Big Time in Germany

I’m featured in the latest issue of Jazzthetik Magazine in Germany. This is probably the most media exposure I’ve had as a leader. Finally, I can make my wife jealous of me for a change. ;-)

The journalist Angela Balhorn was here for the Reykjavik Jazz Festival in August and we had a nice long chat at a cafe – which became the basis of this article. Here's a translation in case you don’t read German.

SCOTT MCLEMORE – Ever Onward in the Multiverse

There are many reasons why jazz musicians leave their home countries: the situation at home, more performance opportunities, better pay, or—most often—love. Drummer Scott McLemore belongs to the last group.

Scott McLemore’s path led him, together with Icelandic pianist Sunna Gunnlaugs, from Virginia Beach through Brooklyn to Kópavogur, just south of Reykjavík. Over twenty years, he has settled in well; his band The Multiverse has now released its third album, Onward.

“I knew I’d sound like an idiot at first,” he laughs, “but I wanted to fit in and learn the language. Now when I travel back home, people ask me where I’m from—apparently, I don’t sound like an American anymore.” Looking back, he says that without Sunna Gunnlaugs, who is extremely organized in everything, including scholarship applications, he’d probably still be living in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, playing odd gigs and a few shows of his own music.

During his time in New York, he focused on finding his own musical identity and discovering which musicians fit his vision. “When I came to Iceland, I started getting calls for gigs I’d never done before—a country gig, for instance. Or a fusion gig with the old Hammond organist Þórir Baldursson, because his drummer had moved up north. I did it, even though I’d never played in a fusion band before. In New York, you have all that music around you, but your mission there is to figure out who you are.”

In Iceland, McLemore realized that some musicians there were far more rooted in straight-ahead jazz than he was. “I’ve always gravitated more toward European jazz. One of my inspirations has been Jon Christensen. Another influence is Jack DeJohnette, and I love Joey Baron. The instrumentation of my band has stayed largely the same, but a lot else has evolved. The band is a multiverse—a kind of parallel-reality band.”

The current lineup features Hilmar Jensson on electric guitar, Andrés Þór on electric and acoustic guitars and pedal steel (especially on the pop-leaning Keep The Flow), and Nicolas Moreaux on bass. A jazz band with two guitarists is unusual—but even more so because Scott McLemore writes his pieces for the band on piano. “I’m fascinated by the guitar, but I don’t understand it. It’s a mystery to me how anyone can play that instrument. It doesn’t make sense to me. When I hear someone play it well, it’s pure magic.”

McLemore now records podcasts for his website and documents his creative process on Patreon. The audience numbers are modest, but the discipline of filming himself composing and arranging, explaining what he’s doing, and letting others witness his creative thought process has imposed a new kind of structure on him. For people interested in how creative work comes about, it’s a treasure trove.

“Here in Iceland, the scene is small but very diverse.”

The name of Scott McLemore’s band The Multiverse comes from a composition on the first album. “That piece got its name because I felt like the same phrase kept reappearing, slightly altered each time. It was as if I were constantly writing new versions of the same piece. Even the key keeps changing. Hilmar [Jensson, guitar] hated the tune, because every time he thought he knew it, another version appeared.”

McLemore’s original musical plan had been quite different. He had talked with John Abercrombie about recording a trio album together with bassist Drew Gress, both of whom he knew from New York. “I got to play with John Abercrombie a few times in the year before he passed away. I had his sound in my head while writing the music, which is why one track on the new album is called Knowing—a dedication to Abercrombie. When he died, I didn’t know what to do. Sunna suggested several guitarists I could record with, but I was unsure. The more I thought about it, though, the more I became fascinated by the idea of how two guitars could sound together.”

Thus the instrumentation of the band was born. Over the years, several personnel changes occurred, and McLemore hadn’t originally planned to make another Multiverse album. “On the first record, Mats Eilertsen played bass and Pierre Perchaud guitar. Then we were invited to play at jazzahead!, but Pierre was unavailable. So I asked David Dorůžka, whom I’d known from New York. He had been living in Paris and was coincidentally recommended by Nico Moreaux. That changed things again, even though the instrumentation stayed the same. The band really is a multiverse—a parallel reality.”