Octave Records continues to expand its catalog of contemporary and classic jazz with the release of Sovereign Mind by Ryan Benthall, who plays piano and analog synthesizer. The album of all-original compositions combines forward-looking melodic invention with lush instrumental textures, blending traditional jazz instruments with the warmth of the synthesizer to create a distinctive and personal musical voice.
Sovereign Mind features Ryan Benthall along with David Bernot on tenor saxophone, Sean Applebee playing trumpet and fluegelhorn, Braxton Kahn on drums, and Bill McCrossen playing the upright bass. The nine originals on the album span a wide variety of moods and tempos, from the up-tempo title track to the dreamlike feeling of “Moon Over the Mountain.” The piano is at the forefront for most of the arrangements, with the horns and synth providing a rich background of tonal colors and ensemble voicings while the rhythm section offers sympathetic accompaniment.
Ryan Benthall said, “The album’s title, Sovereign Mind, is the reflective theme of my own approach to life. To be able to think for myself, have my own perspective of life and approach to the language of music. Sovereign Mind reflects the idea of transporting ourselves to a unique place within ourselves that is beyond the typical experience.”
The album was recorded using Octave Records’ custom-built Pyramix-based 32-channel DSD 256 setup, to faithfully capture the distinctive tonal colors and character of each instrument while presenting a deep, spacious and natural ensemble sound. Sovereign Mind was recorded and mixed by Jay Elliott and mastered by Gus Skinas. It was produced by Ryan Benthall, with Jessica Carson as executive producer.
Ryan Benthall.
The title track begins the album with an upbeat melody with the piano and horns stating the theme, showing off the tight ensemble playing of the group and the stunning high-resolution fidelity of the recording. Each instrument has a strong sonic presence, from the attack and body of the beautiful piano sound to the warmth of the tenor sax, the harmonic richness of the acoustic bass, and the dynamic impact of the drums, all placed within a reach-out-and-touch-it sound space.
Sovereign Mind’s musical highlights are many and varied. “Ice Spring” features the horns carrying the melody, with Benthall’s piano and the rhythm section deftly navigating the shifting time signatures. Many of the songs were inspired by people and events in Benthall’s life. “Ann V” is dedicated to his grandmother, and as he notes, is “meant to capture the colorful vibrancy of her character.” “Memoriam” was written on the day singer/songwriter/musician R Scott Bryan passed, as a tribute to his talent and impact upon Benthall. “IO” is about “the mysterious moon of Jupiter,” Benthall explains, “taking us on a journey through zero gravity and outer space.” It begins with an ear-catching synthesizer sequencer arpeggio, before morphing into a pensive piano and synth melody as the rest of the band joins in.
The flowing “Moon Over the Mountain” paints an aural picture of a moonrise over a Colorado mountain house: “I would stay up late to watch the stars and the full moon dipping below the mountains that towered over the horizon. The song is meant to capture the huge space and mystical feeling of that moment in time.” The album’s gentle closer, the solo piano ballad “Sweet Dreams,” was composed while Benthall’s daughter was drifting off to sleep when she was one year old. He noted, “this composition was meant to capture the imagination of the sweetest dreamers, instilling peace and contemplation within the listener.”
Sovereign Mind features Octave’s premium gold disc formulation, and the disc is playable on any SACD, CD, DVD, or Blu-ray player. It also has a high-resolution DSD layer that is accessible by using any SACD player or a PS Audio SACD transport. In addition, the master DSD and PCM files are available for purchase and download, including DSD 512, DSD 256, DSD 128, DSD 64, and DSDDirect Mastered 352.8 kHz/24-bit, 176.2 kHz/24-bit, 88.2 kHz/24-bit, and 44.1 kHz/24-bit PCM. (SRP: $29.)
I talked with Ryan about the album, his approach to music, and…listening to Chuck Berry.
Frank Doris: How did you go about writing the songs for the album?
Ryan Benthall: Every tune is different, but the process is sometimes just immediate. A lot of them were written when I moved to Colorado, going on five years ago. It's very expansive-feeling here. It creates a different kind of perspective in your mind. When I was living in the mountains, a lot of these tunes, like Moon Over the Mountain and Giants Lullaby were written when I was living way out in the country.
I still stay connected with my St. Louis fans as well. I play in a band called the Charlie Berry Project. Charlie is the grandson of Chuck Berry.
FD: Well, rock guitar players owe their existence to Chuck Berry.
RB: I don't think Charlie realizes the impact on music that his grandpa made. When you live in St. Louis, you take him for granted. I kind of grew up with Chuck Berry [when he was] playing every month, at [a club called] Blueberry Hill.
FD: Did you actually play with Chuck Berry?
RB: No; I've played with Chuck's son and both of his grandsons. By the time I was coming up Chuck was already in his 80s. I'm only 33.
FD: I was born in the 1950s and when Chuck Berry hit, and the impact was indescribable, like being hit by a lightning bolt. Well, one of my questions was going to be, who are your influences, are but you might have just answered it.
RB: Chuck is an influence for sure.
FD: But you're a piano player. I listen to a lot of jazz piano, and you definitely have your own thing going on. Not copying Bill Evans or Monk or Brad Mehldau or whoever. Who were some of the players that you like, or tried to emulate when you were learning how to play?
RB: The guys that you just mentioned were definitely huge influences. I don't really try to copy their style though. I don't know if I could.
I love Benny Green, but I'm also a huge fan of Middle Eastern music as well as Israeli jazz, so some of my favorite players [are from that genre] like [bassist] Avishai Cohen and Omer Klein. Shai Maestro. He played piano with Avishai for a little bit, and he's really come into his own and is awesome. His album Human was a huge influence on me, so if you listen to some of them, you can hear a little bit of where I'm coming from.
American jazz, which is the birthplace of these genres, comes from blues. At the heart of it, it comes from blues and ragtime and New Orleans, but [Middle Eastern and Israeli] jazz is pulling from their cultural influences. I'm also a huge fan of Tigran Hamasyan, who's an Armenian pianist. He just totally made up his whole own style of music; it is rooted in jazz, but he's putting all these Armenian folk melodies in there, and he also has a bit of a progressive sound too. It's kind of heavy. My sound on Sovereign Mind is a lot lighter. One of my biggest influence when I moved to Colorado is Art Lande. He’s the best out there.
FD: Did you write out the arrangements for this album, or just write out the heads? I would be very surprised if you told me that this music wasn't pretty specifically arranged.
RB: All the music is written out for all of the songs, but then there are long sections that are improvised.
FD: How did you come up with those really pretty, deep kind of orchestrations and tonal colors? That really impresses me, literally the sound of the album. It's like something Gil Evans or Quincy Jones would come up with.
RB: Well, that means a lot because Gil Evans is one of my favorites. But when you get in the studio, you almost figure it out as you go. [Recording Sovereign Mind] was a unique process. I went in with the trio: drums, upright bass and grand piano. We did everything live in two days. So, everything you hear with the piano, drums, bass is live. Then I scheduled a couple of days for the horns. But it almost sounds like the horns were done in the studio live. I was really lucky to have some of the best musicians. Those guys were so tuned in.
Art Lande is a really good friend of mine, and he actually gave me some suggestions on some of these arrangements.
FD: What kind of synthesizer did you use?
RB: The Moog Subsequent 37. It’s my favorite instrument.
FD: I like the way that “IO” starts with the sequencer, like a science fiction movie soundtrack, And then segues from the weird-sounding arpeggios to the beautiful piano melody.
RB: Yeah, that's a lot of peoples’ favorites.
FD: What do you think about the sound quality of the Octave Records studio and how did you feel after hearing what the playbacks actually sounded like?
RB: Oh, I was extremely happy with it. I had gone in there [previously] to do tracking for another friend's album. [The studio has] a great Steinway grand and I was just blown away by the depth of the sound that we were getting, the sonic clarity of it, the warmth of the instruments and the presence of them too. I loved the piano sound we got on [the album]. It was ideal for my kind of tone.
RB: There are some people in my background I want to give credit to. I finished my undergrad at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and went headfirst into classical piano as my major instrument. I finished with a BA in music composition and a minor in jazz, and I owe a lot of what I do now to those years working with some really good professors. I studied composition with Dr. Barbara Harbach, who is a phenomenal composer herself and more on the classical side. [That’s why] there's a classical edge to some of the tunes [on Sovereign Mind]. Age of Aquarius was written there. She really showed me really how to write, especially on notation software like Finale.
I studied classical piano with Alla Voskoboynikova. She's a Russian pianist, phenomenal, one of the most inspiring people I've met. I studied jazz piano with Ken Kehner there.
FD: Not all musicians can or want to bridge those two worlds.
RB: Right. I had to work really hard at getting better at sight reading. I was in choir for eight years. Singing the parts, looking at the music and singing, really improves [your] sight reading. I play in a bunch of wedding groups where I have to read all the time. I do a lot of corporate stuff, and do accompanist work for singers and for showcases. I just work as a private contractor. I don't even know where these gigs come from sometime.
FD: That’s great, because usually you have to bang on the doors to get a gig. I don't know what the scene is like by you, but here on Long Island, there are bands everywhere, and you have to call the club owner a dozen times to get a gig, and the pay is sometimes shameful. As far as I'm concerned, musicians contribute to society as much doctors and lawyers, but they sure don’t get paid as much.
RB: That's why I feel so blessed to have been really embraced by the scene here and still in the Midwest. It's all about timing, being able to do the thing you need to do, and showing up on time. Every single connection [you make] counts, [along with] having the right attitude, and being fun to hang out with. Just being a good human being.
I sometimes tour with Jackson Stokes. I was with them when they first started. St. Louis Jackson is also the lead guitarist of the Devon Allman Project. I toured with the Allman Betts Band. I play in a ton of rock bands, and I grew up playing rock bands with my best friends in high school. After I quit orchestra and stuff, then it was hanging with my friends. Skateboarding, then jamming, then more skateboarding, and then jamming, doing that all the time. I was totally self-taught up until college, and then I had to work really hard at it. [I play other instruments], but piano has always come naturally.
When I moved to Colorado, it was just to do my own thing. But I also played in a Grateful Dead cover band called The Schwag, who are out of Missouri, so I also know all the Grateful Dead repertoire. [The Dead] kind of just came up with their own kind of version of jazz and rock; the way they improvise. Branford Marsalis talks about that: it’s not really jazz, but the have their own improv. I have a lot of experience playing jam band stuff. I grew up playing blues. I mean, [coming] from St. Louis, I played a lot of blues.
Sovereign Mind is the accumulation of the kind of piano music that I write, and it just kind of comes naturally. I really want to make music that I enjoy listening to, so I'm finding my own piano sound and just sound orchestrating in [a jazz] environment.
RB: Sometimes I'll wake up in the night, and have some really strange music playing in my head in my dreams. And if I'm too tired to get up…
FD: You have to write it down immediately or you’ll lose it.
RB: Sometimes you do your best work under pressure. A lot of the greats were under pressure. Bach would write for each Sunday service, and had to get it done by a certain amount of time.
FD: Or you’re sitting in on the bandstand and someone counts off the song, and you don’t know it, and you have to do something.
RB: That's what Chuck Berry would do. He'd just start playing and on purpose, he would change the key or change the rhythm or change the song, just to mess with the [other] players. There are all these stories of people sitting in with Chuck Berry, saying it was awful. He'd start playing in one key and then just switch keys. He'd be in C, then he'd go to E flat and then he'd switch it again, and then [the musicians are playing in] four different keys, and then he’d just stop playing, put his guitar down, hop off the stage, get in a Cadillac, and leave everyone on stage playing in four different keys.
FD: That's rock and roll for you!
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