Podcast: Major Vistas on improvisation and mixing genres

Two members of the Madison jazz trio discuss their debut album, “Minor Anthems.”
 

Major Vistas are a jazz trio comprised of two relatively new Madison residents, keyboardist Mike Weiser and guitarist Chris Bucheit, and one longtime Madison-based musician, drummer Geoff Brady (Brennan Connors & Stray Passage, Yid Vicious, Madison Symphony Orchestra, and many more). Their recent debut album, Minor Anthems, has a lot of empathetic melody and clever structural twists under its gentle surface. Tracks like “Deep Space,” “Green Beyond Your Years,” and “Beginning Mind” aim to harness the harmonic subtlety and improvisation of jazz while also incorporating compositional techniques from rock and electronic music.

Bucheit and Weiser joined me this week to talk about how the band came together, their evolving approach to writing together, and how the project forces both of them to step outside of their comfort zone as musicians. Give our conversation a listen below.

Major Vistas play July 22 at Mother Fool’s, August 10 at Jazz At Five, and October 14 at the Indigenous jazz series in the Memorial Union Play Circle.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and catch WORT-FM’s weeknight local news show, which partners with us to produce these. Thanks to Dylan Brogan for producing this interview.