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Trombonist Kendall Moore finds his place in the Seacoast music scene

Trombonist Kendall Moore moved from Miami to the Seacoast in March, and the day after he arrived, he already had a gig with trumpet player Chris Klaxton’s Ourbigband! Project. Moore and Klaxton are longtime friends — they attended graduate school together at the University of Miami — so it wasn’t a random occurrence, but it’s a detail that’s indicative of Moore’s career as a musician. He picked up the trombone at the age of 10 and, years later in college, found that music was setting the course of the rest of his life.

That’s how he ended up in the Seacoast. “As I was wrapping up my studies at the University of Miami, I kept running out of reasons not to move up here. It’s obviously a beautiful place, and I liked how creative the music scene is here,” he says.

In a few short months, Moore’s become a frequent sight on local stages. One of his many current projects is the Kendall Moore Brass Ensemble, which performs at The Dance Hall in Kittery, Maine, on Friday, Sept. 11.

Why did you start playing trombone?

When I turned 10, I was going into fifth grade, and there was an orientation with one of the music teachers in our district — I’m originally from the Chicago (metropolitan) area. They had this thing called pre-band and you got to try out a bunch of instruments and the teachers rated you on instruments you could easily get a sound out of and seemed to connect with, with limited training. I wanted to play the saxophone really bad, but it didn’t work out easily for me right away. Trombone was one of instruments I did the best on, trombone and trumpet. It looked like I was going to be in brass world. But, being a kid, my dad always said, “I played trumpet when I was in school,” and when you’re 10 years old, you’re starting to think about carving things for yourself. And I thought, “If my dad played trumpet, I gotta play trombone.”

When did you realize music would become a career? 

There was never an exact moment where I said, “This is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.” There was a point pretty early on when I was in high school, I realized I was doing more things in school for music and extra-curriculars that were music-related: practicing, studying music, lessons, performances. I was doing more stuff for … music than school itself. Sometime in high school, I realized I wanted to study music in college, and then it’s all kind of snowballed from there.

Sometime between my sophomore and junior year in college, I found that I was kind of developing a sound. I was composing a lot more, and I finally started to get gigs with my own group and … before I knew it, I was starting to perform with other bands … and that’s when I realized I was … living out my dreams of being a musician. But it all sort of sneaks up on you.

What’s your approach to music as a composer and arranger?

It’s been an exploratory process for me as a composer. I keep things simple. I try to write music that I connect with, with sounds that I pull from anywhere. My latest project I’m working on is poetry that local singer Taylor O’Donnell sang, pulling some themes from poetry and seeing what ways I could best uphold meaning of the text. … Very often, it’s just an exploration of sounds I like, and trying to come up with music that really just means something and I hope that people connect with that.

As an arranger, it’s blending that process of presenting things that I hope people find beautiful with collaborating with the artists. So, in certain arranging projects, my job as an arranger … is more or less to do the song justice. It’s sometimes a tricky line, adding your own music to a piece of music that is very beautiful and very fine on its own. There are some liberties you can take, but it’s all about doing it with honesty, but also thinking about their song first.

How did the brass ensemble come together? 

I’ve wanted to always do a brass concert. … I was sitting down to arrange some music I’d written and I thought it would be great to reimagine some songs for a full brass section. … I really couldn’t be happier. There’s a lot of time spent alone as a composer, when you’re trying to best craft the art for other people to play … so I’m really excited to share this music with people. Music is for community and for people, not just for my headphones.

You’re also a teacher at Portsmouth Music and Arts Center. What’s your approach to teaching the next generation of musicians? 

Education’s very important to me. My philosophy as an educator is to build motivation wherever I can. So when I’m dealing with a student who’s just picking up an instrument, there are some obvious things, like fundamentals, how to play, how to hold the instrument. But in terms of cultivating musical interest, I like to try to find what really makes music tick for them. … My job as teacher is to take some of their interests and figure out pieces of things that will help drive them forward. If someone brings in a piece of music, I’ll try to create projects around it.

The Kendall Moore Brass Ensemble performs Friday, Sept. 11 at 8 p.m. at The Dance Hall, 7 Walker St., Kittery, Maine. Tickets are $12, available at thedancehallkittery.org or by calling 207-703-2083.