SML : Spontaneous Music Live
SML primarily operate and thrive on the live stage, but their recorded output distributes that in-person energy and human chemistry into more digestible capsules. Like ’70s Miles Davis with an even heavier editing hand or rock experimentalists like Can, SML’s two albums thus far reconfigured the ecstatic energy of their live performances (all entirely improvised, I should note) into song-sized highlights. They’re not technically studio albums—last year’s How You Been, for instance, comprised performances from Chicago’s Empty Bottle, Seattle’s Tractor Tavern and Los Angeles’ Zebulon into three- and four-minute groove highlights, moments of brilliance plucked from a continuous stream of phenomenal musicianship and unbroken connections.
Spontaneous Music Live, as literal and perfect an employment of the Los Angeles group’s acronymous name, is no different from SML’s two prior albums in terms of its raw material. In fact, it even once again finds the quintet—Anna Butterss, Booker Stardrum, Gregory Uhlmann, Jeremiah Chiu and Joshua Johnson—in front of an audience at Zebulon. The difference is in the edit or lack thereof; comprising two lengthy pieces, each occupying the whole of a side of vinyl, Spontaneous Music Live reveals what SML are capable of when left to navigate where and as far as the music will take them, the full extent of these 20-minute sessions revealing some of the most stunningly rich and kinetic sounds of the group’s still-heating-up career.
Not unlike recent live albums by Jeff Parker’s ETA IVtet—of which bassist Butterss and saxophonist Johnson are both members—Spontaneous Music Live allows us to hear everything slowly taking shape, evolving over time and solidifying their foundation without ever fully hardening. But where that group’s live performances often feel more meditative and atmospheric, fully exploring ambient jazz in the moment, SML’s spark catches fire early and often. Even the more sedate of the two, side B’s slow-burning funk of “Roundabouts,” still feels like it’s always about to burst, its understated rim taps from Stardrum and shimmers of synth from Chiu a portrait of restraint against Butterss’ always-on-the-move basslines and Johnson and Uhlmann’s spirals of sax and guitar, respectively. It only takes a few minutes for the energy level to begin to spike, but by the halfway mark, it reaches a kind of mesmerizing climax of of melody, groove and atmosphere, all converging into an extended moment of transcendence.
In contrast, the aptly titled “The Drums,” kicking off with a sequence of Stardrum’s nimble stickwork, moves at full steam throughout its 23-minute duration, its cosmic funk reaching ever higher, and its vibes impeccable even when blood, sweat and muscle are ultimately driving it. Despite both marathon performances, there’s little to no patience required with each, and that likely goes even for listeners otherwise tentative about what we can broadly call “jazz”; the heat radiating off these players by the 14-minute mark of “The Drums” is off the charts, but it’s not as if any moment leading up to that doesn’t sear. It’s hard to come away from a recording or a performance like this with the impression that the members of SML are anything but some of the best musicians playing right now—because they don’t leave any doubt.
Label: International Anthem
Year: 2026
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SML : Spontaneous Music Live
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