Four Chords Is One Too Many…..Meet – Bummers Eve

For immediate release – November 5 2014

Max Hatt / Edda Glass Debut Born of Jazz and a Western Sense of Place

album releases February 2015

SANTA FE, NM – Max Hatt / Edda Glass’s self-titled debut features original material, reimagined pop-standards, and a western sense of place. To be released in February 2015, the full length album represents a divergence from Max Hatt / Edda Glass’s usual repertoire of Jazz & Brazilian classics, which continues to be the mainstay of their live performance. “It’s a homecoming,” says Edda Glass. “It’s jazz from where we live.” Appeals to fans of acoustic Pat Metheny, Cassandra Wilson, Norah Jones, Bill Frisell.

The album began in Montana, their former base, after being awarded a “Grant to Artists” by the Myrna Loy Center. The band’s 2014 relocation to Santa Fe, NM delayed the album’s release, but allowed them to pursue music full-time, playing jazz four or five nights a week with Rio, their Brazilian-infused group. Max Hatt / Edda Glass was never far from their plans however— in September they embarked on a successful 11-date tour of Seattle, Portland, and Montana, debuting their new original material. In November, they played at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Mountain Stage NewSong Contest, where they not only represented the Southwest region, but took the over all grand prize. “Max Hatt/Edda Glass often defied categorization,” said NewSong director Gar Ragland,  “making them arguably the most distinctive finalist act – let alone winner – we’ve ever had.” As the winners, they will play on NPR Mountain Stage, the Sundance Film Fest, and a concert at Lincoln Center. A sophomore album isalready on the works, to be produced with Pat Sansone of Wilco, who after seeing them at NewSong, declared himself “mesmerized from the first moment.”

While Max Hatt / Edda Glass’s 2014 break-out year flies by, their 2015 debut is anything but busy— musically speaking. “We wanted it slow and open,” says Glass, “like the landscape.” Bossa Nova makes appearances on “Occasional Summer” and “And I Love Her,” while tracks like “Wanted” pursue a deep hypnotic rubato. Guitar and voice predominate while ambient textures of accordion, cello, and electric guitar make occasional appearances. The album brings out the husky and intimate side of Glass’s voice, and also a new timbre suggestive of Americana— not quite a twang but an edge amid the hush, so fleeting and plaintive as to haunt the ear. Her lyrics resonate with the emotional immediacy of modern fiction, even as they evoke western history and myth.

Though the tempos and arrangements suggest space, these songs are as harmonically and melodically complex as the duo’s Jazz repertoire. “I’m interested in narrative melodies,” says Hatt. “I try to prolong resolution, tell the whole story, get close to the edge without falling off. Jazz gives you the tools, even if you’re not swinging.”  In chord voicings, Hatt has forged a distinctive harmonic signature, much as Pat Metheny, Neil Young, or Joni Mitchell have done in their different ways. There is a challenging dissonance– rich and mysterious– but also a folk quality that is instantly appealing.

Glass’s lyrics have an uncanny way of embodying Hatt’s compositional concepts. They are often literally narrative, as in the cinematic “She Run Away” and “Wanted.” But more essentially, they capture the melancholy of melodies that continuously remind the ear of resolutions not yet played. As Glass sums up the album, it’s all about “longing across distance.” When off I rode / I looked back home / but I’d come too far / there was nothing there but sky, she sings in “Aftermath,” while in “Wanted,” she echoes the album’s iconic cover artwork: she stands / in the door / forever / more. Even the pop standards comply: A sailor’s widow remembers the Taste of Honey, and the Wichita Lineman is still on the line.

Popular music is on a well-documented trend of increasingly simplified chords, melodies, and rhythms.  “A three-chord song can be profound,” says Hatt, “but that’s not the only tradition out there. Sophisticated and astoundingly beautiful songs like Stardust, or Girl from Ipanema once captured the world’s ear.” There have been many attempts to engineer cultural relevancy through genre hybrids, but Max Hatt / Edda Glass put their trust in the process of living in a place and time and making music from it. “In jazz I like the challenge of finding what’s real and present in those old Broadway lovesongs, and drawing it out through interpretation,” says Glass. “And the Amor, o Sorriso e a Flor of Bossa Nova— those syllables makes me quiver even when it’s all love, smiles, and flowers. But for me, this album is driving over the pass, on the way to a gig, with Max Hatt’s songs stuck in my head, and my writer’s heart telling stories to suit. What else would you expect?”

Links & Info

More about Max Hat / Edda Glass:

• with Max Hat / Edda Glass

Album Credits:

• Title: Max Hat Edda Glass
• Artist: Max Hat / Edda Glass
• Produced & arranged Max Hat / Edda Glass.
• Recorded, mixed, and mastered: Max Hatt.
• Compositions and guitar arrangements by Max Hatt.
• Vocals, lyrics, photography, web-design by Edda Glass. Also ambient electric guitar (Wanted), accordion (She Run Away, Aftermath, L’Emporda), piano (Aftermath, She Run Away), string arrangement (She Run Away), percussion, miscellaneous audio engineering.
• This album project was the recipient of a generous “Grant to Artists” from the Myrna Loy Center in Helena, MT.
• Max Hatt and Edda Glass are based in Santa Fe, NM, where they perform as Rio, a Bossa Nova & Jazz duo, trio, or quartet.