What’s the idea behind the title of your new CD?
It’s a quote from biologist E.O. Wilson, who studies all things tiny—ants and little bugs, and what he calls the dark matter of the unexplored world, bacteria. I was struck by the idea that we don’t see or aren’t aware of so many of the things that inhabit the world, and that our lives may depend on them. It’s tied in with what I’ve been thinking about regarding our environmental crisis and the hubris of mankind.

Are there parallels between those concepts and your approach to playing and writing?
No doubt, especially with largely improvisational music like ours. I write down a fair amount, but mostly the songs are just sketches. We’re intrigued by the mystery of how we’re communicating—why it works and how we’re able to do it—and how people interact in general. I allow each musician to find his way, so that it’s all about subtle interactions and happy accidents. Much of what we play is not notatable. I’m a scientist at heart, and a lot of scientists are working on the macro and the micro scale, where mystery meets understanding. Having said all that, when we get onstage we really just want to rock out.

How do you view the role of the bass in your music?
I like leading a band from the bass position. It’s a different type of control; certain things are harder to do. I can’t put down my instrument and whisper something to the saxophonist. The flip side is that the bass, because of how it has come up in Western music and how it’s structured in American pop music, has a lot of influence on harmony, rhythm, and tonality. My music tends to center around bass-generated textures. That’s one of the main reasons I started to write music—to play things that would feature bass not just as a melodic instrument, but as a textural one.

Is there a certain sound that listeners have come to expect from your bands?
I hope that people recognize a quality to the melody line or a certain vibe to the group approach. Each tune is different. The challenge is to have it hold together, but also explore all the avenues that we want to explore.

CAN BE HEARD ON

Ben Allison & Man Size Safe, Little Things Run the World [Palmetto, 2008]
Ben Allison, Cowboy Justice [Palmetto, 2006]
Herbie Nichols Project, Strange City [Palmetto, 2001]

CURRENTLY SPINNING

Wilco, Sky Blue Sky [Nonesuch, 2007]
National Philharmonic Orchestra with Kiri Te Kanawa and Joaquin Achucarro
Citizen Kane: The Classic Film Scores of Bernard Herrmann [RCA, 1974]
Boubacar Traore, Kar Kar [Stern’s, 1994]

GEAR

Bass Circa-1840 u–size Abraham Prescott flatback with Velvet Anima D and G strings and Thomastik Spirocore E and A strings; David Gage Realist pickup, Audio-Technica Pro 35 condenser mic
Amp Polytone Mini-Brute III