SML
(Booking Worldwide excluding EU/UK)
LINEUP:
SML
Anna Butterss - electric bass; Jeremiah Chiu - synthesizers, live-sampling, aux percussion; Gregory Uhlmann - guitar, effects; Josh Johnson - saxophone, electronics; Booker Stardrum - drums, percussion.
TOUR:
Sep 29, 2024: Chicago, IL @ Warm Love Cool Dreams Festival at Salt Shed
Oct 19, 2024: New Orleans, LA @ 55 South at Hotel Saint Vincent
Dec 03, 2024: Brooklyn, NY @ Public Records
Jan 11, 2024: New York, NY @ NYC Winter JazzFest
Mar 19, 2024: Los Angeles, CA @ Jazz Is Dead at Lodge Room
Mar 29, 2025: Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival
2024 - Available upon request
2025 - Available upon request
2026 - Available upon request
NEW ALBUM:
Small Medium Large RELEASED IN JUNE 2024 ON INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM.
BIO:
SML is a new quintet composed of luminaries from Los Angeles’s thriving jazz, improvised, and indie music scenes: bassist Anna Butterss (Jason Isbell, Phoebe Bridgers, Makaya McCraven, Daniel Villarreal), synthesist Jeremiah Chiu (Ariel Kalma, Marta Sofia Honer, Icy Demons), saxophonist Josh Johnson (Meshell Ndegeocello, Leon Bridges, Carlos Niño), percussionist Booker Stardrum (Amirtha Kidambi, Lisel, Lee Ranaldo, Patrick Shiroishi) and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann (Sam Wilkes, Meg Duffy, Perfume Genius).
Their debut album Small Medium Large was engineered and recorded in stereo direct to Nagra by Bryce Gonzales at ETA, then compiled, arranged, and edited with additional production, recording, and studio composition by SML across their various home studios in 2023.
It's a sublime assemblage of circulatory grooves and textural anomalies bewitched by swirls of modular synthesis, at different moments recalling the the jagged dance-punk of Essential Logic, the rhythmic revelry of Fela Kuti, the low-end elasticity of Parliament/Funkadelic, or the glitchy dub techno of Pole. Taken in totality, the album captures a euphoric creative synchronicity between some of today's most exciting musicians.
The name, SML (or Small Medium Large), exemplifies their collective nature—five solo artists working together in different configurations amongst several groups. The collective model harkens back to a lineage established by AACM and other avant-jazz groups, but may follow a formula closer to the Dusseldorf scene in the late 60s of Kraftwerk, Harmonia, Cluster, Neu! While SML’s primary configuration is quintet, you may find them in different mixes of small, medium, large, and extra large.
LIVE VIDEOS:
PRESS:
"One of the most anticipated albums of Summer 2024" — Pitchfork
“Nothing short of mesmerizing." — Cultural Attache
“...an exuberant album…” — Los Angeles Times
“Blends elements of jazz with funk, electronic music with avant garde fusion, and it grooves like hell…it’s awesome." — Treble
“SML’s debut album is a delightful and awe-inspiring experience…” — Glide Magazine
“Within the milieu of creative, atmospheric, tradition-defying music termed alternative jazz by default, this is important work.” — SPIN
"...dentro la macchina c’è ancora un cuore che pulsa." — Blow Up
Small Medium Large debuts at #15 on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Chart