Headlining the show is rock jam band Tea Leaf Green: Trevor Garrod (keys, vocals), Josh Clark (guitar, vocals), Scott Rager (drums), Cochrane McMillan (percussion) and Tulsa’s Reed Mathis (bass, vocals). Mathis is known to many as a founding member and former bassist of the celebrated avant-garde jazz group Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. Mathis played with JFJO from the band’s inception in 1994 through 2008, officially joining TLG a year later.
Leaving JFJO wasn’t easy for Mathis. “It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made, for sure,” he said. JFJO was Mathis’ first band. “I was in high school when we started and that’s all I’d ever done,” he recalled. After 15 years, however, Mathis was ready to try something new. “A completely different style of music and a different part of the country and different people. It just seemed like a good time.”
While TLG’s winding jams and folk-informed vocals are very different from the experimental instrumentals of JFJO, Mathis didn’t change his style when he joined the California band. “I haven’t changed a thing about my own playing, really. I wanted to find out if who I am is applicable in other situations,” Mathis commented. “I still play 100% improvised style. There are no Tea Leaf Green songs that have bass lines or set arrangements. I play them different every single night. I still play a chaotic hybrid of every style of music I’ve ever heard. I haven’t simplified what I do at all. Just changing the context is exciting.”
One notable difference is that Mathis takes a turn at vocals with TLG. Mathis, however, sees his voice as just another instrument. “Music is music. I’ve always played a variety of instruments in a variety of styles. I try not to see distinctions of any kind. I like it to just be all one thing,” he explained.
“One of my favorite musicians of all time is Louis Armstrong, and part of what I like about him is that if you write down on paper what he sings and what he played on the trumpet, they’re identical. You can’t tell the difference if you just look at the notes and the rhythms. A lot of people who are great players and great singers have that trait where it’s really clear that they’re not treating it differently; like a lot of blues musicians play the same licks on their guitar that they sing. I’ve always held that to be the high water mark for that artistry. I just see the bass or the voice as extensions of the same thing.”
Much of the writing in TLG ends up as a collaborative process. “We tend to bring in fairly thought out things, but without specifics in them. We have the form and the chords and the lyrics and the melody and a general shape, maybe an idea or a feel, but then the group transforms it into something that isn’t a self-portrait; it’s a group portrait,” Mathis commented.
“That can be a painful thing when you are a young songwriter,” he recalled. “I remember in Jacob Fred, especially in the 90s when we were making our first few records. There were like five songwriters in the band at that time, and it was really frustrating for all of us. You would have this beautiful dream and write it down and bring it to the band, and it wouldn’t come out like you’d pictured. When you’re first doing it, that’s really heartbreaking, then eventually, you learn to let go and let your bandmates do their magic. What you end up with isn’t what you had intended, but it’s usually better. It’s more full; it’s more informed. It’s more developed. So really, the task of a songwriter in a group situation is to be strong enough to let go and let it change. Let the song become something else.”
Mathis loves performing with TLG. “When we play the songs live, they are different every night. There’s no predicting what shape it will take, and that’s why I like it. Honestly, if I were ever in a band that played safe music, I would probably go drive a cab or something. The excitement, the suspense of not knowing how it’s going to sound tonight is what keeps me going.”
Mathis is looking forward to his return to Tulsa and the Cain’s Ballroom. “Cain’s is one of the best rooms in the country,” he said. “The Cain’s is just a magical place.” While he no longer has family in town, he can’t wait to catch up with his Oklahoma friends. “My old bandmates and my dearest friends are in Tulsa…I’m really excited…That’s what I’m really looking forward to.”
– With thanks to Currentland.
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