In this clip from The Tonearm Podcast, saxophonist Ben Wendel describes the moment he walked toward the Village Vanguard stage for the first time as a bandleader and how fear dissolved into what he calls a lifting, supportive energy, as if the accumulated history of the room was urging him forward.
Don't miss the full conversation on the latest episode of our podcast: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/ben-wendel-assembling-the-mallet-avengers-barcode-saxophone/
In this excerpt from the new episode of The Tonearm Podcast, saxophonist Ben Wendel explains how he built the BaRcoDe ensemble by consulting vibraphonist Joel Ross, generating a list of about fifteen players, and then selecting four whose approaches were distinct enough to give him the widest possible palette—describing the goal as assembling the "Avengers of Mallet Players."
Be sure to listen to the entire conversation: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/ben-wendel-assembling-the-mallet-avengers-barcode-saxophone/
Ben Wendel has always resisted the obvious move. So when the Jazz Gallery handed him an open-ended commission, he assembled four of the most distinctive mallet players working today—Joel Ross, Simon Moullier, Patricia Brennan, and Juan Diego Villalobos—stood himself in the center of a semicircle of vibraphones and marimbas, and called the result BaRcoDe.
In this conversation—episode 300 of The Tonearm Podcast—Wendel talks through the project's origins at the Jazz Gallery, the logic behind the album's title, and what it was like to inhabit that particular sonic space. He also reflects on what the Village Vanguard actually feels like from the stage, why he thinks bad teachers can be clarifying, and what's coming next—even if the logistics are, by his own admission, going to be a beast.
Listen in on today's new episode of The Tonearm Podcast: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/ben-wendel-assembling-the-mallet-avengers-barcode-saxophone/
Today's Tonal Treat ✨
#SongOfTheDay #NowPlaying #Jazztodon #TonalTreat
https://maryhalvorson.bandcamp.com/track/soundcheck?ref=thetonearm.com
from the album Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings
In this excerpt from the new episode of The Tonearm Podcast, Bellbird's Claire Devlin and Eli Davidovici describe how exhaustion midway through a residency led the quartet away from intensive rehearsal and toward a different kind of music-making—one that began with a poem and ended with one of the most affecting pieces on their record.
Hear more on the latest episode of our podcast: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/bellbird-montreals-jazz-collective-heeds-the-call/
Today's Tonal Treat ✨
#SongOfTheDay #NowPlaying #TonalTreat #Jazztodon
https://bellbirdband.bandcamp.com/track/the-call?ref=thetonearm.com
from the album The Call
In this excerpt from the new episode of The Tonearm Podcast, Bellbird's Eli Davidovici recounts how he first connected with Claire Devlin shortly after moving to Montreal, recruiting her through a roommate's recommendation to rehearse and play a gig at Resonance Cafe.
Don't miss the full conversation on The Tonearm Podcast: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/bellbird-montreals-jazz-collective-heeds-the-call/
Today’ new episode of The Tonearm podcast features Claire and Eli of the Montréal avant-jazz quartet Bellbird. Enjoy a wide-ranging conversation about the origin of their new album, The Call, their collective approach to composition, and the surprising source material at the record's core.
The members also discuss how Bellbird coalesced from pandemic-era park jams in Montréal, what egalitarian collective-making requires in practice, how Allison Burik transcribed the White Bellbird's extreme cry as the foundation for the title track, and the political and ecological commitments threaded through the record.
Be sure to tune in for a really great chat: https://podcast.thetonearm.com/bellbird-montreals-jazz-collective-heeds-the-call/
Today's Tonal Treat ✨
#SongOfTheDay #NowPlaying #Jazztodon #TonalTreat
https://underpool.bandcamp.com/track/jard-n?ref=thetonearm.com
from the album Música Para Quinteto (Live at Jazz Cava)
The Tonearm
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