Out of the ashes of a groundbreaking Bay Area music collective comes another group. Musically different but built upon the same creative values, Daggerboard is forward-looking and rooted in tradition. And at the same time, its founder helms an important indie record label.
Applying a punk musical aesthetic to the jazz idiom, Gregory Howe launched Throttle Elevator Music in the early 2010s. Over its lifespan, the collective featured a rotating cast of musicians, but at its core was a rising star: tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington.
Howe handled songwriting, arrangements and production; his label, Albany-based Wide Hive Records, would release no less than seven Throttle Elevator Music albums between 2012 and 2021. Parallel with that project, Washington’s status as one of the most innovative and compelling forces in jazz was solidified. Inevitably, there came a point at which Washington would move on to focus on his own work as a bandleader.
“Everything we had done with Throttle really pertained to Kamasi,” Howe says today. “Every track had him.” But the restless spirit that gave birth to Throttle Elevator Music continued to burn. Howe and trumpeter/composer Erik Jekabson believed that the project’s underlying concept still had stories to tell. “We wanted to keep working in that vein, so we started thinking,” Howe recalls.
There’s a track called “Daggerboard” on 2021’s Final Floor, the last Throttle Elevator Music album. “The daggerboard,” Howe explains, “is the part of a ship that allows you to go against the current.” That idea provided a foundation for a new group of that name. “The whole premise is to make music that’s outside the mainstream, but thought-provoking,” he says. Explicitly picking up right where Throttle left off, the new group would feature many of the players involved with the earlier collective.
The core of Daggerboard is Jekabson and Howe as writers, plus drummer Mike Hughes and Ross Howe on guitar. Daggerboard debuted on record with 2021’s Last Days of Studio A. The group expanded with each release; by the time of 2024’s Escapement, they counted five official members and multiple guests. Acclaimed upright bassist and jazz veteran Henry “The Skipper” Franklin joined in 2022.
Howe says that the unifying theme at the heart of Escapement is time. “We were toying with time—the concept of time and music—the whole time we made the album,” he explains. The music shifts meter constantly, from five beats per measure on “Centrifugal” to seven beats on the title track. The orchestral-natured “Climbing in the Cocoon” employs multiple time signatures, and “Shiva’s Mode” features what Howe laughingly calls “a very weird four.”
Speaking of time, the composers considered it very much of the essence when creating the music for Escapement. “Eric is pretty much the fastest literary musician I’ve ever met,” Howe says. “So when we are working on a composition, it’s written as fast as we’re thinking about it.”
Though Daggerboard is a continuation of the mindset at the core of the Throttle project, the character of the new music is substantially different from what came before. “Throttle was counter-cultural,” Howe says. “Jazz can be so passive sometimes, so we were trying to make something cathartic and angry.” In contrast, there’s a hard- and post-bop sensibility at work within Daggerboard. The music retains the fearless approach of the previous project, but roots it in a more traditional context. Music that appeals to both head and heart results, equally celebrating musical precedent and adventurousness.
Howe is effusive when discussing Daggerboard. “Escapement features one of the most powerful rhythm sections I’ve ever worked with,” he says. “One of the most sampled drummers, Mike Clark; one of the most interesting bass players, Henry Franklin, on bass; Babatunde Lee on congas.”
Asked to cite musicians whose work influenced the direction of the album, he repeats those names. “They bring their bags with them,” he explains. “I look to them for what they can do.” And Howe says that he’s inspired by their approach to music, noting, “Mike’s almost 80; Henry’s in his 80s. Their commitment is what really resonates with me, not just as a producer, but as a human.”
While Daggerboard is an all-consuming project, it’s merely one of the irons that Howe has in the proverbial fire. Wide Hive Records is Howe’s label, so his daily routine is a balancing act between his role as label head and as leader of one of its signed acts. When working with groups, he says that he tries to “temper the label aspect and encourage the production.” But the duties often overlap.
“I always tell people that when you’re making a record, you can’t just make a record,” he explains. Howe compares album-making to parenting. “You’ve made a child, but now you’ve got to educate that child. You’ve got to make sure it has friends, send it to college.”
During the process of making a record, Howe is all-in, as are the musicians with whom he works. He recalls his days working with Kamasi Washington. “He would sit in a chair, hear the song once, and then go in [to the studio] and play it with all of the key changes memorized,” he enthuses. And such vitality brings out the best in Howe the producer. “When you see that kind of intensity, you’re like, ‘OK, let’s track 52 tunes in two days!’ And we’d do that,” he recalls.
Once an album is done, Howe turns his attention back toward running a label, with responsibility for getting physical product manufactured and promoted. “And then the marketplace decides,” he says. As a slice of the music sales pie, jazz represents a tiny sliver; according to recent analysis, jazz accounts for about 1% of music sales. Only a quarter of that represents physical product sales (CDs, vinyl). Against that backdrop, Wide Hive Records is faring remarkably well.
“At least half of what [we’ve released] is making money,” Howe notes. “And that’s amazing, because, y’know… we’re not pop music here.”
Howe mentions an album scheduled for release on Wide Hive in 2025. That as-yet-untitled record is from cellist Ben Davis, one of the musicians on Escapement. “It’s an instrumental hip-hop record,” he says. In fact, Howe’s vision for Wide Hive Records has always been an expansive one, never limiting itself to one style of music.
The label got its start as a means for Howe to continue in music after the breakup of Liquid, his popular Bay Area funk band. He remembers thinking, “I want to do music, but I don’t want a band, a group of people that’s always fighting.” He asked himself, “How do I make the best records I can make with the best people?” Wide Hive Records was the answer.
Since its start in 1997, the label has released dozens of albums and 12-inch singles, showcasing the work of a dazzling array of artists. Soul jazz guitarist Calvin Keys, fusion legend Larry Coryell, experimental trombonist Phil Ranelin, producer DJ Quest and saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell are among the musicians who have released music on Howe’s label. And the jazz aesthetic of exciting ad hoc assemblages continues through projects like the Wide Hive Players.
“I really love making records,” Howe says. “That’s what I came on this Earth to do. And given all the human error, frailty and indecision in that process of making something out of nothing, I wouldn’t change anything in this path so far,” he notes. “And as long as I feel that way, I’m going to keep making records.”
For more info about Wide Hive Records visit widehive.com.
