Trevor Dunn talks Endangered Blood, the Melvins, and improvisation

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Sprinting, acoustic jazz quartet Endangered Blood, featuring Oscar Noriega (alto saxophone and bass clarinet), Trevor Dunn (bass), Jim Black (drums), and Chris Speed (tenor saxophone), the latter of whom composes much of the group's music, makes a stop at the Goat Farm on Monday, April 9. While the group's collective résumé boasts of its members' time with such living jazz and avant-garde luminaries Alas No Axis, the Claudia Quintet, Bloodcount, and Electric Masada, it's Dunn's legacy of working with John Zorn and Mike Patton in various configurations, all the while churning out records with such groups Mr. Bungle, Fanotmas, and Secret Chiefs 3, which seems to raise the most eyebrows. While barreling down the interstate, somewhere between Asheville, N.C. and Chattanooga, TN, Dunn took a few minutes to talk about Endangered Blood, his upcoming collaboration with the Melvins called Freak Puke, and the transitional phases he undergoes with switching from improv mode to performing written music.

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Chad Radford: Endangered Blood is one of the many groups with which you play, but I'm not as familiar with it as I am with Rova, Mr. Bungle, or Fanotmas - but I've been watching the YouTube videos ...

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Trevor Dunn: This band is only about two or three years old, and we just have the one disc out. We have been touring a little more though, and this is this band's first tour of this region. We've done some shows, but mostly on the West Coast and in Europe. We were actually just sitting here talking about some ideas for a new record, which will hopefully be out this year.

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You in particular are often associated with the avant-garde side of things, which I think can be perceived as difficult or challenging music, but Endangered Blood looks like a lot of fun.

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Yeah, it is a lot of fun. I do a lot of different things: Some stuff that's fairly straightforward - even a lot of the stuff I've done with John Zorn is fairly straightforward and melodic. I play in some rock bands too, even though I have my foot in the so-called avant-garde. But yeah, this is just a jazz-based quartet and we're playing songs and using elements of swing and meter and melody. It's a fun band live.