Questions for Chris Enright

On November 15th, composer and pianist Chris Enright will open the Jazz at the Gardner series with a performance at 7pm. We talked with Chris recently about his music.

Tell us a little about the music you’ll be playing. Any stories behind how any of these tunes came into being?
We’ll be playing at least one movement from my “Blessed Are The Forgetful” suite. It was originally an extended composition project I had to do while I was at Berklee.

I had a hard time getting rolling, and found most of the writing for the project to be too academic. If you spend enough time studying music, it’s pretty easy to over-think things and micromanage a piece. At the time, I was working for one of my former music teachers, Ran Blake, who often writes pieces inspired by various Hitchcock films. So I decided to write a suite inspired by one of my favorite films, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” It really opened things up for me and I started fusing the technique I’d gained from Berklee, with my own compositional voice. I use this technique with a lot of my pieces.

Talk a little about your first compositional experience.
I was still in high school, but commuting to the University of Maine at Augusta to play in Steve Grover’s ensemble. I’d been studying with Steve and he was always encouraging me to give writing a try. When I put together a tune that seemed pretty solid, Steve asked me to arrange it for the group. Up to that point most of my musical experiences were pretty introverted, with no real collaboration between peers. This was a group of musicians who’d had experience playing, improvising, and even writing in ensembles. It was a pretty big leap for me, and having the piece played was very exposing. Not only are you showcasing your own soul, you’re placing trust in other musicians to interpret it for themselves. I remember one of the players suggesting the tune was too “bubbly.” It was funny because anybody who knows me knows I don’t have a particularly “bubbly” personality. That’s an additional frustration: having to settle for a piece that simply ‘works’ compositionally rather than a piece that is genuine in self-expression.

You grew up in New England. Do you think the area, and Boston in particular, has a recognizable style when it comes to music, and jazz in particular? How did being in Boston, and at Berklee, influence you?
Since Boston is the academic capital of the country, most of the musicians I’ve heard and played with come from all around the world. In that regard, the influence is extremely widespread. That’s not to say that Boston doesn’t have it’s own musical identity, I just haven’t been away from school long enough to pick up on it. The fact that regionalized music is slowly fading doesn’t help either. With mp3s, an underground artist on the west coast can influence musicians almost as easily as a prominent local artist.

You’ll be playing a combination of standards and original music. As a composer, what do you take from standards? Have the standards you’ll be playing influenced your own style of writing, of playing?
Being a pianist I often have the mixed blessing of thinking in chords, voicings and structures for pieces, but being forced to intellectualize melodic composition. To break the habit, I try and follow through on everything that a standard delivers melodically: development of a theme, phrasing, accessibility, etc.

As for my playing, everything that pertains to composition is applicable to the piano. In fact, the best solos are merely a form of spontaneous composition (I’d like to think that my compositions are an extension of my playing, and vice-versa), so standards influence my playing the same way they do my composing.

Have you been to the Gardner Museum before? Any thoughts on how the visual arts and music intersect, for you personally?
The Gardner Museum is one of my favorite places to visit. I remember going there as a kid and having a very detailed image of the courtyard. After revisiting it a decade later, that image in my head was spot-on. It really does leave that strong an impression.

As with everything, I find visual arts seem to come to life when they’re mixed with music. It pulls me into the story associated with a painting, and makes it more dramatic. Sometimes I’ll even visit a museum and bring my mp3 player, trying to find tunes that seem to fit with a particular painting. I hope people find that the atmosphere of the museum, and the music we perform, compliment each other well.

Listen to Chris’s music at http://chrisenright.net/.