By Matt McDermott

What inspired The Rempis Percussion Quartet to come together and make this music?

Dave Rempis: I think it’s a combination of things. First, the personalities of the band: the musical personalities as well as just the regular personalities work out really well and I’d heard Tim [Daisy] and Frank [Rosaly] play together once or twice. I think hearing them play together; I think they’re really complementary musicians in their approach to the same instrument [percussion]. It seemed like it would work really well having two people not getting in each other’s way. We could create an ensemble sound.

I think what I’ve been hearing for a long time … I studied a lot of ethnomusicology in college and I was in Ghana for a year at the university there studying percussion and ethnomusicology. Since being there, especially with all the percussion ensemble-type music they have there, it’s something I think I’ve been hearing for a long time and this seemed like a way of sort of recreating that, but with improvising musicians whose focus is improvisation.

Do you think audiences are more accepting of contemporary improvised music that has a strong groove?

DR: I think that’s a tough question because I think any of this music when it’s done well and honestly, I think is really convincing. I think audiences pick up on that in a live concert setting, maybe not on CD, but in a live concert I think people can really pick up on the energy and the interaction and I’ve seen audiences unfamiliar with this kind of music who were blown away by concerts that frankly were extremely abstract and perhaps noisy - things you wouldn’t normally expect them to be into – but they had amazing reactions to the music just because of the energy of it. That said, I think some of the rhythmic focus that we have does make it more accessible to somebody who’s completely unfamiliar with the music.

I think the rhythmic aspect of what we’re doing certainly comes out of the jazz tradition. It certainly comes out of other perhaps particularly American traditions, whether it’s the blues or soul or plenty of other musical traditions that come out of the States. I think in a way perhaps that’s what distinguishes a lot of American musicians working in this genre from some European musicians working in a similar arena: we have a more explicit focus on playing rhythms explicitly.

What did you mean when you described the music as “long-form structured improvisation?”

DR: A lot of what we do ends up being pieces that range from 12 minutes to 30 minutes, which for the most part is longer than your average pop tune, longer than your average jazz track, and it’s longer than what’s going to get played on the radio. In that sense, it’s obviously longer form. I think what I meant by structured improvisation is that I think what we do and are going for is maintaining some sort of structural integrity or basically creating spontaneous compositions, more or less, that have some kind of clear through-line or some kind of clear arrangement decisions that happen and reference elements from earlier in the piece. It’s something that has a certain structural integrity to it and isn’t just a sprawling stream-of-consciousness thing, which is the way some people work and it’s a totally valid way of working. I think we just have a different focus.

How do you think recording “Hunter-Gatherers” live influenced the music?

DR: I think that’s actually a really important thing with this group. Our first record was a limited release live recording, the second one was a studio one, and I’m really glad to be back doing another live recording because for the most part I feel like totally free improvised music is really a live art form. It’s not something that necessarily done that well in the studio. There are certainly things you can do in the studio, there are things you can try, there’s perhaps more opportunity for exploration but I feel like frequently the energy just doesn’t get as high in the studio as it does in a live performance setting.

How do you make the choice between different horns (alto, tenor and baritone) in an improvisation context?

DR: That’s actually a really good question because it’s really easy to sit down and play one for a while and put it down, play the next one, put it down, and it’s really something I’d like to think I try to avoid. Then again, if you drag your baritone to a gig, I live up three flights of stairs, just dragging those three horns up and down all those stairs, you kind of feel; “Well, I ought to play them, at least for a little while.” Overall, I think it has [horn selection] more to do with what you’re hearing musically. As far as what voice I’m working with, what’s happening, where it fits into the music, basically.

Could you talk about Umbrella Music: What it is, what your goals are and how you feel it’s going so far?

DR: Umbrella is kind of a loose coalition of presenters working at different venues in town. We’ve been working together informally since 2002/2003. We try to make sure if a musician comes to town and he can’t play one of our venues, we can recommend him to the other venues. Or try to get people multiple gigs when they come to town. I think basically the goal for the group is to try and create a joint marketing opportunity for all these different venues and by doing that hopefully reaching a wider audience of people for all these venues. Also to create better performance situations, meaning there are more people there, people get paid better, they’re playing to a larger audience. I think that’s the main goal of the group.

Is there going to be a launch concert for this recording in Chicago?

DR: Yes. On Wednesday, October 10th at the Hideout.

How do you balance playing in so many different contexts?

DR: I think it’s helpful, actually. I think it’s helpful in the sense that it kind of draws different sides out of you as a musician when you’re playing in all these different contexts. I think it’s a healthy thing to do. If you substituted one member out of this band, it would be a different band. I feel like each different line-up you play in, it just inherently draws different things out of you as a musician: it makes you explore different things. I don’t even know if it’s a matter of trying to balance anything, it’s an opportunity to explore more of your own personality.