Ches Smith – Laugh Ash (Pyroclastic Records – released February 2, 2024)
Shara Lunon – voice and vocal processing
Anna Webber – flute
Oscar Noriega – clarinets
James Brandon Lewis – tenor saxophone
Nate Wooley – trumpet
Jennifer Choi – violin
Kyle Armbrust – viola
Michael Nicolas – cello
Shahzad Ismaily – bass and keyboards
Ches Smith – electronics, programming, vibes, drums, tubular bells, glockenspiel, timpani, tam tam, metal percussion
Album photography by Billie Miro Breskin
Buy at Bandcamp
Stream at Apple Music
Stream at Spotify
Ches Smith – where to start? In 2023, he was everywhere. Smith drummed on a half dozen of my favorite 2023 albums – Echolocation by Mendoza Hoff Revels, Michael Formanek’s As Things Do, half of Matt Mitchell’s Oblong Aplomb, and three John Zorn albums – Homenaje A Remedios, Full Fathom Five, and The Fourth Way. I’m sure I’m missing a bunch of Ches Smith album credits in the last year – how do you keep up with one of the most active and accomplished drummers around? With all that sideman work, it’s hard to imagine where Smith fits in time for his own projects, but when they do come out, they are always special. Top of mind is Smith’s 2021 album of Haitian voodoo music with We All Break, Path of Seven Colors, one of my favorites of the last decade. Path of Seven Colors is a transcendent meeting of Afro-Caribbean rhythms with jazz harmony, and my love of that album has only heightened my anticipation for Smith’s new album, Laugh Ash, which is out now. Laugh Ash delivers music that sounds like a consolidation as well as a bold new statement.
Ches Smith has always had multiple ongoing bands, each revealing a different side of who he is. There’s And These Arches, which explores a beat-heavy jazz and noise improv, and the duo with Devin Hoff, Good for Cows, which creates experimental interactions of bass and percussion. Smith has a working group of Mat Maneri and Craig Taborn that released The Bell (2016), and with the addition of Bill Frisell, Interpret It Well (2021), often quiet albums that spin trance-inducing improvisations from melodic kernels. Then there’s Congs for Brums, which innovates the presentation of extended percussion with solo electronics. These are all super accomplished projects, but each one is so different and distinctive from the others that it gives a picture that’s a bit fractured. Who is the real Ches Smith? Now we have the answer. Laugh Ash is the album that draws from all these different aesthetics and then boldly strikes out into even more sonic vistas. If you’re new to Smith’s music, start here.
Laugh Ash covers so much ground it’s hard to summarize and a real challenge to write about. Not only does Smith synthesize his prior statements in minimalism, electronics, noise, and percussion, but you also can hear a swirling blend of other sounds – hip-hop, dance rhythms, opera, modern classical, prog rock, dub, jazz poetry, video game bleeps, sound collage – the list could go on. These sound ideas co-occur, and at any given moment, you might be listening to a raag melody played over hip-hop beats, filled out by 8-bit bleeps and warbles. After a few seconds, the music will dramatically shift (like on “Remote Convivial,” but almost every other track too), segueing into a sax solo over skronk-fuzz bass or another dramatic juxtaposition. This happens throughout – Laugh Ash is bursting with more ideas over fifty-one minutes than most artists have in their discographies!
Laugh Ash also represents Ches Smith’s most through-composed music to date and the most outstanding example of Smith’s imaginative writing. The amount of composition and level of detail means there’s less blowing than on Smith’s prior albums, but that does not stop this accomplished group from shining. For me, the MVP is bassist/keyboardist Shahzad Ismaily. Ismaily sounds like he was given the role of improvising bass lines underneath and throughout all of the fixed parts, and whether predetermined or not, his playing provides the album with a consistently spontaneous and alive feel, even during the densest material. Ismaily’s electric bass also sounds fantastic – it gives a propulsive undercurrent, energetic noise, and interesting texture. The album is also enlivened by the tenor sax of James Brandon Lewis, who contributes hard-hitting, angular solos on “Remote Convivial,” “Sweatered Webs (hey Mom)” and “Unyielding Daydream Welding.” The album features impressive string playing from violinist Jennifer Choi, violist Kyle Armbrust, and cellist Michael Nicolas. Anna Webber’s flute is essential to the atmospherics and arrangements, and the album would not be the same without her. Both clarinetist Oscar Noriega and trumpeter Nate Wooley have outstanding solo spots on “Unyielding Daydream Welding.” Finally, the band’s other crucial member is vocalist and poet Shara Lunon. Most of these tracks feature her vocals at the border between soul, opera, and hip-hop. Lunon wrote the lyrics, which are reprinted in the liner notes and are fascinating and often compelling, such as when she sings “the interior of grief leaves its marks in strands” on the aforementioned “Sweatered Webs (Hey Mom),” or in her spoken word performance on “Winter Sprung,” where she declares “the blood is in the roots, you can taste it.” Lunon’s presence is compelling and pushes this program even further toward the striking and unique.
Laugh Ash also embodies experimentation as a philosophical concept. Smith doesn’t play with genres merely as evocative signifiers but instead as language components used to create music that can have a transformative effect. In the liner notes, Smith identifies laughter as an expression of the way you can deal with something new: “listeners might find parts of it at least a little bit funny. As a form of catharsis, laughter is fine by me. Genuine laughter arrives unannounced, causing a fissure where time stops. If the bout of laughter is severe, you may find yourself at the point of disintegration. Afterward, if not too worn out, you can dust away the ash, put yourself back together and continue your life afresh, newly curious about what is possible.” Yes, Laugh Ash had me laughing at some of its wild combinations of ideas and Smith’s feat of imagination in creating an album that references genres and elides them, too. Smith juxtaposes musically complementary but novel elements and creates a startling, sometimes funny, and reconfiguring result. You should listen to Laugh Ash – there’s nothing else out there like it.
(Laugh Ash; L-R Shahzad Ismaily, Shara Lunon, Anna Webber, James Brandon Lewis, Kyle Armbrust, Ches Smith, Michael Nicolas, Oscar Noriega, Nate Wooley, Jennifer Choi; Photo credit Bianca Claircidor)
More Ches Smith Links:
Laugh Ash Then and Now
Smith debuted a smaller version of the Laugh Ash group at Roulette in 2017, and the audio from that performance is saved at the Roulette website here. The music is different in this early version in a number of ways, most notably that 2017 Laugh Ash has much leaner writing, and there’s a lot more solo space. This makes me so curious to hear how the current iteration of Laugh Ash will sound live – if you are in the New York area, don’t miss them at Roulette on March 20, 2014.
A Cool Video
Frank Heath created a video for the track “Minimalism” from Laugh Ash. The video is striking looking and enriches the music by exploring the relationship of humans to technology. You can find the video on Ches Smith’s website.
Interviews with Ches
Ches has given several terrific interviews, which I recommend. He discusses jazz and metal with Hank Shteamer and goes into the relationship of composition and performance with Samo Salomon. Also, his answers to “15 Questions” are insightful, going into the process of creation and including this wisdom: “Fear gets in the way, and curiosity helps a lot.” Good advice for life!
Hear Ches Rock
Listening to the above podcasts, I learned that Ches came out of rock drumming and into improvisational music and jazz. I can hear it now! He brings an authentic and hard-hitting feel into all his drumming, and his ability to combine worlds just by sitting at the drums is part of the reason he’s so loved. Smith’s first records are with the noise rock band Theory of Ruin. On streaming, you can hear their self-titled EP. If you want to hear Smith rock in a jazz context, try the albums Hammered and Finally Out of My Hands by And These Arches. Some of the hardest-hitting drums you’ll hear on a jazz album.