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12/28/2015

Andrew Endres talks with Inessa about his new album 'Desolation'

By INESSA //

There’s an energetic bounce to many of the compositions, but after reading those liner notes, we get transported much deeper than the shiny, jazzy sounds from this expert collective who stand out true to the word.

The first complete studio album for Andrew’s Jazz project took a long time of careful and considered recording, mixing and mastering. Andrew Endres Collective took about a year to finish. It’s a very philosophical and dark excursion as well. That’s thanks in part to the detailed liner notes on each of the ten tracks. There’s an energetic bounce to many of the compositions, but after reading those liner notes, we get transported much deeper than the shiny, jazzy sounds from this expert collective who stand out true to the word.

Andrew and I settled down to a conversation on a dark December morning and reflected on our musical loves, favorite musical genres over the years, instruments that have come and gone through our lives, and attempted to nail down the defining aspects of the idiom that is jazz. Andrew touched on how he develops compositions for himself and the Collective, who his influences and teachers have been and are ( Darrell Grant, George Colligan and Dan Balmer among others).

More than any other album in recent memory, the liner notes are integral to this release. There’s often an apocryphal, bleak, destitute feel to Andrew’s musings. But at the same time, by charging at the darkness full on with his notes, I also get the strong sense that it is something of a spiritual path he takes us on. Being able to witness our cultural animosity, fear of change and impermanence is a start to understanding. Here are a few thoughts Andrew shares on the title track “Desolation”:

The title track of the album embodies an all-encompassing theme for the other pieces on the album. I hoped that it would be a conduit for interpreting how bleak life can seem. …I sought to manifest emotions of despondency in an unconventional way. In the same way people smile to personify their assumed happiness….

Even the album liner note insert has a sort of secret cover art. I only caught it after thinking how odd and yet fitting it was to have just this pure black cover. But then!

Andrew’s musical path was laid out in part by a great grandfather who made violins and a great grandmother who was 3rd chair French Horn with The Oregon Symphony. The rest? Up to Andrew. Enjoy the conversation and link up below.

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