I took my 11-year-old, trombone-playing son Alex to hear Dave Marriott's new band, "Pop Culture" at Egans' Ballard Jam House last Friday night. The band was Dave on trombone, Marc Fendel on alto, Chris Symer on bass, and Evan Woodle on drums.
The band's name refers to the tunes they play, the titles of which all have some reference to pop culture. For example, they opened with a tune by Ron Carter called "81," which is apparently a numeric, secret code for the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang. There was an original by Dave entitled "How to Draw a Bunny," based on the improvised score that legendary drummer Max Roach performed for a documentary of the same name about artist Ray Johnson.
It's really fun to hear a band that doesn't use a piano, guitar, or some other chordal instrument that provides harmony. What you get with Pop Culture is sometimes a single horn playing with bass and drums; sometimes both horns playing against each other with bass and drums; sometimes just a horn with either bass or drums; and all combinations of the four players you can imagine.
The sound is not really free jazz, in that Pop Culture tends to stick to the general harmonic layout of the tunes they play, but there's so much room to try different combinations of instruments, grooves, moods, and sounds, that every tune sounds fresh and different.
And here's good news for young players: Egan's is open to ALL AGES until 11 PM, so if you can get to their Ballard location you can hear real pros playing real, live jazz music. The food is terrific also, so get something to eat while you're there, and help support live music in Seattle. It's a tiny little place, so every seat is a great seat. Their web site is here and you should check out their calendar.
And that's who I listened to last Friday night. So...what are you listening to?
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