2002 - 2004

Melodic Workshop

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First tour - December 2002

Bill McHenry  - Tenor Sax

Gorka Benitez - Tenor Sax

Guillermo Klein - Piano

Nic Thys - Electric Bass

Jorge Rossy - Rhodes, Drums

Joe Smith - Drums

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Second tour - November, 2003

Festival de Jazz de Barcelona 2003

Bill McHenry  - Tenor Sax
Gorka Benitez - Tenor Sax
Guillermo Klein - Piano
Chris Lightcap - Electric Bass
Jorge Rossy - Rhodes, Drums
Joe Smith - Drums

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Ideas - 2003

The Melodic Workshop is exactly what it sounds like.

I have come to realize that I write music using my ear and that the Melody is what speaks to me. I have been working to free up my mind from all the things I have learned about music and to let melody flow out. In this group I am working towards a concept I have been feeling for a long time. I feel that this music is a music of the future. A mix of many, many different ethnic styles; so many in fact that all of them have lost their own original identities. That leaves us with lots of raw feelings and basic concepts. Melody. Rhythm. Sounds.

Melody is free and should be left alone as much as possible to move freely to its destination, unrestricted by impure influences.

Rhythm is another animal. With this group I'm developing a sense of rhythm that is free from even structures (4/4 with 4 or 8 bar phrases.) The rhythm flows over a large pulse but with the freedom to digress naturally into "odd" phrases. The idea is to have so many percussive voices speaking all at once that the "1" is lost and yet everyone is moving together.

Having more than one drummer is the key. (three is the answer I think) I like to think of this feeling as the old "Drumset falling down the stairs" effect. Its all moving together at the same speed but there are no "Man Made" attributes. This rhythmic concept combined with a concept of a separated "robato" melody on top of this that is free to take as long as necessary to be true to the melodic phrase is the root of my Idea. This leaves the Musicians without many of the foundations that they have learned to expect when playing music. They have to play with a stronger sense of Intent. When this way of playing music is comfortable is when freedom starts.

I have always been attracted to acoustic sounds from instruments but more and more I feel that what I am searching for is natural sounds. In this group are the Electric Bass and the Fender Rhodes, two electric instruments but with beautiful natural timbre. I am also interested in incorporating metallic sounds into the overall sound of the group. Sounds that are percussive. Gong like.

These are the concepts behind the Melodic Workshop, but it's still just music. The great musicians that I am lucky to be able to work with create this music, make this music speak. It all comes down to playing and creating together. I plan to develop these concepts and write new material for the group. I am in no hurry and am looking forward to watching the music come alive and plan to capture the many different stages this music will travel through. I am planning on releasing a live CD from our tour of Spain we made in December of 2002. Keep your eyes and ears open for it. Enjoy music and life!-- Joe

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The Musicians

Joe Smith - Drums Born in Chicago, 1971. Joe attended the Cincinnati Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music studying with Vernel Fornier, Jimmy Lovelace, John Riely and Jeff Williams. During the 90's, Joe lived in New York City where he was the leader of many groups featuring such musicians as Reid Anderson, Ethan Iverson, Chris Lightcap, Jason Lindner, John Stetch and Ben Waltzer. In February 2003, Joe will be featured on the latest recording of Jazz Legend John McNeil. Joe was also a founding member of the African Funk group 'Fatima' and will be featured alongside Jesse Murphy and Jorge Rossy on a new disc to be released this spring. Joe is currently living in Barcelona.

Bill McHenry - Tenor Sax Born in Maine, 1972. Bill attended the New England conservatory in Boston where he studied with Bill Garzone, Dewey Redman and Jimmy Juffry. Playing a major role in the New York City Jazz scene for the last 10 years, Bill has been featured as a sideman on the discs of many great young Jazz musicians such as Chris Lightcap, Reid Anderson, Ethan Iverson, Ben Waltzer, Rebeca Martin, Guillermo Klien and John Stetch. As a leader, he has released two discs for the Fresh Sound New Talent label, both receiving honors from the New York Times. Bill's latest disc features jazz legend Paul Motion, Reid Anderson and Ben Monder.

Guillermo Klein - Fender Rhodes Born in Buenos Aires, 1969. Guillermo received his degree in composition from Berklee in 1993 where he had studied with Inessa Zaraevtzy and Sofia Rossoff. In 1995, he moved to New York City where he began developing and performing with his own group Big Van and later Los Guachos. Many of the finest young Jazz musicians have played in his groups such as Diego Urcola, Chris Cheek, Bill McHenry, Tony Malaby, Ben Monder, Marlon Browden, Jeff Ballard, Luciana Souza and Claudia Acuna. As a leader Guillermo has released four discs, the last three by Sunny Side Records. In 2002, he spent three months in India, producing and arranging two albums, working closely with many famous Indian musicians. He is currently living in Barcelona, Spain.

Jorge Rossy - Piano, Drums Born in Barcelona, 1964. Jorge has lived in Boston and New York. During the 90's, he met and began playing with musicians like Mark Turner, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman and Perico Sambeat. He formed the group The Bloomdaddies with Chris Cheek and Seamus Blake, and collaborated with many other musicians of the new generation. He is at the moment the Spanish musician with the most international projection, and from 1996 has regularly been the drummer of the Brad Mehldau Trio, with whom he has recorded several discs and made tours all over the world. The musical trajectory of Jorge Rossy is documented in an extensive discography, in which in addition to the before mentioned musicians, appear musicians like Mark Johnson, Chic Corea, Jimmy Knepper, Danilo Perez, Avishai Cohen and many others.

Gorka Benitez - Tenor Sax Born in Bilbao, 1965. Considered to have one of Spain's most personal and expressive voices in Jazz, Gorka has been a leader in the Jazz scene in Spain for the last 15 years. After living in New York in the 90's, he has been living in Barcelona where he leads his trio and plays in the groups of David Xirgu, David Mengual, Marc Miralta and with the Mingus Dinasty Big Band Condicio Humana.

Chris Lightcap - Bass Born in Pennsylvania in 1970. Chris has studied with bass legend Milt Hinton, Jeff Levine, Cameron Brown and Bill Dixon. In 1992 he moved to New York City where he began working regularly with the Cecil Taylor Big Band. He has performed with Archie Shepp, Sunny Murray, George Garzone, Paquito D'Reviera, John Abercrombie and Jeff "Tain" Watts. Chris recorded two Discs as a leader featuring Tony Malaby, Bill McHenry and Gerald Cleaver, "Lay-up" in 2000 and "Bigmouth" in 2003 for the fresh sound New Talent label. Chris can also be heard on over 25 discs as a side man with Joe Morris, Tom Harrell, Anthony Coleman, Matt Maneri and many others. Since 2000, he has toured and recorded extensively with Jazz Violinist Regina Carter and is feature on her latest release for Verve Records entitled "Pagannini: After a Dream." He has also toured and played major festivals with such bandleaders as Mark Turner, Ravi Coltrane, Matt Wilson and Terrel Stafford.

2004, Fresh Sound New Talent

Produced by Joe Smith
Executive producer: Jordi Pujol
Recorded by: Jordi Vidal at Laietana Studio, Barcelona, November 22nd and 23rd, 2003
Mixed and mastered by: Joe Smith and Jordi Vidal
Photographs by: Natalia Cedrés

Liner Notes
  by Joe Smith

Melody!!!!!..... dictates all.........bass note, chord color, time signature...form......emotion............expression! Melody with countermelody.......melodic conversations.....Drama........in as many different scenarios as possible. ......it's the(my) only goal.........

The History.............. been developing in the melodic workshop for 2 years..........first gigs at the end of july 2002 with Gorka and Nic and friends......... first tour, december 2002 ...enter old friend and collaborator Bill....New friend Guillermo too.....Jorge can make some of the gigs!!!!!!¡¡¡Que Bien!!!! ..........more gigs with my small group,,,,,,, working the music........ planning.....on the phone......culminating in.... November 2003..."Lighty" jumps aboard.........gruelling 2 week tour in Spain with 2 days in the studio .....to document all that's happened.......

The first chapters.....free form melodies ...... harmonizing later ........if it could sing standing alone...... first songs were Shroo and Gulp...... Second period of composition..... using melodies to connect random tonalities (some harmonically far apart)............third phase...... addition of countermelodies in most songs ...the most complex being Sad (4 countermelodies) and...... words......

The Instrumentation......... electric bass....... exploiting the built in sustain qualities..... to leave more space for the 2 drums..........2 drums ...overlapping rhythms creating a sonic pillow.....2 keyboard instruments .... Rhodes is so warm.... lots of colors........stereo.......2 saxes .... Melody and countermelody....... same instruments playing together shows how original their personal voices are.....it's challenging..... tenor madness!!!!!!

The musicians.........all play solos from ideas.........all have such distinct musical personalities (and personal ones also...you have to meet them!)

The name for this group(project) has been the Melodic Workshop........first it was Free-Melodic Workshop........once it was Melody Band.

The Disc......I wanted to make a "listenable" disc.....have a lot of the same elements in every song.....sustain energy from tune to tune.....As in any voyage, you start in one place and end in another.....

For me... a pleasure......to watch the project grow and change ......from musical and dramatic ideas in my head...... to feeling the sensation of improvising and performing with the group.... to listening and shaping an album from what was really captured in these recordings......

the melodies

Shroo ...this melody is a separate entity from the pulse based rhythms that lie below it...there is no "1" or ... there are 6 different "1's"...its a trip..... large, open spaces..time... passing.... Rebel...this title reflects the feeling I had while composing it.....my ear was rebelling...finding melodies and harmonies in obscure places... ... it's mystery...the flute is vulnerable... and yet rebellous....again, the solos reflect huge open spaces....... (for those who know me, you realise I couldn't resist overdubbing the Gong...........) Sasa Sings......123...12...123...1 +.......a mixolydian sound...I searched a long time for the way out of it ... and found it ....check out me and Jorge's musical "karate" battle...(no one was hurt......)who is Sasa??????... Bill thinks I named my Gong "sasa".......She knows who she is and I hope she continues to sing......OK , it's in 11 mostly... Gulp..... is the sound we make when we drink or in this case breath air, very rapidly.......Don't be afraid..... there might not be a set pulse but....time passes...melodies, improvised and written have coherent movement.....the band is together......it is Music.... Sassy.....I vaguely remember a cartoon about a big "cool" dog and a small "tag- a- long" dog....this melody is the Big dog...or a super funky mama......as you like (or as I like)...check out the story.....the changes are wierd......Y(no tengo dinero).... there are a lot of things happening in the world right now that many people might feel powerless to change.......there are 2 parts to this title....firstly....the melody of this song seems to always be asking questions in a futile manner..... the counter melody tries to console .....Guillermo heard the second title as lyrics for the last melodic phrase.... when these titles are put together, all musicians can relate... Long.......this is a song about my long._______.......... road through.......No.....It's a melody that came to me that is full of expression......I hear ya Gorka!!!!!!!!..... Sad.....I wrote this melody some time ago....it felt "sad"....later... I looked for the saddest event in my life and wrote lyrics about it.......it's simple..........Melody......countermelodies....emotion....I like to imagine that all 5 voices are one person..... the lead melody being the conscious mind .........

Thank you.........Bill, Gorka, Guillermo, Chris and Jorge for the dedication, the truth, the tour and the great playing...... to "Coda" for all the rehearsing, memorizing and for the great singing(Guapas!!!!) ........to all the other great musicians who have been a part of the group.....Nic Thys, David Xirgu, David Mengual, Marti Serra, Llibert fortuny, Dani Perez, Benet Palet, Esteban Hernandez and Chris Higgins......... to Jordi Vidal for the great sound and patience..... Natalia Cedres for the great fotos......to Rafa Ross for arraigning them...special thanks to Mauri Estrugi for looking for gigs.....to Kim Bacon, Montse Roig, Adrian, Stephan Lisbin , Jose Alberto Medina, Juan Pablo and all the people at Jamboree and "The Project"..... to my family.....Anna, Ron, Betty, Jenny, Scott,, John and Rick and his family........ and .....of coarse.....a big special thanks to ......the big man..... Jordi Pujol ...for doing all that he does!!!!!!!!!!

These melodies are dedicated to the loving memory of my grandpa Charles Smith

Review by: Thomas R. Erdmann

 

Featured Artist: Joe Smith

CD Title: Melodic Workshop

Year: 2004

Record Label: Fresh Sound New Talent

Style: Straight-Ahead / Classic

Musicians: Joe Smith (drums), Bill McHenry (tenor sax), Gorka Benitez (tenor sax and flute), Guillermo Klein (piano and fender rhodes), Chris Lightcap (electric bass), Jorge Rossy (drums and fender rhodes), Maria Navarro (vocals), Anna Valldeneu (vocals), Sonia Rodrigues (vocals), Anna Catala (vocals), Dolors Garcia (vocals)

Review: The far-reaching and wide influence of Wayne Shorter, both as a writer and performer, on the contemporary and straight-ahead jazz scene is one area of concentration to receive so little attention it boggles the mind. His ability to craft well-sculpted melodic lines and at the same time place them both within and separate from the drive of the rhythm section, is extraordinary. Further, the ways in which many of today’s most forward thinking musicians – such as Dave Douglas and Bill Frisell, to name just two - have taken this concept and developed their own compositional profiles as the next step in this evolution is startling and auspicious. Add to this list of Shorter stalwarts the work of master drummer/percussionist and composer Joe Smith.
Smith is a musician who performs in a manner that can truly be described as beautiful. His percussive thrust behind oft overlooked yet critically praised trumpeter John McNeil’s excellent This Way Out (Omnitone), sends that small ensemble, and McNeil’s playing in particular, into some wildly exciting and rarely traversed territory. In particular, Smith’s sensitivity to find colors that both compliment and stylishly ring out from the group on slower numbers make him a musician of the highest caliber. With Melodic Workshop Smith further develops his work in this area.

Recorded in Spain following a live performance of the music at the Barcelona Jazz Festival in 2003, both aspects – compositional and performance - of Smith’s musical persona are aptly displayed in Melodic Workshop, his second date as a leader. As a composer his tie to Shorter is unmistakable. The two saxophone lead team of Bill McHenry and Gorka Benitez never rush through melodies and many times, just as displayed in Shorter’s work with Miles Davis, the two saxophonists perform identical lines slightly offset in terms of both rhythm and pitch that are in and outside, at the same time, of the rhythmic base. Smith’s own words, in writing about this music on the Fresh Sound New Talent website (www.freshsoundrecords.com), reinforce this, “Melody is free and should be left alone as much as possible to move freely to its destination, unrestricted by impure influences. Rhythm is another animal.” This music of free rhythmic association, for want of a better term, is displayed on a number of pieces. Shroo, for example, begins with some tight and complimentary two drumset work between Smith and fellow drummer Jorge Rossy, before the twisting and meandering saxophone lines are layered on top. There is no other word to describe the end result other than beautiful. Smith adds to the above an Ahmad Jamalish harmonic flux which complements the lead lines so well you almost can’t believe it’s possible to have everything fit so perfectly, and not, at the same time.

As a performer, Smith, who studied at both the Cincinnati Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music, is taste personified. He calls upon Rossy to join him in duo complimentary and contrary set work on four of the eight tracks. While double set playing may work in the music of The Moody Blues and The Grateful Dead – and then only because the two drummers usually play the exact same lines - it rarely works in jazz due to the individualistic/temporal/emotional nature of the music. Here, however, both drummers are so in sync with their own differing lines that you only know there are two drummers through careful listening and the reading of the credits – they are that elegant in their approach to the music.

The Fresh Sound New Talent label has again released a killer recording of young musicians who all deserve greater recognition. There is not a weak performer on the disc and they play, here’s that word again, beautifully. If there is a complaint it would be that the music has a general sameness to it, but when the music and musicians are this good you almost don’t care.

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Andrew Rowan, All About Jazz (New York) 

Joe Smith 's Melodic Workshop begins with a joyful piano-bass-drum fanfare that leads to a long-lined theme, motored by an almost martial drumbeat. "Shroo" is grand and generous in its scope. Jazz to be sure, but not the traditional kind. Free of more conventional metric considerations, the musicians make the most of the occasion to improvise thematically. In contrast, "Rebel" has a more regular rhythm and, with closely voiced horns in the exposition spelling out its harmonies, a more easily recognized improvisatory roadmap. Gorka Benitez's flute and Bill McHenry 's tenor spark the mood. The Fender Rhodes piano lends a darkly inviting sheen to "Sasa Sings" that works well with the horns' opening drone-like notes. Chris Lightcap 's undulating electric bass lines propel the saxophonists' sometimes jagged, sometimes flowing lines. Smith's energetic drumming leads back to the two tenors working in unison, sans accompaniment. "Gulp" opens with the feel of a noir film theme but soon moves into a free association that, while musically ingenious, never seems to cohere, at least emotionally. Then, there is "Sassy," a fun, tuneful takeoff on soul-laced rock. This probably will not be heard in dance clubs, but a dance could be worked out to fit its jaunty, off-centered rhythms. "Y (No Tengo Dinero)" and "Long" offer some of the most focused playing on the session. Their sensuous melodies and settings bring out impassioned solos from all the players. Beautifully voiced and recorded vocals by Coda are added on "Sad," another pensive theme, and a gorgeous one too. The only problem is that the programming of these three melodies, one after the other, ends the CD with a long, rather somber mood.