Tom had ever played together, the first time Scott had played with David in a long time, and the first time I played with any of them in a live setting. We did two takes, and the second one was it, and that was based on the vibe and how Scott interacted with Tom, and how they supported David and me. Tom’s cymbal work in the front of the tune gave me chills! Once I heard the playback, the choice was obvious.
A little secret…in the first take, we were still finding our way a bit, although we were getting there. There was a loose structure from me, so it took a moment to settle in, especially considering we were all new to each other while playing, except for David and Tom. David had played a short, beautiful solo that I responded to his call, and I was bummed that we would lose that, but Dr. Petito was able to drop it into the second take seamlessly. It sounds like it was always there. There were only a couple of other spots in the recording where we flew around some sections to make an intro in a spot, but other than those, and the splicing to make tunes shorter, everything was as played.
Conversely, I will admit there were moments when I felt I got crushed, as those guys are amazing players, but I finally realized, I can’t think like that. Those guys are world class improvisers, and I chose them for a reason, and they delivered big time, and once again, it’s not a competition, it was a conversation!
9. ¿QUÉ? has a very tactile sense of space, with your guitar panned left and David Torn’s on the right. How intentional was the stereo placement in helping listeners navigate the musical dialogue between you two?
The placement was very important, as when two instruments are playing within the same frequency range, they can get muddled together. Scott is a great engineer, so he was able to tuck us in the right space. David was playing through one amp, and I was using two, although the second amp was used sparingly, as there were more sustain like pad and some glitchy things in that amp, so it wasn’t on all the time and was panned center left. That amp was more audible when David played the national steel.
David’s use of effects is far more overt and visceral compared to me, as he gets sounds quickly, that are other worldly, and right in your face. Not always, of course, but when he wants to…watch out! I use them more subtly on ¿QUÉ? than in other projects. I did like “soloing” with my Chase Bliss Blooper in a couple of spots, though.
10. After creating such an organic and unpredictable album, what do you hope listeners take away from ¿QUÉ? both emotionally and conceptually, when they immerse themselves in these spontaneous conversations?
I think the recording hits a lot of aspects I like when listening to other people’s music, even though this is in no way anywhere near “commercial,” as that was never a consideration. Even though it’s improvised, it is melodic, and can be dissonant, soft and loud, pretty and umm, challenging, just like a Led Zeppelin record, as the tools are similar, but it’s obviously not at all like LZ in its ultimate outcome. I’m just trying to exemplify the similar dynamics from tune to tune.
Ordering the tunes on a play list was very important to me, as I wanted to take the listener on a journey where there are hills and valleys amongst the straight aways. If this hill is too steep to climb, you will be coasting soon, melody can be pretty and abrasive at the same time depending on what sounds are chosen, or how dynamically it’s played. Groove can be scurrying, swinging or boomin’ and a choppin’ and can turn on a dime. All of these characteristics play with one’s emotions, especially if one is open and willing to take the ride with us!
Thanks so very much for allowing me to partake in this interview. That’s very much appreciated!
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