SML played The Sultan Room (Night 1)

SML's new album How You Been is one of the year's best records and the group are on a rare tour to celebrate the occasion. 

Over the past few years, there's been a rise in improv-based musicians making jazz-adjacent music in the great Los Angeles, CA area and at the nucleus of those players is SML, a band of five artists who've formed this supergroup of sorts who represent the forefront of this genre. After gaining some attention with their debut in 2024, their follow-up which dropped this past fall, has elevated their status and perhaps lead to their recent excursion to LA and Chicago in addition to these shows in Brooklyn, all of which have seen their devoted following give praise to these incredible showcases. On the first of two nights at the intimate Sultan Room in Bushwick, Brooklyn, the quartet assembled and as Jeremieh Chiu took to the microphone to thank the crowd for attending and announce that the entire set would be improvised and recorded, just to see what happens. When you listen to SML on record, you get caught up in trying to figure out who exactly is responsible for the sounds you're hearing. Guitar and saxophone can become interchangeable, especially if Chiu is manipulating the loops, and it's clear that this band is enhanced when they become a visual experience. Being able to follow the sounds as they occur in real time was a treat, but even when the band was in front of you, their magic still made it a mystery as to just how they were making these sounds. Delayed riffs from Johnson and distinct finger plucking from Ulhmann made for mesmerizing loops, but it was Booker Stardum behind the drums that made for some of the most visually stimulating moments of the night, his limbs striking up such fantastic rhythms that it was impossible to look away. Seven minutes into the set and the band was in full swing, their groove hitting its first initial stride and one that would surge again near twenty minutes in when Anna Butterss kept the bass line slightly behind the rest of the group, pulling up the rear while Uhlmann and Johnson flared their own solos, the night progressing without fail. Jazz, jam and post-rock hit a rotary where they get tangled together and separate, leaving in new directions, but still part of the same journey. Chiu would lead off their jams, a synthetic beat lacing the room before the rest of the players would begin to chime in, often Stardum knocking out a beat first before Butterss would add in some padding while the others would tease out some bewildering lyrical riffs. Playing without interruption, Stardum was a prominent force throughout the night and Butterss was locked in for the rhythm as well, both keeping the night moving as the others analyzed the beats as they laid down their delirious riffs. At the beginning of the night, Chiu mentioned that it wasn't common for the band to play so often together and after playing in a few other cities before making their way to the east coast, the band are clearly in a groove and their talents in full bloom as they play together night after night. "This was a fun one" Chiu said at the end of the night when he introduced his bandmates and it was clear that the thought wasn't only felt onstage, but clearly reciprocated by everyone in the room as well.