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Robin Eubanks of SF JAZZ CollectiveTrombonist and Composer Robin Eubanks On Horace Silver and SF JAZZ

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The SF JAZZ Collective has earned a worldwide reputation for keeping the tradition of post-bopcomposition and arrangement alive. Although the personnel changes every year, players who fit the goalsand process of the organization particularly well get invited back, and trombonist Robin Eubanks is a primexample of that elite group within the group. Eubanks writes great originals, does funky, challenging yet

playable arrangements, and roars on his horn. I spoke with him recently about the group, its tour, and hiscontributions to this year, which is dedicated to the music of Horace Silver.

Hows the repertoire shaping up? What kind of music can we expect?

Everyone has to bring in a Horace Silver arrangement plus an original composition. I picked something Ihad actually never heard before, a tune called The Lady from Johannesburg. I cued up about 80 songs bHorace Silver on Rhapsody and thats the one I chose. The original has some great personnelMikeBrecker, Ron Carter, Lewis Nash, and my friend Steve Turre on trombone. It was recorded back in 1996,and I just did one of my usual numbers on it. The original I wrote is funk based, and its in an unusual timsignature5, or maybe 7, I forget which.

How do you go from your big book of tunes to a set list for that particular night?

When we create the evenings set list we need to look at a number of things. Theres the type of song andhow thats sequenced, because you dont necessarily want to follow a ballad with a ballad, for instance, sowe try to balance that. With 16 songs to choose from you also need to have some respect for set form, andfor the contributions that each guy has made. Its a puzzle, but we figure it out.

SF JAZZ has a tradition of working hard before hitting the road. Is that being kept up?

Weve been rehearsing 6 hours a day for over a week now, and ask any jazz musician and youll find out

that that is not the norm. Even so, given the ambition and complexity of this music were still not at 100percent now, but well get there. We have four nights at Jazz Alley from February 25 through February 28booked as our first gig, and thats a great place to play that will give us a chance to really find the groove front of a good audience.

You keep coming back to this group, so you must like it. Whats so special about the Collective?

I love the SF JAZZ Collective. Its a great organization to work for, especially if you care about writing an

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arranging. They pay us well, they put us up, and they are open to our suggestions. As a result, the bandtends to attract top players. The new additions this year are all excellent. We have Ed Simon on piano, andhes somebody Ive known about for a while because he used to work with my brother Kevin. We were ona tour together that took us to Aruba, and its been nice to see him again. Mark Turner plays sax with theDave Holland Big Band as well, so you know hes got to be good. The trumpeter, Avishai Cohen, wassomeone I did not know so well, but from what I have heard so far, I am really impressed. Hes great.

What kind of a tour do you have planned?

We get to go to Amsterdam, and you know, when a jazz group books a European tour, typically the first twquestions that a musician will ask are how long do we get to spend in Amsterdam? and are we going toItaly? This time the answers are both good, because we are going to Italy, and were spending three whodays in Amsterdam. [Laughs.]

What makes SF JAZZ special for you?

Every year its brand new. Thats both the beauty of it and the hard part of it, because its a shame to put athis work into the arrangements and then throw it all away at the end of the year because were on to a new

composer. To be compensated for this type of work is a dream. Of course no one would do it if theywerent, but still. For me, its one among many great opportunities, because Im also playing with DaveHolland, and teaching at Oberlin, so Im keeping busy.

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SF JAZZ Collective will appear at UCSBs Campbell Hall on Tuesday, March 2 at 8pm.