To many listeners, New Orleans jazz invariably means Preservation Hall, marching brass bands and, of course, the Marsalis dynasty (trumpeter Wynton, pianist Ellis, et cetera).
But a more cutting-edge school of jazz also is flourishing in the Crescent City, and its most accomplished players were attracting listeners and critical attention years before Wynton Marsalis ascended as the most revered young jazz musician in the world.
Today, nearly two decades since they first started working on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, the beguilingly named Astral Project quintet finally appears to be on the brink of achieving national, and perhaps international, recognition. That they have come so far even though they’re too old to be considered young lions and too stylistically free-ranging to have won a major-label record deal (so far) says a great deal about the innate appeal of this group.
When Astral Project makes its belated local debut, with upcoming appearances at the Green Mill Jazz Club and FitzGerald’s, Chicagoans will have a rare opportunity to hear a lesser-known side of New Orleans jazz: It’s a sound that’s considerably more adventurous, freewheeling and whimsical than listeners might expect.
“Sure, a lot of the neo-conservative players are based here, that’s what’s selling, and those are the guys who are getting signed by the big labels,” says Astral Project bassist James Singleton, no doubt referring to such New Orleans stars as star trumpeters Terence Blanchard and Nicholas Payton.
“That’s great, but for me, a lot of my musical attitudes were formed in the 1960s and ’70s, when it was considered really taboo to be retrograde and doctrinaire in your approach to music.
“The idea back then was to create something that no one else has heard before, to try to find grooves that are uniquely your own, and that’s what Astral Project always was searching for.”
Even so, this band of New Orleans musicians couldn’t help but bring certain elements of that city’s distinguished musical tradition into everything it played, and that may help explain its appeal. Certainly the New Orleans backbeats and parade rhythms that mark much of Astral Project’s music make the band’s pungent dissonances and unorthodox improvisations easier to embrace.
Whether the band is playing angular lines in “Sidewalk Strut” or complex chords in “Bongo Joe,” two popular tunes from its large repertoire of original music, New Orleans’ rich vocabulary of swing rhythms keeps the music breezily coursing forward.
“We find that listeners who don’t know anything about jazz, and don’t have any preconceptions, are most easily touched and energized by our music,” says reed player Tony Dagradi, who founded the group in 1978.
“But listeners who really know the (jazz) tradition sometimes have a little more trouble getting into our music, because they can’t put it into a pigeonhole. They don’t know what to make of it.”
Indeed, how does one categorize a band that merges Latin rhythmic ideas with New Orleans second-line meters, avant-garde musical structures with easily hummable tunes, novel dance music with palpably spiritual improvisations? Like New Orleans itself, Astral Project blends a thousand influences into an alluring identity all its own.
As former New Orleans Times-Picayune jazz editor Scott Aiges wrote in 1994, “Astral Project squeezes so many styles so efficiently into improvisations that there is only one label for the band’s sound (other than heavenly): modern New Orleans music.”
The band’s drummer, noted New Orleans player John Vidacovich, for instance, “will juxtapose rock pounding with bubbly bebop, crashing cymbal crescendos with delicate ballads–anything, it seems, to circumvent standard expectations,” added Aiges, who left the Times-Picayune in 1995 to become a music manager, thereafter adding Astral Project to his roster.
“I think a lot of people around town would agree that, no matter what the genre, Astral Project is the best group in the city today,” Aiges says.
Which is why the ensemble has won just about every award the city of New Orleans has to offer, including Best CD in the 1995 Big Easy Awards for its self-titled debut album; Best Modern Jazz Group in the 1994 New Orleans People’s Choice Awards; and first place in the 1992 Cognac Hennessy Best of New Orleans Jazz Competition.
Considering that the Astral Project lineup also includes Steve Masakowski, one of the most accomplished jazz guitarists of the under-50 generation, and versatile keyboardist David Torkanowsky, it’s no wonder the ensemble has received so many laurels.
Astral Project, however, is but one part of the jazz ferment that is New Orleans today. With trumpeter Blanchard and pianist Henry Butler recently having moved back to their hometown, with all manner of brilliant soloists basing their activities in or near New Orleans (including Payton, Ellis Marsalis, Jesse Davis, Donald Harrison and Alvin Batiste), the city stands as a major player in jazz of the ’90s.
Not that the jazz life is easier in New Orleans than it is anywhere else in America.
“When I first got here, in the late ’70s, it was the tail end of the good times–there were a lot of places to play,” says Dagradi, bemoaning the shortage of major jazz venues in the city. “You could go any night of the week to hear straight-ahead jazz.
“It isn’t like that now. There are a lot of great musicians here, but except for a few places, like Snug Harbor, it’s hard to stay here and work consistently, which is why we’ve been touring so much lately.”
Indeed, with two recent European tours to its credit and critical clips from around the world, Astral Project’s star seems to be ascending quickly.
Or, as Dagradi whimsically puts it, “We’re getting old enough to be rediscovered.”
NEW ORLEANS IN CHICAGO
Unofficially, November is shaping up as New Orleans Jazz Month in Chicago, with some of the city’s best players heading here:
Astral Project. The modern jazz quintet plays Nov. 1 and 2 at the Green Mill Jazz Club, 4802 N. Broadway (773-878-5552) and Nov. 3 at FitzGerald’s, 6615 W. Roosevelt Rd., Berwyn (708-788-2118).
Henry Butler. One of the most brilliant pianists in jazz, Butler plays Nov. 8 and 9 at the Green Mill.
Nicholas Payton. The exceptional New Orleans trumpeter brings his group Nov. 5 through 10 for the first time to the Jazz Showcase, 59 W. Grand Ave. (312-670-BIRD).
