Jeno
Somlai: Letting go
Broad-shouldered with a cropped haircut, 33-year-old Jeno Somlai is physically
imposing. He speaks with a confidence that allows him to weave comments
about his music, family and spiritual practice into a clear message. Find
your voice, speak the truth and don’t make your life special. Even
when his 3-year-old son Jacob runs over to interrupt the interview to
talk about a new toy truck, Somlai adjusts with ease. He listens to Jacob’s
adventures and then returns his attention to discussing his career, his
new CD, “Let It Go,” and how he’s come to this place
in his life.
His music career has started many times, from his first drum set as a
child to his discovery of Latin Jazz in recent years. Of late, Somlai
said his career deepened when he wrote his first song, “Libby,”
which appears on “Let It Go.” The song is named for his Mom,
Linda, who, along with his father, Tony, were an early influence on their
son’s musical career. Somlai said he remembers his parents playing
music constantly when he was a child, everything from blues and rock to
country and classical.
Somlai wrote “Libby” on the piano -- a relatively new instrument
for the life-long drummer. He got his first drum kit when he was 2 years
old, and started playing in rock bands when he was 13. After playing in
various bands for seven years, Somlai said he looked around and realized
he needed to change the direction of his career -- and his life. “My
friends were dying from drug overdoses or going to jail, or working a
lame job,” he said, “but they weren’t doing anything
with music.” Around the same time, a friend played Somlai “A
Love Supreme” by John Coltrane. The song blew him away. “I
had to find out what was going on there,” Somlai said.
Out in Providence at the time, Somlai moved to Milwaukee and began studying
with Scott Wenzel at the Wisconsin Conservatory Of Music. He earned a
certificate in percussion performance and joined the school’s faculty,
and his career grew. He played with Luis Diaz, “La Chazz”
and Don Linke -- his first experiences playing Latin Jazz. Somlai found
himself drawn to the genre after hearing Eddie Palmeri and Brian Lynch
-- two musicians he cited as influences comparable to his first listen
of Coltrane.
“I loved the way the percussion drives things,” he said. “Just
being the nature of the beast of drums, I really got excited about that.”
At the same time, Somlai said he found himself getting frustrated with
his drums. As he explains it, he was trying to do things musically that
didn’t match his instrument. Looking elsewhere, he started “messing
around” with a keyboard. The instrument matched his interest in
writing and arranging music, and Somlai began a formal study with Mark
Davis, head of the jazz department at Cardinal Stritch University.
Playing piano freed Somlai to work on creating his own songs. He formed
a sextet in 2003 and headed into the studio a year later to record “Let
It Go.” The group includes Doug Ebert on bass, Robert Figueroa on
congas, Dave Bayles on drums, Jamie Breiwick on trumpet and Scott VanDomelen
on tenor sax. Their album falls into the Latin Jazz genre, though Somlai
said the group is heavier into the Latin side of things.
“I’m hoping we get into as many Latin genres as possible and
improvise over each one of them,” said Somlai, who described the
sextet’s sound as a collection of voices building on each other.
“Everybody has their own line, what they say, and the next person
tries to embellish, but not copying or totally destroying it, by finding
the holes and trying to make the line better until, finally, the whole
sextet is doing that. Eventually, you just get this huge sound out of
six guys.”
Somlai said the title for the group’s CD came from his search for
a musical voice. “I began looking for my voice when I let go of
my ideas,” said Somlai, adding that he “actually started listening
to music.”
The title “Let It Go” also ties into Somlai’s Zen Buddhism
practice at the Original Root Zen Center, where he is training to be a
reverend teacher. Like music, Somlai has spent much of his life near Buddhism
thanks to his parents, who are abbots and senior reverend teachers at
ORZC. Somlai began sitting Zen Buddhist retreats as a teenager, and incorporates
the practice into his life as a musician, husband, father, son, brother
and his many other roles and titles. Regardless, Somlai said his Zen practice
is not special.
“There is no difference between practice at the Zen center, my music
and my family and me taking out the garbage,” he said. “...
Don’t make anything, play music and take out the garbage.”
Laughing, he added, “I’ve come to this a lot by letting go.”
Is this similar to other jazz musicians, such as Coltrane, who expressed
their spirituality through music?
“Coltrane had his path that he followed. This is just my path, that
path I’m following,” Somlai answered. “Whether you want
to call it spiritual, or not, it’s just my path.”
Somlai’s life is full with his wife, Jamie, and children Orissa,
Jacob and Olivia. He also teaches drums and piano out of his Wauwatosa
home. He said they all invigorate his music with “their curiosity
about everything.”
“They’re always teaching me to keep that student mind. You
realize you’re never going to learn it all, and you’re going
to be on this journey for the rest of your life.”
Somlai said he learned that through his music when he began to study piano.
Not only did he take to the new instrument, he found that his drum set
playing improved.
“I know my job now more as a drummer. Before playing piano, I was
too busy, too much going. Now, being piano player playing with drummers,
I know what I like, I like it simple.”
Somlai’s personal discoveries carry over into his teaching, whether
it’s a 6-year-old or 60-year-old. Instead of imparting his style
on others, Somlai said he works to help people find their own voice.
What does it mean to find your voice?
“Have something to say,” Somlai explained. “Instead
of saying what Charlie Parker or Coltrane said, you make it your own.”
“That’s my thing,” Somlai said, “finding the truth
and then speaking it through the music.”
written by Dustin Block
