I am very fortunate to be associated with these One of a Kind musicians, not to mention having a long term musical relationship with them. The early quartet was together for about 15 years and toured Europe on a regular basis, and performed in New York at the venerable Jazz Club the Jazz Standard. The current quartet has performed at various venues in the New York region including Birdland, Smalls and William Paterson University.

Even though, in 1987, I morphed from the trombonist who composes into a composer whose instrument is the trombone, some of my favorite pieces are when I just give a few basic parameters and then we just “play”. It, of course, doesn’t hurt that we are long time colleagues who have played together for many years. “Trust” being a key concept. Trust in oneself and trust in the others. Not unlike any well-functioning team. And “Listening”, always an important aspect of any musical performance, but especially important in a situation where one must decide not only what to play but when to play, and more importantly, when not to play.

My goal as an improviser has been to compose in the moment. Use the knowledge and experience of composing and channel it into the improvisation. In other words, be so comfortable and familiar with techniques of composition to use these devices seamlessly, without thinking or forcing. Consequently, I’ve spent a large portion of my “practice time” (performing solo without an audience) composing in the moment with my trombone. Sometimes certain parameters have been established in advance, but most often using the first three notes played as the original motive for the piece. Performing should be second nature. The ultimate goal, for me, is to have the intellect active in the background, to support the intuition (ear) when needed. Otherwise, stay out of the way.

Now, that’s for solo improvising. When in a group, then, much of the composition experience and knowledge is waiting in the wings until needed, because group improvisation is basically a musical conversation between two or more improvisers. In this case, many of the musical concepts used in composition still apply, especially imitation, sequences, question/answer etc,.

In my opinion, the best state of mind, when performing music (as well as many other tasks) is without conscience thinking. Whether alone, with a group, with or without an audience. The act of “doing”, whatever, is much more efficient and effective when one knows the material and trusts one’s own instinct based on the preparation and training. Pondering is not recommended.

Explorations is a recording project that began in 2001 when my longtime quartet (Fritz Pauer-piano, Drew Gress-contra bass & John Hollenbeck-drums & percussion, were touring Europe. Taking a page from the Duke Ellington tour book (I played in the Ellington Band for over 15 years), to take advantage of having everybody together and comfortable with the material, while on tour, I scheduled a recording session whenever possible on a day when we didn’t have a concert. The result was two CDs, New Standards 2005 (MeisteroMusic 0016), and Reflection 2006 (ArtistShare 0058).

These tracks are very special to me because they are all completely live recordings (in the studio) without any editing, showing the expertise, sensitively and musical integrity of the players.

Every time we go into the studio with one of my bands I like to record some open improvisations. With just a little direction and “form” organization (nothing written) we record these improvisations. With players like this, and the fact that we had all been playing together for quite some time, it’s hard to go wrong. Every piece that we recorded, is included here with absolutely no edits and presented in the order that we recorded them. All the tracks that we recorded are on the album, nothing excluded.

The late great Austrian pianist Fritz Pauer who passed away in 2012, shows his depth on these recordings. He was an amazing musician in all regards and these recordings show his versatility. He even “sings” some impromptu vocalizations on Exploration #6 (track 8). Our first encounter together was in 1993 at the Jazzland Club in Vienna. We had never met before that night, so without any rehearsal, we picked some tunes that we both felt comfortable with, went on the stage and stated playing, in duo.
At one point in the middle of the first set, Fritz looked up at me and said “I can’t believe what my fingers are doing!” That was the beginning of a long musical and personal relationship that lasted until his untimely death in 2012. “Deep” doesn’t even begin to describe this guy.

Drew Gress and John Hollenbeck are long time colleagues who I continue to collaborate with frequently. Drew is also a member of my current Quartet together with Gary Versace (piano) & Tom Rainey (drums). In January, 2021 the current quartet went into Brooklyn Recording Studios and recorded the What Have I Done? Album (MeisteroMusic 2021) in between takes for the WHID album we recorded 3 Explorations, now titled fawg-it #1, which opens the Exploration album, Pickled Ginger (track #2) & fawg-it #2, which closes the album.

One of the joys of performing with these amazing musicians is that they can, literarily play anything. They can read and creatively interpret complex notated music at the same time (what a concept!) and play open improvisations as if it was worked out in advance, and everything in between
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I am honored and humbled to be associated with these great musicians and thankful that they agree to “play” with me. The child in us lives on enhanced by our knowledge and experience of doing what we love to do.

Enjoy!

Ed Neumeister, Newark, New Jersey, 1 February 2023