The producer you are not supposed to hear

It started as a temporary thing. In 2023 drummer Nate Smith assembled the core group for his residency at the Montreal Jazz Festival — a one-off, the way these things usually are. Tours of the US and Japan followed, and the temporary arrangement stopped being temporary.

It is now called FATHERS. Kenneth Blume, better known as Kenny Beats, on production. Kiefer Shackelford on keys. Ben Carr, or CARRTOONS, on bass. Smith on drums. Four people accustomed to being first on the credits of their own records.

The album came out on 10 July via Blue Note. The lead single is “PEARL”.

Blume’s rule here is uncomfortably plain: the production is meant to be invisible, and if you are noticing the tricks, it is not working. For a producer whose name sells records on its own, that is an expensive promise to make.

CARRTOONS puts the working method more briefly still: everyone writes, everyone plays at a high level, everyone pushes the others to be better. On the name, Blume declines to argue — he says the project could never have been called anything else.