The initial seed for the project was planted last May at a Red Bull Music Academy event at Manhattan’s Town Hall; a live “Round Robin” of overlapping solo and duo improvisations from a wide, interdisciplinary array of musicians including, in this case, Nels Cline, Daedelus, Petra Haden, Allen Toussaint, and Wadada Leo Smith. Douglas was slotted to perform alongside Shigeto, who on this occasion opted to upset expectations and flaunt his jazz roots with a live drum set performance. Backstage, the two struck up a conversation. Shigeto surprised Douglas by telling him he was a fan of his work; the next night, Douglas went to check out a Shigeto gig. And from these initial sparks, the idea of High Risk was born.
Ultimately the balance between the contradictory working methods of jazz and electronic music – the instantaneous, collaborative creativity of improvisation and the lengthy, time-consuming and usually solitary process of production – came with an approach that utilized aspects of each; one that, Douglas says, “respected the process of both sides.” The recordings for the album were made on one single, highly-charged, improvisation-filled day in the studio, but that day was preceded by four careful months of preparatory work – with Douglas writing tunes, sending tracks and samples back and forth, talking to engineers, and deciding how it would all work – and followed by another four months of post-production.
Douglas credits recording engineer Geoff Countryman – a longtime collaborator – and mixing engineer Steve Wall as being pivotal and integral to the ultimate realization of the record, highlighting Wall’s post-production work in particular: “I almost wanted to credit him as a musician... in fact, he is a musician, and what he did was incredibly musical. He brought in a lot of tricky stuff, with samples, keyboards, effects, and even moving sounds around. A lot of it is obvious when you listen to the record, but a lot of it is very subtle. I am very grateful for Steve's contribution, and that of Geoff in capturing the spontaneous live session. The technology was an important part in bringing all these sounds together.”
The finished product is indeed a highly musical, and highly mutable work – one that defies easy categorization but strikes an immediate and compelling emotional connection. The record traces a loose arc from the calm, meandering, slightly surreal “Molten Sunset” through increasingly dramatic and disjointed sci-fi-delic funk grooves, reaching an apex of sorts with the majestically moody title tune before touching back down on elegantly lush and contemplative album closer “Cardinals,” a fine feature for Maron’s musing bass work. Despite the volatility of this potent confluence of players, and the considerable dynamism each of them brings to the session, there’s a sense of focus and coherence here that sets High Risk apart from the more chaotic, open-ended energy of Douglas’ earlier forays into electronically-enriched jazz, notably 2003’s Freak In and his records with ensemble Keystone, including 2007’s Moonshine and 2010’s Spark of Being.
Comparing it to the other electronic records he’s made over the years, Douglas notes: “I find that every time I dig into a new electronic music project, the technology has changed so much that I almost have to reinvent the process of doing it. That ends up becoming part of the composition process for me.” Similarly, Shigeto describes the innovation that arose from taking an unaccustomed – you might say, risky – approach: “I was afraid I wasn't going to add anything worthwhile playing with these badass cats! In the end it was great and forced me to work in new ways.”
As Douglas sums up the project: “The biggest element is this meeting of the worlds; an openness and willingness to put everything at risk. I wanted to create a situation where we really were at risk, we were on a high wire, where the exigencies of being in the moment and creating with your wits from one second to the next was what it was about.” High stakes, high reward. High Risk.
High Risk Tour Dates:
APRIL 20 - Impart Art Center - Wroclaw, PL
APRIL 21 - New Morning - Paris, FR
APRIL 23 - Jazz Dock - Prague, CZ
APRIL 24 - Radio Kraków - Kraków, PL
APRIL 25 - Escuela de Música Andrés Isasi de Las Arenas - Gexto, ES
APRIL 26 - Teatro Principal - Santiago de Compostela, ES
APRIL 27 - Teatro Lara - Madrid, ES
APRIL 28 - Schuttershof - Middelburg, NL
APRIL 29 - Stadtgarten - Koln, DE
APRIL 30 - Maison Pour Tous Voltaire - Montpellier, FR
JUNE 25 - Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival - Rochester, NY
JUNE 26 - TD Ottawa International Jazz Festival - Ottawa, Canada
JUNE 30 - Montreal Jazz Festival - Montreal, Canada
JULY 1 & 2 - Constellation - Chicago, IL
JULY 3 - Iowa City Jazz Festival - Iowa City, Iowa
