Blog Post
Sisters and Saxophones: Tristan Cappel's debut, "Deadbird," was a lifetime in the making
by christopherporter
Tristan Cappel may have never picked up the alto saxophone were it not for his sister.
“My sister is four years older and I always looked up to her growing up, following in her footsteps in any way I could,” said the 21-year-old junior at the University of Michigan. “In 5th grade, band class was an option at my elementary school and my sister, who also played clarinet in the band, urged me to join and play saxophone. Wanting to be like her, I did.”
If you consider the long tail of her influence, his sister's encouragement all those years ago is ultimately what lead to Cappel making his debut album, Deadbird. The LP features eight original jazz compositions by the native of Sterling Heights, Michigan, all composed between ages 17 to 20. He recorded the album at U-M's Duderstadt Center studio and mixed the album himself.
Cappel’s alto sax sound is dry and lean, filled with rhythmic attacks as much as harmonic exploration. His bandmates do a great job of dipping into the avant-garde without falling into wholesale honking, in large part because they don’t need to play extreme for Cappel’s catchy songs to sound edgy as well. His compositions allow plenty of space for rhythmic interplay and chromaticism while maintaining a solid base of hooks and beats that quickly rope listeners into his sound world.
Cappel celebrates the release of Deadbird with a show at Canterbury House on Saturday, March 11. We emailed with the multitalented altoist, who gave long, thoughtful answers to our questions. At the end of the interview, you can stream Deadbird and read Cappel's track-by-track tour of the album.
Q: How old are you, where are you from originally, and how did you get into jazz?
A: I was 20 years old when I recorded this, but recently turned 21 back in January. I was born and raised in Sterling Heights, Michigan. My sister is four years older and I always looked up to her growing up, following in her footsteps in any way I could. She was a pianist all of her life, so from an early age I would sit down and fool around at the piano even though I’ve never taken a lesson and still haven’t to this day. I picked up guitar in 3rd grade, but never really understood what I was doing, as figuring out music theory on a guitar tuned in fourths just didn’t make sense to me. In 5th grade, band class was an option at my elementary school and my sister, who also played clarinet in the band, urged me to join and play saxophone. Wanting to be like her, I did. I took band for three or four years and was always an OK player but was never inspired to play or pursue my own creative potential on the instrument until I met a student two years older than me who could really play and improvise well. I asked who he studied with and quickly became interested in getting better at saxophone.
Over the next couple years, I was fortunate enough to take lessons from a stern, well-established studio musician named Paul Onachuk. With his help, I was able to get my technique together, and he even taught me the basics of improvising over chords. In 10th grade, my high school had a student music teacher who was really into avant-garde jazz and he showed me John Coltrane’s Interstellar Space. This was my first jazz record and although it took a while to build a taste for it, I slowly became more and more obsessed with the music and learned as much as I could. This student teacher actually put me on a two-hour free-jazz gig, which happened to be my first extracurricular performance. In fact, I still interact with the musicians I met then. In 11th grade, a former student at my high school who is now an established Detroit guitarist came to do a workshop at my high school, and he invited me to a few places in Detroit where Jam Sessions were happening. I was really nervous as I was new to improv and had never spent much time in the city, but looking back, I am so grateful I went to Detroit and learned from musicians who could seriously play. I kept going to Detroit a few nights a week over the last couple years of high school and spent an obsessive amount of time practicing until I decided I wanted to go to school for music and eventually found myself at the University of Michigan. I’m now a junior in college and this music -- and music in general -- means the world to me.
Q: How did you end up choosing the alto and who are some of your favorite alto players?
A: I chose the alto saxophone simply because my sister thought it would be cool for me to play in band. I looked up to my sister a lot -- super-talented, perfectionist, always did better than I did in school and music -- so I took her advice and went for it. I’m super glad I did. I wasn’t the type of child to take initiative.
Growing up, and when I first got into this music, I was constantly told I had to play like Charlie Parker, and although I enjoyed his music, it didn’t completely resonate with me at first. In 10th grade, around the time I heard Interstellar Space, I was really fed up with being told to sound like Parker. I had already spent a lot of time transcribing and studying his harmonic concepts and I felt like I needed to find someone who was completely different.
Eventually, I found Eric Dolphy and I was hooked from the start. Never before have I heard someone play as uniquely and intensely as Dolphy -- especially on three separate instruments! He quickly became one of my idols. Over time, John Coltrane got to the top of my list of inspirations as well, although he took a bit more time to grow on me. A few others that have really spoken to me over the years are Steve Coleman, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Ornette Coleman, and Lee Konitz.
Q: What made you decide to record the album now? I imagine having free access to the amazing Duderstadt Center studio while still a student at U-M had to play into it. Do you graduate in 2018?
A: Yes, I graduate in 2018. I started composing at 17 and I’ve built up a book of about 40 compositions that I would feel comfortable performing. When I got to college I quickly put a trio together and got as many shows as I could presenting my original music, and people seemed to dig it. Sophomore year I tried to get the same band, with minor alterations, in the studio to record eight tracks, but the end result wasn’t good enough to release, so I scrapped it and used it as a learning experience.
Part of why I recorded the album now was, yes, the studio was free, but I also wanted to have a resume of recorded works before I left college. I felt like I had a sound together and a compositional style together that was relatively strong enough to make an impactful record. Using the experience in the studio from the previous year, I had a much better idea of how to organize the bands, get focused rehearsal time in, and record in the studio without hiccups. Overall, I am very happy with the result.
I should also mention that being a double major in performing arts technology, I’ve been taking a lot of classes on sound recording and studio work, so I had a much better understanding of microphone techniques, recording techniques, and how to mix things properly. I mixed this entire album myself and got some help with the mastering from my performing arts technology professors.
Q: Guitar is the only chording instrument; had you always pictured these songs pianoless in your head? What does not having a piano in the band allow you to do differently as a musician? (Also, the guitar doesn’t always fall into comping mode, either, so it feels like you really wanted to keep things open.)
A: I began composition in trio formats and also always enjoyed Eric Dolphy's and Ornette Coleman's lack of harmonic instrumentation. I felt like it kept the roots to my creative/free music side because I could do a lot of harmonic shifts without losing the harmonic instrument. Sophomore year I met Will Rachofsky and really saw how sensitive and intuitive of a player/human he is, so I added him to the group. I don't feel like I've lost touch with the creative/free roots, either.
I'm very picky with pianists, and here at the university, there are surprisingly few harmonic rhythm instrumentalists to choose from. I felt that Will and I resonated the most musically and as friends.
Q: Which famous musicians have you had the chance to either study with or play with on stage?
A: I was super fortunate to study with a few super famous people. My favorite being Lee Konitz, whom I had the pleasure to take two two-hour lessons with when I was 19. He was 87 at the time, but still a witty, grumpy, amazing person/musician. We began each lesson discussing our musical backgrounds and endeavors. We talked about his time with Charlie Parker, his time studying with Lennie Tristano, and about the times he would hang out with Ornette Coleman. He also told me some funny stories about getting into arguments with his 8-year-old granddaughter about playing the piano wrong, so she locked the piano and took the key when she left his apartment.
In the lesson, he had no issues with how I was playing, but he urged me to sing more and really try to connect with my voice -- literally -- and make it an extension of my playing. He demonstrated for me and I was amazed at how his singing and his playing sounded exactly the same.
I also got to take a lesson with Richie Cole at one point. I was in high school, 17 or 18, I believe. He was a really cool guy. He didn't really give me much advice playing wise, but just told me to live my life. He told me about how at my age he was more concerned with sleeping with attractive women than anything, ha ha. I asked him about Phil Woods because I was also into Phil at the time. He kinda got upset; I guess him and Phil had a falling out once Richie broke Phil's eight-year Downbeat "best alto player" streak.
Last month I got to be featured in a concert alongside Gary Burton with the University of Michigan Jazz Ensemble. Professor Dennis Wilson, former trombonist for the Count Basie Orchestra -- with Count Basie himself -- really enjoys my playing, and freshman year he wrote me a big band chart to be featured on. The song was "You're Everything" by Chick Corea, and Gary Burton and I traded solos during the concert, and it was honestly one of my favorite performances I've gotten to do. I completely let go of all expectations and ended up playing really well. Talking to Gary Burton afterward he was quite pleased with my playing and told me to continue maturing and my playing to grow as well.
I should also mention that I've gotten to study with Benny Green, Bob Hurst, and Miles Okazaki here at the university. They are all wonderful people and have very different personalities. They've taught me so much and I'll be forever indebted to them and all they've given me.
Q: What’s the lineup going to be for the record-release show? I watched the 2015 trio video from Canterbury -- another chordless instrument situation.
A: Unfortunately, my good friends Everett Reid and Will Rachofsky, who are on the record, are unable to be there. Will is in New York, and Everett will be in Chicago. The lineup will be Brian Juarez (bass), Mike Perlman (electric bass), Peter Formanek (tenor sax), David Alvarez III (drums), and new to performing with us will be Adam Kahana (guitar), whom I have no doubt will be able to add good energy to the group. We will be performing four tracks off the record as well as four new/long forgotten compositions that I'm eager to present.
Deadbird lineup:
Tristan Cappel - Alto/Soprano Saxophone
Peter Formanek - Tenor Saxophone (Tracks 1 & 3)
Will Rachofsky - Guitar
Brian Juarez - Double Bass
Mike Perlman - Electric Bass (Track 5)
Everett Reid - Drums (Tracks 4, 5, 6, & 7)
David Alvarez III - Drums (Tracks 1, 2, 3,)
A track-by-track guide to Deadbird:
➥ “Deadbird” - At the time of writing this song I was doing a lot of visual art, and began my political and spiritual awakening. I think that we as Americans are indoctrinated into a system that is seriously flawed and it takes a lot of time and some strange experiences to wake up individuals from the “America > Everything” mindset. The original melody line was something that came to me in the moment while sitting at the piano one night after drawing a picture of a dead bird in summer 2015. I was kind of obsessed with the realization of how brainwashed so many Americans are -- including my previous self -- by being immersed in a culture based on capital, consumerism, and “us vs. them” mentality.
At first, I really wasn’t sure what to do with the melody. It had no chords, harmony -- it was simply an atonal medley that I found attractive and meaningful. Because I wrote harmonic pieces so often, my first attempt at this piece was to cut up the melody into different odd meters and add some chords that I thought might sound good. That summer, I went to Brooklyn Conservatory and attended a program called School for Improvisational Music where we workshopped compositions and free-form improvisation. I brought in this composition to my small group, instructed by established bassist Michael Formanek. Long story short, it did not sound good. No one else really thought so either.
Fall semester 2016, I began studying with Miles Okazaki, a guitarist who tours with Steve Coleman. Back in November 2016, Coleman did a residency at the Carr Center in Detroit. I attended and was astonished at the level of harmonic and rhythmic mastery he had. I deeply believe that Steve Coleman is the John Coltrane of our time. He is paving the way for new improvisational music and he deserves all the credit he has gotten thus far. In the masterclass, Coleman had all the musicians who attended improvise over extremely difficult rhythmic forms and no one could do it. I could barely do it. Even with a few months of studying with his guitarist, Miles Okazaki, I could not do the things Steve Coleman could do with ease.
After the masterclass, I knew I had to create improvisational forms that would test my rhythmic ability and bring me to new horizons. I took “Deadbird” -- a melody that I truly connected with that had been sitting in the bottom of my drawer for a year and a half -- deleted the time signatures, deleted the chords, and added rhythms that emphasized the melody. I brought it to my band, told them I wanted the improvisation to be based completely on the emphasized rhythms, and with ease my band found a vibe that fit the tune perfectly. I performed it at the University of Michigan Jazz Showcase a week later and have never received so much admiration for one my compositions. I am truly happy with the outcome.
I chose to have two saxophones, bass, and drums because of the baggage this tune had before my interactions with Steve Coleman. I wanted to get away from harmony and focus completely on rhythm. The most difficult part of the learning process was simply the rhythm chant at the beginning, but once all four of us internalized it, it was smooth sailing.
➥ “Dualism / Physicalism” - This is my fifth composition that I wrote. I was 17 and was being instructed by former University of Michigan trombone professor Vincent Chandler at Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Civic Jazz Orchestra. Chandler was the first musician/teacher that I looked up to who believed in me enough to encourage me to compose. I still thank him to this day for doing so. I was a senior in high school at the time and was seriously contemplating the idea of the “self” and where the soul resides -- whether it is synonymous with the physical being or separate. I was reading Albert Camus’ philosophy at the time and getting into absurdism as well. I think these ideas are best represented with the initial melody motif, the repeated atonal bass line, and a tonal pentatonic melody superimposed over it.
The solo section goes to a simple minor blues and I purposely told my guitarist to refrain from playing until the solo section. I really love Will Rachofsky as a person and as an artist, and I thought it would be exciting to wait to introduce the harmonic instrument until after the melody statement of the tune. Besides just having the band learning the tune, the biggest challenge was getting Will to refrain from playing on the melody, ha ha. But I hope he knows it was just a stylistic choice, and ultimately out of love for him and the music. I love the statement he makes with waiting until after the melody.
➥ “Poeteer” - This was a tune I wrote while visiting my parents sophomore year of college. I was writing a lot of poetry at the time, and the melody, along with the harmony, came to me with ease. Sophomore year was a time of confusion and self-doubt and I think this piece is a reflection of the light music brought to my life at the time. I was very attached to this melody when I first wrote it and it still resonates with me today.
➥ “Hush” - I wrote this piece freshman year of college based on F. Douglas Brown’s poem “How to Tell My Father I Kissed a Man.” This was the first time I wrote a piece based on another non-musical work and inspired further musical works for activism purposes.
➥ “Honey Sandwiches” - I was eating a lot of peanut butter and honey sandwiches at the time. Honestly, probably too many at the time, but I survived. This piece was just another experiment in weird time feels. The guitar solo is in 10, and the sax solo is in 15. Not much of a story other than I enjoy playing this kind of music
➥ “Jack’s House” - Brian Juarez (bassist) and I have been really tight since freshman year. He was kind enough to invite me to his mother’s home over in Berkeley, California, over spring break freshman year. We visited a friend of his named Jack while in Berkeley; he is a pianist studying at UCLA. While at his house, I noticed he had a piano and asked if I could play it. The strings must have been muted because it kind of sounded like a soft Rhodes. The sound was inspiring enough to have me immediately come up with his melody and progression. This song will always remind me of my first trip to Cali.
➥ “Bluejay” - This is another track that came to me in the moment while at my parents’ house. I think I wrote this around the time of “Poeteer.” This song doesn't have as much of a literal meaning to me like “Dualism” or “Deadbird” does, but this melody still resonates deep within me and I felt like it was important enough to share.
➥ “13 Hours” - Freshman year of college I was fortunate to go on tour with the University of Michigan Jazz Ensemble to Colorado. While going around and giving workshops to high schools in the Denver area, I slowly pieced together this song every time I had a chance to sit down at a piano while going from school to school. This piece will always remind me of my early college career, the struggles that came with it, and the first time I've been to Colorado.
Christopher Porter is a Library Technician and editor of Pulp.
Tristan Cappel celebrates the release of “Deadbird” on Saturday, March 11, at 8 pm with a concert at Canterbury House, 721 E Huron St., Ann Arbor. Admission is $10 for general admission and $5 for students/seniors.
Blog Post
Wild Swan Theater's family concert truly is "An Afternoon of Ann Arbor’s Best" -- and its plays are pretty fun, too
by christopherporter
Sandy Ryder represents some of the best things about Ann Arbor. She's someone who came to town for school, never left, and then went on to create businesses and good works that she has generously shared with the community for decades.
After graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in theater, Ryder taught, worked as a clown and a mime, and did improv with a children’s theater group. In 1979, she started Say Cheese Cheesecakes bakery (which closed in 2006 under different owners). Then in 1980, she cofounded Wild Swan Theater with Hilary Cohen.
Over the past 27 years, Wild Swan has distinguished itself as a place for all people, especially children with disabilities.
“My favorite thing is to have everything accessible -- workshops, traveling shows, everything," Ryder said. "We have ASL shadowed into the show, kids with visual impairments can come to a touch tour on stage. Everyone can share the experience together, everyone can enjoy the play.”
Wild Swan Theater produces an impressive amount of plays every year. Most recently the theater troupe performed Drum Me a Story, a play Wild Swan created about 15 years ago.
“It is a collection of three tales from West Africa," Ryder said. "Between each story, there is a different drum or West African instrument and the kids tap out rhythms or a call and response.”
The play will now go on a tour of schools in Saline and then onto Lapeer.
“We have about 15 shows that are always being toured,” Ryder said, naming Peter Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, and Rosie the Riveter among the many productions schools can contact the theater to arrange a performance.
Wild Swan will next present Rosie the Riveter March 9-11 at its home stage, Towsley Auditorium at Washtenaw Community College. The play is about four women working at Michigan's Willow Run plant building aircraft in World War Two. “They are building the B24 bomber,” Ryder said. “From beginning to end, it took about 55 minutes to construct the entire plane. Then the women sometimes flew the planes over Europe!”
Playwright Jeff Duncan wrote the script after interviewing a dozen women who worked at the plant during the war. The script was based on the stories these women told him, with four actresses playing four characters.
“When we did the show last year, we had many real life Rosies in attendance and we brought them up on stage,” Ryder said, and the women received a standing ovation. “I feel like they finally got what they should have always had -- respect and gratitude for what they did.”
Rosie the Riveter is suitable for kids in upper elementary and older, Ryder said, because “it’s kind of an adult show, in that one big part of the story is how a white woman has a hard time working alongside a black woman. We want the kids to be a bit older [than a typical Wild Swan audience] so that they can understand what it was like the 1940s and how segregated things really were. Through the course of the play, we get to see the white woman’s transformation to understanding issues better. This gives kids the experience of seeing someone change right before their eyes.”
Wild Swan will also present Jack and the Beanstalk March 22-25 and, later, Marketplace Stories: Folktales From the Arab World May 4-6.
But the other big Wild Swan event in March is the theater’s annual benefit concert, An Afternoon of Ann Arbor’s Best, which will be held March 19 at The Ark from 1-3 pm. “We wanted to do a family fundraiser,” Ryder said. “Most of our audience is made up of families, so we have an afternoon show that everyone can enjoy.”
In her typically generous fashion, Ryder said An Afternoon of Ann Arbor’s Best "really is made up of these amazing people Wild Swan has worked with in the past. ... The lineup includes Madcat [Peter Ruth], who did the music for Along the Tracks, which is a play about Harriet Tubman, and Gemini, who did music for Coming to America which is a play about immigration from various parts of the world.” The show also includes Frank Pahl, Emily Slomovits, and Laura Pershin Raynor.
It is only fitting that one of Ann Arbor's best, Sandy Ryder, is a part of this event, too.
Patti Smith is a special education teacher and writer who lives in Ann Arbor with her husband and cats.
Tickets for "An Afternoon of Ann Arbor’s Best" and other Wild Swan productions are available at wildswantheater.org, over the phone at 734-646-8623, or at the door the day of the event. Related: Martin Bandyke's 2009 profile in The Ann Arbor News, "Behind the scenes at Wild Swan Theater."
Blog Post
Multiple Personality Music: Lake Street Dive at the Michigan Theater
by christopherporter
“We’ve been in Ann Arbor before!” announced Rachael Price, lead singer of Lake Street Dive, at the band’s performance Wednesday night at the Michigan Theater. “We played The Ark way back when -- was anyone here at that show?” One or two members of the crowd hooted. “That seems about right,” said Price with a laugh. “Because that’s about the number of people who were at that show.”
Since then, Lake Street Dive’s star has risen rapidly. The four-member band filled the Michigan Theater, and Lake Street Dive has been touring almost constantly for the past year and a half, simultaneously promoting its acclaimed 2016 album, Side Pony, and bringing some of their overlooked older work back to the stage.
Named after a street of dive bars in guitarist and trumpeter Mike “McDuck” Olson’s hometown of Minneapolis, Lake Street Dive has been together since 2004, after meeting at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Price, Olson, upright bass player Bridget Kearney, and drummer Mike Calabrese all dabbled in other projects while working on Lake Street Dive’s first, self-titled album, released in 2010. Afterward, they mutually agreed to commit more strongly to the band and touring, and the foursome spent much of 2013 and 2014 on the road, especially after the release of its 2014 album, Bad Self Portraits, which earned them increasing fame. It seems now that with every tour stop, Lake Street Dive is able to fill bigger and bigger venues.
Although Price’s powerful jazz-influenced vocals are the first thing anyone will notice about the band, Lake Street Dive does an excellent job highlighting each member’s talents in live shows. Calabrese, Kearney, and Olson all performed solos on their respective instruments at various points throughout Wednesday’s show. Kearney’s extended solo on her upright bass, fingers flying up and down the larger-than-her instrument, was a particular crowd pleaser (although this Pulp reviewer could have done without multiple people shouting “slappin' de bass!” over the course of it).
A noteworthy addition to Lake Street Dive on this tour is electric keyboardist Akie Bermiss, which allowed the band to play some of its songs more robustly than was possible only as a quartet.
Now with three albums under its collective belt -- and increased confidence in playing older songs that many fans aren’t familiar with -- Lake Street Dive's repertoire has expanded significantly since its early years. The Michigan Theater concert was a mix of songs from all three albums. Still, the band kicked off the show with fan favorite “Bad Self Portraits” and worked in lots of its most popular songs, including the danceable “Side Pony” and “Rabid Animal.”
“You Go Down Smooth,” “Godawful Things,” and “Saving All My Sinning” all allowed Price to show off her wildly impressive vocals. Before playing “Mistakes,” off Bad Self Portraits, Price revealed that she had started writing the song in Ann Arbor. Kearney jumped in: “It was my birthday and my mom had baked me a cake and sent it along with us on tour. After our show in Ann Arbor, Rachael found herself standing out in the cold at the back of the van just eating my cake by the handful.” Price laughed ruefully. “And that’s the origin of the line, ‘Look at my mistakes,’” she said as the crowd cackled.
Lake Street Dive has delighted fans for years with jazzy covers of popular, older songs like the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” and Hall & Oates’ “Rich Girl.” On this night, Lake Street Dive delved deep into the past to bring out its cover of Paul McCartney’s “Let Me Roll It,” off the band's 2012 EP of covers, Fun Machine. Price also taught the crowd the chorus of one of the band's early tunes, “My Speed,” so all could sing along with the final song of the encore.
One of the most fun things about seeing Lake Street Dive perform has always been how different each band member is and yet how cohesive and close-knit a unit they appear to be, both onstage and off. Frontwoman Price is often clad in something unique and glamorous; on Wednesday it was a pair of iridescent maroon leather overalls and sparkly platform shoes. Meanwhile, drummer Calabrese offers up the antithesis with a Springsteen-like sweat bandana, white T-shirt, and bare feet. Calabrese and Kearney invest their entire bodies into their instruments, along with extravagant facial expressions, and it's hard to tear your eyes away from them. Olson is almost comical in his opposition to all this -- audiences are lucky if he makes eye contact with them even once during a show, let alone cracks a smile. When introduced, his signature move is a slight wave and a subdued nod of the head, immediately turning his attention back to his trumpet or guitar.
Despite their differences in appearance and personality, the closeness that (ideally) comes with spending 15 years together is apparent among Lake Street Dive members. They’re friends first, bandmates second. In fact, they were planning what to do for Olson’s birthday before the Ann Arbor show. “I woke up to a text stream this morning,” said Kearney between songs. “Rachael had texted us saying, ‘It’s McDuck’s birthday tomorrow and even though he usually likes to be alone on his days off, I really think we should make an exception and plan a surprise for him since it’s a special day.’” She pauses. “The next text was from McDuck saying, “Um, I’m on this thread.’”
As the audience laughed, even Olson had to grin.
Elizabeth Pearce is a Library Technician at the Ann Arbor District Library.
Lake Street Dive continues its tour over the coming weeks, which began in Portland, Maine, and ends in Los Angeles at the end of March. The band will spend the summer playing various music festivals and jazz events. And perhaps Lake Street Dive will get a chance to break out that "Rich Girl" cover when it plays Aspen, Colorado, on September 1 with Hall & Oates.
Blog Post
Comprovisation: Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge Live at The Ark
by christopherporter
Guitar maestros Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge gave Ark-goers a show to remember on February 27, deftly weaving a rangy array of influences into a coherent and lively musical conversation.
Equally at ease in the company of jazz greats (Gary Burton, Fred Hersch) and bluegrass luminaries (Béla Fleck, David Grisman), Julian Lage continues to cover new ground while honoring the traditions that have informed his evolution as a musician. Chris “Critter” Eldridge is no slouch either, having cut his teeth on the national stage with The Seldom Scene and the Infamous Stringdusters before bringing his nimble and artful guitar work to the inventive, genre-bending Punch Brothers.
While much of the duo’s 2015 effort, Avalon, featured Eldridge’s vocals, their latest, Mount Royal (released last week) carves out more space for the interplay between the voices of their vintage Martin guitars. This heightened focus on instrumental improvisation, evident in concert, was a key driving force behind the songwriting process for the new album, which Lage and Eldridge discussed in greater detail with Pulp last week.
Both Lage and Eldridge are seasoned performers with such command of their instruments that the guitars themselves seem less like objects than natural appendages when the two are at their best, which is most of the time.
They opened the show with two songs from Avalon, followed by a wistful Eddie Vedder cover, which promptly melted into a spirited reel called “Old Grimes.” This sequence gave the audience a good, honest glimpse of the sheer variety of music that lay ahead.
Eldridge grew up thoroughly steeped in bluegrass, and he pulls Lage in that direction but in a way that leaves plenty of room for the echoes of Jim Hall and Django Reinhardt that resonate through much of Lage’s work. Indeed, the way the two guitarists harness so many disparate currents of musical lineage and bring them to a satisfying confluence is at the crux of their appeal and their achievement. Riffs of flamenco, Bach and gypsy jazz mingled with blistering traditional breaks and swampy blues licks. Despite this panoply of styles, the show managed to be more journey than pastiche. This feat hinges on the striking rapport between Eldridge and Lage and the intuitive sense each has of how best to showcase the other’s playing, something most evident on tunes from the new record like "Rygar" and "Lion’s Share."
They often sound like a bigger band than they are, seeming to suggest phantom co-conspirators who aren’t there. If they don’t quite fool the audience about the presence of a drummer, they make a strong case for an unseen bass player in a way that recalls the talent Bobby McFerrin has for teasing out a sketch of bass line convincingly enough that when he abandons it to fill in other parts you continue to hear it in the mix. Also impressive was the dynamic range on display, turning from raucous shredding to a barely but beautifully audible phrase on a dime.
The handful of vocal selections that peppered the show -- all covers or adaptations -- served almost as inverted interludes between the instrumental sections that were the bread and butter of the evening. They also anchored the musicians’ few spoken interactions with the audience, among them a charming yarn by Eldridge about mistaking the lyrics to “Open the Window,” Noah when he was a kid listening to his father play the song with his band, The Seldom Scene. For an encore, the duo offered up a stirring rendition of the Gershwin standard “Someone to Watch Over Me,” which Eldridge delivered in his clear, steady tenor.
After the show, the musicians made their way to the merch table to “shake and howdy” with a marveling crowd. This despite the fact that they ran out of copies of Mount Royal the night before. Lage quipped that the duo was counting on the audience bootlegging the show to listen to later, but if last night’s performance was any barometer, they would be wise to bump up the order for the next leg of the tour.
Nicco Pandolfi is a Library Associate with the Ann Arbor District Library.
Blog Post
Swing Easy: Tenor Saxophonist Harry Allen at Kerrytown Concert House
by christopherporter
When Harry Allen was a sideman for drummer Oliver Jackson on long European tours, Jackson introduced the up-and-coming tenor saxophonist to the local promoter in every city they played. “He would say, ‘Remember this name, you’re going to want him,’” Allen recalls. Thirty years later, some of the same people book Allen regularly.
Now an internationally acclaimed jazz artist, Harry Allen swings into town with his quartet to play the Kerrytown Concert House on Wednesday, March 1. They will perform audience favorites from the Great American Songbook as well as a few new songs Allen recently wrote. Joining him on this date are Chicago-based guitarist Andy Brown and Ann Arbor veterans Paul Keller, bass, and Pete Siers, drums.
Keller, who has played with Allen at festivals and concerts since 1998, says Allen is on his short list of all-time favorite jazz musicians. “It's impossible not to hear that Harry is a very special musician,” Keller notes, comparing him to Stan Getz, Lester Young, Zoot Sims, and Scott Hamilton. “Harry plays music that listeners can easily understand and connect with. At the same time, his artistry is undeniable. Harry stretches and twists the traditional jazz language in witty and clever ways, never harming the song or the groove, but elevating the music to the realm of rarefied air. His incredible improvised solos are like a faucet, gushing endless jazz vocabulary, and infused with wit, empathy, and soul.”
Allen discovered jazz early on. The son of a big band drummer who left the business to become an engineer, Allen grew up enjoying the music of Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Benny Goodman, and other greats. He played the accordion when he was 7, tried the clarinet for a time, and found his way to the tenor sax when he was twelve. “I was doing gigs as early as 12 or 13, maybe even before that,” he says, adding that his career really began when he moved to New Jersey to go to school, and he started hanging around New York clubs.
After graduating from Rutgers in 1988, Allen performed at jazz festivals and clubs throughout the world with Jackson; later, he appeared with Rosemary Clooney, Ray Brown, Hank Jones, Frank Wess, Flip Phillips, Scott Hamilton, Harry 'Sweets' Edison, Kenny Burrell, Herb Ellis, John Pizzarelli, Bucky Pizzarelli, Gus Johnson, Jeff Hamilton, Terry Gibbs, and Warren Vache.
Among those he has recorded with are Tony Bennett, Johnny Mandel, Ray Brown, Tommy Flanagan, James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, Kenny Barron, Dave McKenna, Dori Caymmi, Larry Goldings, George Mraz, Jake Hanna, and Al Foster, and Freddy Cole.
"Harry Allen’s playing is nothing less than perfect," says guitarist John Pizzarelli. Allen is featured on many of Pizzarelli's recordings, including the soundtrack of The Out-of-Towners. You may have seen his on-screen cameo for that Steve Martin-Goldie Hawn movie or heard him play in Robert Goulet’s commercials for ESPN.
Allen recorded for BNG, a major label in Japan, which he says made it possible for him “to record with a lot of famous people and do interesting projects” including working with a string orchestra.
“The business has certainly changed,” Allen reflects. “One big thing, when I first started my career, it was run by the major record companies. That was a good thing and a bad thing,” he says, explaining that a major record company could put money behind an artist, ensuring he would get gigs at the big clubs; on the other hand, without that backing, it was next to impossible. Today, with internet distribution and the demise of big jazz labels, clubs hire artists “the crowd wants to see.”
Now a recording artist with the Japanese label Swing Brothers, Allen has over 30 recordings out. Three have won Gold Disc Awards from Japan's Swing Journal Magazine, and his CD Tenors Anyone? was also recognized with the Gold Disc Award and the New Star Award. His CDs have made the top 10 list for favorite new releases in Swing Journal Magazine's reader's poll and Jazz Journal International's critic's poll. The list goes on.
Critics explain why audiences welcome Harry Allen everywhere. Martin Gayford of The Daily Telegraph in London admires his "Rhythmic edge and endless flow of ideas.” Eddie Cook, writing in Jazz Journal, says he is “endlessly inventive and with a flood of original ideas...his tone and execution are always superb." C. Michael Bailey of All About Jazz called him “the Frank Sinatra of the tenor saxophone: a master interpreter of standards."
And critic Gene Lees recalled that when Stan Getz was asked his idea of the perfect tenor saxophone soloist, his answer was “'My technique, Al Cohn's ideas, and Zoot's time.’” Added Lees, “The fulfillment of that ideal may well be embodied in Harry Allen.”
Just take a listen.
Davi Napoleon is a writer, critic, and theater historian.
Harry Allen plays Kerrytown Concert House on Wednesday, March 1, at 8 pm. For tickets and more info, visit kerrytownconcerthouse.com.
Blog Post
Get H.I.P. with Kahil El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble at Kerrytown Concert House
by christopherporter
After graduating college and spending a year abroad in Ghana, Kahil El'Zabar came home to Chicago excited to tell his dad what he wanted to do with his life.
"I’m gonna play in a badass band," El'Zabar recalled telling him. "No bass, no piano, no guitar, no chromatic chordal instrument to set the tonic sensibility of the music."
His new vision called for a tonal center set by the "various rhythmic impulses" and "harmonic syntax of the music," African influences, and "urban contemporary expression" from his own experience.
"And he says, 'Man, it sounds hip, boy. But you’ll never make a living.'"
Forty-some years later, the jazz percussionist, composer, and bandleader's "hip" project, The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, is still going, as is his Ritual Trio. El'Zabar's resume also includes work with jazz giants Dizzy Gillespie, Cannonball Adderley, and Archie Shepp as well as stints with Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon. (His dad came around, too, by the way).
The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, which for this tour includes longtime collaborator Corey Wilkes on trumpet and new baritone saxophonist Alex Harding, plays Ann Arbor's Kerrytown Concert House on Monday, February 27, as part of its "EHE, Let It Be Free 2017" tour.
At 63, El'Zabar doesn't seem to be slowing any. Talking by phone from a hotel in San Francisco earlier this month, he laid out his itinerary for the next few days: a second Bay-Area gig followed by a red-eye flight to Chicago and a drive to Champaign-Urbana for a show the next day, then back-to-back dates in Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Montreal.
"I think I’m very lucky, " he said. "I’m pretty healthy at my age, and I’m doing something I love to do."
It's a good time of year for the Ensemble to be on the road, where El'Zabar has spent every February since 1973.
"It became Black History Month about that time, and I had a band called 'The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble' that kind of fit everyone’s MO for what they wanted, so it ended up being a period where it was easy to book 20-plus concerts," El'Zabar said. "Especially in the '80s. It was like everybody had to have that band at that period."
Some cities and venues -- like Oakland's Eastside Arts Alliance -- have been on the tour every year from the start. Other stops, such as Washington, D.C., and Erie, Pennsylvania, are going on 20-plus years.
“We’ve really developed community, friendships, [and] relationships, and watched generations develop listening to The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble," he said.
El'Zabar credits early demand for the group to its range, clarity, and flexibility with limited instrumentation ("basically just two horns and a drum") as well as its commitment to relevant themes and historical references that connect with people.
"And we were fun," he said. "In the early ‘80s, before the classical jazz marketing idea came in, the so-called ‘avant-gardes’ were the heroes of the music, because people considered [us] really in the tradition of Charlie Parker or [Thelonious] Monk or pioneers that took a different approach than what was known. Toward the later '80s, the marketing of the 'correct way' to play the music was so heavily presented, and young players had almost a corporate sensibility at that point. I mean [they] even physically looked like bankers and accountants and lawyers, and things really, really changed."
El'Zabar played his first gig at 16, drumming with tenor saxman Gene Ammons, and he cited work with guys like Eddie Harris, Adderley, and Gillespie when he said, "I understand the importance of tunes, of bebop and hard bop, the importance of swing, which I think has been one of the successes of my music. At the same time, I didn’t see it as the badge of authority in regards to my value as a creative exponent of the music. What I learned from those obvious masters was a desire to extend the voice, to transcend the information into a new possibility, and to take pride in originality and individuality."
In the early '70s, El'Zabar joined Chicago's famed Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and became its chairman in 1975. The nonprofit organization is best-known for fostering new takes on jazz, classical, and world music as well as its ties to great "out" players like Anthony Braxton, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, and cofounder Muhal Richard Abrams.
But it was a Chicago big-band leader named Bill Abernathy who, as a teenager, set El'Zabar on the atypical path from percussionist to composer and bandleader.
"He said, 'You have a real keen musical insight, and you’re a good percussionist, but if you learn to read and you learn theory, you can take your musical ideas and convey them to other people," El'Zabar said. "That stuck with me."
Drummers have often led bands -- Buddy Rich, Art Blakey, Max Roach, and Tony Williams to name just a few -- but percussionists are often sidelined to auxiliary, accompanist status.
"I try to bring the value of a kalimba or an African hand drum; that it can be a leading voice in a compositional setting, that it can be played off in terms of its melodicism," El'Zabar said. "There are several compositions where you’ll hear patterns that are structured, where they become the syntax of how the melody and, eventually, the solos reference from what I’m playing. And many times I’m the soloist in those kinds of settings as well."
With Harding in the mix for the first time on this trip, the group benefits from a fresh but familiar perspective. The Detroit-born, New York-based saxophonist was a student of Hamiet Bluiett, another of El'Zabar's longtime collaborators who has played with the Ensemble, and Harding's been playing in the Broadway production of Fela! about iconic Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti for years.
"He’s got all the Afrobeat stuff obviously down, he’s got all the trad-jazz stuff down, he has avant-garde sensibilities," El'Zabar said. "And what I love about him is that he’s a very loving person; that you can feel that energy in his playing, and he's extremely supportive with his instrument. My instrument a lot of times is associated with the rhythm section, so the pockets have been bananas, man."
Concertgoers can expect the group to cover a lot of ground, but there's a good chance they'll hear at least one familiar bebop number. For the last several years, the Ensemble has been doing its take on Dizzy Gillespie's "Bebop," but this time out, the trio is digging into the "extraordinary changes and progressions" of Sonny Stitt's "The Eternal Triangle."
"The bop cats to me are just the epitome of what I call, 'The Highly Intelligent Perspective: H.I.P.' They were hip beyond being hip," El'Zabar said. "So we always try to investigate the hipness of that form and play it structurally, but with different instrumentation than people might be familiar with."
Another tune he's excited about is an original composition penned more than 25 years ago called "Great Black Music" that's never been fully realized until now.
"It’s always been a vamp, you know, just this groove, but I could never actually find the guys that could play all the nuances of the composition," he said. "We’re doing it now on tour, and it’s been knocking them out."
El'Zabar started booking this current run of gigs last August, but he says the subsequent election and recent national events have proven his instinct correct by naming the tour "Let It Be Free 2017."
"It’s a time to really value, and for Americans to educate themselves to, what the political significance of being free is supposed to be in accord with our constitution," El'Zabar said. "It’s really hit home with a lot of people, just a mantra of 'be free.'"
The tour name's original intent was more about breaking free from mediocrity, conspicuous consumption, and the mundane, and El'Zabar still hopes to encourage listeners in that way, too.
"It’s a consciousness-raising time," he said. "Any way I can be instrumental or useful or helpful in that way, I am a community servant."
Eric Gallippo is an Ypsilanti-based freelance writer and a regular contributor to Concentrate Ann Arbor.
Kahil El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble plays Kerrytown Concert House on Monday, February 27, 8 pm. For tickets and more info, visit kerrytownconcerthouse.com. For El'Zabar's music and more, visit kahilelzabar.net.
Blog Post
Strings Theory: Chris Eldridge and Julian Lage at The Ark
by christopherporter
Guitarists Julian Lage and Chris “Critter” Eldridge have formidable track records in jazz and bluegrass, respectively. Lage has worked with Gary Burton, Fred Hersch, Nels Cline and more. Eldridge is widely known as a member of the innovative Punch Brothers.
So when Lage and Eldridge play as a duo -- on their new album Mount Royal, their 2015 gem Avalon and their 2013 five-track EP Close to Picture -- there’s a whole universe of music open to them, a wide range of shared tastes and enthusiasms.
Playing rare Martin acoustic guitars from 1937 (Eldridge) and 1939 (Lage), they survey the varied lineage of acoustic music and Americana while pursuing their own contemporary aesthetic. The music is improvisational, lyrical, whimsical, textural, and highly virtuosic. While Eldridge sang on much of Avalon, Mount Royal is mainly instrumental, though there are two vocal covers of bluegrass classics and even a reading of one of Eddie Vedder’s Ukulele Songs. We caught up with them shortly before their February 27 gig at The Ark.
Q: Can you guys give us your take on Ann Arbor? I’m sure you’ve played here before.
Julian Lage: Yeah, definitely been there with our other bands and together. It’s a really vibrant town full of young people, people who are into all kinds of creative efforts.
Chris Eldridge: They’re also punching way above their weight in the deli department with Zingerman’s. Oh, my God, that place is incredible. That’s the most low-hanging fruit for what’s cool about Ann Arbor.
Q: And how about The Ark?
CE: Oh, yes. We’ve played there with our own projects, and this band [the duo] played there about two and a half years ago. The Ark is one of these ancient monumental folk clubs that have been around for decades, and everybody’s played there. They’ve done a really good job of curating and being a real home for folk music and all of its offshoots. Not unlike Club Passim in Boston.
JL: Or Freight & Salvage in the Bay Area.
CE: Yeah. We’re very grateful that The Ark exists in the world. They’ve always done a really cool and wonderful thing there.
Q: You just referred to this duo as a band, and I like that.
CE: Yeah, totally. Part of the beauty of a duo is that you’re able to have such a clear conversation, in a way that in a larger band it’s not as easy. In Punch Brothers, for instance, everybody has a role and there’s not typically a ton of conversation, but we’re all meeting in some sort of area between the five of us. That’s the essence of what a band is to me. And with Jules, that’s why I call it a band -- because although we’re liberated to interact in a much freer way, the music is really living in between the two of us. It’s like a baby that we’re both trying to nurture and that’s why I call it a band. If you’re making music from that perspective it’s not even really about the two individuals, it’s about the thing you’re making.
Q: On Mount Royal and Avalon you’re playing these two Martin acoustic guitars from the late 1930s. Can you tour with those extremely valuable instruments?
CE: We’ve traveled with them but we won’t be traveling with them now. Too many flights on regional jets. But that was one of the fun things when we first got together, exploring stuff on these glorious old Martin guitars, stuff that hadn’t really been explored to our knowledge.
Q: Is it significant in terms of the lineage of acoustic music that Chris’s guitar is a dreadnought and Julian’s is a [smaller] “orchestra” model?
JL: If you asked us that question maybe five years ago, we might have said it was significant. But Critter and I did this thing a while back where we played a bunch of old guitars that were kind of chosen for us to play. They were old Washburns, Martins, and so on. We played all of them and we sounded pretty much the same [laughs], no matter the size or the style. We brought out similar qualities, which for us was educational. I think now we’re chasing a similar sound regardless of the guitar, and that’s as it ought to be.
Q: For Mount Royal you challenged each other to write new music in limited timeframes. Can you describe that more?
CE: We spent a lot of time working on the music for this album. We wrote tons and tons, together and separately, and threw the vast majority of it out. We’d do these timed writing exercises and also timed improvisations, where we would just have the voice memo recorder out and try to improvise an actual piece of music. Not just go crazy and see what sticks, but a real piece of music. “Lion’s Share” was one of our improvisations -- it just came out exactly like that. We liked it so we just learned it note for note.
Q: Can you say more about the timed writing exercises?
JL: You set a timer. We could do a dozen three-minute improvisations, or if you say it’s going to be a 45-minute record, let’s improvise two different 45-minute records. That gave us a different overarching result. Improvising and writing became blurry pretty early on. But also I might write with just pencil and paper -- just write a song with 10 minutes on the clock. We had a lot of underwhelming songs that we wrote [laughs]. But we had to do that and we didn’t feel discouraged. We wrote so many songs that you won’t ever hear. [laughs] But we became less afraid of the process and more resourceful. It was transformative for us as musicians, and the fact that it exists as a record was very much a byproduct or a secondary bonus. At a certain point we thought if we don’t even finish this, we’re a lot better than we were before we started.
Q: Most of the record is instrumental and original, but there are three covers with vocals. How did those songs enter the picture?
CE: One of the things that we do live is we play songs -- music with words. At a certain point Mount Royal was weighted more heavily toward vocal music, and as we continued writing and discarding, a lot of the vocal songs didn’t make as much sense anymore. But those three really worked with this batch of material and seemed to provide a lift.
Q: The harmonized opening to “Living in the Mississippi Valley” is great -- was that spontaneous?
JL: No! [laughs] It’s so detailed that we had to work out parts for sure. It’s three-part harmony that moves without overlapping.
Q: And “Things in Life,” that stems directly from your bluegrass roots …
CE: Yeah, it’s part of who we are. There’s something really awesome and unhinged about those tunes that doesn’t come out as much in most of the music that we write. So there’s a real pleasure in just playing an ass-kicker of a bluegrass tune.
JL: Totally.
David R. Adler is a New York City-based jazz history professor, journalist/critic and guitarist.
Chris Eldridge and Julian Lage play The Ark, 316 S. Main St., on February 27. Tickets are $20, doors open at 7:30 pm, show starts at 8 pm.
Blog Post
The "Plague" Year: Hate Unbound celebrates album debut at Ypsi's Maidstone Theatre
by christopherporter
There’s a whole mess of influences on Hate Unbound’s debut album, Plague, which came out on the Finnish label Inverse Records. Reviewers have mentioned brutal bands (Lamb of God, Gojira, Hatebreed) along with thrashier groups (Exodus) and death metal pioneers (Death) -- but not enough have acknowledged Hate Unbound’s occasional laser-sharp deployment of twin-lead guitars, evoking classic Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy.
“I actually wanted to be KK Downing when I grew up,” said guitarist Daryl Mitchell, naming the ax partner of Glenn Tipton in Judas Priest. (Hate Unbound's other guitarist, William Cundiff, is Mitchell's Tipton.)
But don’t mistake Hate Unbound’s love of twin leads fool you: This southeastern Michigan group, which includes bassist Sean Demura and drummer Franklin "Foot" Hannah, is primarily about pummeling you with riffs, not tickling you with harmonized solos.
You'll be able to have your chest caved in by said riffs when Hate Unbound celebrates the release of Plague at the Maidstone Theatre in Ypsilanti on Saturday, February 18. We talked to Mitchell and vocalist Art Giammara about the Plague year, song meanings, and whether too many influences is too many.
While reading our chat, stream all of Plague at Zero Tolerance Magazine.
Q: Why are you having your CD release show at the Maidstone in Ypsilanti? Do you guys live more in the Washtenaw area than Detroit?
DM: When contemplating a venue to have this release show at, we immediately thought of the venues that try to work with the bands, since it should be a symbiotic relationship. And at the top of the list was the Maidstone Theater in Ypsilanti. The owner, Jon Archer, is a devout music fan and he really tries to accommodate artists in his venue. Plus, it has a great sound system and the drink prices are awesome.
AG: A couple of the guys are on the east side and the rest are on the west [of the city], so that's why settled in the middle with [saying we’re from] Detroit. We choose to do the release at the Maidstone because of how cool they have been to us since our start and it’s great for sound and lights. We have played some of our best sets there and every time it's been one big party. Our release is more of a thank you to our awesome fans and family who have supported us all along the way.
DM: And our drummer, Foot, is a Ypsi resident and his house is 2 minutes from the Maidstone.
Q: A friend commented how great the guitars sounded: "Zeuss-style guitar tones,” he said, referencing the influential metal producer's aggressive but articulate sound. Was there a direct influence from another artist or producer that informed your guitar tones?
DM: How cool of your friend. No, there aren't any direct influences on how we got the guitar tones on this album. But rather than imitate and use gear that others have recorded with in the past, Will and I just went in the studio with the gear we wanted to use and that we knew would work in the context of how Hate Unbound should sound. That was the most important goal.
Q: That twin-lead solo in the second song, “Cut,” morphs really fast from Thin Lizzy and Judas Priest tight harmonies to something epic, almost akin to Europe’s “Final Countdown” countdown riff played on guitars. Nice surprise! But it fits with how the rest of the song is all chopped up. Who are some of your favorite twin-lead tandems?
DM: It's great that you picked up on the harmony solo in "Cut.” We thought it would be nice to acknowledge some of our classic influences and go with a twin lead and flirt with a natural minor feel. And yes, Judas Priest was one of my biggest influences as a youth. I actually wanted to be KK Downing when I grew up.
Q: Art, I can’t really make out most of the lyrics you’re barking, but I’m going to guess they’re not about flowers and sunshine. But I do see a semi-religious theme emerging in the song titles -- true?
AG: Great question. That is true, I do write about semi-religious topics like “Baptized in Lies.” I wanted to write a song about the Catholic church. I grew up in a Catholic family and witnessed how important faith is. Also, I saw how the church manipulated its following to make money and how fake people are. You can shake hands on Sunday but if they see you on Monday they forget who you are. I always thought that was bullshit. With “Burn Your Idols,” that is more of a straight-forward song of how our media is destroying our youth. Idols today are made-up pop stars with little talent. The writing in Plague is more of a collection of my fears of how this world is going and the crumbling I hope I and my family never see. But you never know, our follow-up to Plague may be about flowers and sunshine. I'm kidding; we will keep it brutal.
Q: The number of times I read Lamb of God and Death being referenced in the reviews of Plague was numbing. I know the record label put those groups out there and I can hear why, but what do you think of being compared to them so much? I liked the reviews that acknowledged Exodus -- especially for the twin leads -- and I understand why one review mentioned Pantera. Any surprise influences on the band?
DM: We don't mind the comparisons at all. I love the Lamb of God comparisons because their guitarists are riff monsters. Art does have that Randy Blythe feel to his vocals sometimes. And as for Death ... Chuck Schuldiner was a fuckin' genius, so who wouldn't love being compared to them? OK, maybe Britney Spears might not like being compared to Death, but she's just another pop culture delivery mechanism anyway.
The Mighty Warrior [blog] reviewed our album and stated: "on tracks like ‘Suffering,’ which sounds like Chuck Schuldiner co-wrote a song with Gojira.” Dude, how incredibly flattering as I love both bands immensely. And it’s an acknowledgment of what we were trying to go for. The Exodus mention made me very happy as well. Thrash is a big part of what we are, along with the death metal, and I'm glad when people notice that we try to let several influences ooze out of our sound.
Q: Is this two-week April tour your first one as a headliner or are you going out with somebody? Any summer plans with one of the package tours?
DM: We'll be headlining the April run. We wanted to get out there and roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty and just rock out. We'll tour later in the year and hopefully be a part of a nice and brutal package. As for summer plans, we do have some great things coming up, but unfortunately, we aren't allowed to announce them yet.
Christopher Porter is a Library Technician and editor of Pulp.
Hate Unbound's album release party for "Plague" is on Saturday, February 18, at the Maidstone Theatre,
1425 Ecorse Rd., Ypsilanti. Cover is $5, doors open at 7 pm. Opening acts are Two Neck Noose, Past Tense, and Augres. Hate Unbound hits the road in April for its Spread the Plague Tour 2017:
4/13 New Haven, IN
4/14 Chicago, IL
4/15 Milwaukee, WI
4/16 Des Moines, IA
4/17 Peoria, IL
4/18 St. Louis, MO
4/19 Nashville, TN
4/20 Louisville, KY
4/21 Pittsburgh, PA
4/22 Cleveland, OH
4/23 Toledo, OH
Blog Post
No One Thing Without the Other: Dave Douglas Quintet at Kerrytown Concert House
by christopherporter
Trumpeter Dave Douglas prepared to play his mom’s funeral by arranging the hand-picked hymns and Bible verses she wrote down on a scrap of paper and gave to him.
“I didn’t do too much to them,” Douglas said, whose jazz can edge toward the avant-garde at times. “I thought these are pretty straight-ahead renditions of these hymns.”
Douglas’ Brass Ecstasy band -- with the New Orleans-type front line of trumpet, French horn, trombone, and tuba, plus drums -- was the group he picked to play his mother’s chosen hymns at the funeral, with the sung verses handled by the church’s congregation.
“We got to the service and we go through the first chorus,” Douglas said, “and I turned around to hand it to the congregation and they’re all just looking at me like, ‘Whaaat?’ It was way over their heads. We had to totally adapt and have the [church’s] organ player come help out.”
He laughs about the event now, but that was a tumultuous period for Douglas.
During his mother’s illness, Douglas’ longtime quintet was having difficulty finding time to work together because the individual players had become busy band leaders themselves. Then his mother died of cancer and, within a few years, so did his 55-year-old brother.
But Douglas used the stress to fuel his creativity.
“I was struggling about how to play these hymns; I knew them from my childhood, but I hadn’t played them in years,” he said. “So, a new zone of composition was taking shape in my mind while I was also thinking about forming this new quintet. And it just sort of happened at the same time.”
Douglas chose the new quintet -- tenor saxophonist Jon Irabagon, pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist Linda Oh, and drummer Rudy Royston -- and recorded two very personal records he wrote simultaneously during his mom's illness: Be Still (2012), with the hymns sung by Aoife O'Donovan, and the instrumental Time Travel (2013).
Around this same time, Douglas said, “I was commissioned to write a piece to be played at the World Trade Center memorial site that I called ‘Brazen Heart’ and was written for a large brass ensemble. It was the same time as my brother was diagnosed, and I was also writing the rest of the music for that quintet album," also called Brazen Heart (2015). "And as this piece came together, I said, ‘Well, this is a brass piece, but I’m going to have to rearrange it for the quintet.’ It’s an important piece in our book.”
That means the new quintet’s first three studio albums all contained memorial works. But Douglas knew from the start he had the right musicians to interpret his emotional compositions.
“It’s a really magical group,” Douglas said. “In late 2015, I did the Brazen Heart Live at Jazz Standard recordings because we had a book that was comprised of all three albums and everybody had them committed to memory. So, I think when a band memorizes a large book of music, magical things start to happen, so we documented it that way. The band that’s coming to Ann Arbor is the exact same personnel from those projects.”
When this “magical group” plays Kerrytown Concert House on Thursday, February 16, attendees will get to hear one of the best working bands in jazz, with the quintet format being one of Douglas’ favorite lineups.
“In the same way a classical composer might say a string quartet is their home main base, I sort of feel like the quintet -- trumpet, tenor sax, piano, bass, and drums -- is my home territory,” Douglas said. “There’s no real logic -- I never made a decision. I actually tried to make a quintet with alto sax once and I just couldn’t.”
Douglas credits his love for the five-person format to what he listened to in his youth.
“I think it’s just formative listening,” he said. “As a kid, I heard the quintets of Eric Dolphy and Booker Little, or Joe Henderson and Woody Shaw, or Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and, of course, the great Miles Davis quintet. That just feels like home to me, and out of all my works I’ve probably written more quintet pieces than anything else.”
But Douglas is also known for helming a huge number of projects, from other working bands to one-off collaborations. One of the trumpeter’s most recent groups is High Risk, an electro-jazz quartet featuring electric bassist Jonathan Maron, drummer Mark Guiliana, and Ann Arbor’s own Shigeto on electronics.
“We met originally at an improvised music concert,” Douglas said of Shigeto, who is supposed to drop by the Kerrytown gig. “It was one of those round-robin improvising situations, so we ended up on stage playing a five-minute duo piece. He played mostly drums -- then he got on the machines. But he’s an improviser in a way a lot of electronic music producers kind of aren’t -- and that comes because he was originally a drummer.”
Shigeto and Douglas kept discussing ideas over email, which eventually led to High Risk, which put out two fantastic electro-jazz albums: 2015's High Risk and last year's Dark Territory.
Douglas has worked in the electric-jazz world before. He had his trumpet hooked up to all sorts of effects in the late ’80s as a member of the proggy Doctor Nerve, but once Douglas started finding his own voice on the instrument, he ditched the pedals. “I found in my own playing I was starting to adapt the sounds within my own acoustic vocabulary as an instrumentalist,” he said. “I started to mimic the things the pedals were doing.”
But Douglas returned to the plugged-in world with the live album Sanctuary (1997) and the Pro Tools-assisted Freak In (2003) as well as Witness (2001), which featured Ikue Mori adding electronic textures to the nonet’s already large sound, and Keystone (2005), an album composed to accompany the silent films of comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle.
“Every new electric project I do,” Douglas said, “the technology has changed so much. I have to reimagine how I approach the recording and playing process. What’s interesting for me is always how can we make this the most flexible, spontaneous, improvised situation but also use the technology to its highest exposition.”
Among Douglas’ electric-tinged projects, the elastic High Risk comes closest to fulfilling this vision.
“It’s still challenging,” Douglas said about adding electronics to an improvising band. “And one of the things I admire most about Shigeto is how he musically handles it. In the band High Risk, we’re going in and out of grids [programmed parts], and players might have some click tracks even in the live shows, but even despite that, the tempos can fluctuate. I do put a lot of thought in advance about how we get in and out of the grid and how we’re going to adapt to each other.”
Now, High Risk can work off the grid because the players have internalized the music, no longer needing click tracks, Douglas said, which allows “for quick changes of tempo and fluctuations that happen by people listening to each other, and that’s what the crux of improvised music really is.”
Though Douglas is a prolific composer, it’s easy to forget improvisation is at the heart of everything he does. That’s why in many ways a band like High Risk is no different from Douglas’ acoustic quintet, or Brass Ecstasy, or Tiny Bell Trio, his early trumpet-guitar-drum ensemble -- they're all vehicles for improvisation. While the original compositions emanate from Douglas, he makes sure they highlight the strengths of his bandmates.
“What I see crucial to my writing, and jazz more generally, is that the composer is creating a platform for the musicians’ personalities to shine,” he said. “I come across musicians who inspire me. Having the musicians in my ear helps guide me to finishing the pieces; no piece moves ahead without the other.”
From mom’s hymns to a “new zone of composition” to the current quintet to High Risk, no one thing moves ahead without the other.
Christopher Porter is a Library Technician and editor of Pulp.
The Dave Douglas Quintet plays Kerrytown Concert House on Thursday, February 16, 8 pm. For tickets and more info, visit kerrytownconcerthouse.com. For Douglas’ music and more, visit his record label: greenleafmusic.com.
Blog Post
Shock Values: Duane gets political, goes electric as Jet Black Eel
by christopherporter
If there's any doubt what Detroit musician and performance artist Duane Gholston is up to with his new look and sound, the snippet from a Don King speech that opens his recent single, "When the Eel Accepts Your Invitation" is a pretty solid clue.
"You got to try to imitate and emulate the white man, and then you can be successful," the notorious boxing promoter -- and Donald Trump supporter -- is heard saying, before a classic honky-tonk shuffle and meandering lap-steel lick ushers in Duane the Jet Black Eel, the 24-year-old's latest persona and "first truly conceptual project."
"It's a young queer person of color taking on the classic vision of America (when it was 'great,' according to some red hats, LOL)," Duane wrote in an email to Pulp. "A bunch of rock 'n' roll songs taking on both conservative and neoliberal politics, homophobia in the black community, and systematic racism in America."