Savion Kimberman's Next Move

Wunderkind Savion Kimberman started strong emerging from the Baltimore School for the Arts in the 1990s, but it took him a while to find his footing in the jazz world. He performed with the Herbie Hancock orchestra as a teenager and performed sessions with Christian McBride, Wynton Marsalis, Abbey Lincoln, and Danilo Perez, among others. In 2012, his life in disarray, he checked himself into a Buddhist meditation center and lived there for four years, all the while developing his collaborative improvisation method he calls wild wonder. That approach, which empowers all musicians to take paths in and through the music, delivered his comeback album which rightly and roundly won Album of the Year.

I caught up with Savion in New York in the West Side Community Garden. His wife, Noemie Valentin, delivered a bag assorted deli salads and real tableware, and she wandered off to take a stroll through Central Park. Savion and I picked over a few pasta and quinoa plates and talked about his next moves.

It's been a huge year for you: A wedding, a baby, a Grammy, a book deal. How does it feel?

How did you know about the book deal? [laughs] Well, yes, it's far and away the most eventful year of my life. Although, eventful is not always productive or healthy. To be honest, I sometimes wish I were back in the meditation center. My monkey brain is howling constantly these days.

But your beautiful wife...

Oh yes, she's what keeps me grounded. She's so inquisitive. And beautiful. And she can read me so well.

How did you meet?

She was... well, she was dating Serafina.

Serafina? You mean Carbon Form-Serafina?

That's the one. So, as you know, before Serafina was in Instinct, she was working on a collaborative album. I had heard about it, but I wasn't asked to be on it. I think it was all supposed to be women who were collaborating. So anyway, I called over to ask for a favor for a friend.

Like, to be on the album?

Yes, Honey Conaway. Honey and I go all the way back to high school. Man, that voice -- I could listen to her sing all day every day. You must know Honey: She was at the Grammy Awards too for Wildflowers.

I certainly know Honey.

Well, when I called to Serafina, it was Noemie who answered. And she took my information, but as soon as I said who I was, she launched into critiques of specific songs on all my albums. It was like she followed my whole career! She even clocked me as an unnamed session musician for Regina Carter in the early 2000s.

So we're talking and I'm just, you know, taken with this gal...

Flattery will get you everywhere.

Indeed, and I'm apparently an easy mark! But then I didn't hear from her again for a few months. She had kept my number and she called me up. This time, she asked me about the session -- lord knows how she found out about it -- and she wanted to know whether Honey was involved. I told her that I couldn't include her, and she just about chewed me out. Honey this, Honey that. I knew I had to set up a collaboration with her at some point.

But all this time, I just felt drawn to Noemie. She's so knowledgeable, but she's also just so upfront. There's no veneer. She made me feel really seen, and I think I grew in her sunlight. I was okay, I was growing, but she supercharged me.

And the honeymoon isn't over?

You'll have to ask her. She's seen my skinny legs and gray chest hair, so maybe she's having second thoughts she isn't sharing with me.

Let's talk about your process. You call it wild wonder. What is it like?

Sure. I think what I'm trying to get at is that for every tune, there are millions of distinct path that you can move along. And that's improvisation, just recognizing that there are infinite pathways, so committing is not losing anything. Georg Cantor, this mathematician, he went crazy thinking about infinity. And trying to locate the right path within infinite pathways is hubris. It's folly. So you commit to one, and you move, and then you see something bright, and you follow that too, even if you're in the middle of another groove. It gives the music this wandery flow where each instrument is just strolling down a groove -- hey, check me out! Wanna go this way? No? That's cool, find your path.

You don't plan your music at all?

I send samples and themes out, or people might really go crazy. But I can't have anyone who is just going to play it straight. We're all on a quest, and it's a quest to get to the same place through different means. You dig?

I dig. I have no idea how it works, but I dig.

Dig.

Last question: What's next for Savion Kimberman?

If I could tell you what was next, I wouldn't be on the quest! (laughs) I'm working on this book, and man, I give you credit. Writing is the pits. Every blank page is a death sentence.

But after the book, I don't know. We're doing the family thing. I hope that the kid will help me with my improv. Babies are amazing at improv. I don't know if you've ever watched one, but man, you can never guess what their next move is.

"The Baby Sessions"?

Yeah man, I have to work on that. It's a real idea. I'll think on that for a minute. Inshallah, this baby is healthy and strong, he and I are gonna make some beautiful music together.