Corridor Buzz - The Premier Source of Arts & Entertainment News and Information for the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Corridor

REVIEW: Scofield makes good with long, funky set

By John Kenyon and Loren Keller

The last time John Scofield performed at the Iowa City Jazz Festival, a quick-rising electrical storm with torrential rains cut his set short, allowing the guitarist to play just 20 minutes."We owe you one," Scofield said as he left the stage. "We'll play twice as long next time."

He made good on that promise and then some, delivering a 90-minute-plus set to cap a frenetic Saturday on the festival's mainstage.

Scofield started with his interpretation of the standard made most famous by the Animals, "House of the Rising Sun." While he danced around the familiar melody line without ever actually seeming to play it note for note, the horns -- Phil Grenadier on trumpet, Eddie Salkin on tenor sax and flutes and Frank Vacin on baritone sax and clarinet -- nudged and pushed the guitarist, the five musicians playing a game of tag as each would play a burst followed by a response from the other.

He followed with "Heck of a Job," a song he said was written for "another city that flooded," a reference to President George W. Bush's admonition that then-FEMA chief Michael Brown had done a "heck of a job" with the response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Given the fire and passion behind Scofield's solos in the song, one could reasonably surmise he doesn't agree.

"Memorette," the third track in a row from Scofield's most recent disc, This Meets That, took things down a notch. The ballad was built on a languorous bassline and some spiritual tones from the horn section, while Scofield soloed tastefully over top. The horns followed, with Phil Grenadier on trumpet offering a nice solo while Scofield layered chords over the bass and drums.

The fourth tune, "Pretty Out," showed how willing Scofield is to mess with the formula. The tune began with Matt Penman thumping his bass to pull big, deep notes from it while Scofield coaxed otherworldly tones from his guitar. Drummer Bill Stewart , a Des Moines native, played alongside them rather than behind them his rhythms complementing the other two rather than setting a beat. The horns punctuated things with brassy bursts of sound.

That gave way, as it does on This Meets That, to a frantic cover of the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." It was recognizable thanks to Scofield's faithfulness to Keith Richards' famous guitar line, but it was more punchy and soulful than the source material, marrying Otis Redding's take to an anarchic punk spirit.

He followed with a couple of slower tunes, including a long, soulful take on "Shoe Dog," a sweetly catchy country-flavored song that seemed like several other tunes at one point or another. He continued drawing from This Meets That with "Strangeness in the Night," a song that, despite it's title, was fairly straightforward soul jazz.

He further showed his range with an improbably good version of the Charlie Rich countrypolitan classic, "Behind Closed Doors," his guitar somehow conveying the same mix of wonder and passion found in Rich's deeply soulful vocal.

He closed the set with the tune that opens This and That, the clanking, clanging "Low Road." While his solos were uniformly jaw dropping throughout the night, this one seemed designed to squeeze the remaining energy from his fingers and he bruised the guitar to create a near-metalic clamour that nonetheless maintained the spirit of the song.

It was an inspired return for the guitarist, who ensured that hearing a full set of his six-string explorations was worth the wait.

Listen to some of Scofield's version of "House of the Rising Sun" from Saturday night.

-John Kenyon

Bonerama brings the brass

"I'm pretty sure someone's going to get hurt here," David Letterman quipped before Bonerama's performance with OK Go on the Late Show back in February.

Fans attending the Iowa City Jazz Festival Saturday seemed to heed that warning and kept their distance, hanging a few feet back from the stage and leaving Bonerama's four trombone players plenty of room to project their brassy wall of vintage New Orleans funk.

The band kicked off their early evening set with a full-sounding, richly textured version of the National Anthem (which they also played before the Sugar Bowl in January) and drew the loudest of cheers and applause of the day (so far).

After three songs -- one offering a little taste of their fellow New Orleans musicians the Meters and Professor Longhair -- the band members stood aside and sipped liquids (playing the "t-bone" with such force has gotta make you thirsty) as drummer Eric Bolivar let loose with a furious solo.

Following was a dynamite cover of Led Zeppelin's mighty "The Ocean," with the four-trombone frontline sounding even the song's vocal melodies. The group also covers late 60s/early 70s songs by the likes of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath though none were on offer Saturday (I was hoping to hear them play Sabbath's "War Pigs" but will be content to watch this version on YouTube.)

Band co-founder Mark Mullins -- who along with co-founder Craig Klein played in Harry Connick's band -- said Saturday they've played a couple times in Iowa City within the last year and were hoping to make some new friends this time around. It's safe to assume they made a least a couple thousand more on the Pentacrest Saturday afternoon.

Mullins urged new fans to check out the Bonerama web site; a sound clip from their performance Saturday is posted here.

-Loren Keller

East meets west in a tight set by Garaj Mahal

Prior to a tight set of jam-oriented grooves at the Iowa City Jazz Festival Saturday afternoon, Garaj Mahal co-founder Fareed Haque told KCCK's Bob Stewart that his band is intent on exploring the long-neglected organic dance roots of jazz.

"Duke Ellington was jam," the virtuoso guitarist/composer said in the radio interview, noting that Ellington made music based on parts -- brass, drums, guitar and others -- woven together to create a funky, danceable groove.

The four members of Garaj Mahal offered much the same Saturday afternoon, playing a mix of styles -- jazz, funk, jam, dance, New Orleans-style swing -- in a highly collaborative set that stretched to both ends of the frenetic-to-relaxed spectrum. The band sounded much like its name might suggest: an East-meets-West sound that tinkers with a mix of styles to create a grand sonic architecture.

With a sound as evocative of Miles Davis and the Grateful Dead, Haque says Garaj Mahal strives for an interactive experience with its audience and has chosen to feed the group's connection to jam fans. While I'm not a particular fan of the Dead or the aimless noodling of most jam bands in general, Garaj Mahal clearly went far beyond musical meandering, offering enough melody and rhythm to keep things interesting throughout its hourlong set followed by a two-song encore that included a number called "Low Self Esteem."

Drummer Sean "the Rick" Rickman, who has released DVDs on compositional drumming, delivered an astonishingly agile, smooth performance, at points playing one time signature with his foot and a different with his hands.

Haque says the band's new record Woot, set for release on the independent Owl Studios Records next January, features a lot of Indian musicians and roots-oriented dance jazz as well as elements of Indian and Pakistani swing that sounds similar to New Orleans swing.

Haque lives in Chicago and teaches at Northern Illinois University; the band is based in San Francisco. Haque, born to a Pakistani father and Chilean mother, has visited Iowa City many times and has played gigs at the Sanctuary.

Here's hoping for a quick return.

For a sound clip of Garaj Mahal's performance, click here.

-Loren Keller

Euforquestra kicks off Saturday jazz fest with a beat

The Iowa City Jazz Festival came close to missing its opening act Saturday according to the members of Euforquestra, who did in fact make it to the stage.

The band played the inaugural 80/35 music festival in Des Moines on Friday, but driving back this morning, the band's van started spewing smoke. Details about why and how it was rectified were not forthcoming, but suffice to say they made it back to Iowa City to open the Saturday mainstage of the jazz festival.

A smoking van is a fitting symbol for the Iowa City band, whose self-proclaimed "Afro-Caribbean-Barnyard-Funk" sounds like the kind of music that might leak around the door frame of a dorm room with a wet towel stuck at the bottom crack of the door to keep any, um, aromas from escaping and catching the attention of the resident assistant.

But smoke, as in the thing that signals that fire can't be far off, is also an apt description of the band's sound. All seven members of the band play with the youthful energy that befits their age, bringing influences well beyond their years to bear on songs that get the crowd moving. The music is rhythm heavy, mixing African beats, salsa horns, a bit of reggae and calypso and good old fashioned funky jazz. It isn't the most original stuff you'll ever hear, but if you like that kind of thing, it'll move you.

Though the band's instrumental chops are what draw your attention, everyone in the group sings, often at the same time, and these shouts and chants drive the songs. The two horn players, Ryan Jeter and Austin Zaletel, and drummer Josten Foley were particularly solid.

If you missed the band today, you don't need to wait long or travel far to check them out. They'll headline their own Camp Euforia next weekend in Lone Tree. Check out the band's web site for details.

In the meantime, click here to hear a snippet from the band's jazz fest set.

-John Kenyon