7 minute read
Tiempo
DIFFERENT STROKES
ON THE FLY
When drummer/percussionist Jefferson Voorhees and bassist Maren Hatch first met at a gig, they had no idea that it would lead to a new and adventurous musical project. Voorhees, well-known in these parts for his work with Wagogo, Pray for Brain, and other ventures, and Hatch, best known for her work with Entourage Jazz, found that they had a nice musical fit, and they started getting together to jam at Voorhees’s place on a regular basis.
Hatch thought that Micah Hood (trombone, flutes, electronics, and percussion), a member of Baracutanga and Entourage Jazz, might make a nice addition and invited him to join them one day. That was the start of the trio DogBone, whose name was inspired by the trio’s dogs, who attended the sessions. Jamming on standards and occasionally creating freely improvised music, they played more for pure pleasure than for any commercial intentions.
When Hatch had to drop out to fulfill her commitment at Sandia Labs, Voorhees and Hood decided to continue as a duo, though Voorhees notes that “we will play with her anytime that she’s available.” Still, her absence “forced us into a different creative space,” says Hood.
Rehearsing together once a week, the duo found that they share a deep correspondence that expresses itself almost effortlessly in music created purely by improvisation, which they record using fairly basic equipment. When they meet, they simply sit down, press record, and play for 30 or 40 minutes with no predetermined agenda.
They describe the sessions as almost spiritual exercises in remaining “present” and available to one another. What’s remarkable about the music is how closely connected they are, flying by the seat of their pants and offering uncanny complements to what each other might be playing at any moment. Asked to describe how this correspondence happens, Voorhees says, “I mainly explain it by what isn’t there. There’s not even an inkling of competition or ego, and therefore no need to think. To say the word ‘react’ is not really accurate because it gets so simultaneous.” The key for both is listening with open ears and heart.
Then, reviewing the recordings, they “find those spots that really groove or say something,” says Hood. “That kind of teases out the nuggets.” Those nuggets might stand as individual pieces or be combined into a single piece. Then, Hood applies his music production skills—he runs the Music and Sound Technology lab at UNM—to maximize the sonic quality of that material. Voorhees calls him an audio genius.
“He took those and massaged them and worked them and did all this magic that I don’t know anything about because I’m a cyber idiot,” he says.
The duo is quick to point out, though, that all the sounds heard on the recordings were created in the sessions, not in postproduction.
The two have released three recordings on Bandcamp, the first in June 2019, followed by two more a year later (another is on the way). When Tom Guralnick, executive director of Outpost Performance Space, happened to hear some of the music playing in the background at Voorhees’s place, he was intrigued and asked who they were listening to. That led to an invitation to perform at the Outpost.
“Without knowing it at all, what we were essentially doing was rehearsing for the Outpost gig we didn’t know we had,” says Voorhees.
The duo’s 2021 concert at the Outpost earned them an extended standing ovation from the audience. The two would love to perform live more often, though they recognize they will attract a niche audience. They’d also love an opportunity to improvise a score to film clips. You can check out their work and reach out to them on both Bandcamp and Facebook (dogboneabq).
Micah Hood, left, and Jefferson Voorhees, right, make up the duo DogBone.
FINGERTIP ORCHESTRA
Terry Burns, a native of Clovis, started playing bass on December 25 at the age of 13. His parents had gifted him with an
amp and a guitar, but his mother decided the instrument was not up to snuff. So, she called the owner of the only music store in Clovis and convinced him to open the store on Christmas morning.
Burns made his first recording in Norman Petty’s famed Clovis studio at the age of 15 and began his professional career in Omaha before moving to New York to study with bass master Rufus Reid. Then, he headed to Los Angeles, where he played gigs, recorded, and performed for commercials, television, and motion pictures. A move to Minneapolis found him teaching and administrating at a small music college for the next 20 years. Along the way, he has played with some of the top names in jazz.
Though he’s made a name for himself as a jazz bassist, Burns has always been drawn to orchestral music.
“It just knocks me out,” he says.
In Minneapolis, he studied composition, sonata form, orchestration, and arranging, and had the first two movements of his first (and so far only) symphony premiered by the Augsberg Symphony Orchestra.
“It was terrible,” he says, with a laugh.
In 2014, Burns returned to Clovis to care for his mother, and he began composing in earnest.
“We would be watching a movie, and I’d hear something, and I’d go, ‘Oh, my god, what was that?’” he says.
He would then try to work out what the composer was doing. Out of those investigations grew the 15 pieces that formed his first album of orchestral music, Arroyo. After his mother passed in 2019, Burns moved to Rio Rancho and recorded, mixed, and mastered the album, released in 2020, in his home studio. The remarkably evocative and cinematic music was created, not with a live orchestra, but with a keyboard connected to a computer, and software that puts an orchestral range of sampled instruments at his fingertips.
Speaking of his inspiration for the album, he first reels off the names of film score composers he admires—Hans Zimmer, James Horner, Danny Elfman, John Barry—with a childlike enthusiasm for their work. A composition might be sparked, he says, by a bass line, a chord, a chord progression, a drum sound or feel, or just two or three notes up high on an oboe.
His most recent album, Behind the Mask, released last October, added another level of complexity to the process, pairing a live jazz combo with the sampled orchestra. Written, recorded, and produced over 18 months during the pandemic, the album features Bobby Shew, Dave Stryker, Bob Fox, Alex Murzyn, Cal Haines, John Trentacosta, and Burns himself. Aside from the pandemic complications, the album also presented Burns with a conceptual problem.
“Is it an orchestral record with a jazz group, or is it a jazz group with an orchestra?” he says. “That makes a big difference when you go to mix it and master it. So, it ended up being both”—and as evocatively cinematic as Arroyo.
Burns has a small combo album lined up for release later this year. You can stay up to date, check out some of his music, and get in touch with him at burnsbass. com. If you like what you hear of Arroyo and Behind the Mask, he’ll be happy to send you a free copy.
Terry Burns’ recent album pairs jazz combo with sampled orchestra.
COURTESY IMAGE
Be sure to check out Musically Speaking, Mel’s online music journal, at www.melminter.com.
If you’d like to share something with “¡tiempo!” readers, e-mail tiempo@abqthemag.com.
DISH
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There’s a lot that goes into making a savory dish, and at Savoy Bar & Grill, it’s all about colorful entrees prepared with exotic ingredients that stand out from the crowd. (p. 154)
