Grammy-winning saxophonist Bob Reynolds speaks with The Note's Charlie Blasberg about his new record Quartet, his biggest influences on the saxophone, and what it's like to make music with Snarky Puppy.
CB: Who are your biggest influences as a saxophonist?
BR: There are so many! Two standouts are Joshua Redman and Chris Potter. I discovered Joshua's first album when I was in high school, and it knocked me off my feet. I thought, "This is it. This is what I want to do." The way he plays...everything about it spoke to me. The same with Chris Potter. When I heard [young] Chris play, I thought, "Oh my God, nobody plays like this." He's so inventive, so clean and so passionate. Everything he played was perfection. It was as if he worked it all out in advance, except of course he didn't. Those guys have been larger than life influences for me. Outside of that, Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt, Cannonball Adderley, Joe Henderson, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Kirk Whalum, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Stanley Turrentine, Ben Webster, Kenny Garrett, Michael Brecker, and Branford Marsalis. Those are some of the main guys that are up there for me.
CB: What was the inspiration behind Quartet?
BR: The inspiration behind Quartet was that I had started working with this band on a regular basis at a club in Los Angeles called the Baked Potato. We'd play once a month and it didn't take too long before it just seemed different. It jelled in a way I hadn't experienced before. I'd played with each of the players a lot—Janek and I go back more than 20 years to our Berklee College of Music days—but we hadn't played as a unit until that residency began. The more we played, the more apparent it became that everyone was on the same page. I wanted to document what we were discovering as a group. I also knew there was something special we achieved in front of an audience and I wanted to capture that. So that was the idea behind doing it in the studio with a live audience.
As far as the title, Quartet, you know, when you listen to a song like "Stray Voltage" or "Hollywood Start Up," those two songs stand out to me as something unique in the well-worn format of a jazz quartet. It's still piano, bass, drums, and saxophone, but, there's something about the way we're mixing in influences outside of jazz, and the prioritization of melodic connection (vs virtuosic gymnastics) that made me want to say this is my version of a jazz quartet. To be clear I'm not claiming innovation. Just that it feels like a personal stamp on the format. And from John Coltrane's A Love Supreme to Joshua Redman's Moodswing, to Stan Getz's Anniversary, to Branford Marsalis' Crazy People Music to the Yellowjackets...it's a format I've been fascinated by since I started playing.
CB: What is it like to record and tour with Snarky Puppy? How much of the music is improvised and how much is pre-rehearsed?
BR: Well, those are three separate questions. Recording with them is exhilarating, especially since the first record I did with them [We Like It Here] was done live in the studio in front of an audience. I have borrowed that formula for both Guitar Band and Quartet. Snarky Puppy feels like the manifestation of everything I long imagined was possible in instrumental music. That it can be simultaneously engaging on a deep level for audiences and the musicians performing it. Without sacrificing any sophistication. Mike League calls it "music for the brain and the booty" and I can't think of a better mission statement.
Touring with them is a lot of fun! Every night you're playing music that changes because of the current formation of the band and the audience you're performing for. Mike, [the bandleader] has a fantastic way of mixing up the material and the solos to keep everything fresh and exciting. And they're just the best group of guys to be around. So it's pure bliss working with them.
As far as how much of their music is improvised versus composed. I'd say it's about, 70 percent composed, 30 percent improvised. I mean, that's kind of an arbitrary number to assign to it, but it's, it's heavy on the composition for sure. But within that, there's a lot of freedom for it to go any number of directions and especially when you're touring every night, different people are playing on different songs so that changes the the direction of the tunes on a night to night basis.
CB: You have an exciting European tour coming up. Where in Europe is your favorite place to play?
BR: Well, this tour will bring me to a lot of places I've never played before, and all of them I've never played before as a band leader. So it's tricky to pick a favorite. It will always come down to the vibe from the audience.
CB: After you've finished this summer's tour, what is next for Bob Reynolds?
BR: After finishing this tour, I come home and I go straight into some shows with Snarky—including the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, then a recording session with the Yay Yennings Quartet, [one of the trumpet players from Snarky Puppy], then recording a new project of mine with [jazz organist] Larry Goldings at the end of the summer.
Then my saxophone summer camp. I co-founded a retreat a few years ago called the Inside:Outside Retreat for Saxophonists and that's in July. http://insideoutsideretreat.com.
I hope to do more tours with my band in Europe before too long. There may be some touring in Japan in the works, too, so we'll see what happens. It's a ton of work producing and releasing an album and putting a tour like this together! :)
Bob Reynold's album Quartet is available everywhere now. Purchase a copy here or listen on any streaming platform. To learn more about his body of impressive work, visit his website or tune into his vlog for an inside look into the day-to-day life of this amazing musician.
BR: There are so many! Two standouts are Joshua Redman and Chris Potter. I discovered Joshua's first album when I was in high school, and it knocked me off my feet. I thought, "This is it. This is what I want to do." The way he plays...everything about it spoke to me. The same with Chris Potter. When I heard [young] Chris play, I thought, "Oh my God, nobody plays like this." He's so inventive, so clean and so passionate. Everything he played was perfection. It was as if he worked it all out in advance, except of course he didn't. Those guys have been larger than life influences for me. Outside of that, Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt, Cannonball Adderley, Joe Henderson, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Kirk Whalum, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Stanley Turrentine, Ben Webster, Kenny Garrett, Michael Brecker, and Branford Marsalis. Those are some of the main guys that are up there for me.
CB: What was the inspiration behind Quartet?
BR: The inspiration behind Quartet was that I had started working with this band on a regular basis at a club in Los Angeles called the Baked Potato. We'd play once a month and it didn't take too long before it just seemed different. It jelled in a way I hadn't experienced before. I'd played with each of the players a lot—Janek and I go back more than 20 years to our Berklee College of Music days—but we hadn't played as a unit until that residency began. The more we played, the more apparent it became that everyone was on the same page. I wanted to document what we were discovering as a group. I also knew there was something special we achieved in front of an audience and I wanted to capture that. So that was the idea behind doing it in the studio with a live audience.
As far as the title, Quartet, you know, when you listen to a song like "Stray Voltage" or "Hollywood Start Up," those two songs stand out to me as something unique in the well-worn format of a jazz quartet. It's still piano, bass, drums, and saxophone, but, there's something about the way we're mixing in influences outside of jazz, and the prioritization of melodic connection (vs virtuosic gymnastics) that made me want to say this is my version of a jazz quartet. To be clear I'm not claiming innovation. Just that it feels like a personal stamp on the format. And from John Coltrane's A Love Supreme to Joshua Redman's Moodswing, to Stan Getz's Anniversary, to Branford Marsalis' Crazy People Music to the Yellowjackets...it's a format I've been fascinated by since I started playing.
CB: What is it like to record and tour with Snarky Puppy? How much of the music is improvised and how much is pre-rehearsed?
BR: Well, those are three separate questions. Recording with them is exhilarating, especially since the first record I did with them [We Like It Here] was done live in the studio in front of an audience. I have borrowed that formula for both Guitar Band and Quartet. Snarky Puppy feels like the manifestation of everything I long imagined was possible in instrumental music. That it can be simultaneously engaging on a deep level for audiences and the musicians performing it. Without sacrificing any sophistication. Mike League calls it "music for the brain and the booty" and I can't think of a better mission statement.
Touring with them is a lot of fun! Every night you're playing music that changes because of the current formation of the band and the audience you're performing for. Mike, [the bandleader] has a fantastic way of mixing up the material and the solos to keep everything fresh and exciting. And they're just the best group of guys to be around. So it's pure bliss working with them.
As far as how much of their music is improvised versus composed. I'd say it's about, 70 percent composed, 30 percent improvised. I mean, that's kind of an arbitrary number to assign to it, but it's, it's heavy on the composition for sure. But within that, there's a lot of freedom for it to go any number of directions and especially when you're touring every night, different people are playing on different songs so that changes the the direction of the tunes on a night to night basis.
CB: You have an exciting European tour coming up. Where in Europe is your favorite place to play?
BR: Well, this tour will bring me to a lot of places I've never played before, and all of them I've never played before as a band leader. So it's tricky to pick a favorite. It will always come down to the vibe from the audience.
CB: After you've finished this summer's tour, what is next for Bob Reynolds?
BR: After finishing this tour, I come home and I go straight into some shows with Snarky—including the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, then a recording session with the Yay Yennings Quartet, [one of the trumpet players from Snarky Puppy], then recording a new project of mine with [jazz organist] Larry Goldings at the end of the summer.
Then my saxophone summer camp. I co-founded a retreat a few years ago called the Inside:Outside Retreat for Saxophonists and that's in July. http://insideoutsideretreat.com.
I hope to do more tours with my band in Europe before too long. There may be some touring in Japan in the works, too, so we'll see what happens. It's a ton of work producing and releasing an album and putting a tour like this together! :)
Bob Reynold's album Quartet is available everywhere now. Purchase a copy here or listen on any streaming platform. To learn more about his body of impressive work, visit his website or tune into his vlog for an inside look into the day-to-day life of this amazing musician.
