GRAHAM

WOOD QUINTET

Train Kept A’ Rollin’

The Graham Wood Quintet launches a new CD, The G Train, with two shows at Ellington Jazz Club on Monday-Tuesday, December 22-23. BOB GORDON gets the lowdown from Wood about the 2008 trip to New York that inspired this new release.

I’m really interested in the train theme of the album. It’s not new in music, but the physicality of train travel, the rhythms and the sights, must make a great impression on you if you focus on it. Describe the trip you were on and when the musical penny dropped along the way...

Being in the big cities like Tokyo and New York means you spend a lot of time on the subway. The reason behind the title The G Train was that when I was in New York I was going to Brooklyn to check out a lot of the more underground gigs. The best way for me to get to Brooklyn was to connect to the G Train - a suburban line from Queens to Brooklyn. It was on some of those colourful late night jazz journeys on the G Train that I decided to follow this train theme with the album. You get to sit and think a lot when you are on the train - something not so common when I am in Perth - and I think that’s when the ideas were really hatching for me. It was the sounds, the smells, the interesting characters – freaks - and the whole hustle and bustle of New York.

Were you in ‘next album mode’ when you were traveling? What longer form ideas were already in your mind?

Absolutely. Two of the great players from my second CD, Jazz Juice, Matt Jodrell and Daniel Susnjar, were leaving town to head over to the USA to study their Masters. I had the studio and the musicians booked before I left and I had to come up with the music - the session was about three weeks after I returned from overseas.

My main plan was to write an album in its entirety that told a story from beginning to end. My first CD was a jazz standards album that was recorded with literally two days planning, my second CD was a compilation of my favourite compositions over the last 10 years and so The G Train was meant to be an album where everything was written with a direct concept that flowed from one song to the next.
Were you able to write much at that time, or did it flow when you got back?

I wrote about 2/3 of the album while I was away - luckily there was a piano in the apartment I was staying in - and the other 1/3 was finished when I got back to Perth.

Describe the recording sessions. What’s it like taking worldly visions back into the studio confine?

We recorded two full days and did the whole album live. It was certainly like taking those visions back to the studio - we didn’t really need to talk about it much as we had all been to New York and knew the vibe that is there. The interesting part was doing a few group improvisations. We just pressed ‘record’ and played whatever came out. I linked the seven original tracks with short, improvised pieces and I think we captured some really interesting music there.

This is the first release on Slow Release. What’s your vision for the label?

Slow Release is a new record label that started thanks to a grant from WAAPA at ECU. It is designed to be a conduit for the release and distribution of new works by WAAPA music students and staff. It is my vision that we will sign the most talented graduates from the music program and then record, produce, publish, release and distribute the best music that WAAPA has to offer - and that it can be as good as the best in the world. And hopefully we can make it a sustainable business model in time that will open up a whole range of new possibilities.

It’s been a great year - how do you rate it in terms of Perth jazz history and in your own career?

It has been an amazing year. Could I be so bold as to say that it has been the best in Perth jazz history? It has, in my opinion. In terms of my own career it has been an amazing journey. I have had the pleasure of performing with George Garzone, Katie Noonan, Fred Wesley and Jon Gordon as well as an amazing array of other artists. I guess I have been averaging about seven-gigs-a-week this year and have spent a lot of time practicing and working on new material.

Also the Ellington has been a rewarding new direction for my career. It is a great place to play as well as a great place to hang - it’s like my lounge room and that’s the way I like it. Now it’s great to top off the year with the release of my third CD.

What’s ahead for 2010?

More incredible music is coming to The Ellington on a weekly basis. As well as this I’m finishing my PhD, working with the great staff and students at WAAPA and also hanging out with the kids, Tyner and Dahli. I’ll be planning a fourth CD as well but I’m not sure of the timeline on that yet.