Where is Calculated Discomfort going in 2025?
Happy new year friends!
I've been seeing a lot of people say this year was full of ups and downs, and I can't disagree. It's a tumoltuous time to be a human, let alone an artist or any type of worker trying to survive with any type of autonomy intact. However, I believe that just as history is full of struggles and stories of resilience, the present is full of things to cherish, celebrate and reflect upon.
Some big wins
This year Calculated Discomfort got to perform at the Art Institute of Chicago not once but twice. We also performed at Navy Pier for the Chicago Live Festival and Evanston Space for a reproductive rights fundraiser event. I don't take these opportunities lightly. Sometimes it can feel like the group exists on an island half way between jazz and somewhere else, so performing and receiving such warm responses in these large public-facing spaces as we represent Chicago music is encouraging to say the least.
Our concerts at the Art Institute at the end of December were a massive success in my opinion. I'm taking Calculated Discomfort in a direction that more overtly exposes my love for the history of jazz. These two shows were my first attempt to bring a more swinging approach to the expansive Calculated Discomfort sound, and I think it went over great.
Check out this excerpt of our afternoon concert for a taste of what is to come.
Getting work done
One major thing I learned about myself this year is that I prefer to express my personality through the drumset, and get the job done on percussion. This doesn't mean I'm 100% opposed to holding it down in the back, or I won't do anything artistic on bongos and congas, but I do feel happiest when I'm saying what I want to say on the kit and holding the groove down in a more traditional way on percussion.
As a working percussionist this year I played a ton of gigs for festivals, workshops and private events. I also contributed percussion to a film soundtrack and performed as part of a live video recording with an international recording artist. I look forward to honing my chops as a percussionist in 2025.
Check out this performance by Alani Nightingale and his Tribal Invaders Band.
Knots to untie
This one is for those who are curious about my philosophical thought process.
The big question for a lot of artists including myself in 2025 is where is the value in music?
I've always been somebody who enjoys both listening two and creating albums. My own recorded music has always been way more of a promotional tool than a money maker for me. I've used the records to document my thought process and to book shows to connect with fans and bring the music even more to life.
However, with the overwhelming amount of content on the internet these days, it has become harder to justify investing the emotional effort and finances in the creation of albums. The conventional wisdom is to start putting out singles, and I don't think I've figured out what that looks like for me.
I think my ideas exist best at a medium length. I am almost always conscious of listener stamina, but I'm not exactly in the business of making things ultra digestable (the band is called Calculated Discomfort for a reason!). At the end of the day I prefer concrete grooves and melody with surprise and excursion. I want my music to be a journey with a beginning, middle and end. This artistic goal of mine is not super conducive to creating amazing 3 minute songs you want to play 100 times, and that's okay, but I still need to figure out what I want to do.
This very conundrum lead me to remove my album The Harmony of Rhythm from streaming only a couple months after I put it out.
I released the album, which is basically a collage of some live recordings and studio creations made between 2022 and 2023, in an attempt to make the record feel more like a concert, which is where I feel I express my musicality best. For a variety of personal and artistic reasons, I just found myself struggling to promote it. A couple of the tracks still feel strong to me, and I left those up on streaming sites, but I took the rest down because I see streaming as an opportunity to reach new people, and I ultimately couldn't shake the feeling that the album didn't convey my message well enough without context. I'd rather have someone who hasn't seen me perform stumble across any of my other projects, which I think translate better to the mindset people are in when they are streaming random new music via the algorithm or other means.
In the spirit of continuing to document my story I kept The Harmony of Rhythm on BandCamp because I do think it has a lot to say, especially for those of you who like myself enjoy diving pretty deep into the process and conversation of music.
Going forward, I think I'm going to start by experimenting with putting individual tracks that give a snapshot of an idea on streaming, and putting the longer form stuff on BandCamp for those who are interested. A lot more of my documentation will come in the form of live recordings, though I do have high hopes for a proper Calculated Discomfort studio album by the end of 2025.
This is all a journey. If you've read this far, I'd love to know what you might want to hear from me, or from jazz-based recording artists in general in 2025.
So what's ahead?
Calculated Discomfort is going to be back bigtime in 2025. I've got tons of compositions that have been on ice, and I'm determined to bring them to life with a killer group of musicians.
It's going to start with smaller group performances working out the material, and will culminate in a proper studio recording with a large cast of characters by the end of the year. I haven't felt this motivated and hopeful about my own compositions in a while, and I'm excited to share this journey with you.
The first outing of 2025 will be the Tommy Carroll Trio at the Elastic Arts Improvised Music Series on Thursday January 30th. It's going to be nice to start the adventure with some fresh music at this long-standing series. More details to come!
Until then, I hope you're having a great start to the year.
Tommy