Noise Pop @ SFJAZZ: Feb 26-Mar 1 | 2025-26 Season
Feb 26 - Feb 27, 2026
Joe Henderson Lab
An ingenious blend of electronics and improvisation, SML make “strikingly original and wildly evocative art-fusion" (SPIN). With a lineup known for work with Jeff Parker, Makaya McCraven, and Meshell Ndegeocello, their 2024 debut made Pitchfork’s list of Most Anticipated Albums of Summer, and they bring their singular approach and masterful interplay to this appearance on the heels of their 2025 San Francisco Jazz Festival performance.
This quintet—featuring synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, percussionist Booker Stardrum, guitarist Gregory Uhlmann and bassist Anna Butterss (note: Butterss will not be performing at these concerts)—embodies the spirit of creative risk-taking and collaboration that defined their former home base, the now-shuttered ETA (Enfield Tennis Academy) club in L.A.’s Highland Park neighborhood.
Johnson, Chiu, and Uhlmann are all transplants from Chicago’s explosively innovative jazz scene, and SML represents a decidedly West Coast take on the free blend of genres, technology, and experimentation that has flourished in the Windy City.
SML’s debut album, Small Medium Large, captures the group’s live-wire energy, blending extended improvisation with cutting-edge studio production. Recorded over two packed nights at ETA and later sculpted through digital editing and sampling, the album is a thrilling testament to the possibilities of modern jazz.
An ingenious blend of electronics and live improvisation, the L.A.-based quintet “make strikingly original—and wildly evocative—art-fusion" (SPIN). Their self-titled debut was released on International Anthem in 2024.
The end product has no easy comparisons: Autechre in collaboration with the Claudia Quintet, perhaps? Or John Zorn, produced by Adrian Sherwood?
bandcamp daily on sml
The end product has no easy comparisons: Autechre in collaboration with the Claudia Quintet, perhaps? Or John Zorn, produced by Adrian Sherwood?
bandcamp daily on sml
Personnel
Jeremiah Chiu synthesizers, live sampling, percussion
Josh Johnson saxophone, electronics
Booker Stardrum drums, percussion
Gregory Uhlmann guitar
The L.A. quintet make strikingly original—and wildly evocative—art-fusion
spin on sml
Personnel
Jeremiah Chiu synthesizers, live sampling, percussion
Josh Johnson saxophone, electronics
Booker Stardrum drums, percussion
Gregory Uhlmann guitar
The L.A. quintet make strikingly original—and wildly evocative—art-fusion
spin on sml
Watch & Listen
SML
Industry
SML
Rubber Tree Dance
SML
Industry
SML
Rubber Tree Dance