Album Review: SML - "Spontaneous Music Live"
SML's chemistry and playing throughout are absolutely phenomenal and mesmerizing. Spontaneous Music Live is one of the most essential albums of the year.
SML is a group of jazz instrumentalists who have each stood out in their own right within the Chicago experimental and avant-garde jazz scene. Meaning "Small Medium Large," SML features Anna Butterss on bass, Jeremiah Chiu on synths, Josh Johnson on sax, Booker Stardrum on drums, and Gregory Uhlmann on guitar. Many of whom have played together already either on each other's projects or other known musicians (many have played on Flea's recent solo record). There's a certain magic and kinsmanship to the group's improvisational playing, detail oriented performing within a live setting. For starters, what makes SML stand out is that the group strictly records their music live and improvisational. They've never recorded in a studio together. Every record they've put out has followed these rules, including 2025's How You Been and their debut, 2024's Small Medium Large.
Spontaneous Music Live, the group's new third album, is exactly what the title suggests. It features two elongated improvisational pieces, "The Drums" and "Roundabouts," each piece ranging in the twenty-four minute range. These two pieces were recorded in full, unedited fashion during their three night residency in New York right after releasing their second album. The group's chemistry and playing throughout the two pieces are absolutely phenomenal and mesmerizing. Each musician is playing their part into making something truly blossom out of the venue and onto your headphones. The synchronicity and seamlessness of the pieces are stunning to hear, from the twinkling and buzzing electronics whirring about or the sporadic drumming going in a million different paths. The two pieces are fully focused on subtlety and groove, where these changes happen throughout but they seem quite seamless rather than out of nowhere. The bass groove in the middle of "Roundabouts" is a massive highlight, while the buildup of "The Drums" truly is incredible even before it takes flight in the second half.
The two pieces are so enthralling and thrilling that you'll immediately want to listen to them again, as the twenty-four minutes of each piece fly by. Although I have yet to listen to SML's other projects (I will soon hopefully), Spontaneous Music Live is one of the most essential albums of the year, regardless of genre. You'll find so much to explore here and one can only imagine what a full album featuring these bits would sound like in the studio. And from the sounds of it, do we even need a studio recording from SML? I don't exactly know how they get that amazing sound live... they could've easily fooled me if they wrote that it was recorded directly in a studio. Regardless, this album is incredible and the musicianship from this quintet is breathtaking and amazing to hear, not only on the first listen but on the next one and the one after that.
My Rating: 9 / 10
Favorite Songs: "The Drums," "Roundabouts"
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