The following is jazz journalist Morgan Enos’s interview with flautist, composer, and bandleader Elsa Nilsson. She’s a member of Esthesis Quartet – alongside pianist Dawn Clement, bassist Emma Dayhuff, and drummer Tina Raymond – whose new album, Sound & Fury, featuring special guest guitarist Bill Frisell, was released 9 May via Sunnyside Records. Links to purchase the album and visit Nilsson’s website can be found at the end of this article.
“Rainbow Sign is what made me come back alive after COVID,” Elsa Nilsson tells me – a sentiment I understand deeply. That textural, personal 2020 album by the late trumpeter Ron Miles, and his final release as a bandleader before his death in 2022, was my first encounter with his playing, and it lit me on fire.
But for Nilsson and her Esthesis Quartet bandmate Dawn Clement, the connection ran far deeper. They each studied under Miles at formative points in their lives and sent him music during his final days. His influence echoes throughout the group’s new album Sound & Fury, shaped as much by his absence as by his presence.
Originally envisioned as a collaboration with Miles, Sound & Fury became a tribute, completed with the quiet power of one of his closest collaborators, the titanic guitarist Bill Frisell.
Read on for the full interview.
UK Jazz News: I was just thinking about Ron Miles, naturally. I discovered him super late. I was still getting my footing in the jazz world, but Rainbow Sign had come out, and that was the record that really dazzled me. Then he was just gone. How has it been for you all since losing him?
Elsa Nilsson: I mean, loss is a nebulous concept. Dawn definitely worked closer with Ron than I did. I would see him when he was in New York, and I got to see him at the last show he did at the Vanguard – which was the first week the Vanguard reopened.
I went out to Dawn’s place in Denver when they did the memorial concert, which was the same music – just without Ron. It was a really bizarre experience because I could still hear him. They had taken his lines and arranged them through the music. It was one of those very clear depictions of how we embody our humanity in what we play and what we write. You can’t hide who you are when you create music.
UKJN: For those who may be less aware of Mr. Miles, how would you elucidate his stature and his place in this world?
EN: I would call Ron Miles a silent giant. The people who know about him are unequivocal: he’s one of the greats. But he’s kind of under the radar for a lot of people. The way he approached music, the way he lived his life, the way he functioned as an educator and as a friend, it was so powerful and so multidimensional. Even if you don’t know much about him or his work, you’ve probably heard him [via others’ music]. And you’ve definitely heard people influenced by him.
UKJN: How would you summarise your connection with the other three in the quartet, personally and creatively?
EN: This quartet is magic. It’s four very different humans who create from very different perspectives. When we get together, it’s kind of explosive. It can be tricky to keep it together with everyone living in different time zones, but I’ve grown a lot as a composer and musician from working with Tina, Dawn, and Emma. Everyone has such different approaches and mindsets. It’s a really beautiful group to be working with.
UKJN: Can you talk about the importance and inspiration of Bill?
EN: When we were applying for the CMA [Chamber Music America] grant, Bill was one of the first names that came up. It was Ron, and then Bill. The way he plays and the way he exists in the music was kind of the missing link in how we were playing with each other, how we were thinking about music. Anyone who’s interacted with Bill knows he doesn’t say much, so our work and rehearsals with him were really just us playing together for hours and hours.
It changed how we listened to each other; it informed my choices with sound, with tone. Bill’s ability to hold space with really open ears was what drew us to him, and it’s what brought the music together on the record.
UKJN: Can you speak to how the material came together?
EN: My and Dawn’s material came together in a similar way. When Ron was passing, there was a Google Drive being shared among people close to him to give their farewells. I improvised something and uploaded it there. I had already told Ron what he meant to me and what an inspiration he was, so there wasn’t much left to say – but the melody I played, which was the last thing of me that he heard, became the basis for ‘Just Come Play’.
Dawn had also been discussing concepts with Ron and working with him for years. Those ideas inspired her pieces. There’s a lot of Ron in the music just because of the way he projected energy.
UKJN: Can you expand on that a little bit?
EN: My first interaction with Ron was when I was 18. He was playing a show in Seattle, and I asked him for a lesson. He said, “No, but you can come hang out with me for a day.” So I did. I showed up at his hotel, and we did a six-hour session. Rudy Royston was there – he had just started playing with him – and we played the whole time.
He told me things that became the foundation for how I think about music and creating in this idiom. A lot of it was: you have to be who you are, but you have to be that to the fullest. That’s how you project humanity into the music. He wasn’t flowery about it; he was direct, clear. Having a conversation with him felt exactly the same as listening to him play.
UKJN: Can you speak more to the vibe of the Sound & Fury session, the interplay in the moment, and the chemistry?
EN: Because we’re all in different places and come together so intensely, everything we do is very compressed. It’s almost dense in texture. We recorded a lot of tunes very quickly.
It felt like making sculptures out of glass: solid, but very clear. Everyone was super focussed. There’s no “we could do it tomorrow,” because people are flying out the next day. So the intensity was very high.
We’d also just had two days of six-hour rehearsals with Bill, so we were really in it. We were in booths, and Dawn and Bill were in the big room together, but we all had sight lines. It felt like a full day of just leaning in.
UKJN: What do you four have coming up?
EN: We don’t have any gigs on the docket as a band right now, just because booking is tricky with everyone so spread out, but we’re really excited to be releasing this record. It was recorded over a year ago, and we’re eager to see where it goes and what happens.
I just finished a European tour with my band, and I’ve got a couple of gigs coming up in New York. I know Dawn has a release with Buster Williams coming up too.
UKJN: Any final thoughts?
EN: It was really an honour to do this with this group, and with Bill. I’ve listened so much to Bill and Ron playing together that when I got the chance to even play five notes with Bill, I suddenly understood more about who I am as an artist.
The way I try to have my sound complement the sounds around me – it just clicked. Playing with Bill showed me how much I’ve internalised Ron and Bill’s sound together. I could fit into that space Ron had been holding with Bill sonically for decades. I’m not saying I’m Ron, or that I could replace him, not at all. But there’s a way of approaching sound that you can’t really notate or codify, and I understood it by playing with Bill.
