September 13, 2024
Saxophonist Walter Smith III has shared “Office Party Music,” the third single from his forthcoming sophomore Blue Note album, three of us are from Houston and Reuben is not, which will be released on September 27. An homage to his hometown of Houston, Texas, the new album’s wry title signifies the lineup which includes fellow Houston natives, pianist Jason Moran and drummer Eric Harland, while bassist Reuben Rogers – who hails from the Virgin Islands – rounds out the quartet. Together they enliven 10 compelling Smith originals and an imaginative rendering of a Sam Rivers composition – all of which speaks to Smith’s ascending status as one of modern jazz’s most engaging talents of his generation.
The plaintive ballad, “Office Party Music,” with its cinematic piano accompaniment and rhythmic sway, references a bizarre scene from the science fiction psychological thriller TV series Severance involving a character who is awarded a 5-minute “defiant jazz” music dance experience by her supervisor. “That scene was just funny to me,” Smith says. “I wrote the composition imagining a rescoring of that scene.”
Smith explains that when he assembled the new quartet for the album, he noticed that three of the members were from Houston. “And Reuben is not,” he says with a laugh. “That informed the inspirations behind the compositions. At the end of the recording sessions, I was trying to come up with a name for the album and almost all my ideas were uninspired. But then I went to the first page of my album notes and said, ‘That’s it: three of us are from Houston and Reuben is not.’ It outlined the theme and personality of the band correctly.”
Moran and Harland are slightly older than Smith, yet they all attended Houston’s famed Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, a hotbed of young jazz talent where Smith and his classmates admired alumni who graduated before them and led world-renowned careers. With three of us are from Houston and Reuben is not, Smith hopes to bring attention to the wider music world that Houston already had and continues to be a major U.S. cultural hub. “Texas isn’t only oil, guns, and politics,” Smith says. “There’s a thriving culturally rich community, which many people don’t think of when they picture Texas.”
The quartet will be celebrating the album’s release at the Village Vanguard in New York City from October 1-6. three of us are from Houston and Reuben is not is available for pre-order now on vinyl, CD, and digital download.
