Brad Schoeppach's Guitar, Dave Douglas' Trumpet

Originally posted on December 4, 2007

A little jazz guitar to talk about today. One of the more interesting new jazzmen on the scene in the past decade or so has been Dave Douglas, trumpeter, composer and band leader. He has embarked on all kinds of projects, from the radical Jewish culture recordings of John Zorn to Miles Davis electric tribute bands. A smaller group of his, called the Tiny Bell Trio, has an interesting lineup. As of the 1997 Arabesque release (“Live in Europe”) it was Douglas on trumpet, Jim Black on drums, and Brad Schoeppach on electric guitar.

It is a good example of how the most modern, cutting-edge ensembles in this music play with different genres. Listening to Schoeppach’s role in the group, you hear him lay down chord foundations for Douglas, dabble in rock-fusion guitar wizardry, construct convoluted abstract scrabbles of guitar lines and guitar sounds, and make reference to pop, ethnic and other musics. Brad plays some very nice guitar here and the trio excels in creating their own contrasting worlds of music, shifting from cut to cut, restless, abstract yet earthy. It is good stuff.