Rob Reddy: The Fine Line Between Composition and Comfort

Interest in Smaller Groups and Thoughts on Composing

AAJ: Your music seems to require a certain number of players. The ensembles and voicing are so important. Do you have any interest in very small group playing, like trios?

RR: [After a very long, thoughtful pause] Hmmm, possibly. It might take more discipline for me to actually do that, because when I write a melody, it suggests things to me: "Oh, this might sound good with this ensemble. That's why I always have one, or two, or three groups sort of in the peripheral—people I'm going to be making music with in the next six months, or a year, or two years. I need to know that these ensembles are there. And I'm always seeking ways to make these melodies work, and I inevitably always wind up calling for certain things. "Oh, I hear French horn for this, and I want that to be played by a saxophone and a violin, and something else around that melody.

So I don't know. My first sort of endeavor in composing was for a trio. I played out with a trio a bunch my senior year at the New School, with [bassist] Reggie Workman and Pheeroan. I remember that those were some of the first real melodies that I composed and put in front of a band—but there was a lot more room and space for me to just play as a saxophonist. I don't know. I honestly don't know.

AAJ: Well, as you note, "Mark of Sincerity is trio music. It just happens to have more than one trio.

RR: Well, that's true. But stripped-down, as a trio unit? I don't know. I may. I know I'm trying to figure out right now how and in what context I'll play with Jef Lee Johnson again, so that actually might be a quartet. That's what it's leaning towards. So there is always a possibility. I would definitely have to practice to play the saxophone a lot more than I do. There are times that I don't really practice anymore; I just play as much as I can. But there are periods where I'm not playing saxophone so much because I'm composing so much. I do compose on the saxophone sometimes, but 80 percent of the time now I'm composing on piano and flute at home. I do my saxophone playing at another space. So yeah, I'd have to play a lot more saxophone if I were playing in a trio.

AAJ: I understand why you would compose on a piano, but why flute?

RR: I don't have a lot of technique on it, so it can force me not to embellish. It can force me to work with the constraints of not being able to move about the instrument as quickly. I can write melodies that are a lot clearer and more concise. And I just like it; I tend to like to play it a lot at home. I can certainly look back at something where I've composed the melody on one of the saxophones and there are definitely a lot more notes in that melody than when I composed on flute or piano!

AAJ: You're a fine, distinctive composer who does a great deal of commission work. Tell me about that, and about your approach to composing. Are you always writing?

RR: I go to the piano every day. There was a time where for days I would just write and write and write for many hours straight—12 to 16 hours sometimes. I'd just write and play all day long. But I think the way I write is morphing a little bit. Now I do it in much more focused bursts where I accomplish much more in smaller amounts of time. I don't force it; if I sit down at the piano or some other instrument and nothing seems to be there and it's just not going to happen, I don't make a point of writing something. Often, ideas for compositions—melodies, rhythms, stuff like that—come at the most inappropriate times. I'm not at home, I'm in the midst of something that may have absolutely nothing to do with music. So for years now, I've been carrying a small tape recorder around with me. I'm sure I look like a crazy person on a street corner talking into this.

But there's no real set schedule or way that I compose now. I do tend to write at least something every day or two, whether it's a full-blown piece from beginning to end, if that's happening, or just a rhythm or a melody. And I have a bulletin board in front of me with a couple sheets of paper that just list instrumentation. So right now I have the instrumentation for "Small Town, the 19-piece thing I'm working on and am going to premiere in March; I have the instrumentation for Gift Horse on another piece of paper; and I have the instrumentation for this ten-piece group that I've been commissioned to write for and that I'm going to present in the fall. Just to have the visual there really helps me remind myself that I'm writing for those ensembles. If I write something, it might spark the idea that, "Oh, that's going to be appropriate for this ensemble. And I really like having more than one ensemble floating around in my head.

AAJ: Sound very mentally nutritious—keeps the brain agile and interested.

RR: Well, I'm about to turn 40, man. I need to keep my brain agile and young. class="f-right"> Return to Index...




Gigging

AAJ: How often do you play out in general? Do you play a lot of gigs?

RR: It's funny, I was talking to a musician I ran into in New York last night about that. This past year, I haven't played out that much in New York—at least not as much as I used to. Once, the Knitting Factory was sort of my home base. Now it's bought and sold and basically one of the standard, boring rock-and-roll clubs in New York, but back when it was a viable venue for what I do, I was playing a lot in New York. I would play there, and also at other places. I don't know whether I don't feel the necessity to play out that much anymore, or if what I do is kind of changing and that I feel more like a composer than anything these days. I mean, that's cool and I'm very excited that these commissions are coming in and that's happening.

So now I'm playing in New York two or three times a year at the most—and that's fine. That's sort of enough. I'd rather have it be that way and have those times be more of an event than just feeling I'm playing another gig. I haven't been able to get ensembles out to play other places as much as I'd like to. I'm still self-managed; I book all the gigs, all the tours. I do everything myself. But when I have taken my music outside of New York City, it's been so great. I love playing New York City, but to play this music elsewhere—to what seem to be [laughing] more enthusiastic people, who haven't heard everything under the sun—is just great. I love playing in other cities in the States, and I hope that happens more. class="f-right"> Return to Index...




What's Coming Up?

AAJ: Let's reiterate what's coming up for you.

RR: The main thing is getting this piece ready for this March premiere at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. That ensemble is called Rob Reddy's Small Town, and it's a 19-piece ensemble. I'm going to record another record with Gift Horse in the fall. I'll premiere a new commission from the American Composers Forum in the fall; that ensemble is basically Gift Horse, but with a drummer instead of a percussionist—plus four other instruments. By the summer, I hope to have this new ensemble together with Jef Lee Johnson. I think that might be a louder, electric sort of unit. And I'll start writing a commission for a dance piece for 2008 with a company called Dre Dance, formed by two choreographers—Andrew Palermo and Taye Diggs. I have no idea what I'm going to write for that, or what the ensemble will consist of, but that'll be consuming a bunch of my time.


Selected Discography

Rob Reddy's Gift Horse, A Hundred Jumping Devils (Reddy Music, 2006)
Rob Reddy's Sleeping Dogs, Seeing by the Light of My Own Candle (Knitting Factor, 2001)
Rob Reddy's Quttah, However Humble (Koch Jazz, 2000)
Rob Reddy's Honor System, Songs You Can Trust (Koch Jazz, 1999)
Rob Reddy's Honor System, Post-War Euphoria (Songlines, 1996)

Photo Credit:
Catherine LaSota

Comments