Chet Doxas
The seeds of poetic records can stem from prosaic circumstances – like riding an airport shuttle bus very early one morning. You Can’t Take It With You, the12th album as leader or co-leader from New York-based saxophonist-composer Chet Doxas, had its germinal roots in a conversation Doxas had with Carla Bley and Steve Swallow while on tour in Europe with the band Riverside (also featuring Dave Douglas and Chet’s brother, Jim Doxas). “I had the good fortune of being seated between Steve and Carla on the van’s back bench – where the cool kids sit,” Chet recalls. “I was telling Carla and Steve about how much the music of their trio with saxophonist Andy Sheppard meant to me. That’s when Carla asked me, ‘Well, why don’t you start your own trio?’ In the moment it took my jet-lagged brain to process the idea, she then followed her question with something whispered, almost like a secret: ‘one song a month…’ Before I could turn to her and pry for elaboration, the same secret was whispered in my left ear, only this time by Steve: ‘one song a month…’ What were they talking about? How did this apply to starting my own group? What time is it, again? They were both kind enough to take the rest of the van ride to explain. They meant that I should take an entire month to compose each piece for my new group and that after a year I would have the appropriate amount of music needed to perform and ultimately record with my own trio.”
Doxas took the sage advice to heart, composing methodically and settling on his ideal trio mates. “As I moved through the year, the sound of the trio and its members revealed themselves to me,” he explains. “I knew that to tell these musical stories I would need musicians with pristine tones but also that they be players who approach their instruments with wonder, respect and adventure in every setting. As I composed, the possible cast of players continued to narrow in my mind until only two names remained: Ethan Iverson on piano and Thomas Morgan on double-bass.” The finished result was You Can’t Take It With You, an album of 10 lyrically enticing, rhythmically buoyant Doxas originals that will be released digitally and on CD by the UK’s Whirlwind Recordings on September 24, 2021.
Originally from Montreal but a resident of Brooklyn for nearly a decade, Doxas can be seen with fellow New Yorkers Iverson and Morgan in 10 “live off the floor” videos beautifully shot by top cinematographer Graham Willoughby (20 feet from Stardom, Won’t You be My Neighbor, The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble). The videos present the trio performing each of the tracks from You Can’t Take It With You in the studio. Iverson and Morgan are two of their generation’s most esteemed players, having worked with a who’s who in jazz. “Musical tone is the combination of technique and aural imagination, developed through years of research in the practice room and on the bandstand,” Doxas says. “Both Thomas and Ethan have devoted a lot of consideration to their tones – and you can hear it, and feel it.” About the intimate, interactive atmosphere in the studio, Doxas adds: “We had performed the night before, so we played the tunes in the same order as on the gig. We set up all in the same room, in the round, with no baffling. I like the studio to feel as much like a gig as possible.”
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Current Release
2021
Whirlwind Recordings
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