What do you get when you put a rock drummer, a trumpeter and a jazz pianist together? Apparently, a strong desire to achieve the almost impossible – an entire show that is completely improvised.
'The Others', the brainchild of pianist and composer Paul Grabowsky, jazz trumpeter James Morrison, and Spiderbait's Kram, came about from a moment of inspired conversation, and waited its turn through years and pandemics, to find the perfect moment to rise up."Kram and I had a jam at a festival many years ago," Paul recounts its origins, "and he expressed his interest in playing music outside of what he normally does.
"He had a similar conversation with James, and after that, I got a call to fly up to James' home studio, for a day of playing and recording. It was really fun, and we felt we had something going on.
"Five years later, we started to do shows, and it was fantastic. Now I've got this kind of relationship with QPAC, and they said, 'what would you like to do?' And I thought, well, resurrect this project, and add a fourth person, being [yidaki instrumentalist] William Barton, who I love. He's a great creative individual and will introduce a whole new element into what we do."
While Grabowsky spent many years playing within jazz, he has since expanded his genres. However, jazz was a brilliant place to develop his improvisational skills, a concept he expounds upon.
"Jazz is only one way of approaching improvisation, it's a language which belongs to a particular way of doing things. But with improvised music, it really doesn't matter what you bring to the table, as long as you're good at it and open to having a wide-ranging, relational, musical conversation, then it can result in anything. It's a wide open space.
"What drew me to jazz in the first place was the idea of freedom, of being able to express myself at the instrument without having to play the notes in front of me. I was trained as a classical pianist, but that was never gonna be it for me.
"I wanted to be in the moment, as jazz allows you to do. It allows you to be free without a net, and try stuff out and be self-reliant; and to be in tune with what everybody else is doing. The energy becomes a collective energy, so everything you give is part of that."
Collaboration has been a transformative part of Grabowsky's career. One of his dearest collaborations was with the Ngukurr people in remote Northern Territory, who taught him about manikay (song cycles) and unlocked a whole new world of sound for the composer, leaving its mark upon him forever.
"It is one of the oldest musical forms in the world, and it's living and dynamic. It's part of a tradition which goes back into a very indeterminate past. They've kept it alive because it's an expression of life itself.
"At the heart of manikay is this idea of the interconnectedness of all things, how everything is in relation to everything else. It's a very old idea, but also a very new idea, because it's what quantum physics talks about too.
"These people are very generous and open-minded. Once they understood what I was trying to do was not take something away and make it my own, but to genuinely enter into a collaborative, conversational project with them, then they were extremely excited and willing to go on that journey. It's been amazing and life changing for me."
Grabowsky's compositions often walk a jagged line between consonance and dissonance, creating intricate soundscapes that enthral. He reflects this could mirror the way in which he sees the world.
"I've used the word relational a couple of times. I'm coming to understand in my reading that we live in a relational universe. Everything exists in a relation to everything else, and you can only define a thing in terms of its relationship to something else.
"I'm very interested in that, because music is a perfect way of expressing that particular thing. Everything in music is relational. Sometimes music is consonant, sometimes it's dissonant. My music tends to go between those worlds; and I guess, that is the way I understand life. Life is complex and beautiful."
One of Grabowsky's most unexpected collaborations was with jazz legend Chet Baker, towards the end of his life. "I was living in Germany at the time. I had a piano, bass and drums jazz trio. We were playing in a jazz club in Cologne and Chet turned up and said, 'I'd like to sit in'. So I said, 'of course you can sit in'.
"So he played the drums and a bit of piano. Then I saw him in New York, and he invited me to sit in with his band at the Village Vanguard, which was a real thrill; and shortly after that, he passed away."
Looking at the line-up and setting for Grabowsky's latest collaboration, his improvisations are sure to be inflected with the stories of his past meeting the joys of his present in a once in a lifetime moment.
The Art Of The Possible With Paul Grabowsky presents 'The Others' at QPAC (Brisbane) on 17 January.
