Missoula grad trumpeter cuts album of originals for sextet

Writing that much of his own music wasn’t something he’d planned, yet it’s grown rapidly in his time here.

“I never really thought that I would lead my own group with my own tunes — I didn't have any,” he said. “One thing led to another, and suddenly I've got 30 tunes and my group that really seems to enjoy playing my music, which is super lucky, and we all love playing.” 

Mendell enrolled in the University of Montana School of Music for his master’s in trumpet performance. He thought COVID was a chance to advance his education, yet the atmosphere was clearing up for gigs when he arrived.

Not long after, he formed a band. They were all UM music students, some of whom have graduated, others who are graduating and some who have some time left. It features Mendell on trumpet, Aidan Robinson on saxophone, Sean Stineford on trombone, Dylan Bautista on piano, Connor Racicot on bass and Llwyn Clark-Gaynor on drums.

The album, “Points in Time,” will be out digitally on Sunday, the day of his album release show at the ZACC Show Room (see info box). Head to BandCamp.com, an artist-friendly digital platform, to find it.

While it sounds uniformly contemporary, the styles might shift from classic fast swing to a New Orleans or electronic influence. They're melodic and change up styles, often within a single tune. The band stretches out, led by his technically sharp but tastefully restrained playing.

“I want to keep people listening and keep them on their toes a little bit,” he said.

Washington to Montana

Mendell hails from the Tri-Cities in Washington. After starting out on trumpet in elementary school, he practiced obsessively. He studied at the University of Idaho for a music education and performance degree, and then taught high school music for five years.

When the pandemic hit, he decided he’d rather learn remotely instead of teaching that way.

“It felt like the right time,” he said, and now wants to pursue a doctorate in jazz studies with a goal of teaching at the college level.

He started the group in the fall of 2021, based around musicians he wanted to play with rather than a specific combination of instruments. An avid collector of records both classic and underacknowledged, he pointed out that the “definitive jazz group of all time” was a sextet with a three-horn front line: the iteration of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Curtis Fuller, Freddie Hubbard and Wayne Shorter.

With three horns, Mendell said his writing opportunities become “way more interesting and involved.”

Some of the tunes were written during the quarantine phase of 2020. Another is a sketch from high school.

As an undergraduate, he’d been reluctant to write. Others had made the process seem more daunting than he found it to be.

Some of his inspiration from writing sprang from Ben Macy, a friend and pianist who he’d played with. Listening to Macy’s music, he was struck by chord progressions that sounded out of the norm from the standards, yet worked harmonically.

“The way that he shapes his melodies has nothing to do with the common, standard language of jazz, which I found really interesting,” he said. It turns out Macy had been listening to contemporary classical music.

Diving into his own writing, the group developed a full set of originals, which is somewhat rare in Missoula. They also work in transitions, another feature that sets them apart. The music’s evolved over time, too.

“We’ve been playing the music for a year and half together,” Mendell said. "We’ve all discovered our own ways of playing each of the tunes."

Robinson, the saxophone player, who graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in music performance, said the chance to work on originals with a jazz group “doesn’t pop up very often” in western Montana. Given Mendell’s writing skills, “you can’t help but jump at the opportunity.”

He said Mendell brings in charts that “gain their own life in rehearsal,” and he “makes changes off what specific players have done.” 

“It makes it feel like the music is growing with the entire group,” he said.

In contrast, he said standards come with expectations and a deep history. A particular audience might expect them to be played a certain way. (He added that bar gigs are different, and you can “get away with being super-creative in your soloing.”)

Changing it up

Mendell doesn’t stick to a single feel through the tunes, which encompass fast swing, heavy swing in 3/4 time, mixed-meter, funk, Afro-Cuban, rock and funk in changing tempos, gospel in 6/8 time.

To Robinson, the compositions have a style of their own but the diversity “means you’re never bored.” They might be playing a groovy blues rhythm, “then immediately go into an EDM-inspired music that’s more about being low-key, hitting a vibe versus a groove,” he said.

The compositions have shifting dynamics, and he keeps the arrangements spacious despite the potentially crowded sound of a six-piece.

One tune, “Lament for Don,” is based on a sketch he wrote in high school in honor of Don Paul, one of his trumpet teachers. Paul started the Columbia Basin College Jazz Festival, where Mendell first saw famous jazz musicians playing live.

“I tried to capture his spirit in it, especially in the solo,” he said. While it’s a ballad with a mournful, melodic arrangement for the horns, Mendell plays a bebop line in Paul's honor, since he’s “one of the big reasons why I still play and why I got into jazz.”

One composition, “Question/Answer,” points back to the collaborative nature of the group.

“Every time I bring a new tune into the band, somebody always makes it better,” he said.

It’s structured as a conversational piece for the horns. Racicot, the bass player, suggested they change the tempo for each solo on the spot to keep everyone, audience included, engaged.

“Every single one of these tunes has a little thing that the band has suggested,” he said.

While Mendell has recorded with other artists who needed a trumpet line filled, this was his first full-length of his own music. They recorded in three long days at the end of March at Mat Bainton’s studio. He said it was a “blur,” in which the level of energy was differently calibrated, since risks are different on the clock than at a gig — he wanted it to be a clean demonstration of what they can do. Regarding “stretching out” and risks, two of the tunes are over 10 minutes. Live, they might extend to 15.

With Mendell and others graduating, this summer is the group’s last run, including several Missoula gigs and some out of town shows.

To Robinson, playing regularly in a combo like this has been an engaging learning experience.

“I really love how it’s pushed me, and changed how I thought about music,” he said.