Late last fall, word suddenly got out about SML, Los Angeles’ latest torchbearers of slanted jazz. Following a snazzy New York Times profile and a second album that teased their squiggly sound out to delightful new levels, the quintet had two dates set at Frogtown scenester mainstay Zebulon, with each night comprising two sets in the round. Last time they played at Zeb, it was a similar two-night affair to celebrate the release of their 2024 debut LP—though both of those shows were free. This time, both nights were selling so fast that they had to add a third.
The excitement had taken a minute to reach boiling point. Building off their formative performances at now-defunct Highland Park oyster bar/jam station ETA, the five-piece SML emerged as one of the most freewheeling units to spin off from what Jeff Parker kicked off in the city years before. Bassist Anna Butterss and saxophonist Josh Johnson both remain part of his acclaimed ETA IVtet, among the band’s many other illustrious credits. But where Parker’s sound balances restrained, misty wanderings with a lurching sense of rhythm, SML are openly discombobulating listeners with each performance. The inclusion of Jeremiah Chiu on modular synthesizer launches the possibilities of an SML set from mere jazz into total cosmic disarray. Attendees might be treated to something akin to a Fela Kuti set as held by Berlin’s Zodiak Free Arts Lab, or Pharoah Sanders if he got chewed up by one of Raymond Scott’s contraptions, or Medeski, Martin and Wood as a noise-rock band. It’s dialed in, but off the rails.
No score yet, be the first to add.
Spontaneous Music Live is particularly noteworthy, as, until now, the group’s only recordings have emerged via a highly unusual process. The band has never convened in a studio, doesn’t rehearse, and avoids discussing whatever it’s going to play (outside of rinsing Live at the Plugged Nickel and Sextant before sets to get in the zone). SML simply record what happens onstage, then take turns editing and reassembling the results into the short, oddball collages that make up their first two albums. Given the group’s dedication to live performance, the raw material itself is obviously the soul of this music. Spontaneous Music Live documents that three-night Zebulon stint from late last year in two side-long chunks, roughly 24 minutes apiece. Captured and mixed by ETA’s resident recording wizard, Bryce Gonzales, it’s a thrilling snapshot of the quintet riding a joyous high.
If there’s a grounding principle to SML’s sound, it’s a buzz that comes baked into the music itself. As their performances tend to do, both of these tracks coalesce around a canter at about 130 BPM—fast enough to keep heads bobbing without going full Agharta. “The Drums” puts percussionist Booker Stardrum in the driver’s seat: Evolving from a steady rumble of toms and side sticks into a full-steam swing, his playing is muscular yet hypnotic, providing a shifting frame for the rest of the players to decorate. Johnson and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann blast out scattershot flecks of melody, honking out playfully dissonant call-and-responses as if they were two Echo Park geese getting into a fight. Butterss subtly steers the ship, spelling out melodies on their bass that ground all the disparate elements into something resembling a song.
