Dragonfly
Back in April of 2022, I published a blog post about the evolution of my band Tumble. This was written during the time that bassist Rob Holland was playing with us. Since that time, the band has continued to evolve and grow. We have come full circle – initial trio era (14-15); quartet era with bassist Bill Douglas (16-18); quartet with Rob Holland (18-22); and now… back to being a trio once again.
The trio format presents musical dialogue in an essential form. No room for excess layers – every note is essential – nothing is buried. I think of Bill Evan’s piano trios, of Ornette Coleman’s great mid 60’s trio, Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Air, The Police, Codona… The list goes on and on!
In late November last year, Randy, Sean and I went over to Ancient Wave Studio in Nevada City for two days of recording what would become Tumble’s third album “Dragonfly”. We were thrilled to work with recording engineer Oz Fritz!
Oz has worked on several iconic albums of “freaky jazz” and “experimental edge” music that all three of us have loved and listened to for years – Henry Threadgill’s “Too Much Sugar for a Dime”, Sonny Sharrock’s “Ask the Ages”, Tom Waits’ “Mule Variations” and many others. We knew that he would have the right sensibility for what we were hoping to bring to these sessions!
Oz was really great to work with. He made us so comfortable and was fun to hang with! We are so happy with how he was able to capture the nuances of our instruments and also the room sound of Ancient Waves’ beautiful main studio.
The namesake of the album is the lead-off track “Surrounded by Dragonflies” composed by our guitarist Sean Kerrigan.
The piece moves its way through various movements of twists and turns – at times lyrical – at times angular. I really LOVE Sean’s compositional approach. He has such a way of expressing a wide range of diverse experiences translated into sound and counterpoint!
Our reeds player Randy McKeen brought his composition “Flow and Eddy” to the project.
This piece features six primary musical motifs and textures from which to improvise through. It has been so fun to develop our interpretations of this composition over time through playing it together! This piece, perhaps more than any other track on the album, exemplifies a central aspect of Tumble; the fine balance between improvisation and composition.
For me, a highlight of the album was the recording of my composition “Bloodthirsty Wiles”. During the shelter-in-place phase of the COVID pandemic, I read a book of translations of the 13th century Persian poet Rumi which was put together by my friend Zara Houshmand. Rumi wrote over 2000 four line poems called Quatrains. “Moon and Sun” is a collection of over 200 of these Quatrains.
One day, I read the following poem:
“If I die in this war, this combat with you,
I won’t even sigh for fear of angering you.
I’ll die with a smile like a flower in your hand,
Wilting and wounded by your bloodthirsty wiles.”
This edgy, passionate, and mysterious poem gave me a very different feeling than I had usually associated with Rumi. This quatrain directly inspired my composition. “Bloodthirsty Wiles” features a harmonized melody. During various early performances of this piece, we would sometimes bring in guest musicians to play the harmony and to join in the group improvisation. Randy’s Bristle bandmate Murray Campbell joined us for a performance this piece early on.
We later had my daughter Mei Lin join us for some performances.
For the studio recording, we were fortunate enough to feature BOTH Mei Lin and Murray. I really love what they did on this recording and how their Violin and Cor Anglais (English Horn) weaved together to create an inspired ensemble improvisation! You can preview this track at our bandcamp site prior to the release date.
On every Tumble album to date, we have included our own “Tumblized” interpretation of a Wayne Shorter composition. Randy, Sean and I all consider Wayne to be a central inspiring figure in our lives and in our music as a band.
On our debut album “Music for Trio” we included “Down in the Depths”. On our album “Waves”, we recorded “Black Nile”.
And now, on “Dragonfly”, we feature “Juju”. Sean came up with this arrangement which features the mbira taking up the bass role. I especially enjoy the tripped out and overlapping patterns we got into during the “vamp” section!
I mixed this album at my home studio, affectionately known as “Old Home Place Studio”. During the pandemic, my daughter and I recorded and mixed an album entirely from our home studio, and this experience contributed to me taking on this new role which was great fun! “Dragonfly” was mastered by Oz Fritz at High Velocity Sound, and I love that he again had a hand in the sound of this record at the end of the creative process.
Not long after we chose the album title “Dragonfly”, my wife/artist Juli Marks produced a beautiful drawing of dragonflies inspired by classic insect illustrations from the early 1900s.
These then became the central images of the project.
Graphic artist Julia VBH designed the flier for the very first ever Tumble performance, and has worked on every Tumble album. It was awesome to work with her again as graphic designer on Dragonfly!
In celebration of this release, Tumble will be playing a special album release party/performance on Saturday 10/26/24 at the beautiful historic Nevada Theater in Nevada City as a part of Paul Emery’s Nevada City Live series. Murray will be joining us as a special guest on a few tunes. We will be performing the entire album. Hope to see you there!
“Dragonfly” hits the streets and all streaming platforms on Friday October 25th. I can’t wait for you all to hear it! You can preorder the record on our bandcamp page.