# An interview with Kalia Vandever: Generally the melody comes to me first … Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/11/06/kaliavandever/
- Published: 2017-11-06T20:40:34+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Interview with a bad musician, as if trombonist Kalia Vandever. An interview by
email in writing.**

**JazzBluesNews.Space: – This is your first time playing at the jazz gallery as 
a leader with your own band. Can you tell us a little bit about who you are bringing,
and the music that we will be hearing?**

**Kalia Vandever: –** I am bringing my quintet, which consists of Immanuel Wilkins
on alto, Connor Parks on drums, Kanoa Mendenhall on bass and Theo Walentiny on piano,
and myself on trombone, and we will be playing mostly my compositions, as well as
some of the compositions of people in the band as well. These are newer compositions
of mine that I’ve composed in the last year, and some of them are really recent 
pieces of mine.

**JBN.S: – Are the compositions all encompassing one general time frame or body 
of work?**

**KV: –** Yeah definitely, I feel like the compositions have been inspired by a 
couple things, one being the beginning of my life out of school, also, a lot of 
my music is inspired by my family, specific family members of mine, a couple pieces
that I’ve written have been dedicated to my sister, or my grandmother, and their
experiences but also my relationship with them. And other pieces are inspired by
nature, I have a lot of pieces that have just naturally been inspired by my surroundings
on trips, or surroundings in New York City.

**JBN.S: – You said some of the pieces are inspired by what your life has been like
since you’ve been out of school. Do you think being out of school has changed how
you’re approaching music, what has been one of the biggest changes for you since
you’ve been out of a structured jazz program?**

**KV: –** I’ve just felt really freed by the space that I’m in now, which is not
confined to any specific method of composing, or not feeling confined by specific
music I’m listening to. I found when I was in school I was listening to a lot of
music that was guided by those who were teaching me at the time but now I’m in this
space where everything I’m inspired by is what’s around me.

**JBN.S: – Are there any specific musicians or composers in particular who have 
had influence on you since you’ve been out of school?**

**KV: –** I had the opportunity to play with the pianist and composer Fabian Almazan
recently, and we played a specific piece of his called Rhizome, and I was really
inspired by the space, or rather pauses in his piece, and so I tried to take that
concept and write something with spaces, and moments of silence.  One particular
piece I wrote a couple months ago when I was visiting New Orleans, I visited a plantation
called the Whitney Plantation, and there was this little courtyard that had these
really old oak trees, and it was kind of eerie being there and knowing that these
oak trees were probably present or growing when all of this was taking place. So
I wrote this ballad called “Lost in the Oaks” that was both inspired by that but
also by the silence that I was experiencing there, and I incorporated that into 
my piece.  So that’s one big inspiration that I’ve drawn from. But also I’m inspired
by the composers Vijay Iyer and Walter Smith III.

**JBN.S: – Does your composition process change from piece to piece?**

**KV: –** Generally the melody comes to me first. So I’ll have a melody in my head,
and then I will sit down at the piano and actualize that melody, and then from there
I’ll hear moving parts as well as the instruments and what their role is within 
the piece, so I have a very strong relationship with the bass, the sound and the
motion of the bass within my pieces. So often times I will start with the melody
and bass motion, or a bass melody that I’m hearing underneath the melody. And then
I will build upon that harmonically.

**JBN.S: – Speaking of bass motion in your compositions, what’s your relationship
like with Kanoa Mendenhall?**

**KV: –** Kanoa and I have never performed together, but I met her at Julliard a
couple years ago, and I really love her approach to the instrument and the music
as well. And I’m also trying to include more women in my band, as I go forward.

**JBN.S: – Do you feel like you’ve been a part of musical spaces recently where 
people are making more of an effort to include more women?  Or do you feel still
isolation, like you may be the only woman in a musical space. Has that been changing,
you think?**

**KV: –** It has been changing recently, I think also by the people I surround myself
with, and my close friends within the industry who tend to think about this particular
issue, and want to include more women in their ensembles. So I feel thankful that
I’ve been in situations recently where I’ve felt included and felt like I haven’t
been one of the only women in the group. I also have opportunity coming up to play
with the Diva Jazz Orchestra, and it’s a group both run by and composed of all women,
so I’m excited for that as well.

**JBN.S: – You’ve also been doing work in some other genres besides just strictly
jazz. Can you talk about that as well?**

**KV: –** Yeah, I play many different genres. I am in a band with this rapper named
JP Reynolds and we’ve been playing some shows recently which is all hip hop based,
and so I’m in the horn section of all women which is also really nice. And I play
in pop groups as well, and within jazz I play contemporary but also straight ahead
jazz as well.

**JBN.S: – And do you feel like playing in these other genres informs your playing
when you come back to a jazz setting?**

**KV: –** I definitely feel that way—in the melodies that I have to play in other
genres and coming up with horn lines also influence my playing and influence the
melodies that I improvise. Because all of it kind of ends up being spontaneous composition.
I feel like my education in jazz certainly influences my work in other genres, but
also the experiences in other genres help me when I come back to playing jazz music.

**JBN.S: – You recently went on your first tour with your band. What came out of
that experience for you?**

**KV: –** That was one of the first tours I planned all on my own in another state
and city, and I have been to New Orleans for years, but had never planned shows 
of my own there, so that was a great experience to go through.  There was an immense
amount of support in New Orleans, and it was so nice to be somewhere other than 
New York with my band, so I felt like my support group outside of New York grew 
after that tour. After playing and performing my compositions, we recorded them—
they’re not released yet but I’m planning on releasing them next year. Some of the
compositions that we played there were some of the most important compositions that
I’ve written in the past year for me.

The band that I’m going to be performing with at the Gallery include some of my 
closest friends in New York City. These musicians I’ve played with for a couple 
years now since moving to the city, and they’ve not only been really supportive 
musically, but also personally, so I feel very comfortable presenting new music 
with them and bringing anything to the table because I know that they’ll always 
be there for me musically, and personally as well. Some of these musicians I met
in school, but most of them I actually met outside of school, which is nice.

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