Artist Spotlight
As a native Mid-Atlantic transplant to Richmond, Virginia – the somewhat dingy, always scrappy Queen City of the South – I often find myself wondering why, in my vital and adventurous twenties, I continue to live here instead of striking out for New York or Philadelphia or Boston or some spectacularly expensive, doomed-to-fail international backpacking quest. I joke that my college-to-graduate school trek from Charleston, SC to Virginia has been a personal Civil War Tour of Dixie, but I have only a passing interest in the historic sites of our nation’s divisive past (read: it took me three years to learn of/visit Jefferson Davis’ grave at local, historic, famous Hollywood Cemetery). And while I do have a great love for Spanish moss and gas lamps, this is not explanation enough. The truth is, while my residence here is partly one of convenience (its location on I-95 makes it a nice stopping point for friends on the road and an easy outlet home to New Jersey; it’s a relatively inexpensive semi-urban environment; it is home to several universities that may or may not employ me); it is also one of curiosity and excitement – Richmond has a wonderful and collaborative community of young artists, musicians, and all-around unfussy, understated visionaries that continues to keep me and many others coming back for more, and hoping for the kind of multi-pronged, yet unified renaissance this city has always worked for and now seems to deserve.
Not the least among this burgeoning artistic scene is local jazz nonet, Fight The Big Bull – a homegrown group that currently is garnering national recognition for their unique energy and exciting, youthful talent. In the city, they first stirred up notice outside the jazz and university music communities by covering Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Weezer’s Blue album in their entirety, but now they’re filling up local watering holes and venues with the draw of their original music alone, and attracting audiences whose interest in jazz heretofore may have been non-existent. On an international scale, after the group found representation with the Portuguese jazz label, Clean Feed Records and released their 2007 EP Dying Will Be Easy, they wound up as a featured group on NPR’s Fresh Air and began booking major shows in New York and Chicago. I recently sat down to lunch with the group’s founder, guitarist and composer, Matthew White, to discuss the trials and thrills of growing and tending to a local jazz scene, while making waves in the jazz world at large.
What are the origins of Fight The Big Bull?
Fight the Big Bull came from the trio Fight the Bull which was Bryan Hooten (trombone), Pinson Chanselle (drums) and myself. I was hearing a larger sound and Patchwork Collective, a promotions organization I was running at the time gave me the opportunity to organize an present larger projects. Anyhow, I got the folks together, wrote some music, etc.
Can you describe the band’s journey to Clean Feed representation? What are the biggest changes you’ve noticed since signing with the label?
We recorded a “demo” in 2006. As I begin to pass out copies to a few folks I realized that perhaps the “demo” had the strength to become an actual album. At that point I sent out a few copies to a handful of labels and Clean Feed responded positively. The release of an album gave us a reason to hire a publicist and that has proved to be perhaps our wisest move. The combination of a great sounding record as well as an excellent publicity push gave us an absolutely ridiculous amount of publicity for a no-name band from a non-industry town. Practically, not too much has changed. We still play the same gig at Cous Cous (a local restaurant/bar venue). We get to travel a bit more, we can ask for more money at shows, there are some folks in other cities that know who we are, so that’s pretty cool. I think the biggest thing is that the “potential” for the band has grown. The set of things that we might end up doing in the next few years is a lot more promising/exciting from the “post-CD release” vantage point.
What have been some of your difficulties/successes with promotion?
Well in-town we have got it made for the most part (knock on wood). The Cous Cous gig is financially successful, has been running for two and a half years now, and allows me to be able to avoid the pain-in-the-ass that is setting up and promoting local shows. Promoting out of town has been very difficult. Despite all of the favorable press that has come our way, we have yet to play outside of Richmond to any sort of audience. In some ways I try to walk a very fine line in how we define ourselves to the public. I try not to come across too “jazz” ,”avant-garde”, “indie-sensible”, or “party/cover/dance band etc” even though we are very much all those things. That’s really a financial move I guess….it seems very important to define yourself carefully from the get-go of your career so you don’t get pigeonholed somehow or another. Anyhow, the more you try to walk the line the more difficult it is to promote to some degree, especially in a city that doesn’t know you. Hopefully, with careful and cunning planning you can get all of the above demographics to fall all over themselves for your band?
Fight The Big Bull has established itself as a sort of “cross-over” jazz band in Richmond, appealing to listeners who may not have been interested in jazz prior to hearing the group. What do you hope this fan group gets out of a live performance?
I hope they have fun. I hope they feel good about themselves and the world and their boyfriend even if there is no reason too. Music has special magic powers. It has the ability to transform a few minutes of your life into something special. I think Fight the Big Bull has been blessed with the ability to do a little bit of that and that’s certainly what we try for in each performance. If in enjoying the music someone gets interested in “jazz” or improvising or arranging or composition or something that would be wonderful but music is not, first and foremost, about that to me.
As a jazz band that is beginning to tour more regularly, what have you noticed about your audiences? Does the variety of listeners that you’ve gained in Richmond seem to carry over into other cities?
Honestly, we haven’t had much of an audience outside the city. I hope that the variety of listeners does carry over but first let’s just get someone in the seats, I don’t really care who it is.
What type of venues do you prefer to play? If you could construct your dream venue and dream audience for the band what would it/they look like?
There are always pros and cons to venues. Cous Cous, and bars in general, can be to loud and supports a “non-attentive” audience. Other places can be too quiet and sterile. Some places are too big and some places can even be too small. Right now, I love Cous Cous. It is definitely a dream gig and I try to be as thankful and appreciative of the situation as I can. As far as an audience, I don’t care too much who comes as long as they are enjoying themselves. It’s important to me that everybody feels like they could come. I hope we never come across as too “sophisticated” or something. I love it when audiences are actively listening – that’s something that doesn’t always happen at Cous Cous but when it does you know you’ve done something special…you’ve earned their attention.
How did the band respond its feature on NPR?
We loved it of course. I got to listen to it with three of the guys that have been in the band the whole time so that was pretty special. I think that all of us we’re pretty stoked that the feature had a Richmond lean to it…we are all very pro-Richmond, want to stay here, and want to see a music scene flourish here. The piece helped validate our feeling that we, and our peers here in the city, belong in the discussion.
When composing music for Fight The Big Bull, what themes or inspirations have come into play? What was it for Dying Will Be Easy?
For Dying Will Be Easy there were a few different things. There’s kind of a Jewish thing happening in one tune, a Flamenco thing happening in another, a New Orleans second line thing happening in another, and the final one is mutt of a tune…kinda a sad singer/songwriter tune seen through a fucked up kaleidoscope built in the jazz tradition. I rarely am trying to channel a technique in my writing. There are, of course, skills of the trade that allow me to write in certain ways but i rarely write to showcase one of those…”techniques.” I am mostly trying to channel the music that I’m listening to into my own voice. So whether it’s dub, gospel, soul, blues, 20th century classical, New Orleans or whatever I am trying to find a way to take what those genres have given me, put them into a crucible and come out with something that is distinctly mine.
Managing a nine piece band would seem, to many, a very challenging task. How has Fight The Big Bull worked together over the years to become the cohesive, committed group it is today?
Ha. Yes. Challenging. You have almost caught me on the wrong day with this question. The levels of success that we have achieved over the years, whether it’s securing the steady local gig at Cous Cous or being on Fresh Air, has helped everyone, including me, believe that there could be a bright, and even financially viable future for this band. It helps to have people in the band that genuinely love to be around each other and live to create and play music. Also, it you have to write music that is interesting. Thelonious Monk said “make the music interesting enough that folks WANT to come to rehearsal” and I would hope that’s at least a little bit of the case here.
What are the band’s goals for the upcoming year?
We’re recording a new record with trumpet player and NYC downtown jazz legend Steven Bernstein in February. That is what everything in my life right now is pointed toward – getting the schedules and music and everything else together for that. After we finish that business we are looking to get out a little bit and capitalize on some of the nice press we have under our belt. I’m hoping to put together a two week tour for the fall for the group but I don’t even want to think about the logistics of trying to get a 9 piece avant-garde big band gallivanting around the country and getting paid for it. With that said, it IS part of my goal to start getting these guys some money. No musical project can succeed in the long run without becoming financially viable… so I would like to look into doing that.
Dying Will Be Easy is out now on Clean Feed Records. For more information about Fight the Big Bull, including streaming MP3s, visit their MySpace page and take a listen to the piece about the band on NPR’s Fresh Air.
