ARI JOSHUA'S RAAR TRIO; On the Making Of “Kambo Wambo (extended version)”
Can you share any interesting or unique musical elements or production techniques used in "Kambo Wambo (extended version)?"
The session was held at the end of the pandemic. Trey Anastasio held an ongoing weekly concert series at The Beacon Theater where he was able to fly in his bandmates and quarantine them as the weeks went by. They raised a bunch of money to open up a rehab center in Vermont. Russ and I had spoken about doing some recording together. I love the organ trio format, and we were about to record remotely as the Beacon Jams were announced. Thanks in part to the protocols they used, I was invited to fly out to Burlington and isolate for some recording. I used the time to compose and rest up. Since then I have been out to Vermont to make music a few times, including another session there at Tank Recording. Ben Collette is the engineer in the session. He has been the audio guy for PHISH for years, so he had some of Trey’s equipment laying around and a lot of really beautiful gear. Other than that this track was basically a one-take wonder. We just played it and ultimately chopped it up to make a shorter version.
The shorter version will come out in September, but meanwhile, this version is about 20 minutes of us just jamming. It was tracked on the first day, we did about 5 days all in all. I played the melody loosely, and then later went and laid down the harmony parts on the melody. Russ is so good at this style of playing, it was a quick one to play. There are a few time changes, and the form is like a 6-bar form, so in some ways, there is an element or a technique there. Those guys are some of my favorite players, just a lot of fun to hang with. Ray had all these stories he would tell on the breaks, and Russ is like the kind of person like I felt like I knew. He has a real east coast thing going on, and having lived out there for a long stretch of time, it was really comforting to be around as well.
Were there any memorable or standout moments during the recording sessions for this release?
Waking up in the ice and snow every day and getting in my rental van and driving across town, going for walks, and just taking in the city. The music is great. There’s a whole batch of music on this release called The RaAR EP. The song for Ray was great to track because it was written for organist Ray Pacskowski. Rae of Light was written for one of my grandmothers, and Grammama was for my other grandmother. The songs really came to life in post-production and mixing. My grandmother Rae passed away shortly after the song was completed, but she had her nurses hold the phone up to her ears all the way up to the end. I packed a lot of love into the song, the lyrics were all for her.
“Rae, soaks up the sun, and smiles the rain away. Rae, even a song could never tell how much you're loved by all”. In this case, the song does tell, but she was just so loved by so many, and she had been through so much. Losing 2 sons, and her husband, and surviving cancer, all of that and still so positive and smiling. The other great moment was driving up the snowy hills to Ray’s place, and rehearsing in a wooden barn. The hours went by and the van got stuck and we pushed it out back on the road from the driveway. Good times.
What do you like the best about "Kambo Wambo (extended version)?"
The solid drum grooves, and clavinet rhythms, and the looseness of it. There are even a few mistakes in there like we were just learning the song. But that’s all good, it’s a point in time. The song was written with plant medicine in mind. It really feels like for a while we get into the jungle, and just sit there in the scenery. The sound of the crickets, and bugs, the artwork is also phenomenal for that. Martin Ontiveros did the art, and it was like I saw it, and that was it.
How do you translate your inspirations into musical ideas and compositions?
I let god do that for me basically. I just try to show up, and be present. If I was asked to write on a deadline or for a topic, I could draw from that. When there is a recording on the horizon, I get inspired by the folks I am about to work with. I write for them, for what I imagine they may vibe with. Other times I just sit down to play and the muse comes out to say hi. Most of the stuff I write never gets heard. It’s really a tip of the iceberg kind of thing. I sit down and make stuff up all the time, maybe 1 in 10 ideas gets written down. Of that maybe 1 out of those 10 may get recorded.
How has technology influenced the way you approach composition?
There was a solid 10-year phase where I used Ableton all the time. I wrote with loops, and I got pretty good and working with midi, and cutting things up on the computer. I miss that. When I get serious, I pull out my boss' looper and write sections and interlocking ideas. Other than that I guess I am pretty old school fundamentally. I have a big hard drive full of sessions on Ableton, I did a deep dive on that. I hope I can find some producers I can jam with, and compose with via the laptops thing. There is no substitute for having a band to work stuff out with regularly. I had some really wonderful periods of time where I had close musical partners. That was the best.
