J. J. Wright
Biography
J. J. Wright's style cannot be easily categorized. Trained as a jazz improviser at the New School for Jazz in NYC, he's also passionate about sacred music. Palestrina and Bach vie with Monk and Cannonball Adderley as just a few of his harmonic and melodic inspirations.
While with the U.S. Naval Academy Band, Wright performed for the President — as well as several other high-profile diplomatic gigs — and with the Caribbean Jazz Project: Afro Bop Alliance, recording and performing with vibraphonist Dave Samuels, which was nominated for a GRAMMY and won a Latin GRAMMY.
He recently recorded his debut album of original compositions and covers from Jon Brion, Sufjan Stevens, and Phil Collins. He is joined by Nate Wood on drums and Ike Sturm on bass and will release the album in conjunction with a U. S. tour in August 2014.
J. J. is Director of Music at Sacred Heart Parish, the crypt church underneath the University of Notre Dame's Basilica of the Sacred Heart, and is the editor and creator of Sacred Music at Notre Dame's online journal: ND Music and the Sacred.
When he's not busy pursuing a DMA at Notre Dame's program in Sacred Music or or studying conducting with Carmen-Helena Tellez, he's a husband and father to three beautiful children.
"Inward Looking Outward" Release Info
The original idea and motivation for this record came in a sudden flash of inspiration. This flash was comprehensible to me both as an image in my mind and a set of ideas that explained the image.
The image itself was a traditional Christian cross, but in a way I had never seen with nine diagonal spokes evenly spaced above the cross's horizontal beam. In this image I understood that the central point of my reality, or my lived experience, would be directly in the center, where the horizontal and vertical beams met.
Some traditions would call this centeredness or Beginner's Mind, but to see this meeting place on the cross as the representation of the unity of body/soul or Christ's human and divine nature, where a life is truly lived both figuratively and literally in the center, are common themes in traditional Christian theology.
The image I saw expanded on this theme by exemplifying the journeying nature of my experience in trying to live out of this "center". When I try remain in the center, to varying degrees, I either veer more towards an over-spiritualization or an over-physicalization of my experience, thus leading me away from the center at a different angle relative to my particular preference at the time.
My view of this picture has changed over time: in my youthful overzealousness, when I first saw the image I thought the goal was only to work my way towards the vertical beam and thus towards Heaven and Christ. But through the experience of writing, recording, and releasing the music I have begun to see that what I am truly getting at is a desire to remain in the center - the most dangerous place, both looking entirely to heaven and to earth and hoping to live out of this place of contemplation and action.
I aimed to view this project in the most comprehensive and integrative way possible. This experience has afforded me the opportunity to pursue my dreams and to go through the process of making real what I could only once imagine. I aimed to let the discovery process or composing, arranging and practicing the music inform my experience and understanding of all the things in my life and vice versa - my marriage, my relationship with my children, my academic studies, my spirituality and emotional well-being, as well as my development as a musician. This is the underlying motivation behind the track order and song choices on the album.
I had originally intended to keep the "Journey Towards Christ" (JTC) set together and preserve the integrity of the order in which I composed these pieces. But through the process I realized that this particular ideal was not the only motivating factor or foundation for decision. There was something more important here: taking the listener on this journey through the rhetorical aesthetics of the music itself; drawing the listener into the way that each particular song feels and creating the emotional arc that would best exemplify the feeling that arises in me when I consider the ideas from above.
This is also why I chose to cover songs from Phil Collins, Jon Brion, and Sufjan Stevens - first and foremost, they are songs that I have a deep emotional bond with for different reasons, but also they act as signposts for the listener to remind them that we are here together on this earth and sharing in this common thing that we can both understand and contextualize.
The title "Inward Looking Outward" is a lingual attempt to capture the center and subsequent journeys away from the center that I referred to earlier, but also to exemplify the multi-layered process involved in creating this work. My primary aim is twofold:
- to use the musical material to communicate something deeper, surely something to explore - a more meaningful and loving relationship with ourselves, each other, and with God, and
- to create something truly beautiful and meaningful for myself and for our world.
The CD is set to be released on Ropeadope Records on Tuesday, August 19th and will be available on bandcamp, iTunes, and other major retailers.
Play List
| 1 | JTC II | Eclectic. Smorgasboard. Upbeat. Traveling. Bass & drums hold the line. Nice drum work in penultimate movement. |
| 2 | JTC I | Piano first. Tentative beginnings. Invitatory? Where is that rhythm going? Full, lush sound for a while. Switches gears a couple of times. Sweetens toward the end. Then drums dominate. Surprise, short ending. |
| 3 | JTC V | Sounds like it could be given lyrics. Hymnody. Gospel song feel. Prayer meeting. Preach it, brother! Turns thoughtful in the middle. Posing questions. Strong and confident. "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" kind of structure and feel? Coda: back to the original melody, I think. |
| 4 | Little Person |
John Brion. I'm just a little person I do my little job And somewhere, maybe someday "I know you Life is precious every minute We'll take a road trip way out west Somewhere, maybe someday
|
| 5 | JTC IV | Practically scat opening. Minimalist middle. Softens, sweetens, warms up at the end. |
| 6 | The Transfiguration |
Sufjan Stevens When he took the three disciples to the mountainside to pray Then there came a word of what he should accomplish on the day What he said to them, the voice of God, the most beloved son Lost in the cloud, a voice Lost in the cloud, a voice Lost in the cloud, a voice Lost in the cloud, a voice Lost in the cloud, a voice Lost in the cloud, a voice
|
| 7 | Consolations | Exploratory at first. Heavy and dark in the middle. Lightens up a bit — a few joyful cascades. Back to the darkness, somewhat relieved by a few rays of light. Tentative at the end. A few notes on the piano. |
| 8 | JTC III | Another hymn/gospel opening. Meditative. Power underneath. Deep bass. Sweet all the way through — no changeups. |
| 9 | Take Me Home |
Phil Collins Take that look of worry Seems so long I've been waiting So take, take me home Take that look of worry, mine's an ordinary life So take, take me home But I don't remember
|
Thoughts
Definitely not obviously religious.
"JTC" is the most evident sign of devotion.
- The essential elements of jazz: "good beat - good ideas - honesty and true feeling."
For an esoteric audience? Just for a few?
Jazz sort of irreligious or anti-religious?
Peter O'Brien, Mary Lou Williams, and Cecil Taylor.
Turn Around Norman — "We Turn Around"
Previous CD, 2011.
- Wright cites minimalists Steve Reich and John Adams as big influences, and those sources of inspiration can be heard on tracks like “Transparency I & II” and “Awakening,” but Wright’s songs share some of the eccentric and circuitous harmonic progressions of his bandmates’ songs.