Patient Music is two new recordings from composer/clarinetist Stuart Bogie made in collaboration with longtime friends Josh Kaufman & Sam Cohen. Created over the course of two sessions in one night, presented as pt. 1 & pt. 2 on the album, in front of a small group of friends, the trio showcase years of musical camaraderie in the wholly improvised works.
Listen now:
An Introduction to Patient Music, pt. 1
by Heidi Smith
An Introduction to Patient Music, pt. 2
by Tobin Summerfield
In recent years I’ve become more reliant on certain music to help me: tap into my creativity, to focus, and mostly to soothe and settle myself. Certain music becomes like a friend you can rely on; they can show up for you even if you don’t feel all there. As a longtime listener of, (and dancer to!) Bogie’s repertoire, you get to know and feel that he plays from the heart.
I believe in heart transmissions—an energy that can travel from one person to another. The cosmic heart is body’s wisdom center, also the most powerful electromagnetic point. It holds the potential to heal and transform a lot. When you’re in your heart you can just be, and this album is a perfect complement to do just that—Bogie & Co. rush nothing, all notes perfectly divined.
One sparkling Sunday, I played Patient Music to walk around the neighborhood. The clarinet always sounds a little mysterious to me, like you don’t know where it’s going to take you. Today I wasn’t sure where I was walking, so I wandered with the music. By the time I made it home the light was getting more golden. I laid on the carpet in the office and bathed in the sun with my two cats. Fully here, eyes soft, heart open.
– Heidi Smith
Stuart is my friend. I first heard him play music in 1996. He has been responsible for some of my favorite music-experiences. I have known him to play muscular, angular music and I have known him to play calming and expansive music and I have known him to make music which demands that an audience move their feet.
I have known him to challenge listeners and bandmates alike to be both kind and brave; whether we are encountering density and complexity or are being asked to be emotionally present, frank and honest. We are all always welcome in Stuart’s music. It is home and it is refuge and it is a long table.
He is, as I am, of the Great and Terrible Middle West (no matter how long he lives in New York).
There is a feeling of horizionless time that emerges from music and musicians from there. The sky ends at the ground in all directions. There is no pressure to head any particular way, but an allowance to just sit and to be. To meander only when we want to.
I don’t know Sam or Josh. But their voices are familiar to me alongside Stuart’s. They know him as I know him. They create and hold a space which is right and good for this music. They ask and answer, all three of them, they hold each other and us, too. This is a patient music, but not the patience of a library window with a busy street below. This is a music of a front porch on a street no one drives down. This is a music of a slow canoe afternoon, letting the river have its way. This is a music of a meal with an old friend, the comfort of knowing that no matter how long it’s been since you’ve seen each other that you will feel at home, together.
– Tobin Summerfield
ALBUM CREDITS
Stuart Bogie – Clarinet
Josh Kaufman – guitars, keyboards
Sam Cohen – guitars, keyboards, percussion
Patrick Dillett – recording, mixing, producing
Thom Beemer – assistant engineer
Fritz Myers – mastering
Steve Salett – executive producer
Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Reservoir Studios
Stuart Bogie – Photo Credit: Bernie DeChant
Composer and performer Stuart Bogie was born in Evanston, Illinois. He studied for 6 Years with Gary Onstad and at the Music Center of the North Shore before attending Interlochen Art Academy and the University of Michigan where he studied with Debra Chodacki. He is the recipient of a Meet the Composer grant and he composed the score for the Oscar nominated documentary How To Survive a Plague, featuring performances by the Kronos Quartet. He has written for film, television, commercials, and the stage. He has released 9 albums as a leader.
During the pandemic lock-down, Bogie performed a daily series of improvised solo clarinet pieces using the accompaniment drone tracks sent to him by over 50 different collaborators including Arcade Fire, Richard Reed Parry, Colin Stetson, Sam Cohen, Josh Kaufman, Peter Murray, E Dan, Craig Finn, Ryan Sawyer, Dave Harrington, Yuka Honda, and James Murphy. Began in the second week of lock-down, the series ran for over 150 days consecutively and has been collected into four volumes, with more volumes in the works. An LP, Morningside, presenting 2 of the pieces made with James Murphy was released on October 27 on DFA records. This music is featured in a worldwide exhibition of photographs by Gregory Crewsden, and can be heard in the documentary accompanying the exhibit. In July of 2023 Bogie premiered Morningside at Les Recontres d’Arles, livescoring the documentary by Harper Glantz.
Sam Cohen – Photo Credit: Bernie DeChant
Sam Cohen is a musical artist and producer based in the Hudson Valley of New York. Over the last 15 years, he’s released multiple albums under his own name and under the moniker Yellowbirds. In the early 2000s, Cohen was a founding member of the band Apollo Sunshine.
As a studio musician and producer, Cohen has worked closely with Kevin Morby, Danger Mouse, Karen O. and many more.
With his latest project, Slow Fawn, Cohen explores the combination of his songwriting with new instrumental collaborations (Cochemea, Stuart Bogie, Photay), broadening the cinematic scope of his work, and creating music that is both ethereal and memorable.
Josh Kaufman – Photo Credit: Bernie DeChant
Josh Kauman, is a Grammy nominated musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer. Known for his work with Grateful Dead founder Bob Weir, The National, This Is The Kit, Hiss Golden Messenger, Josh Ritter, Taylor Swift, The Hold Steady, The War on Drugs, Ed Sheeran and Cassandra Jenkins among many others. He’s also a founding member of trio Muzz, with Matt Barrick(The Walkmen) and Paul Banks(Interpol), as well as Bonny Light Horseman, with Anaïs Mitchell and Eric D. Johnson in addition to being one fourth of the improvisational quartet Boyfriends, with Stuart Bogie, Joe Russo and Ben Perowsky. One of the coolest moments for Josh was learning that Bob Dylan covered a song that he co-wrote and produced with Bob Weir and Josh Ritter. That was truly thrilling.