Scott McLemore

Truthfully, I'm not really a conference-going kind of guy. However, I had a blast at Jazz Ahead in Bremen, Germany last week. Having gone there to perform with the Sunna Gunnlaugs Trio, it was nice to have the show to look forward to amidst all the schmoozing. Not that I don't like to schmooze, but it does take a lot of energy. I think especially when the subject matter of your schmoozing is your art, there is a level of emotional investment that can be exhausting.

I was walking around the convention center for a day and a half talking to festival organizers and booking agents on Sunna's behalf, but I was also a secret agent for ASA Trio. It was a learning experience for sure.

We had the privilege and honor to perform at Sendesaal, which people routinely reminded me was where one of Keith Jarrett's amazing solo albums was recorded. The expectations were high, and we were not disappointed. The acoustics in the room are so perfect it's eerie. And the drums I got were ridiculously nice: a set of Sonor Delite's with a vintage Phonic snare.

At the convention there is a lot of talk about trading bands amongst the various countries' music export organizations. As in, if we book a band from Iceland, you book a band from our country. It got me thinking about the possibilities of this sort of thing. Right now the attitude is pretty rough, like "what's in it for my country?" But this could develop into a jazz artist residency whereby each participating country agrees to host a visiting musician who would then collaborate with the locals on a project. Just a thought.

But I have to say, I was very encouraged to see all the different countries going all-out for their brand of jazz. The music is important and the people and nations that took part in Jazz Ahead seem to realize its value.

Since moving to Iceland, I've been collecting material for another album. Ironically, the closer I get to the recording date, the more ideas I get for new tunes.

I was scheduled to record late last month at Sundlaug (the Sigur Rós studio), but they had a pipe burst which has put them out of commission for a while. This lead to some other developments: I felt more comfortable bringing in new material for the band, I switched studios, and I feel more prepared for the recording. We are going to record next week in Salurinn, the concert hall in Kópavogur where we recorded "Long Pair Bond." Engineer Kjartan Kjartansson will be with us again, and I'm hoping this will be an extension of the LPB sound.

I can't put into words how excited I am about recording another album of my own. It's about time.

After reading the title of this post, you're probably asking yourself "what the heck is a Long Pair Bond?" If so, you probably don't follow me on Twitter.

Long Pair Bond is the upcoming trio album from my wife, pianist Sunna Gunnlaugs. I'm a little sketchy on the meaning, although Sunna has an explanation on her website.

Needless to say, I'm the drummer on the album. Well, I suppose she could've gotten a different drummer for it, (she has threatened to hire Joey Baron on more than one occasion) but to date I'm the only drummer she has recorded with. This is our seventh album together.

I wanted to blog about it from my perspective. However, I can't give too much away as we're also doing a Kickstarter campaign for it and one of the rewards is a DVD/extended liner notes which will have the whole back-story with interviews and video from the recording session. You can hear 3 pre-release tracks over at the Kickstarter page.

Number 7 is a very special album for a number of reasons. First of all, it's trio. You have to go all the way back to 1997 (the year we were married) to her debut album Far Far Away to find another album of hers without a saxophonist.

It's also the first time since '97 that she's recorded someone's music other than hers or mine. There are three such examples of that on this album. Our bassist Þorgrímur "Toggi" Jónsson contributed a beautiful tune, and we adapted tunes by Rufus Wainwright and Ben Harper. Both of those were unusual choices that challenged us to think differently.

For me personally, it's special in that it's the first album we've done where I used the vintage Sonor drumset I've had for the last 5 years. In fact, the only other session we've done where I used my drums was for Mindful/Songs from Iceland, but honestly, I wasn't crazy about those drums and the drum sound on those albums is not totally what I was going for. This is the first time I feel like I'm hearing my real sound, and our engineer Kjartan Kjartansson did an amazing job at capturing that. He's a drummer himself and he knows me really well, both in regard to how I play and what I like to hear in mixing sessions. That made this a new kind of recording experience for me, and I'm excited that we're about to share it with the world on Nov. 12th at the London Jazz Festival. Hope you can make it.

In the movie "Up in the Air" George Clooney's character finds himself in a profession that requires him to travel constantly. But he doesn't grow weary of the airports. Quite the contrary; he revels in the lifestyle, obsessing over frequent flyer miles like a kid collecting baseball cards.

I'm not quite there yet, but over the last two weeks or so, I've been aboard 7 airplanes. Returning back to Iceland after a wonderful trip to visit and perform in Virginia, I had only two days before boarding a plane to Amsterdam. Once back in Iceland, I flew to Washington DC after 3 days. As a father and musician, this is a surreal blend of sorrow and exhilaration. On the one hand, going away from my wife and two precious daughters is emotionally taxing. But on the other hand, traveling and playing music is what I've always wanted to do, what I feel I was meant to do. And while my girls sometimes tell me they wish I wouldn't go, I can tell they're getting used to the idea. They just tell me to play fast so I can come home sooner. Continue reading »

What could be more interesting than an Icelandic/American organ trio playing tunes by Thelonious Monk? Well, I'm sure there's something but I'm drawing a blank right now. It just so happens that the latest album that I play on is just that: ASA Trio Plays the Music of Thelonious Monk. How's that for a descriptive title?

I've been so busy making the album available and setting up ASA Trio's website that I neglected to even mention it on my own site… until now. There's an incredible amount of work that goes into releasing an album, even after it's released. If you want anyone to know about the album you really have to spend some time plugging it on various websites and whatnot. It takes time, but I've actually started to enjoy it. It helps when you're excited about the album, I suppose.

Partially as a result of my promotional gusto, you can hear an interview with me on The Jazz Session with Jason Crane (via AllAboutJazz.com) where I tell all concerning ASA Trio, this album and more.

We decided to release the album exclusively via Bandcamp.com to begin with, mainly because of the amount of control BC gives artists on how they sell their music. We decided to release it digitally first, with an option to pre-order the CD with a download included. Even now that the physical CD has been released, a download is included when you order a CD and that includes pdfs of the complete artwork. A pretty sweet deal, but if you're not ready to buy, yesterday San Francisco Holiday was the "download of the day" on AllAboutJazz.com and it's still available, so help yourself.

We are playing a CD release concert in Reykjavik on March 24th at Slippsalurinn (Nema Forum). Come on by if you're in town.

I'll be hitting the road next week for 2 gigs to the north of Reykjavik (hard to fathom, I know). I hope the weather will allow it to happen. It can get pretty serious up here.

The dates are Thursday, Nov. 11 at Græni Hatturinn with ASA Trio and Nov. 12 in Sauðurkrókur with Thin Jim (which will include all three members of ASA). ASA Trio will also play the night before (Wednesday Nov. 10th) in Reykjavik at Risið, kicking off the Múlinn concert series.

We will also hold a special workshop at the music school in Akureyri, and teaching private lessons while we're in town.

I made this poster (quickly) and was a little shocked when I saw it printed. The colors turned out a little light and it looks like it could be wallpaper in the baby's room. Not the printer's fault, but if I had more time I would have adjusted the colors. Looks ok on the screen though.