Matthew Evan Taylor interview KALX May 21, 2026 with Sparkle Motion.
Sparkle Motion: K-A-L-X Berkeley, University of California and listener supported freeform community radio. I’m Sparkle Motion. And right before we start this interview with Matthew Evan Taylor, I thought I would play an excerpt from one of his many pieces. He’s got, um, over 14 new works out there, and this one is called Quickening and Enlivening. And we’ll hear just about four minutes of that.
Musical Interlude
Matthew Evan Taylor: Hi, I’m UC Berkeley professor and composer Matthew Evan Taylor, and you are listening to KALX Berkeley.
Sparkle Motion: Thank you, Matthew. We improv around here.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. All right.
Sparkle Motion: This piece that we’re listening to is called Quickening and Enlivening, and I’m gonna bring it down because I want to spend some time talking about your creative practice, which you say is built around a liberatory framework called Afro-Pneumaism. Can you explain what that is?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. Uh, Afro-Pneumaism is a framework that kind of grew out of, ultimately grew out of, the pandemic era and, uh, the Black Lives Matter uprisings during that summer of 2020. And the primary thing is, um, as a saxophonist growing up, I had to learn how to navigate breathing around playing a composer’s music. Um, and always the breath was subjugated to the music itself. And in this practice, I elevate my breathing, or, and the breathing of the musicians that are playing my music to being equal to the sounds that they’re making. So it’s a structural element of my music as well as a, a rhythmic element, and, um, informs kind of the overall form that the music will take.
Sparkle Motion: When did you first use that in a piece?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Um, the very first time consciously using it was in a piece called Breathe. That’s the very first Afro-Pneumatic piece, and that was in, uh, 2022. Um, and it’s a very simple piece. I call it a canon in, in, uh, 81 breaths. Um, and it, it’s for five to ten musicians, and they have, they repeat, they play eight notes the whole t- or nine notes the whole time, and they repeat each nine times.
Matthew Evan Taylor: And what ends up happening is, depending on the breath practice of the particular, uh, musicians or the breath endurance, the canon that results is unpredictable. So often when it’s been performed, I’m performing it, and I’m the first player, and so you would expect that I would be out first. But oftentimes what happens is, because my breath patterns are kind of elongated because of the, my, my use of breath and my instrument, but also because my instrument helps me conserve breath, um, I’m, I’m often also the last person that’s playing. Um, so it’s, it’s-
Sparkle Motion: How do you notate this for your performers? Like, when you write a composition, how do you do breath on-
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. So, um, I’ve been evolving it, actually. But there’s, there’s this one symbol that I use, um, that actually comes up from a physical gesture I use to kinda signal breathing, um, where in that physical gesture, I’m drawing in the breath towards my chest in circular motions, and then I push the breath out kind of, uh, from my mouth to the, to the world.
Matthew Evan Taylor: And I wanted a symbol that had that same kind of gathering and unfolding shape to it. So I have these two stylized squiggles, I guess they are, that, uh, one is, um, kind of a wave that goes into a spiral. And then it’s paired with a spiral that goes into a wave. And that’s, the first one is the inhale, and the second one is the exhale.
Sparkle Motion: So your performers have to learn this first?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. The, and, um, I still use, like, Western notation for pitches, but, um, the ultimate goal of my music and Afroneumism is that, um, anybody can play it. It’s not the… the, uh, aesthetics of it aren’t built on the Western notion of precision.
Sparkle Motion: Formal education of?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, or anything. So it’s, it, uh, right now as they’ve been performed, they’ve been performed by people that are virtuosos on their instruments, so they have a specific kind of thing. But I’m, I’m really interested in what will happen once other people start feeling comfortable playing it just, and just trusting that all you really have to do, uh, is breathe to the best of your ability, and then the music will take care of itself.
Sparkle Motion: It’s kinda like, um, the, the creative process, that that essay by, um, Baldwin (James Baldwin).
Matthew Evan Taylor: Right.
Sparkle Motion: Um, what do you expect from your audiences when you do these breathing pieces? Aren’t they involved as well?
Matthew Evan Taylor: So I don’t expect anything from my audiences, actually. But what I’ve, anecdotally, what I’ve experienced is that the audiences often come up to me afterwards, or email me or call me afterwards to tell me that the piece made them think about their breathing, and that they found themselves instinctively breathing with a particular musician on stage.
Sparkle Motion: That’s cool.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. It’s, it’s been, it’s been a really rewarding path of inquiry for me. Um- Yeah … the, the idea that in music, especially when you’re thinking in these concert hall settings, in art music, whatever, that breathing is seen as such a kind of novel thing to talk about. But, um- You know, I, you, you were mentioning earlier that musicians would have to learn how to read the music, and it’s true. Like, I, I have to kind of educate people on how to read it. And most of the education is just allowing them to trust that I, I do mean that this piece is as free-flowing as it, as I say it is, you know? But yeah, it’s, it’s been, it’s, yeah, it’s just been rewarding.
Sparkle Motion: Well, you just did, um, I know you’ve worked with, um, Metropol- what is it? The Metropolis…
Matthew Evan Taylor: Ensemble. Mm-hmm …
Sparkle Motion: Yes, in New York City.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah.
Sparkle Motion: And you just did something with James Brandon Lewis and
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, yeah …
Sparkle Motion: Leslie Mok. Oh, tell me about that. I wish I had the music.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah,
Sparkle Motion: what, they commissioned you, right?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Um, yeah. Well, so this was, uh, Metropolis Ensemble is, uh, and Andrew Cyr, the founder and, and director of it are, like, my longest standing collaborators. Um, they’ve, a lot of my big projects have been with them. And so I was…
Sparkle Motion: How did you hook up with them?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Uh- With
Sparkle Motion: Andrew …
Matthew Evan Taylor: Serendipity! I went to a, an artist residency in Wisconsin, and an old friend that I had known during grad school, she was a professor, but had, Paula Matheson, she became professor over at, uh, Wesleyan. Uh, but we knew each other in Miami. She happened to be there at this random artist residency that up until I showed up, I didn’t think any other musicians knew about it- … ’cause it was mainly, uh, visual arts, um, and maybe a performance artist. But, so, like, the first person I see as I step out of the car is Paula, and we’re like, “What’s going on?”
Matthew Evan Taylor: You know? And during the course of that week as I w- we were, um, I was there as a as a master artist. So I was, I was looking at other art and critiquing it and stuff. But as w- as Paula and I were talking, she’s like, “I really need to get you in touch with Andrew. We’re coming up on the 10th anniversary of the ensemble, and we’ve got this special thing, and I think Andrew would want you to be involved in, in writing for it.”
Matthew Evan Taylor: And so yeah, that, that’s where it started. Um-
Sparkle Motion: And then you had that live performance at The Met-
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah
Sparkle Motion: that was in 2022?
Matthew Evan Taylor: that was, yeah, so that was six years later was that performance.
Sparkle Motion: Wow.
Matthew Evan Taylor: But yeah, from, from that first performance with him, or from that first time chatting with him and going through their 10th anniversary, which was built, the structure was kind of built on John Cage’s Musicircus concept. Uh, so you can imagine, it was, it was a happening.
Sparkle Motion: They’re so creative.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, yeah.
Sparkle Motion: It’s amazing.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, so, um, he, yeah, he, Andrew’s been in my corner, and just anytime an, an opportunity comes up, he calls me, and then he’s like, “Hey, you wanna do something?” I’m like, “Yeah, let’s do it.”
Sparkle Motion: So what was the piece with Brandon Lewis?
Matthew Evan Taylor: So this one was, uh, uh, I was workshopping a, a new piece in honor of my son, who was just born.
Sparkle Motion: Congratulations.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Thank you. Thank you. Uh-
Sparkle Motion: I’m a new grandmother.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, that’s what I thought I’d heard that, yeah. So, um, yeah, we … His name’s Elijah. He, he’s four months old now. And, uh, it, it was a piece based on this lullaby I had started singing to him. And I reached out to Leslie and, um, and James to see if they’d be into it, and they were. And then, um, I’ll, I’ll have to share the … I’ll, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll talk to them and see if they’re cool with me sharing the, the music.
Sparkle Motion: The music? Yeah. Oh, that would be wonderful. I love James Brandon Lewis’s work.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Oh, he’s-
Sparkle Motion: And Leslie-
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah … but, you know, to have them together. Oh, it was, it was as magical as you’d- As you’d expect. Yeah. Um, I’ve admired both of them for a long time. Uh, James and I met some years ago, and, um, would always try to find ways to maybe, like, tour together or something. Like, I’d be w- w- would be two acts or something. And then finally I was like, “Hey man, you know, I- I’m coming into New York for this thing. Would you be down?” And he, he was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” So. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I love James’ um-
Sparkle Motion: Messthetics and all
Matthew Evan Taylor: that, yeah. Yeah, yeah. All of that. He’s just- And just his, uh, connection to gospel. You can hear, like, that gospel soul in his sound.
Sparkle Motion: Well, that’s one of the things I wanna talk to you about is that I hear it not just with your music but other new composers. There’s such a hybridization now of- like, um, you know, you hear, uh, old jazz, and you hear classical, and you hear y- all this hybrid of, of genres. And so I wanted to ask you, I, I think you’re kind of in that exciting mode too. It’s, it’s all happening at once. What… How do you describe your philosophy of music?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. I… So I guess the best way I could describe it is just that these are the pieces of me that fit together, you know?
Sparkle Motion: Yeah. And, and it’s crazy- And, and so- … or hybrid as it is.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. Right? Yeah. And, uh, I really appreciate you saying that ’cause, you know, when I started s- I went into classical composition training because I didn’t think that I could get into a jazz program. So, uh, it was just kind of, um… I don’t know how I could arrogantly think that I could get into a composition program more easily. But
Sparkle Motion: I like that, though. A flip…
Matthew Evan Taylor: But it was just- It was just one of these things where the… I mean, there are programs out there that I think would’ve been, if I had known of them, I would’ve fit in. But the kind of standard for, like, jazz programs was always, like, kind of anathema to how I understood jazz. Like, uh, like really focusing on riffs.
Sparkle Motion: Well, how did you understand jazz?
Matthew Evan Taylor: I just understood it as a melodic form that… And it still is this to me, a melodic form that is built out of an oral tradition of elder jazzmen taking you under your wing and kind of correcting you as you go along, but, like, allowing you to find your own voice as opposed to us trying to ape, like, Michael Brecker or, you know, any, uh, you know, Charles Mingus, like any of these people that we love. But, like, part of the reason we love them is because we know who they… Like, we can hear… I, I can hear two notes of Michael Brecker, I know it’s Michael Brecker.
Sparkle Motion: Yeah.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Right? I can hear two notes of Cannonball Adderley, my personal favorite, and I’m like, “Oh, I know, I know the song,” you know? Like, it, it, it’s just always-
Sparkle Motion: That fingerprint.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Mm-hmm. That fingerprint. And so, um, I think, I think, you know, for me, my sound kind of emerges out of me emulating all of my heroes, you know? Um-
Sparkle Motion: Well, when you were– Can we back up a little bit-
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, yeah …
Sparkle Motion: about your life? You were born in Boston, but you grew up in Mississippi.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Uh, actually, I grew up in Birmingham.
Sparkle Motion: Birmingham. Yeah. I’m sorry. Alabama
Matthew Evan Taylor:… but I did live in Mississippi for a while
Sparkle Motion: Okay. Well, I know that you’ve wr- you’ve written about your grandmother. And I wondered if, if you first heard jazz and Cannonball Adderley from your grandmother. Where did you first hear this music?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Uh, from my father.
Sparkle Motion: Okay.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. My father brainwashed me.
Sparkle Motion: In a good way.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. He, um, so he was a, a all-state clarinetist in high school, and, uh, went on to– He was a hobbyist in the saxophone, uh, in college. Played in the marching band, bar- baritone saxophone. I think he said something along the lines of it was a lot cooler to be on the saxophone. And so- … when I, uh, when I was growing up, he would– the music we would listen to, especially in the car, would be, um… Well, on Sundays it would be Parliament Funkadelic, Steely Dan, later Digable Planets and some other stuff. But, um, in, um, like on work days, it would be jazz ’cause he kinda– it would help him relax. And he would quiz me. Like, uh, we’d be listening to Grover Washington Jr., and he’d quiz me on which saxophone he’s playing.
Sparkle Motion: Oh, that’s great.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. Uh, you know, I’m seven, eight years old, and I’m, like, learning how to tell the difference between the sound of the baritone and the sound of the tenor or the alto and soprano. Uh, and so I think- Yeah, so, uh
Sparkle Motion: So What happened when you heard Ornette Coleman?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Oh, well, okay. So Ornette was a revelation. I think the very first time I would’ve heard Ornette would’ve been when I was nine. And at the time I couldn’t understand it, but when I heard it again when I was, like, 13, and this was the first time, the, to me, this felt like the first time I’d heard it ever, and I was obsessed. It w- Do you remember the, uh, Smithsonian had, like, a five-disc jazz collection, and it was like… It, I think it came out in, like, the 1980s maybe. Uh, but the, they had reissued it as a, a group of five CDs. And the fourth CD had, uh, Haitian Fight Song, and then the fifth CD had Congeniality and Lonely Woman. So those three songs, like, completely just disrupted my, my understanding of music, you know? Before then I was really into Prince and Michael Jackson and- … um-
Sparkle Motion: That’s good. That’s fun.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was great. But, like, that was when I was like, oh, so my horn c- this thing, this, uh, at, at the time I had a Bundy 2 saxophone. This thing can make those sounds? And then later an uncle, my Uncle Bill, whose birthday it is today actually-
Sparkle Motion: Happy birthday, Bill.
Matthew Evan Taylor: uh, he, uh, introduced me to… He taught me a lesson in, um, vibrato, ’cause he had been a saxophone, uh, saxophonist, uh, in high school. And come to find out that he actually– So he’s my uncle through marriage. He learned that lesson from my father’s uncle. Anyway, it, it’s
Sparkle Motion: What is the lesson?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Just on how to play the saxophone and make it sound warmer. Oh. So to, to add vibrato. So, like, may I demonstrate?
Sparkle Motion: I would love to hear you play. Yeah. Be my guest. You can stand or- Okay … sit, whatever.
Musical Interlude
Matthew Evan Taylor: So yeah, so at the time, you know, I would’ve been playing melodies like like that. But then to add vibrato…: It’s just, uh, has a different
Sparkle Motion: It’s warmer
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, it has a, a warmer, more active sound.
Sparkle Motion: Yeah
Matthew Evan Taylor: Um, and it’s a sound that soloists would use.
Sparkle Motion: When did you start getting interested in composition or, you know, doing your own thing?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. Um, that would’ve happened… I mean, I was always tinkering with it, I, actually, when I think back. Like, um, there would be these Fisher-Price toys that had like a composition mode on them. You could kinda make up different melodies. I always made up melodies on that, so, you know. And I don’t know how old I was when I was doing that. But the kind of like, “Oh, this is something I r- I really want to try,” that was probably high school, college. And it, um, my understanding of composition, I, I wasn’t even thinking of it as composition. I was just thinking of, of, you know, what does Coltrane do? What does Miles do? What does Ornette do? Right? Yeah. They’re composers and they’re performers. And so I just thought of it as being able to just kind of have the idea, express it, and have it recorded, and I didn’t even think about writing it down.
Sparkle Motion: That’s kind of beau- That’s very simple.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah.
Sparkle Motion: And I, I like something that you wrote about this, actually. You said that, I’m not sure you were talking in reference to maybe how you compose, but you said that you like to get to simplicity.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Mm-hmm.
Sparkle Motion: And then you want your work to have a social nature, and you want to evoke color, and lastly, you want some kind of relationship to movement, like dance and music. Is that how you think? I mean, you-
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah …
Sparkle Motion: did say that. And, um, I was just curious if that was part of your, that’s how you see the world.
Matthew Evan Taylor: It, it is. Yeah, I, you know, music to me is a, is a social art. And, you know, to varying degrees, societies will split apart, like, the music creator and the music performer. But, um, I don’t know, like, when you’re growing up, you don’t think of there being differentiations. Right. Right? And you know, for me, I, like I said, I, I loved Michael Jackson and- Yeah … Prince growing up.
Sparkle Motion: You were even in a rock band for five years!
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, yeah.
Sparkle Motion: You, you were the keyboardist-
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah …
Sparkle Motion: okay, so you go to-
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah …
Sparkle Motion: you, this is be- before you get your PhD?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Mm-hmm.
Sparkle Motion: You were a keyboardist for, what was the name of the-
Matthew Evan Taylor: Uh, Moses Mayfield.
Sparkle Motion: Moses Mayfield.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. And pri- prior to that, what they were known as the Stewart Mayfield Project.
Sparkle Motion: And what kind of music were they?
Matthew Evan Taylor: They’re the- Uh, we were, so that was the early 2000s. So we were, I would say we had a little bit of, ’cause at first I started off as the saxophonist, so we had a little bit of, uh, Dave Matthews, uh- Right and Widespread Panic kind of- Yeah … vibe going on. And then later we started imbibing, uh, the Radiohead, uh, Coldplay sound. Um-
Sparkle Motion: So you’ve had this really diverse-
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah …
Sparkle Motion: um, immersion in music. And then, and then you went to study modern composers.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. Yeah.
Sparkle Motion: So what, what ma- uh, when did you decide to get your PhD and, and study classical music?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Uh, so it started on tour. 10 years ago we were on our first national tour actually, and, um, I think, I’m pretty sure the timeline’s right, um, the movie Little Miss Sunshine had come out, and around that time, I don’t know if There Will Be Blood had come out that year as well, but around that time- Yeah … we were talking, there was a lot of talk about Johnny Greenwood, and then also Little Miss Sunshine, Devotchka had done the soundtrack of that, and I was just like, “Wow, you know, film scoring is just kinda easy. I, I could, I could do this,” you know?
Sparkle Motion: Yeah.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Again, the-
Sparkle Motion: And fun.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, and fun. Uh, again, like, kinda this, this slight arrogance. I don’t know where it came from, but, um, yeah, so I, I, um- I started getting interested in that, and so I was like, I, okay, I should study composition and, uh, get into film scoring and, you know, that’ll be a fun thing. ‘Cause, like, I loved playing in the band, but, you know, we’re playing the same s- same songs every night, and I didn’t write those songs.
Sparkle Motion: And they’re not yours.
Matthew Evan Taylor: They’re not mine.
Sparkle Motion: That’s what I was gonna say, yeah.
Matthew Evan Taylor: So I was just like, I, I need my outlet. And so, um, I started studying privately with my old theory, um, and composition teachers from college who lived in Birmingham, and they were the ones that were like, “Actually, you could go to– You could get your PhD in this. And we think, actually, that you’re, um, you could do film scoring, but I think you like your ideas.”
Sparkle Motion: Oh interesting. Okay.
Matthew Evan Taylor: And so maybe concert composition would be better-
Sparkle Motion: Huh …
Matthew Evan Taylor: for you.” Um, and yeah, I mean-
Sparkle Motion: And so what did you learn by studying classical, moving from that world of rock and, you know, the, the jazz of growing up with your dad playing?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Well, you know-
Sparkle Motion: What did that do?
Matthew Evan Taylor: It– I realized that I knew more about… Like, there wasn’t anything that classical composition taught me that I hadn’t already known through everything else I’d been doing. What it did teach me was, okay there’s a process I can go through, and there’s a way I can build infrastructure under my music that could be helpful to, like, how, how well it stands up on other performances. But, you know, the things that, like, um, economy of line, um, structure, all, I mean, you know, uh, you listen to a, a Cannonball Adderley solo or a Sonny Rollins solo, they have that. They have economy of line and structure in their, in their performances.
Sparkle Motion: Mm-hmm.
Matthew Evan Taylor: And so- It’s- And then, like, through the rock stuff, I had learned, you know, as we were recording our album, without even realizing it, I was already understanding the editing process. And so, like, when I got into composition, what I realized was, like, my first, like, kinda superpower among my colleagues was that I could edit myself. Oh. Like, I could get my ideas out. I didn’t have to ruminate on my ideas in the same way that some of my colleagues had to. So that meant that I had four or five pieces when other people would have one piece. Um, and so it was more like classical music or, or studying com- composition in that tradition was more of a mirror that helped me understand what I actually knew. And then, you know…
Sparkle Motion: Is that where you developed all the genres that, um, the pneuma and… I saw that– I don’t know if-
Matthew Evan Taylor Yeah ….
Sparkle Motion: that’s unique to you Is it? All those, um- Um- … the okossa and…
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. I think just my brain kinda works in that way.
Sparkle Motion: But that, that is your unique genre set? It seems to be.
Matthew Evan Taylor: I didn’t take it from anybody.
Sparkle Motion: Ah. Yeah. It’s unique then.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so- Yeah … um, and that’s all– those are all emanating from Afropneumaism work. Uh, but yeah, like, even my work, uh, Postcards to the Met, like I, I just kinda think in these cycles and these, yeah, in these cycles and, and collections. Like, I mix
Sparkle Motion: Yeah, which is kind of classical in a way.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, in a way.
Sparkle Motion: Yeah.
Sparkle Motion: It’s like bringing it all together.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah.
Sparkle Motion: Tell me about the Requiem Series that you did, because, uh, you mentioned your– I wanted to hear about your grandmother’s influence and the… Did you spend time in the churches, and did you hear the call and response and all that and…?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. Um, so my grandmother, Ernestine Taylor, she’s my paternal grandmother, and she was, uh, a big presence in my life. Uh, my folks divorced, and I was going in between them. Uh, my mother lived in Tuskegee, Alabama. My father lived in He lived in Miami, and then he lived in North Carolina, and then he finally was able to move back to Birmingham.
Sparkle Motion: So where was your grandmother? Birmingham?
Matthew Evan Taylor: She was in Birmingham.
Sparkle Motion: Okay.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Um, and so when you stay with grandma, you do what grandma does. Uh, and so we go to her church, St. Paul AME in Smithfield, Alabama. And, uh, it’s an AME church, so it’s the original kinda Black denomination. And they, they really had some of the old traditions like hymn lining and, um, and some of the charismatic aspects of people catching the Holy Ghost and…
Sparkle Motion: The witnessing
Matthew Evan Taylor: yeah, and witnessing and all of that.
Sparkle Motion: Which is big in your music-
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah … in a sense. Yeah. I mean, that’s, I see that connection. Thank you. Thank you.
Sparkle Motion: Yeah.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Um, so yeah, so there were no, like, explicit lessons. It was just that, you know, she would take me there. Um, she would make sure that I was really involved. My grandfather, rest his soul, he, he would, um, sign me up to lead Bible studies without me knowing. And then, like, the week, the, the Sunday that it comes up, it’s like, “Oh, yeah, you’re, you’re, uh, you’re with the teens teaching the Sunday school.” I’m like, “What?” Um, so I think that also meant- Yeah … that I had to learn to improvise, uh a little early on. Um, but yeah, so, um, the Requiem Series, it’s kind of, you know, it, it’s not developed in the way that I initially in- intended it. But, um, it’s a series that, to commemorate my grandmother who passed away in 2017. And the first piece that I wrote for her was, um, called, uh, Prayer Service for Ernestine.
Sparkle Motion: Oh, that’s sweet.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. Um, and, uh, actually, it got its West Coast premiere back in February at, um, with, uh, EcoEnsemble here at, at Cal.
Sparkle Motion: Oh.
Matthew Evan Taylor: And it’s like a, it’s the first piece that I, I would say has, like- the seeds of Afro-pneumaism in it because I, I use a technique, or I, I emulated, uh, hymn lining, which is a breath… It’s a call and response form, but it’s, it’s also limited by the breath. So people are pacing themselves based on their breathing, and yeah, and it’s just, that seemed like a, a potent source of inspiration for me. And, uh, the other pieces that I have, have in some way, that I’ve said are in the Requiem Series, have some reference to hymn lining in it.
Sparkle Motion: I’d like to hear those too sometime.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. Yeah, I’ll, I’ll send them along.
Sparkle Motion: Yeah, that would be great. If you’re just tuning in, you’re listening to K-A-L-X Berkeley, and my guest is Dr. Matthew Evan Taylor, who is an assistant professor of composition here at UC Berkeley. Would you care to play something now?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Sure. So, um, I’ll do a short improvisation in an Afro-pneumatic style, and that’ll just mean there will be lots of silence, but also sound. Um, instead of taking the typical, like, performative breaths, which are really short,
musical interlude
Sparkle Motion: And you have to sometimes wake up your audience like, “Hey.” Ring the little bell.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sparkle Motion: Yeah, that’s beautiful. So I wanted to ask you also about your saxophone. I assume it’s a special, special- Yeah … equipment for you. It’s- Tell us about it …
Matthew Evan Taylor: so I mean, uh, I grew up playing alto saxophone. Um, I did the calculation. I’m 45 now, so I think I’ve been playing saxophone for 36 years. And so it’s, it’s literally the longest standing constant outside of my family in my life. Um-
Sparkle Motion: That instrument. Wow.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Well, not this instrument, but like, uh-
Sparkle Motion: That- … it had, this, this form … category.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. And so this is the, um, instrument I bought when I got my first teaching position, and I could finally do something like buy myself a, an instrument. So, um, this is, this is a special instrument because it’s- It’s been with me through like my, my own awakening to my identity as a musician, and also has been with me to Paris and, uh, uh, Amsterdam and other places where I, I finally, I kinda didn’t realize that my music could take me to those places, you know? Um-
Sparkle Motion: Yeah, that’s really beautiful.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, um, so, and then like-
Sparkle Motion: It’s truly your, that’s your comfort friend. That’s your comfort instrument on the plane.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, yeah. I have all these other instruments that I’m playing now, but yeah.
Sparkle Motion: But that’s your trusty….
Matthew Evan Taylor: This is, this is the trusty one, yeah.
Sparkle Motion: Yeah. So what are you teaching over at Berkeley?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Uh, so I’m teaching, uh, composition for undergrads, um, music analysis where I focus on music since the turn of the 20th century, and, uh, I’m actually teaching a … Coming up, I’m teaching a grad seminar about, uh, the development of Afro-neumism. So we’re gonna have like a lot of readings and stuff, and the students are gonna compose some Afro-neumatic works.
Matthew Evan Taylor: And I just developed a course on, uh, Afrofuturist Music,
Sparkle Motion: Oh, what’s that about? That sounds great.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Well, I’ll tell you, there’ll be a lot of Parliament-Funkadelic in it.
Sparkle Motion: Yeah. And, um, basically…
Sparkle Motion: And Jake Blount?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Jake yeah. And it’s gonna, it’s going to be tracing kind of the history of, uh, Afrofuturism. Um, there’s, uh, I’m not even gonna try to say her name, but there are these two great books, um, by a writer named Womack who wrote about evolution within Afrofuturism, and, uh, another book called Afrofuturism that have, uh, great stories and anecdotes about Afrofuturist writings and, and things like that. And it’s, it’s something that I’ve, I’ve been really hoping to, uh, to talk about with students for a while now, especially with the prominence of Janelle Monae and her whole ArchAndroid series. [Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture by Ytasha Womack].
Sparkle Motion: Mm-hmm.
Matthew Evan Taylor: So I thought it would be a great addition to the curriculum. Um, and this is for undergrads.
Sparkle Motion: And is that coming up in the fall?
Matthew Evan Taylor: This is coming up in the fall, yeah.
Sparkle Motion: Ooh, I’d like to audit that. Anyway, yeah. Yeah. That sounds great. And also, uh, you’re gonna be doing some work with the Del Sol Quartet?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, I’m … That’s right, yeah. I’m, um, developing, um, a cycle of string quartets for them called, uh, Respires. Uh, I gotta keep with the breathing theme.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Um-
Sparkle Motion: Yeah, that’s the long form piece written for standard chamber ensembles.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Sparkle Motion: Yeah. That’s part of his, um, genre framework.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, yeah. And so- Yeah … the, the first four of those I have planned are for Del Sol.
Sparkle Motion: Oh, wow. Mm-hmm. And so that will be a local performance or?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Um, we’re still developing it, so I’m not sure when the performances will be, but, um, hopefully…I’ve– We’ve had interest to do it here s- locally, so.
Sparkle Motion: Yeah.
Matthew Evan Taylor: And, you know, Del Sol, they,
Sparkle Motion: They’re great …
Matthew Evan Taylor: they have a-
Sparkle Motion: One of them’s my neighbor.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Oh, yeah?
Sparkle Motion: Yeah.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. I love them all.
Sparkle Motion: Yeah, yeah. They’re great. Um, I wanted to ask you if you were still the artistic consultant for the BMI Foundation for New Music?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Uh, yes. I, uh, yeah.
Sparkle Motion: Well, uh, that’s great. Is, is that a permanent position, or?
Matthew Evan Taylor: No, it’s … I think it’s, uh … I have to look back over it, but, um, we work in three-year cycles.
Sparkle Motion: Oh, that’s great. So- So you get to adjudicate grants for new artists. Is there anybody on your radar that we should know about that maybe isn’t, isn’t-
Sparkle Motion: isn’t known?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Oh wow, that’s … That’s a great question. I don’t, I don’t know. I th- You know, one of the organizations I’ve always really, uh, admired is a Boston-based organization called Castle of Our Skins.
Sparkle Motion: Mm-hmm.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Um, they are … They commission some work, but they’re really an education organization that is focused on uncovering the history of Black creativity within classical music.
Sparkle Motion: Oh good.
Matthew Evan Taylor: So yeah, uh, so some really great scholarship comes out from them. They have great performances. Their founder and, and director, Ash Gordon, is, is just, just announced that she’s stepping down after … I, I… You know. I mean, they’re all really young, so it’s … I think it’s been around for 15 years or something like that. But-
Sparkle Motion: Yeah …
Matthew Evan Taylor: that, that’s a group that’s been doing some really cool work.
Sparkle Motion:. I’ve noticed a lot of things coming through here. The, you know, the … some group out of LA that’s doing Julius Eastman-
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah …
Sparkle Motion: work. Yeah. Love that one. All of his work.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, yeah.
Sparkle Motion: Mm-hmm. And it’s starting to get out there.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. And so-
Sparkle Motion: Even though, you know, it’s been decades.
Matthew Evan Taylor: But- I, I would … I think it’s fair to characterize Castle of Our Skins as kind of working in both directions. So they’re, they’re trying to … When they can, they try to create space for new music from Black people, and then they look backwards and try to clarify the record on, you know, the influence Black people have had on classical music um, that is perhaps not as- =
Sparkle Motion: That would be a nice course, too. Yeah,
Matthew Evan Taylor: yeah. Yeah.
Sparkle Motion: You know, kind of a survey-
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah, for sure
Sparkle Motion: So is there any other things you’d like to tell us about that’s upcoming, or that people can go to watch performances or?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Um, so my, my performance schedule is, is quiet right now. But, um, I am working with some of, uh, the Bay Area’s finest musicians to create a, uh, for an ensemble named Pneuma, which will be focused on-
Sparkle Motion: Oh, nice
Matthew Evan Taylor: Afro-pneumatic practice. Um-
Sparkle Motion: And who are the players?
Matthew Evan Taylor: I didn’t clear this with them, but um-
Sparkle Motion: Oh okay.
Matthew Evan Taylor: um, Hyeyoung Sol Yoon from Del Sol.
Sparkle Motion: Yeah.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Uh, Haruka Fujii, Marié Abe, Juan David Restrepo, and Juliana Luana, Juliana Luana, um, and, uh, Myra Melford.
Sparkle Motion: Oh my gosh.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. Um-
Sparkle Motion: That’s fantastic.
Matthew Evan Taylor: They’re, they’ve humbled me by being with me. And, uh, you know, it’s, it’s meant to be kind of a fluid group. So, like, we will be subsets of that or the whole ensemble, depending on what’s available, you know, who’s available.
Sparkle Motion: I, I just, uh, I was gonna play Myra’s new work with-
Matthew Evan Taylor: Oh, please, yeah …
Sparkle Motion: um, with, uh, Satoko Fujii.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah.
Sparkle Motion: Fujii. But first, is there any other piece you’d like to play before we wrap this up?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Is- Um, let’s see. Do you have any of the…access to the mixtapes?
Sparkle Motion: No. I do not.
Matthew Evan Taylor: I have the computer here, but, um, it’d take me a second.
Sparkle Motion: Okay. Well, I can put this Myra Melford piece on- Yeah … while you deal with that. Yeah. How about that?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Okay.
Sparkle Motion: Okay. So this piece is called, um, Pairs, and it comes off of the new album, Hatarahi, on your K-A-L-X.
Musical excerpt
Sparkle Motion: TrademarkcMyra Melford there with a piece she wrote called Pairs, along with pianist Satoko Fujii. And Myra is a professor over at UC Berkeley as well, and you two know each other?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Yeah. Right. Lucky me.
Sparkle Motion: Yeah, definitely. So, um, you have a piece you’d like to end our conversation with.
Matthew Evan Taylor Sure, yeah.
Sparkle Motion: And just to remind people, I’m speaking with Dr. Matthew Evan Taylor, who is assistant professor of composition over at UC Berkeley, right across the way. And what is the piece?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Uh, so this is a piece called Follow To The End. It comes from my album series, The Unheard Mixtapes. It’s on the first Unheard Mixtape, and, uh-
Sparkle Motion: And these are wildly popular, I hear.
Matthew Evan Taylor: I hope so. Uh, the … So this is the kinda concluding track of the, of the album. Um, and you’ll hear on it me on, I, I play s- I’m improvising into a loop station. Um, and you’ll hear me on alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, uh, the Chinese hulusi, and, um, I believe flute. I can’t remember now.
Sparkle Motion: Too many instruments.
Matthew Evan Taylor: It’s, it’s, it’s maybe a little, a few too many. But, um-
Sparkle Motion: All right. Well, Matthew, thank you so much for coming to KALX and telling us all about your work.
Matthew Evan Taylor: Thank you.
I really enjoyed it, and we’ll go ahead and start this piece. What is the name of it?
Matthew Evan Taylor: Follow To The End.
Sparkle Motion: All right.
Musical excerpt.
Sparkle Motion: Matthew Evan Taylor with the song Follow to the End from The Unheard Mixtape, Volume One on the New Amsterdam label. And again, I wanna thank him for coming into KALX today. It’s been just a pleasure. I’m gonna go out with one last piece, and that’s something new in here by Sarah Rothenberg. The, she is playing a piece by, the first piece of composer Vijay Iyer’s For My Father, and it’s called Prelude Orison. And I believe she, yeah, she did all the pieces on this new release called In Darkness and Light on your KALX.
