David Lord (guitar), Charles Rumback (drums) and Christopher Shaw (bass) will make their live debut as a trio on Saturday, Sept. 14, at Walker’s Jazz Lounge.
Drawing heavily on Lord’s compositions from his albums in the “Forest Standards” series, the show will mark the first time that the three musicians have played together.
Rumback grew up in Hutchison and eventually made his way to Chicago, where he has established himself as a band leader and in-demand collaborator, including records with acclaimed guitarist Ryley Walker and as a member of Black Duck with Douglas McCombs and Bill MacKay.
Lord was raised in Wichita and made a name for himself through a variety of outlets, most recently with his “Forest Standards” albums on the Los Angeles-based Big Ego label. But, until just a few years ago, neither musician hadn’t met let alone worked together.
Shaw, who has played with Rumback in the past, is a regular performer in Wichita jazz circles, gigging with Martin Bowie, Elliott Ray and others.
After connecting online and noting that they knew many of the same people and had recorded with musicians from the same circle, they collaborated on the album “Way Over The Rainbow,” which will be released in early 2025.
Lord and Rumback recently spoke with KMUW about the somewhat unlikely path to that collaboration and more.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Charles, I think the last time we spoke, maybe in 2022, I asked if you and David had played together before, and I think you said that you had just done so for the first time. How did you two finally wind up working together?
David Lord: I think it was in the middle of the pandemic. Charles was in town, and we did a session together. That was quite a while ago. I don’t know what year that was. But we’re finally going to be releasing that album probably in early 2025. We had Dale Black on bass and then there are a few tracks with [guitarist] Jeff Parker [of Tortoise] from stuff I recorded in Los Angeles that Charles then completed.
Charles Rumback: I was trying to remember how we met, and I think I just stumbled upon your music and checked it out, like bought a record and was into it. [Laughs.] It’s funny, we grew up in the same area and never met. But I have a few friends like that.
DL: I just remember getting a message from you and you said, “Hey, we’re both from Kansas. We both played with Jeff Parker. We both know Chad [Taylor].” That was the connection. We’re both from Kansas and played with some of the same people.
You’re doing this show and bringing in Christopher Shaw on bass.
CR: David and I have kept in touch and worked on random things over the years, but we haven’t gotten to work together too much. But we’ve been looking for a chance. I played with Chris Shaw 20 years ago, when we were in college, and I lived in Lawrence. I was going to Johnson County Community College. I played with Chris there. … We played in a lot of different groups together and learned a lot of stuff together. So, I’ve been looking for a chance to work with Chris but in a way that makes sense.
David put this together with his music, as a trio, so for me it’s nice. It all falls into place, and David’s doing all the heavy lifting. [Laughs.] But it’s very cool. I’m excited for it because I don’t get to play back home very much. To bring Chris into the mix adds another layer. It’s really exciting.
To go back to the record you made for a second: I think it’s important to mention that you can admire another person’s music but that’s no guarantee that there’ll be chemistry when you actually play together. But this record shows that something sparked with the two of you.
DL: I’m a big fan of [Charles’] music, and I was before meeting him. When I collaborate with someone, I usually already know their world, and I can kind of feel that it’s going to work. I wasn’t really surprised when I heard him playing over my songs and that it was a good fit. I sort of anticipated that. It’s rare to find people who have the same values in this way. We haven’t really talked about it much, but I think we both like each other’s music, and we’re both influenced by a lot of the same people, listen to a lot of the same people. It felt very natural. But playing live together, we’ve never done that. We’ll see how that feels because this is the first time. We recently shared some bills together up in Wisconsin on my tour, but he was in a different band. It’s still a pretty new thing that we’re exploring.
CR: Just speaking to what David said about finding people who are on the same wavelength musically but also [on the level of] all the other stuff that has to happen to make the music possible ... It’s so hard. It’s so hard. If you go telling everybody what you need and what your rules are and all that ... For me? I’ll never find it. I just have to find it. And you know when you find it. You meet those people [and know].
I thought David’s record was cool. I bought it and was checking it out but what’s more fascinating and makes it easier to connect is [that David’s] got a deep belief in himself as an artist, and he puts his own music out there. It finds its way out there whether there’s a label putting out there or blocking it or whatever. That’s so awesome when you collaborate with people like because you can look at their entire body of work and understand the language they speak and if you don’t understand it, you can immerse yourself in it and learn to understand it. Then that makes it effortless, just like talking. It’s pretty rare when I find that, too, with musicians. We do find it. But sometimes the connections are crazy. Sometimes it’ll take 10 years to come around and then it comes around and here we are. If we can all trust it, it’ll be good. [Laughs.]
