The following is jazz journalist Morgan Enos’s interview with alto saxophonist, composer, and arranger Alden Hellmuth. Her new album, Good Intentions, featuring guitarist Lucas Kadish, trumpeter Josh Evans, bassist Kanoa Mendenhall, and drummer Timothy Angulo, was released 6 September via Fresh Sound New Talent Records.
Links to purchase Good Intentions, and to Hellmuth’s website, can be found at the end of this article.
Aiden Hellmuth’s debut album fully consists of original music. From a certain perspective this is a gutsy move, but to her this kind of move is integral – not only as a composer, but as an improviser.
“Composing is how you find your voice; it is your voice, and improvising is composing,” she tells UK Jazz News. “Some people will play standards and compose that way, but I feel really drawn to writing my own music. It feels very therapeutic.”
Growing up, her parents were decidedly not jazz musicians: her mother loves Billy Joel, her father, rock and Earth, Wind, & Fire. In eighth grade, Hellmuth discovered Charlie Parker.
What’s transpired since has been led not only by raw talent, or a facility with composition, but plain old Good Intentions.
UK Jazz News: I love a good alto-and-guitar front line. Can you talk about that pairing?
Alden Hellmuth: I’ve played with Lucas quite a bit in New York – we used to have a weekly gig in Bushwick – so we already had a deep musical connection and understanding.
Using the guitar as a voice instead of a comping instrument is one of my favourite ways people use guitar in jazz. It provides so many different textures. There are also a couple of tracks where he’s using effects; Lucas’s pedalboard is amazing, so it provides us with a lot of sounds to work with.
UKJN: Which jazz guitarists do you gravitate to the most?
AH: When I was in high school, getting into jazz, I didn’t listen to Kurt [Rosenwinkel] or anyone from that era. Where I grew up, in Hartford, they were very much ingraining the tradition into us – which I’m grateful for now, but it means that I came into modern jazz later.
So, I finally listened to [Rosenwinkel’s 2001 album] The Next Step, like, three years ago. That’s a great record – better late than never. Kurt is a huge inspiration, and Bill Frisell: talk about texture, sound, and space. I mean, these are the people who changed how we play guitar. Do you play guitar?
UKJN: Yeah, but I can’t play jazz. I just make singer/songwriter music.
AH: That’s cool. I wish I could play guitar. I think it’s the best instrument to write on; there’s so much you can get out of even just a simple chord, and it sounds so good.
UKJN: Let’s drill into a couple of key original tunes.
AH: “Biting the Hand” is a very Ornette-inspired song, I’m sure you can tell. It was just a melody that came to me, and I tried to keep it really open. So, whatever happens, happens with that one. It’s really fun to play live.
“Whirl”: I’m so inspired by Steve Lehman. He actually grew up in my hometown, and instead of Hartt, he went to Wesleyan, and studied with Anthony Braxton. So, it’s this meshing of two worlds that I love.
I think the music that he makes is the coolest stuff ever. I find a lot of inspiration in the way that he plays with rhythm, through contrasting or modulating metres or adding a 16th note to the end of a phrase. It’s just this really unique sound.
So, I was writing at the piano, and I ended up really feeling this stretching of time. It took some time to figure out what I was really hearing. That one was definitely inspired by Ingrid Laubrock and Kris Davis; there are a lot of modern composers who bend and play with time within their pieces, who I just love.
It just feels like a really interesting space to get into, where there are really intricate rhythms or metre changes, but it still sounds intuitive, and not unnatural. Jonathan Finlayson, too: that whole school of musicians is some of my favourite stuff to listen to, so it’s inspired me a lot.
UKJN: Good Intentions is a very solid debut. I’ve seen just-as-good follow-ups get half the press. In this oversaturated landscape, how do you plan to keep your momentum going?
Thank you so much. The thing is, the music I create falls under the category of jazz, so at this point in my life, I’ve come to accept that it’s probably not going to ever be in the mainstream. It’s just a completely different deal. It would be super cool if it were to make it into the mainstream, but that’s not my intention with the art I make.
At the end of the day, I’m just doing it for myself, which [could come across] as a very selfish thing to say. I’m expressing myself. But of course my greatest hope is that people do resonate with my work and can feel the emotions and energy I, and my bandmates, have put into it. The industry does make it hard to be authentic, and present that to the world.
I’ve talked to Ambrose [Akinmusire] a bit about this, because he’s the artistic director of the Herbie Hancock Institute right now. He’s been a really incredible mentor to me, especially in regard to putting out this first record – talking about making art in this current landscape and culture.
You really have to think about, Who am I doing this for? What am I doing this for? How am I going to continue to do this, and make peace with certain aspects of it?
Ambrose is someone whose art has resonated with so many people. A[nother] friend said this to me recently, and it really hit hard: “Making it in art is making art.” I really strongly believe in that: you’ve got to keep putting out art. Hopefully it resonates with people, but it’s not the priority.
