When SFJAZZ Collective pays tribute to the King of Pop, don’t expect Muzak — but maybe a moonwalk or two.
By Andre Torrez
ALL EARS Nothing can replace the real thing, but once that trombone swings in with the vocal line from Michael Jackson’s “Working Day and Night” from the Off the Wall album, you may jump out of your seat.
Every year, the SFJAZZ Collective honors a particular artist, breathing complex, transporting life into the work with new arrangements. This year the award-winning, eight-piece ensemble takes on Jackson’s repertoire, Thu/22-Sun/25. It also adds a little context: “Jackson’s celebrity burned so brightly it often obscured the brilliance of his musical mind, a situation that’s only grown more pronounced since his death in 2009,” the Collective says. “We’re putting the spotlight back where it belongs, interpreting lesser known gems as well as epochal hits from his diverse and endlessly inventive songbook.”
We interviewed jazz bassist Matt Penman, an accomplished member of the collective since 2005, about the pleasures and perils of putting a jazz spin on such a beloved catalogue.
(Also, you should watch this YouTube clip of Michael Jackson’s beatboxing ability as he gives a deposition in court, breaking it down on the stand to fend of a plagiarism suit. This is what Penman is referring to when he talks about his sense of rhythm. The truth will set you free MJ!)
48 HILLS Jazz interpretations of MJ’s songs could be really cool or very easily go into bland elevator-Muzak territory. How do you make sure it’s cool?
MATT PENMAN The truth is that you can make anything into Muzak if you want. In other words, it’s all about the treatment and what your intentions are. In my opinion the really great tunes of Michael Jackson, and we all know which ones they are, are very strong pieces of music. So in the Collective we’ve taken those and put our own spin on them, and it’s often the personality of the arranger that comes through as much as the recognizable MJ elements. You just gotta trust us to do something cool.
48H The press materials for this show talk about the ability of instrumental music to explore lyricism. How does translating these pop vocals into jazz instrumentation transform them?
MP All tonal instruments relate in some way to the human voice, and we aim to have at least as much of a range of expression on our instruments as a great singer does – in fact, singers are some of my main inspirations. Michael Jackson was such a multi-faceted performer, when you take into account the songwriting, the singing, and the dancing, all of which he revolutionized, or at least pushed forward. It is, however, the musical elements that we’re concentrating on. I can moonwalk though.
48H MJ’s musical gifts are well-documented, but from a music and theoretical standpoint, tell us something we may not know about his ability as a songwriter, composer, or arranger.
MP If you watch MJ beatbox you get a sense of his unbelievable sense of rhythm. Some of his most well known songs like “Billie Jean” and “The Girl is Mine” were developed solely using multitrack recording of his voice and different vocal effects. He could do the bass, the drums, the keyboard parts, and the vocals all himself, and sometimes all at the same time! It’s pretty amazing, and shows the complete vision he had for his music. That production sound that we have come to associate with him, especially in the ’80s and ’90s is coming directly from him.
48H Is his music complex? Like, is it difficult to recreate from a jazz musician’s standpoint or does it not hold a candle to something more traditional like Coltrane?
MP Complexity comes in many forms. His music is not harmonically complex like a lot of jazz music, but it has really idiosyncratic rhythmic elements, layers of complex production and great melodies.
48H What lesser-known MJ gems are out there to explore?
MP Lots. As well as hits like “Thriller”, “Smooth Criminal” and “Rock With You,” we’re doing “Heartbreak Hotel” and “The Love You Save.” Not all of what we’re doing is written by MJ, but it’s all associated with him.
48H Will the SFJAZZ Collective be performing music by any other pop artists in the near future?
MP Quite possibly! Next year is Miles Davis though.
SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE PLAYS MICHAEL JACKSON AND ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS
Thu/21-Sun/25, various times, $25-$65.
SFJAZZ Center
Tickets and more info here.
