From Malian Melodies to a Midcentury Modern Symphony

Banjo Innovator Jayme Stone Travels to The Other Side of the Air

Banjoist, composer and musical globetrotter Jayme Stone was browsing a favorite bookstore, when he caught a little glimpse, as if through a spyglass, of an unknown, rippling shore. Stone had pulled out a curious volume: an atlas of remote islands, described in loving detail by a writer who had never set foot on them. “I saw this book, and my imagination caught on fire,” Stone recalls. “I could already hear music and thought I might write a whole body of work about these islands.”

Instead, Stone found a wider range of landmarks and guides to inspire him. He brings all his creative influences and forces to bear—a chamber symphony and rich brass, rippling melodies and evocative textures, past journeys and close friends—as he traces the lines of a distant icy mountain range, imagines the first step onto the coastline of an uninhabited island, and brings to life what Stravinsky might hum if he rambled the Appalachian Trail.

Stone draws his listeners to follow his instrument to these new, unexplored places on The Other Side of the Air(release date: July 30, 2013). Joined by veteran collaborators, Stone and company engage African (“Radio Wassoulou,” “Soundiata”), American roots (“Tennessee Waltz”), and contemporary classical elements in service of an imaginary travelogue to destinations known and unknown.

This expanded, exploratory sound serves one goal: To move people, to cross the gap between listener and performer. “As musicians, we practice and write to take what’s inside out to our listeners. There’s always music waiting, right there on the other side of the air,” reflects Stone. “It’s so close, yet it’s a lifelong practice to give shape to what we hear and then to send it off. I love negotiating that strange distance; absorbing different influences then sending them back out again.”

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