Respect
For those of you interested in jazz, you should check out The Respect Sextet.
I've been going to the Rochester Jazz Festival all week, and I've seen a few pretty awesome acts, but on the whole I'm feeling like this year is a bit of a step down from last year. Tomorrow night should be pretty good though, since I'm seeing McCoy Tyner.
Anyways, one of the highlights was this group, The Respect Sextet. They're a bunch of Eastman grads playing together. I know at least two of them are Rochester locals. I know the brother of the drummer, and I've actually played with the sax player before when I was in high school. He sat in on some groups I played in. He was pretty damn good back when he was in high school too (he'd gig with the local professionals, some of whom also play nationally).
As a group, Respect is really tight. They all know how to play. They play a whole range of stuff, from straight up to stuff that can get a little bit out there. It never goes too far though, because when they start pushing the line too much they bring it right back to the structure. After listening to them live yesterday as well as listening to one of their CDs, I've noticed that one of the themes of their music is the dichotomy between structure and chaos. They manage to combine the two pretty seemlessly, moving fluidly from one to the other and back again.
Their music is also full of humor, something which isn't necessarily a sought after trait in instrumental jazz. Sometimes its a very subtle humor only apparent to other musicians, or even other jazz musicians. For example, they did something I thought was hilarious yesterday. They were playing one tune, and a lot of it was full of unison or very simple harmonic structures that followed the rhythm of the melody. That tune really accentuated how tight the horns' playing was. Then, in the next tune they played, the horns started playing slightly out of tune with each other (very subtly so, it took me a little while to figure out what was going on). And while they were all playing the same melody, they weren't quite fully synchronized. It sounded like a mediocre high school ensemble: together, but not quite all the way there. The thing is this was all on purpose, just for fun, and that made me laugh. It might not sound funny to you guys, but maybe you had to be there (also, I'm the guy who laughs during peoples solos when they play something comical and the rest of the audience looks at him funny).
Anyways, those of you into jazz, especially the kind that pushes into the slightly weird while maintaining a foothold in the realm of modern straight ahead jazz, check them out.
-Yoshi
Edit: I was just looking at their website and noticed this in the 'about' section. It starts with a list of quotations like, "'This is a band that's given me some of the best listening experiences I've had over the last couple of years.' -Robert Iannapollo, Cadence/Opprobrium"
The last one is this: "'Nothing is good, I see, without Respect. Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day!' -William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice"
This band is about having fun, and I love it.
I've been going to the Rochester Jazz Festival all week, and I've seen a few pretty awesome acts, but on the whole I'm feeling like this year is a bit of a step down from last year. Tomorrow night should be pretty good though, since I'm seeing McCoy Tyner.
Anyways, one of the highlights was this group, The Respect Sextet. They're a bunch of Eastman grads playing together. I know at least two of them are Rochester locals. I know the brother of the drummer, and I've actually played with the sax player before when I was in high school. He sat in on some groups I played in. He was pretty damn good back when he was in high school too (he'd gig with the local professionals, some of whom also play nationally).
As a group, Respect is really tight. They all know how to play. They play a whole range of stuff, from straight up to stuff that can get a little bit out there. It never goes too far though, because when they start pushing the line too much they bring it right back to the structure. After listening to them live yesterday as well as listening to one of their CDs, I've noticed that one of the themes of their music is the dichotomy between structure and chaos. They manage to combine the two pretty seemlessly, moving fluidly from one to the other and back again.
Their music is also full of humor, something which isn't necessarily a sought after trait in instrumental jazz. Sometimes its a very subtle humor only apparent to other musicians, or even other jazz musicians. For example, they did something I thought was hilarious yesterday. They were playing one tune, and a lot of it was full of unison or very simple harmonic structures that followed the rhythm of the melody. That tune really accentuated how tight the horns' playing was. Then, in the next tune they played, the horns started playing slightly out of tune with each other (very subtly so, it took me a little while to figure out what was going on). And while they were all playing the same melody, they weren't quite fully synchronized. It sounded like a mediocre high school ensemble: together, but not quite all the way there. The thing is this was all on purpose, just for fun, and that made me laugh. It might not sound funny to you guys, but maybe you had to be there (also, I'm the guy who laughs during peoples solos when they play something comical and the rest of the audience looks at him funny).
Anyways, those of you into jazz, especially the kind that pushes into the slightly weird while maintaining a foothold in the realm of modern straight ahead jazz, check them out.
-Yoshi
Edit: I was just looking at their website and noticed this in the 'about' section. It starts with a list of quotations like, "'This is a band that's given me some of the best listening experiences I've had over the last couple of years.' -Robert Iannapollo, Cadence/Opprobrium"
The last one is this: "'Nothing is good, I see, without Respect. Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day!' -William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice"
This band is about having fun, and I love it.
