A series in which musicians give us insight into the background of one of their recordings

Maria Schneider
American Crow

Multi award-winning American pianist, composer and bandleader Maria Schneider has relesed a new EP, American Crow. It begins with distressed Americana, but soon enough submerges and dissolves into retrospection, a place and time Schneider remembers from her Midwestern childhood, when people could listen to one another. Space existed. And generally, people would look for compromise and consensus. People who saw things differently could still speak respectfully – they could like one another, even love one another.

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Maria says: "“It speaks to the toxicity of our present social discourse that’s devolved into an impenetrable knot of curated rage. We crow about each other incessantly, having lost almost any ability or wish to really listen and understand those with whom we disagree.” 

“For decades now, every time I hear my band play, I witness the magic of listening,” she continues. “A true jazz improvisor thrives on listening: waiting, responding, considering, reconsidering, responding again, sometimes in ways that surprise even the improvisor. Jazz is at its best when everyone is vulnerable. Improvisation asks everyone to risk what they think they know, and offers them an opportunity – through listening – to discover something new in themselves. Jazz shines a light on what we are allowing to slip away in our brittle and fractured world, making our art form more relevant today than ever before.”

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“My hope is that every aspect of this release, visual and aural, will make us all question whether we want to untangle ourselves from the knot of curated rage ravaging our society. I hope it makes one ask, ‘Can I find it in myself to listen and engage in respectful conversation to someone I disagree with? Can I be vulnerable enough to ask questions rather than preaching and yelling? Can I envision being courageous enough to taking that first step that opens the door, possibly inviting a reciprocal open ear from someone with whom I disagree? Can I embrace in my daily life the attributes that have made jazz great.’"

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The album notes summarise how "Mike Rodriguez on trumpet begins his improvisation in a fashion of listening, never talking-over, as he encounters a pastoral theme in the ensemble and rhythm section. But in time, the intensity of language ramps up, the volume increases: spewing, sparring, impenetrable statements, a society at verbal war, screaming from their echo chambers. When the vitriol morphs into just a single churning dark din that feels impossible to untangle, Jeff Miles on guitar longingly recalls the pastoral theme. Mike's responds to Jeff’s guitar over the dark din, as if to ask, "Do we want to find our way back?" or "Can we find our way back?"