36 – Cloud Forest

Trumpeter Josh Deutsch and guitarist Nico Soffiato have played together as a duo since 2006 when they met in Boston. Over the years, their musical relationship has led to a repertoire crafted specifically for this ensemble, including many original compositions written collaboratively, as well as reimagined arrangements of jazz, classical, and popular music. Their sound ranges from electronic loops to fully acoustic pieces, balancing intricate compositions with spaces for improvisation and creative interaction.

Their third album, Redshift, was released in 2020 by nusica.org, featuring two renowned New York-based drummers, Allison Miller and Dan Weiss. Deutsch and Soffiato regularly perform in New York City and have toured extensively in the U.S. and Italy. They have also conducted masterclasses and workshops at music schools and universities in both countries.

Josh Deutsch is a Grammy-winning trumpeter and composer, recognized nationally and internationally for his performances across the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia. He records and performs with artists such as vocalist Sofia Rei, Grammy-winning singer Lila Downs, Grammy-winning Dafnis Prieto Big Band, and Pedro Giraudo’s Expansion Big Band. His projects have been featured at the Festival of New Trumpet Music by Dave Douglas, the Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle, and the Outpost Summer Music Festival in Albuquerque.

Nico Soffiato is an Italian guitarist and composer. After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 2007, he moved to Brooklyn. A versatile musician, he plays in various settings, from jazz groups to experimental projects, such as Dogwood with Zach Swanson, Paradigm Refrain, Limited Release Trio, and OST Quartet. He has been part of New York’s music scene for over 15 years and is a member of the Out of Your Head collective, alongside artists like Gerald Cleaver, Michael Attias, Tony Malaby, and Kirk Knuffke. He also plays with *Innocent When You Dream*, an instrumental ensemble that reinterprets Tom Waits’ music. Additionally, Nico composes and produces music for film and television, working with the international music agency Overcoast.

Dave King is an American drummer from Minneapolis, best known as a founding member of the jazz groups The Bad Plus (with Reid Anderson and Ethan Iverson) and Happy Apple (with Michael Lewis and Erik Fratzke). He is also involved in projects like the free jazz collective Buffalo Collision, featuring New York’s downtown jazz musicians Tim Berne and Hank Roberts, as well as the electronic art/pop group Halloween, Alaska.

Rudy Royston is a professional drummer and percussionist with nearly two decades of experience. He studied classical percussion at the University of Denver, earning degrees in Music and English, along with a teaching qualification from the Metropolitan State College of Denver. After relocating to New Jersey in 2006, he completed a Master’s degree in Music at Rutgers University. Since then, he has performed with some of the most influential jazz musicians, including Bill Frisell, with whom he frequently tours.

Bram Kincheloe is a drummer, composer, and writer. A former student at LaGuardia Performing Arts School and the Manhattan School of Music, he has performed with artists like Lee Konitz, Branford Marsalis, Ambrose Akinmusire, Wynton Marsalis, Ben Street, and Steve Cardenas. In 2008, he co-founded the soul-rock group Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds. After signing with New Frontier Touring in 2011, the band began playing around 175 concerts annually across the U.S. and Canada, performing at major festivals such as Bonnaroo, Voodoo Fest, and the Cotai Jazz and Blues Festival in China.

Cloud Forest

C Something
The title is a bit of wordplay, referencing a common announcement heard in New York City subways, “If you see something, say something”. In the case of this piece, the improvised section is marked “C Something,” because the repeated guitar ostinato uses the note “C” but the harmony is very open, and can shift to any harmonic sound over C. Like many of our pieces, this one blurs the lines of genres, and takes some inspiration from 90s rock bands like the Smashing Pumpkins. (Josh)

Likely Story
A true example of collaborative composition, Likely Story started with a sketch by Nico, which we workshopped for a while, and then Josh took Nico’s original melody and harmony from the first 7 bars, and rounded out the tune with some melodic variations and some Radiohead inspired harmonic ideas. The layering heard on the recording was a very spontaneous in-studio decision, and connects back to the layering heard on some earlier Josh & Nico duo albums. (Josh)

 Cloud Forest
As we started incorporating the keyboard into the trio sound, one goal was to make the guitar more of a melodic voice on the new record, and the original idea for this piece came from thinking about the texture of a guitar melody with keyboard accompaniment. The title emerged as we were rehearsing it during a composition retreat we did in Vermont… It was a cloudy day, and the view of the clouds clinging to the trees below really matched the vibe of the song, and gave way to the title Cloud Forest. (Josh)

Make it There
The title is inspired by the satirical interpretation of the song “New York, New York” as it appears in The Simpsons as “Upstate New York”.  They change the line “if you make it here, you can make it anywhere” to “if you can’t make it anywhere, you can make it here”, which I found hilarious, as someone who recently moved to Upstate New York. (Nico)

Inertia
This tune was the product of a self-imposed composition boot camp during the pandemic, where I was forcing myself to write a tune a day. This was one of my favorite pieces from that period, and the title refers to both the feeling of being in the artistic flow, and also the forward momentum you feel with the hemiola created during the “C” section of the tune, with the 3 8th note rhythm underneath the larger 4/4 structure.  Harmonically, this piece is inspired by the idea of using half-diminished chords almost as the tonic sound, something I also hear in some Billy Strayhorn compositions. The resulting progression suggested a Brazilian inspired rhythm to me, and so I let it go there! (Josh)

86 the Ravioli
The phrase “86 something” may have originated from Chumley’s bar, a speakeasy located at 86 Bedford Street in New York City’s Greenwich Village. During Prohibition, the police would tell patrons to “86” the bar, meaning to leave through the secret back door that led to 86th Street. I heard the phrase “86 the ravioli” from the TV show “The Bear”.  It sort of reflects the chaos of a busy kitchen, like the one in the tv show. (Nico)

A Coat of White Primer
This is an older song of mine.  It originated from a blues progression that I reworked harmonically and extended.  I wrote it at a time where I needed to regroup and restart, as the title suggests.  Once again, I took this phrase from the show Six Feet Under, season 5, episode 1. (Nico)

Between the Bars
This is one of my favorite Elliott Smith pieces, and I’ve thought about covering it for a long time. The original version is in ¾ and features some really beautiful harmony which I didn’t want to change too much. To avoid just doing an exact cover, I changed the meter to 15 (3 bars of 4 and 1 bar of 3), which makes for a nice challenge, and works nicely with the melody. For the solo section, I boiled down the main harmonic ideas to a condensed 16 bar form, which is really fun to improvise over. (Josh)

Strange Meeting
This is a piece Nico and I have been playing together for most of the 19 years we’ve been playing together. When we first met, it was uncanny how much of the same music we felt connected to, and guitarist/composer Bill Frisell was a big one. When we invited drummer Rudy Royston to join us for this album, we both agreed it was time to finally record our version, as Rudy is a long time collaborator with Frisell.  This piece for me is an ultimate example of the beauty of simplicity, and letting a song go exactly where it wants without forcing in any unnecessary complication, something I’m always striving for in my own composition. On top of that, it is a joy to play each and every time, and I’d be happy performing it at every concert I ever play. (Josh)

 Purpose and Salivation
I heard this phrase in an interview, but I don’t remember who said it and I can’t seem to be able to find out.  I remember it made sense and it was kind of funny, so that’s good enough for me to title a song after it. (Nico)

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