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Background
Calculated Discomfort has both positive and challenging connotations. On one hand, it’s the idea that stepping just beyond your comfort zone to experience things that help you question your assumptions without violating your way of existence is an essential part of personal growth (and can become enjoyable once you do it enough). On the other hand, it encapsulates this idea that some people constantly have to balance the fact that their presence creates social discomfort with their desire to have a good time. I’ve come to accept that 90% of people haven’t interacted with a blind person before, so anytime I go to a public or social space I have to be ready for people to panic or be nervous to some degree. Like working out, you get better at it, but it’s never pain free.
In November 2017, I invited 15 of my closest friends and collaborators from jazz projects, classical music, and metal bands to join me for a largely improvised recording session. I came armed with a few compositions and sketches, but the main goal of the session was to see what a group of great listeners, out of their comfort zones, could create on the fly with some gentle direction. We recorded more than six hours of glorious sound over the course of two days, and we did it almost exclusively the old school way: all in the same room without do-overs. I spent time with all that sound and have paired it down to a 45 minute musical journey.
Info and personnel
Released August 17, 2018
Track 1: Tommy Carroll (drums); Karl Maher (guitar); Craig Davis Pinson (guitar); Wilson Tanner Smith (cello); Neil Carson (saxophone); Matt Riggen (trumpet); Evan Salvacion Levine (bass)
Track 2: Tommy Carroll (drums); Karl Maher (guitar); Craig Davis Pinson (guitar); Neil Carson (saxophone); Matt Riggen (trumpet); Evan Salvacion Levine (bass)
Track 3: Tommy Carroll (drums); Karl Maher (guitar); Craig Davis Pinson (guitar); Matt Riggen (percussion);Brock Stuessi (upright bass); Luc Parcell (electric bass); Daniel Van Duerm (synthesizer)
Track 4: Tommy Carroll (drums); Karl Mhaer (guitar); Julius Tucker (rhodes); Alex Warshawsky (bass); Neil Carson (saxophone)
Track 5 : Tommy Carroll (drums); Matt Riggen (trumpet); Joey Rosin (saxophone); Brock Stuessi (percussion and bass); Wilson Tanner Smith (cello); Evan Salvacion Levine (bass); Emily Beisel (bass clarinet); Karl Maher (guitar); Craig Davis Pinson (guitar)
Track 6: Caroline Hildebrandt (spoken word); Tommy Carroll (drums and lyrics); Ben Zucker (xylosynth and vibraphone); Brock Stuessi (bass); Matt Riggen (trumpet and trombone); Karl Maher (guitar)
Recorded by Leo Galbraith-Paul at Northwestern University
Track 4 recorded by Joe Hampton at Electrical Audio
Mixed by Karl Maher
Mastered by Scott Steinman at Studiomedia Recording
Album art by Tracy Conoboy