INTERVIEW: Danny Fox Trio celebrate 15 years with ‘Time Took Care of It’
Photo: The Danny Fox Trio consists of Danny Fox, Chris van Voorst van Beest and Max Goldman. Photo courtesy of the band / Provided by AMT PR with permission.
The Danny Fox Trio, fronted by Fox on piano and featuring Chris van Voorst van Beest on bass and Max Goldman on drums, recently released their fourth recording effort, an album of jazz tunes called Time Took Care of It. Fox composed each of the songs on the recording, and audiences can hear the pianist’s many different influences — most prominently jazz, but also some chamber music, R&B and bluegrass, according to press notes.
Time Took Care of It features 15 songs, including the album opener “Atlbauer,” “Fruit Fly,” “Guaranteed Sharks” and “Something in the Shed.” To celebrate the album’s release, the trio will play tonight, April 7, at The Owl in Brooklyn, the New York City borough where Fox is currently based (he was born in Manhattan). Other gigs in the coming weeks will take the trio from Massachusetts to Maine to New Hampshire. Amazingly, and quite uniquely, Fox also developed a companion cookbook to complement the 15 tracks (more information below).
Fox has had an interesting career trajectory. He’s a Harvard University graduate with a psychology degree, according to his official biography, and then he headed home to New York City to train with pianist John Kamitsuka. This year, his trio is celebrating 15 years of musical success. He’s also the founder of the chamber quartet Bubble Feed.
Recently Fox exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox about all things jazz. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
How did the idea for this album come about? Is the sound in line with your previous recording efforts, or does it represent a departure?
We have been a working band for 15 years now, a rarity in the jazz scene. Our new album Time Took Care of It builds on composition/arranging ideas we’ve been developing for years but filters them through our current influences, be it the Curtis Mayfield-inspired “Slow Ham” or the Fela Kuti-tinged “Here He Comes.”
Can you explain the inspiration you had to also develop a cookbook companion? Any favorite recipes?
I have long been an avid home cook (with a very short stint in a professional kitchen) and more importantly, a good eater. In my musical life, food comes up all the time: discussion of ma po tofu recipes at a rehearsal, pizza dough technique on a set break, etc. I thought it’d be fun to combine my two main interests with a cookbook, pairing each album track with a recipe and sharing the stories behind the songs. The recipe for chili crisp is probably the one most talked about in my Brooklyn music community!
When you formed the trio 15 years ago, what were your initial goals?
The intial concept came out of adapting a quintet piece of mine for trio (“Easily Distracted” from our first album The One Constant). Figuring out how to play both the horn lines and piano part myself and compose specific bass and drum parts led me to experiment with the traditional roles associated with a jazz piano trio. Since then, the goal has been to put our own stamp on the classic format.
What’s it like playing with Chris and Max?
Playing with Chris and Max is a mix of comfort and adventure, trust and fearlessness, intensity and whimsy. With their strong musical personalities and diverse influences, they sculpt my written materials into pieces that belong to the whole trio.
When did you first fall in love with the piano?
A big aha moment was learning to play the “Theme from Cheers” from one of those sheet music singles. I don’t think I had even watched the show yet!
Does your degree in psychology inform any of your composing?
I am always fascinated by the mental processes surrounding composing. Sometimes I sit at the piano and the material sounds like the song I heard earlier that day. But sometimes I seem to be tapping into the deep recesses of my brain: a song I heard back in the ’90s or a piece I wrote years ago comes back to the forefront in an unexpected place.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Danny Fox Trio’s new album is called Time Took Care of It, and the band will play several concerts in the coming weeks, including tonight, April 7, at The Owl in Brooklyn. Click here for more information and tickets.
