SML
SML is a Los Angeles quintet formed by Anna Butterss (bass), Jeremiah Chiu (synthesizers), Josh Johnson (saxophone), Booker Stardrum (percussion), and Gregory Uhlmann (guitar). Emerging from the city’s thriving jazz, improvised, and indie music scenes, the group channels a spirit of deep listening and collective invention.
Their debut album, Small Medium Large, grew out of longform improvisations recorded at ETA, the beloved Highland Park venue that also served as home base for Jeff Parker’s celebrated quartet. With Butterss and Johnson as longtime members of Parker’s group, SML’s roots in ETA run deep, and the closure of the club in 2023 makes these recordings a poignant document of a singular creative hub. Engineered direct-to-tape by Bryce Gonzales and later reshaped through meticulous editing and production by the band, the record recalls Teo Macero’s groundbreaking work with Miles Davis, refracted through modern experiments in reassembly like Makaya McCraven, while also drawing on the hypnotic repetitions of Harmonia, Holger Czukay’s tape-splicing with Can, and the polyrhythmic dreamscapes of Susumu Yokota.
The result is a kaleidoscopic sound world—circulatory grooves and textural anomalies that evoke everything from Herbie Hancock’s Sextant to Fela Kuti’s rhythmic joy, Parliament/Funkadelic’s rubbery funk, Essential Logic’s jagged energy, and the glitchy pulse of dub techno. Small Medium Large captures a rare synchronicity among five of today’s most exciting musicians, and at Big Ears 2026, their special three-night residency will offer audiences the chance to hear this visionary ensemble stretch even further, each set unfolding in real time as a new chapter.
