Hobbling on my miserable club foot down to the Tennessee Valley Credit Union Stage today, I got there just in time to land a quick interview with local jazz guitarist Ben Friberg before his trio (and special guest Jason Day, a phenomenal pianist from Knoxville) started oozing cool to a sizable crowd.

Q: How long have you been playing music?

A: Since fourth grade.

Q: What do you love about it?

A: The highs when things come together that happen when you can't plan or predict it. The music just comes and takes everybody for a ride.

Q: What do you think about when you're playing? Do you visualize the music?

A: I just think about what’s going on with everybody else, how I fit in, what everybody else is doing.

Q: What is your arranging/composing process? Do you write your own music or do you stick mostly to standards?

A: We’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t had time to write anything. When we slow down, I will. Right now, we’re easily doing three gigs a week — here in a couple of weeks, we have five gigs in a week — so I haven’t had time to write anything. We’ll play one tune tonight I did write. Right now, I’m trying to do what everybody else does and run the ropes learning as many standards as I can.

Q: Do you have a favorite artist or composer?

A: Donald Brown. I like Donald Brown a lot.

Q: What do you like about him?

A: His compositions, his way that he plays the instrument and his swagger, his personality. Everything about him is good.

Q: Is that swagger something you have or strive for?

A: No, I'll never have it. (Laughs.)

Q: What kind of connection do you try and make with an audience? How do you go about making it?

A: Whoever it is we’re playing for, hopefully, we can communicate with them. Playing jazz, it’s easy to play something that won’t communicate to them. This is something we do as an ensemble, identify who our audience is and what they want to hear and how can we communicate with them?

Q: Some people might say jazz is too cerebral for the common listener. Is that true?

A: No, no, not as long as you identify your audience and play something for them. Like tonight, it’s a Friday, everybody’s probably pretty excited, so we'll play a lot of stuff that’s kind of up. We probably won’t be playing any ballads this afternoon.

Q: Why did you go with guitar? Where's the appeal there?

A: Wes Montgomery (an American jazz guitarist popular in the ’50s and ’60s).

Q: (Laughs.) Elaborate.

A: Wes Montgomery was pretty amazing. I guess I’ll say “tone.” And chords — I like chords a lot. I started playing saxophone in fourth grade and eventually played all the time and wanted to switch to a chordal instrument. My mom played piano, so I wanted to play something different than her because I knew she'd be on my case all the time. So I played guitar.

Q: Have you ever regretted not going with keys instead?

A: Nope because my sister is really good, and I don’t want to compete with her. She’s got that covered, so yeah, I love it, it’s great.

Q: How can people learn more about you?

A: We’re on the Internet (www.benfriberg.com). We play around town on Tuesdays and Fridays at Table 2. Both nights, the downbeat is 6:30 p.m. We also play at Market Street Tavern on Wednesdays 7-9 p.m. When we play at Table 2, it’s a little more traditional.

When we play at Market Street Tavern, it’s a little edgier, a little more modern, and the volume on certain nights may get up, depending on who the audience is. We also have a lot of special guests that we bring in to Market Street like Jason Day, who will be playing with us tonight.

E-mail Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com