Omer Klein on The Poetics

Israeli pianist and composer Omer Klein has long been recognised as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary jazz piano. Blending deep roots in the jazz tradition with influences drawn from all over the globe, the pianist has forged a career that has taken him from intimate trio settings to solo explorations, and his work is consistently marked by rhythmic vitality, lyrical depth, and a keen sense of narrative.

I was delighted to sit down with Omer to talk about undertaking compositions for a larger ensemble, the inspirations behind the creative process that shaped the album, and how The Poetics works in contrast to the immediacy of the digital age…

Brazilian music seems to be really present in this project. What first drew you to this style of music, and where did the idea come from to form this group?

I was an artist-in-residence in a great venue in Frankfurt that is called the Alte Oper, which means ‘the old opera’ in English. It's a wonderful concert hall, and through the whole 24-25 season I was an artist in residence there, which meant that I was doing various projects. But for my big concert, I wanted to create something new and possibly bigger with a larger ensemble based on one I've created before. I wanted players that would each play several horns, as well as flute, and to add a percussionist to strengthen this rhythmic aspect of my music that is quite prevalent in my work.

Working with those larger forms led to thinking of orchestration and colour and arrangement too. I wanted to jump in that water, and the Alte Oper artistic director liked the idea, so I began thinking of what kind of content to create into this mold. From a really natural place came my love for music from Brazil, and I thought both concepts could work together and balance one another. Generally, when I create new projects, I start with a period of studying other people's work and being inspired, and then I start to compose my own, and that's how it was this time as well. 

How do you personally navigate the balance between freedom and structure in this album? Did that come into play when you were assembling the pieces together? 

That's a very good question. I think that jazz, judging from its history and the many different records and musicians that I love and that I have studied, can contain various degrees and amounts of improvisation. There is a standard way of doing it, in which you just state the melody and then immediately everybody solos, but if you listen to the history of jazz, you can find anything from pieces that have very little, very short and confined improvisation sections, ensconced within largely composed and arranged sections. 

Of course, you can find music that contains only improvisation from beginning to end. So, for this purpose, I always ask myself as a composer, and as a band leader, what is the piece asking me for? If it's asking for a piano solo, I would put it there. But if I felt that it doesn't, then I wouldn't, even though it's an album of a pianist. But in other pieces, I felt it wasn’t needed. I was thinking more about storytelling and the dramaturgy of the pieces.

I understand that this album is a reaction of sorts to the shortening of attention spans in the digital age. Can you tell me more about that, and how The Poetics connects to this message?

On one hand, I don't think that we can – or should – fight against what is prevalent today. I mean, we’re the children of our own era, and that's fine. But I think that as a composer, you can suggest through your work (without saying anything), an experience to listeners. If I released one-minute tracks, I would basically be suggesting to my listeners, listen to this on the go, and just jump between this and someone else's music. By offering forms that are a little longer, they're not longer for length's sake; they're simply stories that I dedicated an immense amount of work to, especially the forms, and each track tells what it's supposed to in the time that it takes it to do that. 

I think that my album is inviting the listener to stay for an hour in one space, and that space has its own character. It's not always very contemplative. In fact, it's quite an uplifting and groovy album, so that space can also be dancing with your family and friends in the living room. But I would love to invite the listener to be in one place, one that you can loosely call the ‘Poetics universe’. 

So it comes down to that process of active listening?

Yes, I think so. I think that anything benefits from attending to it actively. Cooking, eating, conversing, sports – at the gym, you have the possibility of disconnecting, or you can also be there and be focused on each of your movements. Anything can be done with and without attention. And I think that attention is so rewarding. This is music that suggests, that offers to take this moment and slow down.

Do you find that, as an artist, it's quite hard to go against that trend of that short and brief attention setup?

I don't think that it's harder for me, because I feel that my work is being received by the public that loves it and needs it. Perhaps one of the things that they are drawn to in the work is precisely this – just like I still listen mainly to works that require listening. I'm not the only one, but I do think that it can become harder for the people out there who are using social media and the internet – it’s simply the era in which we live.

There are so many stimulants, and it's probably hard for people sometimes to choose, or to boil it down to whatever it is that they want to listen to today. The selection, as we all know, can be confusing sometimes. It's easier to go to your local veggie guy and grab a couple of vegetables and fruit, than to be in the supermarket where you have five million options! We all kind of constantly have the ‘supermarket’ in our pocket. I think that it could get harder for people to manoeuvre, but I also trust that people understand that about the era we’re living in, and hopefully many of them make constant efforts to protect a certain space of focus. 

There does seem to be some kickback from the younger generations over the ownership devices can have over your life…

Absolutely – I could add something about that, because I recently became a professor of Jazz Piano at the University of Munich, and I was expecting to find students who are basically looking at their phone all day long. It was a very pleasant surprise to see that's not the case; that the young people that I meet are very aware of the dangers of living your life in a digital universe, and they actually reject it quite a bit. They use it, but not as addictively as I would fear, which is very encouraging. 

When it comes to your musical influences, are there any particular composers or musicians that really resonate with you, and that find their way into your music? 

I grew up in Israel and the first music that reached my ears and hit me in a powerful way, were several Israeli composers of popular music that were brilliant musicians and had studied music from around the world. Through their work, they were able to import a lot of the beauties of the world's music, and show me the way to start making music of my own that was rich and colorful. One of them in particular, whose name was Matti Caspi, has only recently passed away this month, and it made me think of the fact that I'm so drawn to Brazilian music. In a way I owe it also to him, because he was a great student of Brazilian music and created a lot of Brazilian sounding music in my mother tongue, in Hebrew. 

Growing up, before I discovered the source of that music, I was already receiving it in a very real way. Everything is easier when it comes from your home environment, but now, when I study real Brazilian music, it seems to me that I have a very close affinity with it that I think relates back to that. 

You chose to open the album with “Compassion.” Why was that the necessary first statement?

It’s related to a concert I played almost twenty years ago. I didn't play this piece – this was written especially for this album, but after the show as I was signing CDs, I was approached by a mother and a daughter. They must have been around forty and sixteen years old, something like that. They told me that they loved my music, that they have thought about it long and hard, and had found what the ingredient was in my music that made them love it so much. They said if they could boil it down to one word, it would be ‘compassion’. 

That really touched me, and I began to think that they had a point. The story stayed with me, and when I was working towards this album, I was like everybody today – I'm reading the news from every spot in the world today with horror and dread. We almost sound naïve and stupid when we say ‘we wish people would treat one another with more compassion’. It's like Lennon saying ‘give peace a chance’, but when someone came to McCartney and asked him, ‘didn't you think that was naïve or simplistic?’, McCartney said, ‘well, I don't know about that, but I know that a million people sang it with him in the park...’

I feel like words are losing their meaning, and compassion is a big one. But if all these leaders would treat everyone around them as they would like their own daughters and sons to be treated, a lot of the horrors we are seeing might have been avoided. So when I was composing this piece, that word came back to me, back from that story of 20 years ago, and in relation to today's world situation. I felt, finally, that I was writing the piece that deserved that title; it felt right. It's like naming a child where you have several names in mind before the child comes into the world, but then when you see the child, you and your partner somehow know what's the right name. I felt it was the right title. 

Later, when I was programming the album and working on the sequence, pretty early in the process I felt we had to open with that, because that's the first thing I want to put out there, not only musically, but also the word itself. 

What are the significance of the other ensemble players? When you composed, did you do so with specific musicians or personalities in mind? 

I cast the ensemble members before beginning to compose, and when I was composing, I totally aimed each section and each part to the specific individuals. So, for example, there is a composition that is quite compact and has several different themes. When I was writing that, after I’d established the main themes, I imagined myself taking the first solo. And then I imagined Tineke Postma coming in and taking a soprano solo, but I thought she should solo within her own section on this tune.

I wrote a segment that has its own melodies and harmonies that was meant for her to play and improvise on, so I really feel like I owe that section to her. Without her, I wouldn't have written it at all; I was totally closing my eyes and imagining her coming in with something new that didn't exist in this composition yet. That triggered me to compose something. 

I love composing this way. I love composing for people in particular, definitely. It's like casting actors and writing for them based on their strengths, and also based on something that maybe you haven't seen them do, but you have a feeling they would be into doing – that it could be interesting for them. When I'm writing, I don't only think of the effect that the music will have on a listener, I'm trying to give the musicians something that would fit their character, but also maybe challenge them and will be fun to play. It's almost like you don't only construct an experience for the listener. First, you construct an experience for the players, and through their experience, you hope to get to an experience for the listener.

What would you like listeners to take away from the album?

I would love them to simply let this music touch them. In many parts of the album, I find it very uplifting, and from my experience, the best work that I can do is to create something emotional that will do something to me, because I'm not that different from many others. So, if it's uplifting me, it might have a chance of uplifting you. If there is a composition here that is more serious and could make me contemplate, or get in touch with a more quiet or a more sombre place within myself, then if I work on it enough so that it really does that to me, and gives me chills, that simply means, since I'm just one of everyone, that it might be able to do that for you. I would simply love anybody in the world that puts their hand on this record to just put it on and let it wash you over. Whatever you feel listening to it is legitimate, and I'm happy that you feel that. 

What is next on the horizon for you? Are you playing live anywhere or embarking on a new project? 

In March and April, we will be touring quite heavily with The Poetics. We plan to play some big concerts, and since it's a larger group, we're also coming into larger halls than perhaps I’ve played in the past. I'm very much looking forward to that and to bringing this music live to people. From my experience with this kind of music, it further shapes itself during concerts, and that's really, really fun. So I'm really, really looking forward to that. 

One of my wishes for the future for this band is to come to the UK because I love playing in the UK. For this first tour we’re just playing in other European countries, but it's really a dream for me to come with such a group and play for the UK music lovers who I know are aware of my music. I would love to have that live connection happening. 

I've also been recently commissioned by an orchestra to write my first piano concerto, which is very exciting. After the tours, I will be starting to do that and enter the early stages of gathering some ideas.