Jazz
saxophonist and composer Loren Stillman talks about how he created his current
CD Blind Date, “I went about it as though it was a blank canvass. I started to
write without any preconceived notion of what it was going to be. When I went
back and listened to it, (I found) that it had turned out to be an odd metered
piece, and something that went over the bar lines.”
Stillman further explains his unique approach to composition, “What I am looking for is to compose more like an improviser, and to improvise more like a composer. I feel like this is a limitless approach to writing, and the song “Blind Date,” was composed in that manner. It is a stream of consciousness. I then found out where the bar lines should be and what the harmony should be.”
Even though Stillman initially approached his CD Blind Date as a blank canvass, he discovered some common threads emerged. For instance, the songs possess a commonality in terms of the intervals that he employed. He believes that whenever a composer is creating a greater body of work, such as Blind Date, within a three-month time frame, it is inevitable that certain themes will emerge.
“I think there were some common threads melodically. Overall, you are not just getting these individual pieces, but you are getting an overall perspective of the music, which sounds more like a symphonic approach. You have little movements with each one of these little songs. Later (after you are done), you can look back and go, ‘Oh wow,’ but in the process of doing it, you really don’t realize (the shared themes). You are just doing and not thinking. Later you go back, analyze and think about what you have written and recorded. It is very natural. I always try to write what I am hearing. Sometimes what you are hearing is very patterned and codified. It is always shifting and changing,” Stillman observes.
The title track, “Blind Date,” takes its name from the fact that the Stillman and his fellow musicians, Gary Versace (piano), bassist Drew Gress and drummer Joey Baron had difficulty coordinating their schedules.
“Trying to get four people’s schedule to line up so we could record “Blind Date,” was like going on a blind date. I knew individually how each of these musicians played, and how they interacted as individuals. I also understood what it would sound like for the whole group to play together. “Blind Date,” captures the mood of having four guys in the same room that had never played together, and who only had two days to make great music, while recording a good album,” says Stillman.
Some might suggest that releasing nine albums in a span of ten years is overkill and only serves to undermine your own record sales. Like any other artist, Stillman would obviously like to generate more sales whether digitally or through the purchase of CDs, however, he says, “I have never really thought about it in that way. I have always been more concerned with documenting, so I have never thought of it in terms of overexposure. What is important to me is documenting what is really happening at this moment in my life or stage of development. I like to write a lot. It is more important for me to document a body of work, than it is to let that music disappear. Maybe there could have been a year or six month’s spacing between all of these recordings, so they could have got fair exposure. They did come out on top of each other, three months or six months apart. That is the only fear that I would have, is maybe each one doesn’t receive the attention it deserves. It is hard to know, because it is within the first few days of recording that you make your cake, and after that, you don’t see much in terms of residuals and record sales. You have to make as much as you can in your agreement with the record label, instead of counting on a publishing deal to come through or seeing a profit from record sales.”
