Banjo player Jake Schepps sure is opening up the possibilities for his instrument: contemporary classical bluegrass? Yes, a thousand times so. In fact, his latest album, Entwined (Fine Mighty), is the perfect manifestation of a seemingly non-existent genre. Featuring new compositions from the likes of Marc Mellits, Gyan Riley, Matt McBane and Matt Flinner, Schepps' traditional, five-band string band sounds anything but trad here. Curious how Schepps & Co. got wise, Classicalite got on the horn with this Scruggs-slash-Stravinsky to talk process, commissioning and what's next for him, instrument and ensemble.
Classicalite: Walk me through the origin story of your new album, Entwined. Why these composers?
Jake Schepps: At some point a few years ago, I stumbled upon Marc Mellits' album he recorded, I think, in 2005. It's called Real Quiet. I fell in love with that album, was listening to it a bunch and, eventually, I had the idea of contacting him. I thought about playing one of those pieces, but then I felt like it would actually be more fun and interesting and educational for me to work with him--to write something for the string band format. And Marc was kind enough to embark on that madcap endeavor.
Clite: And from there, you just sort of naturally brought in composers like Matt McBane, Gyan Riley, Matt Flinner? Was it really that organic?
JS: Pretty much. Marc Mellits wrote a piece, and then the next piece I commissioned was from Matt McBane. He fronts his own band, Build, and he really had something. Each of the composers that I contacted all had an aspect of their music that I could see myself playing. Or that I had a desire to play. Something kind of deep in there that was similar to the string band world I’d come from. A lot of the music McBane writes for that group really sounds like he’s writing for a band, rather than a classical ensemble. Build has piano, violin, cello, bass and drums, so that’s what drew me to McBane. He’s really an extremely detail-oriented person and composer. And there’s just an astounding amount of detail that he rolled into that piece.
Gyan Riley was in the Modern Mandolin Quartet with Matt Flinner, so Flinner turned me onto him. I bought a bunch of his music and just loved it. What I appreciate is all the different composers came at these pieces from somewhat of a different angle. Not dramatically different angles. He’s not of the minimalist vain like his dad [Terry Riley], and he’s maybe a little more maximalist.
My idea of this project was to juxtapose a composer within the kind of string band musical world with a classically-trained composer. And Flinner has an incredible composition background, both as a performer and improviser. His group, the Matt Flinner Trio, do what they call "music du jour tours," where each day they write a new piece that they premiere that night on stage. They have done well over a hundred music du jour shows at this point, so they have this big catalogue of tunes. And I know Matt loves to write and perform new music and create new music. He was, both as a collaborator and a member of my quintet, a good fit for this to write something longer--[a work] that you couldn’t conceptualize and execute within a day.
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