{"id":27350,"date":"2015-01-14T01:52:56","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T07:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=27350"},"modified":"2018-11-25T15:24:02","modified_gmt":"2018-11-25T21:24:02","slug":"an-improvised-beat-jesse-quebbeman-turley-drums-his-way-to-composition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/an-improvised-beat-jesse-quebbeman-turley-drums-his-way-to-composition\/","title":{"rendered":"An Improvised Beat: Jesse Quebbeman Turley Drums His Way to Composition"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Jesse Quebbeman-Turley is a drummer \u2014 when he enrolled in college and began his jazz studies major, his stated goal was \u201cto play drums professionally.\u201d What he didn\u2019t expect was to become a composer. \u201cDrummers don\u2019t write songs\u201d he laughs. \u201cComposers are serious people, and I\u2019m a drummer.\u201d But since embracing his desire for composing, he hasn\u2019t stopped.<\/p>\n

Quebbeman-Turley has been drumming since he was 10 years old, when h<\/a>e began playing around on the set in his sister\u2019s punk band. Then, after years of his begging, his parents bought him a drum set and signed him up for formal lessons. With a mother who studied music education and a father who studied piano performance, music was naturally a big part of his upbringing. \u201cI\u2019ve known I wanted to study music since I was 16,\u201d says the drummer.\u201d He played in concert band and jazz band at Timpview High School and also played in rock bands on the side. When he enrolled at BYU he was very focused on jazz drumming. He thought that was going to be his life. But somewhere deep in his subconscious was a dream to compose. \u201cI knew a little bit about music theory, but I was intimidated by it,\u201d he admits. \u201cThe idealization of the composer scared me.\u201d He learned some basic skills for composition through his required courses and started writing some nonsensical jazz tunes. When he began private composition lessons with his professor, Christian Asplund, he started to realize maybe he\u00a0could\u00a0<\/em>do this. Five months later, he wrote his first opera.<\/p>\n

\u201cParking Lot for Hyacinths<\/em>\u00a0is about a city planner who\u2019s trying to return the world to its natural state \u2013 kind of,\u201d explains Quebbeman-Turley.\u00a0 He and friend Logan Hone wrote the music, auditioned singers and performed it, all within three months. They wrote the opera under the name of a company Quebbeman-Turley organized (along with Hone and Luke Swensen) specifically for that production: Deseret Experimental Opera Company. What is experimental opera? \u201cIt\u2019s an open-ended term,\u201d Hone explains. \u201cThere\u2019s a sound element, a visual element, and a text. So some form or combination of those three, to us, is experimental opera.\u201d It was performed in 2013 on August 9 and 10 in the Nelke Theatre at BYU. Both nights sold out. \u201cAfter that I was like, \u2018OK, I guess I can compose,\u2019\u201d Quebbeman-Turley says. \u201cI\u2019d written art songs, but this was definitely my first substantial piece.\u201d With a newfound confidence for composing, Jesse Quebbeman-Turley\u2019s ideas of what he could do with music reached beyond his stated goal of \u201cplaying drums professionally.\u201d Operas became a passion for him. But one thing he knew for sure: he was no longer interested in writing a stage opera.<\/p>\n

Taking the idea of \u201cexperimental opera\u201d to heart, Quebbeman-Turley presented his second opera one week later, on his birthday. Based on an American folk tale,\u00a0Why We Work<\/em>\u00a0was performed on bicycles. And if you wanted to see it, you had to follow the performers around on your own bicycle. \u201cI was really interested in the sounds of the bike,\u201d he says. \u201cWe had percussion instruments strapped to the bikes and we were drumming on the bikes.\u201d He and Logan Hone actually rode a tandem bike. \u201cSo I found out if you ride a tandem, the person on the back can play an accordion,\u201d he laughs. So he pedaled while Hone played the accordion. The performers followed a route in Provo by Day\u2019s Market, and when the short opera ended, the ensemble picked up the next shift of audience members and did it again. It was so much fun he decided to make it a birthday tradition. \u201cThe reason I like to do the bike opera again and again is because it ends up being a pretty authentic representation of where I\u2019m at musically,\u201d he explains. \u201cI write it really quickly and we learn it very fast; I can\u2019t overthink it. That\u2019s a thing that I like to do that a lot of composers don\u2019t.\u201d It makes sense that a jazz drummer turned composer would want to experiment with spontaneity and improvisation; to put stuff together really fast, if not on the spot.<\/p>\n

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New and experimental music can be heady sometimes, but Quebbeman-Turley and the Deseret Experimental Opera Company aren\u2019t interested in being overly intellectual and harsh; they really want people to like what they do. He and his community of collaborators are interested in classical music being performed within the apparatus that usually supports indie or pop music. \u201cI\u2019m in several indie pop bands and a lot of those people are also in my new music ensembles. We perform these experimental operas at places like Kilby Court and we write new music that is more song-length rather than 45-minute new music pieces,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Exactly one year after his first opera, he experimented with another concept. For him, the stage opera was a logistical nightmare, but he envisioned an entire house with people performing chamber pieces in three acts in separate rooms. Throw in visual artists creating work and installations for the audience to interact with and logistics get exponentially more complicated. For this opera, Quebbeman-Turley collaborated with Natalie Wood, a visual artist. They called it\u00a0The Museum Of<\/em>. It was inspired by many things, but a large part of the visual component came from a visit they made to a museum in Los Angeles called the Museum of Jurassic Technology. \u201cYou\u2019re not sure if anything in it is real or not,\u201d says Quebbeman-Turley. \u201cThe goal is to invite the muses and inspire creative thought rather than portray accurate information.\u201d Wood explains how the concept for the opera came about: \u201cThe initial idea was Jesse\u2019s. He wanted to write an opera that was stretched across a gallery environment, where the audience members could experience the opera at their own pace, walking through how they pleased. It was both exciting and nerve-wracking because we were both stepping into unknown territory and we were uncertain if it would be a giant failure. But Jesse isn\u2019t afraid of unknown territory. I think he really loves being in those kinds of places.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cgallery environment\u201d was actually Wood\u2019s house. Quebbeman-Turley composed chamber pieces for each room. All three acts were 40 minutes with a 10 minute break. \u201cEveryone was on the same clock and the pieces were timed to end at the same time a piece upstairs would start, and then some pieces started simultaneously,\u201d he explains. \u201cAfter the first act, people would switch rooms and then we\u2019d start the second act with different pieces happening in different rooms. The third act, however, was just one long piece.\u201d This \u201cchoose your own adventure\u201d concept meant there was no way the audience would be able to see the entire opera, but that was of little importance. Quebbeman-Turley assembled a core group of musical performers that included his close friends, his BYU professor and mentor Christian Asplund, who played the viola, Laura Candland who sang, Nick Foster and Jason Rabb (collaborators from Salt Lake City) as well as others. \u201cThere was a lot of counterpoint \u2013 putting pieces up against each other, and playing off the spatial elements of the house,\u201d says Quebbeman-Turley. \u201cFor some people it was an uncomfortable infiltration of a domestic space. There were no signs that said \u2018Don\u2019t come in.\u2019 People would walk into the kitchen to hear the performers, but for some reason, no one would walk into the bathroom. The norms for the uses of the space and how that affected people was interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The libretto for\u00a0The Museum Of<\/em>\u00a0was based on the personal belongings of an individual, and they used the same material as inspiration for the artists who would collaborate on this project. \u201cWe decided that the opera would be based off a single person\u2019s life and that Jesse and I would investigate that person and provide photographs and documents for the artists to create work,\u201d Natalie Wood explains. \u201cI had a friend volunteer to be the subject so I went into her room and dug through all her personal belongings. I took photographs, scanned letters, cards, and journal entries. The documents were delivered to each artist and they had to create proposals for artwork based on her life. They were given full liberty to stretch the truth, fill in the gaps, insert themselves into the picture, etc.\u201d They ended up with paintings, photo collages, installations, artifacts, collections and a sewing piece that required audience interaction. The artwork established the space as a museum and the audience would interact with it while no music was playing. The documents the artists used as inspiration were printed in a program that each guest received explaining the source of the artwork. The concept seems esoteric, but 100 people attended the performance last August\u2014and that was capacity.<\/p>\n

The operas are big projects, but Quebbeman-Turley has dozens of other projects in the works. Trying to pinpoint \u201cwhat\u2019s next\u201d is near impossible because he likes to keep busy. He makes his money by playing jazz and pop drums. But to say \u201cwhen he\u2019s not doing this, he\u2019s doing this\u201d seems inaccurate because his goals and his projects are integrated \u2014 no matter how disparate they seem. Right now he\u2019s composing, producing an indie album, and scoring a short film with another collaborator. He plays with Synthesis (BYU\u2019s jazz band), along with several independent jazz and pop bands in Provo and Salt Lake City. He sees everything he does as being very integrated. \u201cI\u2019ll get so inspired by someone that I\u2019ll want to put a band together or write a piece for them. I believe you are what you eat, musically. I listen a lot and I focus on finding what\u2019s compelling to me. I\u2019m always trying to find new things; I\u2019m asking my friends what they\u2019re listening to \u2013 that\u2019s the stuff that\u2019s rattling around my head. And then there\u2019s the music I\u2019m playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quebbeman-Turley can say one of his latest ventures will be realized at 12 Minutes Max at the Salt Lake City Library on Jan. 18th. He\u2019ll perform a series of drum set solos that he commissioned some of his friends to write (Jason Rabb, Nathan Witham and\u00a0maybe<\/em>\u00a0Stuart Wheeler). \u201cThere are very few \u2013 if any good composed drum set solos,\u201d he says. \u201cThat hasn\u2019t taken off as a form in new music maybe because people who aren\u2019t drummers are intimidated to compose for the drum set. And then drummers don\u2019t really write because they just improvise.\u201d<\/p>\n

You could say Jesse Quebbeman-Turley prefers the improvised life, but likes to play with structure. Like a true jazz musician, he goes with the flow and acts on impulse. He lives his life \u201cas an indie band would.\u201d He\u2019s not interested in being the genius; he takes pleasure in collaborative work and thrives in the community-model of creativity. \u201cI just want to write good music,\u201d he says, \u201cand then we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d So far that\u2019s worked pretty well.<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n

Jesse Quebbeman-Turley will perform at\u00a012 Minutes Max<\/em>\u00a0at the
\nSalt Lake City Library<\/a>, Sunday, January 18 at 2 pm. Free to the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesse Quebbeman-Turley is a drummer \u2014 when he enrolled in college and began his jazz studies major, his stated goal was \u201cto play drums professionally.\u201d What he didn\u2019t expect was to become a composer. \u201cDrummers don\u2019t write songs\u201d he laughs. \u201cComposers are serious people, and I\u2019m a drummer.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":27550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[2192,2189,2190,2191,2193],"class_list":["post-27350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-deseret-experimental-opera-company","tag-jesse-quebbeman-turley","tag-logan-hone","tag-luke-swensen","tag-natalie-wood"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/blogjqt.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 09:02:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27350"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40290,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27350\/revisions\/40290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}