The Quantum Committee, a jazz sextet formed within Western Michigan University's jazz studies program, releases a new EP and launches a multi-city tour this week, opening Monday at Apoptosis Brewing in Kalamazoo. Bassist Jacob Nowakowski, pianist Caleb Downey, and drummer Rohan Marr join Cara Lieurance to discuss the group's origins and the new record.
The band coalesced around 2023, when Nowakowski transferred in as a sophomore and met Downey and Marr, both freshmen at the time. "These are some of my best friends," Downey says of the bond that formed as the group began playing weekly sessions before adding original compositions about two and a half years ago. Apoptosis, where the band has performed since the spring of 2024, played a central role in that development. "That definitely has a place," Nowakowski says. "It's one of a couple venues in Kalamazoo that has definitely been an important growing place for us."
Recording the EP at Western Sound Studios, the group relied on spontaneous exploration at times. "Two of the tracks on this EP are completely improvised," Nowakowski says. WMU jazz faculty members Matthew Fries and Carlo De Rosa, along with engineer Parker Freeman, helped shape the sessions.
The tour extends beyond Kalamazoo to Chicago-area stops including Old Elburn Hall, The CheckOut in Wrigleyville, and the Fulton Street Collective art gallery, before returning to Michigan for shows in Lansing and Detroit. The band also plans to record a follow-up album at Willow Lake Studios soon after the tour wraps.
Reflecting on the group's collaboration, Marr credits Downey's ear: "His ear is so sensitive... he just supports a band in a way that I really love." One track, "Holland in the House," was written after Nowakowski attended a concert by bassist Dave Holland at WMU. "I left that concert and I was supposed to go right to tune for my composition class," he recalls, "and instead I wrote this."
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
