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WORK TITLE: Instrumental
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.davechisholmmusic.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://www.davechisholmmusic.com/bio/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Eastman School of Music, Ph.D., 2013.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, illustrator, graphic novelist, trumpet player, songwriter, composer, bandleader, and educator.
Performer on music albums, including Radioactive, 2010, Calligraphy, 2011, and Talking under Water. Member of musical groups, including John Henry, Salt Lake Alternative Jazz Orchestra, and Colossus.
State University of New York at Brockport, music instructor; Hochstein School of Music and Dance, music instructor.
AWARDS:Downbeat Student Music Award, 2009, for outstanding collegiate soloist; recipient of other awards at the Reno Jazz Festival and the University of Northern Colorado Jazz Festival.
WRITINGS
Also author and illustrator of the comic series Let’s Go to Utah!, 2009.
Contributor to comics anthologies, including MySpace Dark Horse Presents and Dream Another Dream.
SIDELIGHTS
Dave Chisholm is a writer, illustrator, musician, and graphic novelist based in Rochester, New York. He is an accomplished musician and trumpet player, as well as a songwriter, composer, and bandleader. His music has been featured on albums such as Radioactive, described by a writer on the Dave Chisholm Website as “big-band jazz”; Calligraphy (“post-rock-meets-jazz improvisation”); and Talking under Water (“soulful indie-rock”). He has been a member of bands such as the Utah-based jazz group John Henry and the “upstart jazz big bands” Salt Lake Alternative Jazz Orchestra and Colossus, noted the Dave Chisholm Website writer. His performances at jazz festivals such as the Reno Jazz Festival have earned him awards, and he was the recipient of the Downbeat Student Music Award for outstanding collegiate soloist. He is a music instructor at the State University of New York at Brockport and the Hochstein School of Music and Dance.
Let’s Go to Utah!, a comic series, is Chisholm’s first comics work, both written and illustrated by him. The story involves Dave, a college student whose steadily worsening nightmares are pushing him to head to Utah. Even though he can’t explain this urge, he decides that he has to go to that state to end his nightmares and discover what has been steadily urging him to go in that direction. He secures a ride from Leif, a friend of a friend, who turns out to be not just a difficult traveling companion but a murderer as well. Brian Cronin, in a review of the first three issues of Let’s Go to Utah! at CBR.com, called the series a “pretty strong story (especially for such a simple concept)” and a “fun story that takes full advantage of the serial nature of comics, as each stop on the way can be an issue, more or less.”
Instrumental is a graphic novel that combines art with a musical soundtrack written and performed by Chisholm. Tom Snyder, the protagonist of the story, is a professional jazz trumpeter and part of a quintet that frequently has the opportunity to play gigs at local clubs and bars. Tom’s bandmates play mostly for the fun of it, while Tom plays for the opportunity to have his talents recognized. Unfortunately for him, both Tom and his audiences know that his talent is only at a middle level.
Tom is surprised one evening when a stranger gives him a gift: an old, battered trumpet. When Tom plays it, it does not respond at his usually middling level. Instead, the instrument produces music so exquisitely beautiful that it kills listeners with weak hearts. Suddenly, with this new horn, Tom feels that his talent has finally reached the level it deserves. His abilities—or more accurately, the trumpet’s abilities—attract ever-growing crowds and get him the recognition he has always wanted. Eventually, however, Tom discovers that the music he is playing is taking a toll on the fabric of creation itself and threatens profound damage to reality. Along the way, Tom meets the spirits of past music masters, faces off against a pair of frightening men who demand he give them the trumpet, and struggles with the idea of giving up all the musical achievements he’s ever dreamed of to prevent an apocalyptic disaster caused by the mysterious trumpet.
In the course of the story, Chisholm also addresses a number of philosophical questions, such as why play music, why study jazz as an academic discipline, and where the creative spark comes from. “Chisholm’s haunting fable is both lovingly detailed and eerily dreamlike,” commented Xpress Reviews contributor Terry Bosky. “Chisholm enticingly injects his story with occult themes” in a graphic novel that “offers striking visuals and a provocative tableau,” stated a writer in Kirkus Reviews. Throughout the book, the “blurred line between art and magic is solidified by an underlying sense of lived reality,” observed a Publishers Weekly contributor. Booklist writer Gordon Flagg concluded that even if the story of a musician overcome by his instrument has a familiar feel, Chisholm “plays it with imaginative variations that hook the reader to the very end.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, April 15, 2017, Gordon Flagg, review of Instrumental, p. 37.
Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2017, review of Instrumental.
Publishers Weekly, April 17, 2017, review of Instrumental, p. 54.
Xpress Reviews, August 25, 2017, Terry Bosky, review of Instrumental.
ONLINE
CBR.com, http://www.cbr.com/ (August 4, 2008), Brian Cronin, review of Let’s Go to Utah!
Dave Chisholm Website, http://www.davechisholmmusic.com (January 8, 2018).
Dave Chisholm is a trumpet player, songwriter, composer, bandleader, educator, and visual artist currently residing in Rochester, NY where he received his doctorate in jazz trumpet from the Eastman School of Music in 2013. The breadth of Chisholm's artistic output is exemplified in a long string of widely varied projects including the big-band jazz of his debut album Radioactive (2010), the post-rock-meets-jazz-improvisation soundscapes on Calligraphy (2011), his soulful indie-rock singer-songwriter project Talking Under Water, the blistering straight-ahead jazz performed by Utah group John Henry, and the upstart jazz big bands Salt Lake Alternative Jazz Orchestra and Colossus. As a trumpet player, Dave has garnered international acclaim. In 2012, he performed six nights at the Umbria Jazz Festival as part of Ryan Truesdell's "Gil Evans: Centennial" project. In 2009, he was one of two recipients of the Downbeat Student Music Award for outstanding collegiate soloist. He has also received numerous accolades and awards at both the Reno Jazz Festival and the University of Northern Colorado Jazz Festival. Dave wrote and illustrated his first graphic novel, LET'S GO TO UTAH!, in 2009, followed by short comics in MYSPACE DARK HORSE PRESENTS, and Locust Moon's Eisner Award-winning anthology, DREAM ANOTHER DREAM. He currently teaches at State University of New York at Brockport and at the Hochstein School of Music and Dance.
Instrumental, his comics-meets-music graphic novel + soundtrack, arrives in spring 2017 via Z2 Comics and Outside In Records.
Instrumental
Publishers Weekly.
264.16 (Apr. 17, 2017): p54+.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Instrumental
Dave Chisholm. Z2, $24.99 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-940878-15-7
Tom, a middling trumpet player in a going-nowhere jazz band, acquires a supernatural trumpet that
produces music so beautiful it kills listeners with weak hearts. As music becomes a matter of life and death
for him, he confers with the shades of great musicians of the past as well as his mortal bandmates. Creator
Chisholm is a jazz musician himself, and this Gaiman-like fantasy about the blurred line between art and
magic is solidified by an underlying sense of lived reality; the characters inhabit a real world of burned-out
speakers, coffee-shop gigs, and day jobs. The book's central weakness is the art, which strives for Craig
Thompson--like elegance but is too often sketchy and unpracticed. The ending also falls a little flat. But
Chisholm has produced beautiful art elsewhere--see his gorgeous music-themed contribution to the
anthology Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream--and this is a solid first graphic novel. Hopefully, in the
future he'll really cook. The book includes a CD of a soundtrack also by Chisholm. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Instrumental." Publishers Weekly, 17 Apr. 2017, p. 54+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A490820811/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=1ea90168.
Accessed 24 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A490820811
12/24/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1514142559171 2/4
Instrumental
Gordon Flagg
Booklist.
113.16 (Apr. 15, 2017): p37.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Instrumental. By Dave Chisholm. Illus. by the author. May 2017. 224p. Z2 Comics, paper, $24.99
(97819408781571.741.5.
The power of music is forcefully displayed in this first graphic novel by jazz musician Chisholm. Tom is a
middling trumpeter, treading water playing to a handful of fans at a tiny cafe. One night a mysterious
stranger gives him an old horn, and when Tom plays it, his music takes flight--and nearby people drop dead.
Tom's newfound musical prowess attracts growing audiences and an invitation to play a legendary jazz club
as well as a pair of nasty dudes who demand he give the horn to them, warning of worldwide disaster if he
continues to play it. Although the drawings are somewhat slapdash, Chisholm's panel layouts clearly
convey the story with just enough panache to keep things visually interesting; it's rather impressive,
considering that cartooning isn't his main gig. This tale of a performer in deadly thrall to his instrument may
be a familiar melody, but like the jazz musician he is, Chisholm plays it with imaginative variations that
hook the reader to the very end.--Gordon Flagg
Flagg, Gordon
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Flagg, Gordon. "Instrumental." Booklist, 15 Apr. 2017, p. 37. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A492536188/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=98ef8564.
Accessed 24 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A492536188
12/24/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1514142559171 3/4
Chisholm, Dave: INSTRUMENTAL
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Chisholm, Dave INSTRUMENTAL Yucca/Skyhorse (Adult Fiction) $24.99 5, 23 ISBN: 978-1-940878-15-
7
The new graphic novel from Chisholm tells the story of a frustrated musician's attempts to snatch fame and
glory with the help of a mysterious trumpet.Why play music? For trumpeter Tom Snyder, the answer is for
his talents to be recognized. For the other members of his quintet--who generally content themselves
playing to tiny or nonexistent audiences--the motivation is more experiential, playing for the joy and
camaraderie of it. Philosophical discourse peppers the story, whether wrestling with this central question or
moving further afield to ponder the value of studying jazz in school, the origin of creative inspiration, and
whether knowledge is an end in and of itself. These headier elements are grounded by a pulpy plot where
Tom--despondent in his obscurity--receives a special trumpet that exponentially elevates his playing and
finally brings him the notoriety he craves. But each spectacular performance takes a toll, both on Tom and
those around him--and perhaps even on the world itself. While the subject matter (struggling artist granted
exceptional skill at a terrible cost) and pontification bring to mind Scott McCloud's The Sculptor, Chisholm
enticingly injects his story with occult themes, tying Tom's trumpet to the frequency of creation itself and
the historical/mythological power of musical instruments (such as the biblical account of a horn knocking
down Jericho's walls). Chisholm's sumptuous art has the fluidity and chiaroscuro of Paul Pope's work,
though with a more cartoonish tinge. Strategically ambitious paneling underscores otherworldly elements.
The compelling threads don't quite weave together into a classic (the epic gets shortchanged for the
personal, and the abundance of conversation topics creates a scattershot feel), but the book nevertheless
offers striking visuals and a provocative tableau. (Includes music download by musician Chisholm.) Strong
illustrations and intriguing story elements in need of more harmony.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Chisholm, Dave: INSTRUMENTAL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A485105370/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=769cb909.
Accessed 24 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485105370
12/24/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1514142559171 4/4
Chisholm, Dave. Instrumental
Terry Bosky
Xpress Reviews.
(Aug. 25, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Full Text:
Chisholm, Dave. Instrumental. Z2 Comics. May 2017. 222p. ISBN 9781940878157. pap. $24.99.
MUSIC/BIOG
In this inventive graphic novel, jazz performer and artist Chisholm (Let's Go to Utah!) offers a twist on the
story of the musician who sells his soul for success. After a year of steady work but no stardom, trumpeter
Tom feels his career has plateaued. Following one lackluster gig, he is handed an old trumpet by a
mysterious stranger. As expected, his career magically takes off, but Tom grows distant from his bandmates
and seems unconcerned with the puzzling deaths happening around him. Pursued by cultists and thrust into
bizarre conversations with long-dead musicians, our protagonist finds himself in an apocalyptic spiral.
Reflective of jazz itself, Chisholm's panels of art and text move with feeling and tempo, in places unafraid
to riff. The depiction of Tom's gradual wasting away is particularly well illustrated, as are some "face
melting" music sessions. This book also has a companion sound track available through the author's
website, which adds an additional, if optional, dimension.
Verdict Chisholm's haunting fable is both lovingly detailed and eerily dreamlike. Recommended for music
fans and readers looking for something experimental.--Terry Bosky, Madison, WI
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Bosky, Terry. "Chisholm, Dave. Instrumental." Xpress Reviews, 25 Aug. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A505303918/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=c6cb1ef3.
Accessed 24 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A505303918
Brian Cronin
I first came across Dave Chisholm’s work when he tried out for last year’s Comic Book Idol. Taking a look at his sample pages, I thought his work had a nice, Oni-esque quality to it – sort of like a Jason Alexander or a Steve Rolston.
Here is a page that reminded me of them…
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However, when I actually read the first three issues of Let’s Go to Utah!, his style really wasn’t like those fellows at all – it was a lot sketchier, and to be honest, I think less polished.
His layouts were quite nice, but the execution of the strong layouts seemed lacking to me – almost unfinished at times.
Take this establishing shot of one of the two main characters of the title…
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The scene is set nicely, but the facial expressions are not really defined well.
And look at the anatomy of the character in the following page…
The proportions seem to be way off and the anatomy doesn’t seem to follow, either. The demon part of the drawing is executed nicely, though.
The finale of the first issue is handled well…
But really, thoughout the story, there is a great unevenness to the art. Chisholm tells his story well with the artwork, but the actual figures are uneven – some look a good deal more polished than others. This is almost certainly a matter of experience – bad storytelling is far more troublesome of a problem than uneven execution, so I have no doubt that Chisholm will improve in the art department (and he does get better as the issues move on).
However, while I was not expecting much out of the story department, Chisholm surprised me with a pretty strong story (especially for such a simple concept). The book stars a young college student named Dave who begins to have horrible nightmares that push him towards Utah, of all places. Eventually, Dave resolves to head to Utah, but since he needs a ride to get there, a friend of a friend of a friend named Lief volunteers to drive, and hilarity ensues – as Lief is not exactly all right in the head, but his piccadilos are not just “speeds” or “won’t chip in for gas” but rather “kills people.”
Chisholm handles Dave’s reaction to what is going on quite nicely, especially when Dave escapes, only to find that he might be better off with the devil he knows.
It’s not exactly heady stuff, but it is a fun story that takes full advantage of the serial nature of comics, as each stop on the way can be an issue, more or less.
So while his art needs improvement (and he is getting there), Chisholm’s story is intriguing.