Matt Mitchell / Kate Gentile - Snark Horse

Snark Horse is a book of 70 highly-detailed one-bar compositions by pianist/composer Matt Mitchell and drummer/composer Kate Gentile - presented across six discs that are housed in beautiful packaging designed by Gentile - that are intended to incite inventive, multi-directional improvisation. It is also the name of a revolving cast of musicians who have performed this music in various combinations since 2013. The project began as a result of an experiment for Mitchell and Gentile to each write a single bar a day, a change from composing the sort of longer, micro-detailed pieces that they are both known for. Despite their brevity, each piece is a dense nugget of musical information, filled with quirky rhythms and layers of counterpoint for the musicians to unpack extemporaneously. The performance approach is jazz-oriented in that the improvisation is based on the written material, albeit the collective nature of the playing requires each musician to remain highly-attuned to the constantly shifting landscape. The one-bar compositions can be looped, played in sequence, made into vamps, transposed, inverted, alternated, and explored in basically infinite permutations. Rather than following a prescribed form, the musicians are empowered to use the full extent of their spontaneous imagination and creativity to guide things as they see fit, but to do it in a way that is respectful to the collective space. The environment helps foster a unique, highly imaginative universe for the musicians to show off their individual takes on this truly idiosyncratic music. The dauntingly ambitious project presents the musicians' collective resourceful creativity to truly valiant effect.