By Todd Matthews

Chris Stover and his posse of jazz musicians are changing the face of traditional big-band jazz—adding an experimental-music twist. The result? An eclectic and refreshing sound that tweaks the genre of big-band jazz without entirely ignoring or offending big-band purists. An exciting young trombonist, arranger and composer, Stover has performed with reggae and calypso bands throughout the Pacific Northwest. I recently caught up with Stover to discuss the challenges associated with performing what is, essentially, avant-garde big-band jazz.

TODD MATTHEWS: Would you classify your music as big-band jazz?

CHRIS STOVER: I am trying to get away from swing music a little bit. We have a couple charts in the book that are swing, but we're slowly phasing those out. We're trying to do a little bit more modern kind of thing. For the most part, all the music that we are doing is either original music or arrangements of modern tunes. I think it's based in the big-band tradition in that there are soloists, and vehicles built around the soloist. We are obviously using the same instruments.

TODD MATTHEWS: I can't think of any other big-band jazz group doing what you are doing. It's almost as though there are elements of traditional big-band along with avant-garde and funk. Where did you come up with an idea like this?

CHRIS STOVER: It's kind of where I come from, I guess, with music. I grew up doing what everybody did in this town: playing in high school jazz bands and listening to rock music. All of my playing experience for a number of years was playing jazz. Meanwhile, I was listening to pop music and this-and-that. I made most of my money playing different kinds of world music venues: reggae, salsa, Brazilian music, and things like that. So that's kind of crept in there. But I still like the idea of big-band jazz. What I'm trying to do is bring all these things together. That's kind of my strength as a composer: writing for instruments. This is the best vehicle that I've found.

TODD MATTHEWS: Is there a balance between the rich and storied history of big-band jazz and introducing new ideas? Is that something that is difficult?

CHRIS STOVER: I think it's easy.

TODD MATTHEWS: Why?

CHRIS STOVER: The songs are saturated in my listening and my studying of the historical part of jazz; studying the big-band leaders and composers, and copying those sounds. I used to write arrangements upon what they did. The assignment would be to write a Count Basie arrangement or a Stan Kenton arrangement. I learned how to create that sound.

TODD MATTHEWS: Is anyone else doing what you are doing with big-band jazz?

CHRIS STOVER: Not exactly like this. In this town there is Jim Knapp, who is doing a contemporary big-band. That's pretty much it. He's influenced me some. We've sat and talked about big-band arranging quite a bit. I stole his idea of staying a little bit smaller than a traditional big-band. That's a good idea. This is the smallest group I've found that sounds like a big-band. I like to juxtapose things that are very different. What I would like to do, but it requires rehearsal at some point, is to put together sets of music where it never stops until the end. So every song segues into the next.

TODD MATTHEWS: What are your personal interests as far as jazz is concerned? Do they lean more toward traditional? Or do they lead more toward experimental?

CHRIS STOVER: They lean more toward experimental.

TODD MATTHEWS: Do you describe your music as experimental big-band jazz?

CHRIS STOVER: I don't know. That's a good question. That's a really good question. I don't like 'Chris Stover Big Band' at all. That's something about jazz that I think sucks: The name of the artist, followed by 'quartet' or 'big-band' or whatever it is. That's one of my pet peeves. I like highly experimental music with something to latch onto for the listener and the player

TODD MATTHEWS: Have you played in trios or quartets?

CHRIS STOVER: Yes.

TODD MATTHEWS: Which do you prefer: trios, quartets, or big-bands?

CHRIS STOVER: I don't know. When it's my big-band, I think I prefer the big-band. I get to the hear the stuff that took forever to write. Otherwise, I'm kind of an anomaly with jazz players. I don't like playing standards. I don't enjoy it at all. I would do it, but I prefer to do my own stuff.

TODD MATTHEWS: What are some of the things that you can do with big-band jazz that you can't necessarily do with a smaller arrangement?

CHRIS STOVER: The orchestration. The variety of sounds you get. The power you get. I love playing with different colors and pairing instruments together to see what happens.

Chris Stover performs the third Tuesday of each month at Patti Summers Restaurant and Cabaret in the Pike Place Market.

This article originally appeared in The Tablet.