The Jack Gruber Trio comes to the Arts Barn in Gaithersburg on June 6. Weaving in diverse music and pop culture references from his teen years in the early 2000s, Gruber’s original compositions and arrangements of jazz standards are both familiar and unique.
By Kevin Adler
Arts Barn: Welcome back to the Arts Barn. You performed solo here in the past. How does the Jack Gruber Trio differ from a solo concert?
Jack Gruber: When I play solo, I perform some of my music, but primarily it’s jazz standards done with my own renditions. But with the trio, we will be doing more of my original compositions and arrangements. I’d like to add that I really enjoyed my first performance at the Arts Barn. I think it was the first performance on the new piano that had been purchased, and it was a pleasure to play on it.
Arts Barn: Tell us about the two musicians who will be with you: Dan Martinez on bass and Ruben Coca on drums.
Gruber: I love playing with Dan and Ruben. I’ve known them for a very long time, and we play together regularly in New York. It’s very important to have trust in the musicality and the humanity of people you play with. When you have people you really trust in music, like I do with those two, you feel like you can do anything. You can really follow the same [musical] thread together, and no matter what you play they will respond in a way that elevates the music every time. This is so important in a music like jazz, where the performance won’t be the same any two times.
Arts Barn: Let’s talk about your music. What might be a word or two to describe it?
Gruber: I think lush and memorable are good words. I’m inspired by a lot of the popular music I grew up with. As I got into jazz, I did my best to add that harmonic language only in a way that I knew would still retain that influence. My composing coalesced around the lushness of pop and Japanese music, while applying jazz harmonies and sensibilities.
Arts Barn: Beyond jazz and pop influences, you’ve said you are working with video game music and anime themes. Video games and anime?
Gruber: I think I’m really influenced by a lot of artists, like [DJs] Zedd and Porter Robinson, especially in electronic music. But I also often play “Call Me Maybe” by Carle Rae Jepsen, which people are super-familiar with. Pop music was definitely my first love.
The Japanese video game composer Yoko Shimomura is another influence. She composed the music for a video game I played a lot when I was a teen, “Kingdom Hearts II.” I would say my affinity for lushness is definitely borne in part from her. When playing that game, I heard a lot of her orchestral arrangements and I couldn’t stop listening.
Hikaru Utada, also from Japan, also is a big influence. She’s a vocalist who has composed and performed for the “Kingdom Hearts” series. Her approach to harmony and the intervallic way she writes melodies has always piqued my ear. Her music always takes me to unexpected places.
Arts Barn: Is melody important in your compositions?
Gruber: When I’m composing in general, melody is always my first priority … a melody that speaks to me. A lot of my music has a bright melodic component. I feel like I approach writing a lot of my songs, maybe, as someone would approach writing a pop song [in the sense that] there are different clear sections of a melody that stick in your head, almost like a chorus and a verse.
Arts Barn: What’s the impact of bringing in these influences?
Gruber: I feel like when I play my music, it has an appeal to a fairly broad audience, even when mostly instrumental. I’m grateful for that. It might be that pop influences increase the accessibility of the music to some people, but I never set out to be accessible. I set out to play what is meaningful to me.
[Editor’s note. In addition to the Arts Barn performance on June 6, Jack Gruber regularly performs in D.C. and the New York City area. On June 13, he will be at the Alexandria Festival. Visit www.jackgrubermusic.com for schedule updates.]
