What happens when a jazz trumpeter decides to turn his own anxiety into a chamber music suite... and then the world has a collective breakdown right on schedule?
Ian Carey and I go way back. We used to live two blocks apart in Brooklyn and played together before life pulled us in different directions, so having him on felt long overdue.
Ian is a San Francisco-based trumpeter, composer, graphic designer, and educator who has built one of the most quietly distinctive voices in contemporary jazz, one self-produced album at a time.
In this conversation we dig into the music behind Fire in My Head: The Anxiety Suite, how he channels personal struggle into instrumental composition without lyrics, why creative limitation is often a gift, and why AI-generated music bothers him — not just ethically, but on a fundamental level that cuts to the heart of what art actually is.
If you believe that craft and process matter, this one's for you.
Ian Carey's music: https://iancarey.bandcamp.com/
Ian's website: https://iancareyjazz.com/
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