TRAVIS LAPLANTE’S relationship with music goes beyond the simple joys of performing and listening. The New York-based saxophonist and qigong healer sees sound as something elemental that can have a huge impact on listeners.
“The transcendent quality of music, that’s what I’m interested in,” he says, speaking from his home in Brooklyn. “It’s so mysterious that it’s hard to describe with words. But there’s something about being in the moment with everyone as a human and letting the movement come alive and take a hold of our hearts. It’s a transmission that I’ve felt and I know any music lover has felt. Something is happening there that is greater than the sum of all the parts.”
It was this kind of transmission that Laplante was hoping to create when he literally dreamt up his current group, Battle Trance. He says one morning he woke up with the clear specifics of this project in mind: a quartet of tenor saxophonists featuring Patrick Breiner, Jeremy Viner, Matthew Nelson, and himself. The only rub was that he didn’t know the men and was only vaguely aware of their work. But they all quickly came on board, drawn together by Laplante’s passion.
“I don’t remember exactly what I said,” he says, “but I probably spoke about the importance of resonance in this time and how through sound, the human heart can be opened in a real way. How I feel the power of music is really completely beyond my imagination.”