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PHOTOS: Skerik’s Bandalabra @ Cozmic (Eugene, OR – 3/20/12)

23rd Mar 12 (Fri) Leave a comment

Seattle-based jazz/groove saxophonist Skerik brought his new band Bandalabra through Eugene’s Cozmic Pizza on their debut tour / West Coast CD release.  The quartet made up of Skerik (sax), Dvonne Lewis (drums), Evan Flory-Barnes (bass), and Andy Coe (guitar) played two sets (over two hours) full of loops, noises, experimentation, funk, jazz and groove.  Their debut CD, Live at the Royal Room, can be purchased at shows and probably soon via Skerik’s website.

SKERIK’S BANDALABRA PHOTOS
all pictures (cc) 2012 Daniel Temmesfeld,
you may use freely under a creative commons attribution

(click for larger)

The Appropriate Linkage:

Check out more tour dates below.

Next show for me… Ani DiFranco at the Roseland (Portland) on 3/31.

~Dan – np: Silver Mt. ZionBorn Into Trouble As the Sparks Fly Upward

Skerik’s Bandalabra Spring 2012 Tour Dates

  • Thursday March 15 – Conway, WA @ Conway Muse
  • Friday March 16 – Olympia, WA @ Olympia Ballroom
  • Saturday March 17 – Seattle @ Nectar
  • Sunday March 18 – Bend @ Players
  • Monday March 19 – Welches @ Skyway
  • Tuesday March 20 – Eugene, OR @ Cozmic
  • Wednesday March 21 – Applegate @ Applegate Lodge
  • Thursday March 22 – Arcata @ Jambalaya
  • Friday March 23 – Sacramento @ Harlow’s
  • Saturday March 24 – San Francisco @ Boom Boom Room
  • Sunday March 25 – Los Angeles @ Bacchanal
  • Monday March 26 – Los Angeles @ The Mint
  • Tuesday March 27 – San Diego @ Winstons
  • Thursday March 29 – Portland, OR @ Goodfoot

REVIEW: Jeffrey Foucault @ Cozmic Pizza (Eugene, OR – 10/20/11)

21st Oct 11 (Fri) 1 comment

FYI… PHOTOS of the SHOW at the BOTTOM

I’ve been to many shows at Cozmic Pizza in downtown Eugene, but this was my first time in their newly remodeled place.  Great new ordering queue/system, same great beer & pizza, great new stage, great new sound system.  I can’t recommend the new digs enough!!  On to the show…

I got there right after sound check… chatted with some folks, ordered some grub, an settled in for the opener.  Jeffery Martin, from Eugene, played about a half hour set.  His sound fit well with Jeffrey Foucault’s… Jeff #1 had an earthy, folky, Americana storyteller vibe.  He didn’t necessarily “jump out” at me, but many singer-songwriters can bore.  Bottom line: I’d see Jeffery Martin again.  He was solid at his craft.  He’s local; so I’ll most likely get a chance to see him again soon.

Jeffrey Foucault hit the stage shortly after 9.  He had slide guitarist Jay Carter (?) with him for most of the set.  They had just met / played together for the first time at the Seattle show.  Despite their newness, they worked well together.  The set contained a lot of the material (8 songs) from Jeffrey’s latest album, Horse Latitudes (samples via image to the right).  Jeffrey showcased his gritty, superb storytelling in his lyrics and was in a good jokey spirit in between songs.

Foucault’s Setlist: about an hour

  • Last Night I Dreamed of Television
  • Goners Most
  • Starlight and Static
  • Pretty Girl in a Small Town
  • Passerines
  • Horse Latitudes
  • “Statesboro Blues” [Chris Dombrowski poem]
  • Twice I Left Her
  • Mesa, Arizona
  • Sixteen Tons [Merle Travis]
  • The Bluest Blade
  • Idaho
  • Everybody’s Famous
  • Encore: I Won’t Back Down [Tom Petty]

The encore was dedicated to Tom Petty – as his birthday is October 20th.  The only disappointment of the night (well, once the loud couple was told to shut up by a fellow audience member) was that Ryan Adams was playing down the street at the Shedd at the same time as Foucault’s gig.  I actually had a ticket to see Ryan Adams, but when I found out about Jeffery playing, I sold it (the heart wants what the heart wants).  Jeffrey’s audience was a little sparse due to that scheduling coincidence (I think there’s some good crossover between the two artists).

more photos below

The Appropriate Linkage:

Check Jeffrey’s remaining 2011 tour dates below.

Next show for me… a house show with Gonzalo Bergara Quartet on 10/23 Sunday in Eugene.

~Dan – np: Puscifer Conditions of My Parole

JEFFREY FOUCAULT PHOTOS
all pictures (cc) 2011 Daniel Temmesfeld,
you may use freely under a creative commons attribution

(click for larger)

Jeffrey Foucault Fall 2011 Tour

  • 10.18.11 Seattle, WA Fremont Abbey With Danny Barnes
  • 10.19.11 Portland, OR The Woods Shelley Short opens
  • 10.20.11 Eugene, OR Cozmic Pizza Jeffery Martin opens
  • 10.21.11 Arcata, CA Arcata Playhouse Rorey Carroll opens
  • 10.24.11 Felton, CA Don Quixote’s International Music
  • 10.25.11 San Francisco, CA Cafe Du Nord Kate Gaffney opens
  • 11.05.11 Fall River, MA Narrows Center for the Arts Support to Rosanne Cash
  • 12.01.11 Portland, ME One Longfellow Square Seven Curses with Mark Erelli
  • 12.02.11 Brooklyn, NY Union Hall Seven Curses with Mark Erelli
  • 12.03.11 Pawtucket, RI Stone Soup Coffeehouse Seven Curses with Mark Erelli
  • 12.08.11 Evanston, IL SPACE
  • 12.13.11 Marshfield, WI Vox Concert Series Hayward Williams opens

REVIEW: Portland Cello Project & Emily Wells @ Cozmic Pizza (Eugene, OR – 6/13/09)

14th Jun 09 (Sun) Leave a comment

I first heard of Portland Cello Project via cellist Anna Fritz.  Her 2005 album Wake featured a couple of songs with singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey guesting, of whom I had been a longtime fan already.  Anyway, shortly thereafter, Anna Fritz was posting on her MySpace page about this new band that she was in, the Portland Cello Project.  They kept playing around on times that I couldn’t see them… so last night was the first official time for me to see them, though I guess I’ve been a fan for a while.

We showed up around 8:30 to a beyond packed house.  Oh crap, I underestimated the draw of the PCP on a Saturday night in Eugene.  Emily Wells was into her set, and some of the PCP was sitting in on her set.  Great stuff… enough to buy her Symphonies album.  I hope she comes around Eugene or Portland again… I loved her sound.

The Portland Cello Project came on around 9:30.  Their sound seemed very much standard “chamber music” until they hit the more energetic Pantera and Dave Brubeck pieces.  PCP pulls off the “modern / alternative chamber music” sound pretty well without getting lumped into the sometimes cheesy Apocalyptica and the almost always cheesy “String Quartet Tribute to…” compilations.  PCP had a mix of classical, jazz, rougher music, tween pop with John Brophy, and indie rock (the songs featuring Justin Power on guitar & voice)… seemed to be enjoyed by the very large, very diverse crowd…

Setlist: (per the PCP blog)

  • Collaborations with Emily Wells
  • The Batman Theme Song (by Danny Elfman)
  • Turkish Wine (by Norfolk and Western)
  • Denmark (by Gideon Freudmann)
  • Mouth for War (by Pantera)
  • Take 5 (by Dave Brubeck Quartet)
  • A piece by Ashia
  • Ashia and Justin Power playing Hungry Liars
  • Two more Justin Power pieces!
  • Toxic (by Britney Spears) featuring John Brophy
  • What Goes Around…/…Comes Back around (by Justin Timberlake) featuring John Brophy
  • Push-it (by Salt N Pepa) featuring John Brophy and Emily Wells
  • 3 pieces collaborating with Run-On Sentence
  • Encore: Transformation from The Dream: A Three Movement Suite for Cellos, Mallet Percussion, and Drum Set by Rachel Blumberg

We stuck around through the Justin Timberlake tune (it had been a long day).  Great stuff all around.  I was very impressed with Emily Wells set (never heard of her before), and the size of the crowd at Cozmic.  I mean, seriously, I’ve never seen that many people packed in there.  It was great to see so many people out there, but I’m wondering how they heard about it.  Here I was thinking I’d show up at 8:30 and get right in…

Next time, I’ll know to show up early for PCP in Eugene.

The Appropriate Linkage:

~Dan – np: FlaregunTen Sundays

REVIEW: Richard Crandell @ Cozmic Pizza (Eugene, OR – – 9/13/08)

14th Sep 08 (Sun) 2 comments

I had Richard Crandell‘s Mbira Magic (Tzadik 2004) back when I lived in Ohio.  I had no idea that he was from Eugene, OR.  I happened upon a listing of a performance he did earlier this spring at Saturday Market, but a day late.  When I saw that he was playing yesterday at Cozmic Pizza for free… well, I jumped (and bike rode 2+ miles) at the opportunity.

Richard Crandell gave us a solid hour of full on metal.  Well, fingers on metal. :)


mbira: the instrument of choice

He plays the mbira (a “thumb piano” pictured above), and he’s quite good.  His compositions are very melodic, and his technique is quite fluid.  It’s almost as if the instrument is part of him.  He was carrying on a conversation with the sound guy when he ran into some technical difficulties, playing all the while.

Anyway, he played from around 1 to 2pm and played 9 songs… the ones he mentioned the names to are:

  • Bells
  • Missing in London
  • Spring Steel (based on the Japanese pentatonic scale)
  • Ghost Writers in the Sky

all pictures (cc) 2008 Daniel Temmesfeld,
you may use freely under a creative commons attribution

One of the songs that he didn’t mention the name had a mbira loop played behind his live mbira, and he used a guitar finger pick to create a nice additional percussion to the loop.  His records are good as well (but mbira is more interesting to see live, IMO)…  his most recent, Spring Steel, features Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista.  Cyro’s fantastic… either with Beat the Donkey, Supergenerous, Electric Masada, Marc Ribot, or many of John Zorn’s pieces…

Richard Crandell’s records

His websites:

~Dan – np: MetallicaDeath Magnetic

PS– whoa, completely unrelated, the new Metallica album, Death Magnetic, actually sounds… really… good.  It’s been 20 years since that’s happened… too bad the album cover looks like they didn’t pay their invoices timely to the graphic artist.  It’s crap, as has been expected with Metallica for the past 17 years.  But when it comes down to the music, it’s finally not rubbish.

REVIEW: Bill Mallonee of the Vigilantes of Love @ Cozmic Pizza (Eugene, OR – – 7/14/08)

16th Jul 08 (Wed) Leave a comment

I showed up just as the opener, The Old Believers, was going on. Their first few songs were just a girl-n-guy folk thing. Later they added two friends (one on keys, one on bass). They branched out into a very fun, very catchy quirky folk ensemble. Great for fans of Sufjan Stevens or Daniel Smith (ie- Danielson Familie). They played right around 30-40 minutes. I gave all of my remaining cash to Bill Mallonee/Muriah Rose; otherwise I’d have picked up one of their CDs. Anyway, The Old Believers… GREAT STUFF. Formerly from Alaska, currently from Portland, OR. Check ’em out on MySpace… The Old Believers (not just Old Believers).

Bill Mallonee and his wife Muriah Rose came on around 10pm… and they played for about an hour (which was a good amount for a Monday night). This was my 9th time seeing Bill (sometimes with a band, Vigilantes of Love, sometimes solo, and sometimes as a solo artist with a band – not VOL). I’d primarily seen him in the Midwest (OH, KY, IL, IN). Probably my favorite time seeing him was on the 1999 Audible Sigh tour with Kenny Hutson on slide guitar and Jake Bradley on bass (and some fuzzy dude on drums, I’m forgetting his name). Anyway, last night’s show, while way stripped down, had a really good intimate feel. This is probably due to it being my first time seeing him with his wife play with him (she sang backing vocals and played keyboard). They had good chemistry, and they played a great mix of songs.

Oh, for any VOL-heads, there’s now a 4th version of Audible Sigh :) I didn’t pick it up, as I think I had everything from it (Room Despair -EP- plus demos from the AS sessions & maybe some live from the era). He sure knows how to milk that record, but at least it’s one of my fav Bill/VOL albums (along with Blister Soul, Welcome to Struggleville & Slow Dark Train). Heck, I have three different versions of the Audible Sigh album on my CD rack. :).

The setlist: (about an hour of tunes)

  1. Solar System (*great tune*)
  2. Goes Without Saying
  3. High and Lonesome
  4. Nothing Like a Train
  5. Bottoming Out
  6. Skin (**my fav of the night**)
  7. Bank (“unintentionally acoustic” after amp blew out unexpectedly… Bill came down into the crowd to finish the song off)
  8. Resplendent (*great tune*)
  9. Flowers

My only disappointment for the night? They didn’t play “Bearin’ the Load.” ;).

Well, great show. I hope he can make it back to Oregon again (from his home of Georgia). I won’t hold it against him if he doesn’t. That’s a lot of gas money. I’ll be grateful if he does make it back, though.

The Appropriate Linkage:

Taking dead aim at preachers…

~Dan – np: R.E.M.Accelerate

REVIEW: Raquy & the Cavemen @ Cozmic Pizza (Eugene, OR – – 4/30/08)

1st May 08 (Thu) Leave a comment

Raquy and the Cavemen put on a great show last night at Cozmic Pizza. They had put out two CDs since we saw them last time in Cincinnati; so we snagged those (2007’s Naked & 2008’s Mischief). They played almost exclusively from those two CDs (per Raquy & Liron’s onstage banter).

The band is made up of Raquy (pronounced “Rocky”) on dumbek and kemanche (not to be confused with a jalebi); Liron on dumbek, guitar, and riq; and Nezih (per their webpage) on riq, davul, and dumbek. Liron was dred-free since the last time we saw him… he got shorn last time he passed through Cincinnati by the Gaiananda peeps.

Their first few tunes featured Raquy beautifully on kemanche (a violin-type instrument), and she switched between the kemanche and dumbek throughout the night. About three or four songs in, they played a song that featured all three members on a drum of some sort, and it was mezmerizing how in-sync and fast they played. They cued each other with quick hand signals and eye movements, and they played wicked fast (at least for my fat little fingers to try to do).

After about 40 minutes (or so), they invited Eugene-based bellydance troupe Tribalation (led by Sabine) to dance along to the tunes. Tribalation danced to about 4 songs (one with Sabine doing some amazing dual-sword work). The end of the show had about 2 or 3 “open dance” songs. This was clearly right up my alley… as I did the “take the plates to the bin and napkins to the trash candance that I learned as a young child growing up in Nigeria*.

We also found out that Raquy has a sister who lives in Eugene (she ran merch last night). That’s exciting, because it means that these Brooklynites make their way here at least once a year. :-)

The appropriate linkage:

I’d post some of our own pictures of the show… alas, they were all either dark (due to the flash & low stage lighting) or blurry (due to no flash).

~Dan – np: Dub TrioAnother Sound is Dying


*- NOTE: I am from Nigeria, I did take plates and napkins away… alas, it wasn’t a dance.

meaty Reptet, naked Raquy, and Gratuitous French Fries

30th Apr 08 (Wed) Leave a comment

REPTET. Great jazz band that lives about 4.5 hours too far away from me. Alas, they’ve been down this way (Eugene) from their way (Seattle) once lately (see review here). Great improvisors, great songwriters, great musicians. They’ve got a new album out. It’s great. It’s called Chicken or Beef?. My ears aren’t vegetarians. It’s quite delicious.

email “reptet @ hotmail (.) com” to see how to get ahold of a copy of Chicken or Beef?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RAQUY and the Cavemen
… tonight at Cozmic Pizza… look for a review tomorrow. Seen her and her band of misfits a few times in Cincinnati. They’re always a treat, plus they’ve put out 2 CDs since we last saw ’em… gather together in a cave and groove with a pict

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Free French Fries are the opener for Peter Mulvey who is the opener for Patty Larkin… Thursday at WOW Hall. Peter Mulvey is one of my favorite singer-songwriters… ever. Great vocals, great guitarist (and his backing guitarist Goody is also wicked good, but not with him on this tour). Oh, and all you coupon haters can hate my cajun french fry fingers… foo! So, yeah, it’s all about literally free french fries via coupon (from The Vintage, who makes great cajun french fries & food and has great local beer on tap), not a band named Free French Fries. Though that would be cool in its own right… anyway, look for a review on Friday…


~Dan – np: ReptetChicken or Beef?

email “reptet @ hotmail (.) com” to see how to get ahold of a copy of Chicken or Beef?

mini-REVIEW: Dominique Leone @ Cozmic Pizza (Eugene, OR – – 4/2/08)

3rd Apr 08 (Thu) Leave a comment

mini-REVIEW: Slavic Soul Party! @ Cozmic Pizza (Eugene, OR – – 2/28/08)

2nd Mar 08 (Sun) Leave a comment

well, in keeping with an unwritten “review the shows I see” pact… here’s a mini review…

Slavic Soul Party! at Cozmic Pizza on Thursday was fantastic. They went on shortly after 9:30, took a short break, and then started a 2nd set. I had to leave at 11pm (I was heading up to Seattle the next day for school). Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed their music. They are a 9-piece instrumental band with an occassional singer on a little bit less than half of their songs (the singer was also fantastic). The nine-pieces: drum-mer, snare-drum-mer, tuba-er, trombone-r x 2, trumpet-er x 2, clarinet/saxophon-ist, and accordion-squeezer.

At one point, they invited musicians from UOregon to join them for a song (SSP! taught a ‘master’s class’ that day at the university). With UO musicians, they had 21 people playing a tune, complete with student and band member trumpet solos.

gypsy funk balkan soul“… Fun stuff… check them out on the MySpaces: http://www.myspace.com/slavicsoulparty

~Dan – np: Osso plays Sufjan on WNYC

REVIEW: Peter Evans & Dave Swigart @ Cozmic Pizza (Eugene, OR – – 2/4/08)

8th Feb 08 (Fri) 2 comments

Randomingly spotting of a picture of a guy with a trumpet in Eugene Weekly led to quite an enjoyable evening of music. I imagine I’ll be seeing a lot of artists at Cozmic Pizza over the coming years while I’m here in Eugene. I love the beer, pizza, and desserts. And they bring in some great musical talent, and quite frequently get good jazz artists in the door as well. Monday’s show was no different… pizza, beer and jazz.

Opener: Dave Swigart Collective / Quintet / Group / Whathaveyou put on a great set. Dave Swigart is a UO music student, and his ensemble, while young, has some great chops. The quintet (I didn’t write names down) was comprised of Dave Swigart on trumpet, and then a saxophonist, guitarist, upright bassist, and drummer. Dave’s got some MySpace profiles up (hereand here), and I hope to check him out again soon.

The group played for about an hour, playing some standards and originals: “In a Silent Way” (Miles Davis/Joe Zawinul), “The Fragile” (NIN), “Salad Song” (with some nice Zorn-y sax work), “Strange Day,” “Johnsburg, Illinois” (Tom Waits), “Grocery Shop, Funky? A Little?” (smooth), and “Dream Comes Play With Me” (Cuong Vu).

Peter Evans (MySpaceand hereand also here) came on around 10:20pm. I stayed until about 11pm… as he blasted his solo trumpet improv. Being a fan of the downtown (NYC) jazz scene, his experimental solo trumpet was right up my alley. It was a little loud at times (I was too close to a speaker), but luckily I had my Hearos. He played one continuous onslaught that can best be described as this:

extreme improvisational breathing exercise, bleating grinding, potential classic guide to strategy volume four, old-timey record player, screeching painful gristle, atari missile command, wind tunnel, a jungle after chili night, valve open waterfall, rainstorm, sloppy grandma kisses, divingboard installer, wackamole with creaky pipes, motorcycle reving with an enigamtic invisible echoplex, twenty-five minutes in this surprisingly sounds like a trumpet, muzzled creepy, muted, like comparing apples to brake fluid adventure…

Great show all around… I wish I could have stayed longer, alas it was a school night…

~Dan – np: David BuchbinderOdessa/Havana

the guy with the shirt, the other guy with the pipe, and the guy with the hat walk into a bar

24th Jan 08 (Thu) Leave a comment

Three blogs within 24 hours… oy, not a good sign.

Anyway, I’m exicted about two more shows coming up (I love living in a cool college town)…

NYC trumpeter Peter Evans is playing at Cozmic Pizza on Monday, Feb 4th. He’s adventurous, he’s played with John Zorn in the past (yay), and his band projects (Mostly Other People Do the Killing and Spärks) sound cool, too.

http://www.myspace.com/peterevanstrumpet
http://www.myspace.com/mostlyotherpeopledothekilling
http://www.myspace.com/nycsparks

And then… That1Guy and Buckethead on the same bill (Eugene’s McDonald Theatre on Saturday, March 22nd). Cool. It’s the Saturday after finals… and my wife says she’s up for the challenge (she likes That1Guy enough, but has only really been “confronted” by Buckethead’s calmer stuff… as it’s good for massages and our weddings CDs, but not what he really does “in concert,” per se). :-)

http://www.myspace.com/that1guy
http://www.myspace.com/bucketheadfann
http://www.myspace.com/bucketheadnfriends

~Dan

REVIEW: Eric John Kaiser @ Cozmic Pizza (Eugene, OR – – 1/17/08)

18th Jan 08 (Fri) Leave a comment

Well, this was my first show of 2008…

Eric John Kaiser played tonight at Cozmic Pizza. One of the best things about living in a small town is that we can catch an early show (7pm), have a wonderful meal (pesto, artichoke, garlic, vegan-cheese & kalamata pizza with a wonderful pint of local Ninkasi stout), and still be home by 9pm. Fuck yeah.

Anyway, I literally first heard of Eric John Kaiser {heretofore known as “EJK”} about a week ago. He sent me a potentially (but ultimately not) dreaded “friend request.” You know, those friend requests “from bands” you might like. Well, I usually give them a 4 second listen then mark them “DELTEATED.” Well, EJK’s music ended up being quite good… I’ve got a soft spot for French music (Jeanne Cherhal, Yann Tiersen… um… yeah, those two). And, whoa… he (EJK) is from Portland-OR (though born and raised in Paris-FR). And he was playing Cozmic Pizza in literally a week.

Well, I literally went to the show. And it was literally good. Literally.

We left at the first break (8:30pm or so), but got a good hour+ of music. he played some tunes from his CD (L’ODyssée) that I recognized… “L’animal blessé” and “Le Puzzle” (a least). He also played a french version of “Sweet Home Alabama” and a took-us-almost-all-song-to-figure-out-what-it-was version of André3000‘s “Hey Ya!” :-)

Overall a great show, great performer, and great CD (I heart CDBaby).

Next show(s): maybe UO/LCC Jazz Fest tomorrow or Saturday (if any of the artists strike my fancy)… maybe 3 Leg Torso the following Saturday… or maybe next monf’s PDX Jazz Fest (Ornette Coleman, Dave Douglas/SFJAZZ Collective, and Belà Fleck/Flecktones/Oregon Symphony Orchestra… all of which I’m mucho excitedo).

Upcoming CD(s): ah geez… the first of the 2008 Tzadik‘s have been physically conjured by the best non-for-profit (by design) record company ever… new John Zorn (Filmworks XIX: Dimitri Geller’s The Rain Horse) and Sex Mob frontman/trumpet-feasin’ Steven Bernstein‘s Diaspora Suite

~Dan – np: The Geologic Podcast 49

REVIEW: Reptet @ Cozmic Pizza (Eugene, OR – – 12/9/07)

12th Dec 07 (Wed) 1 comment

Well, the first thing I want to say is “shame on you, Eugene.” Just because school is out, that’s no reason to not hang about town to hear some wonderful music!! The crowd at Cozmic Pizza was very small on this particular Sunday evening… which I blame on school letting out only 2 days prior, this being primarily a college town, and Sunday night at 9pm not being conducive to concert-going anyhow. Cozmic is usually hoppin’ (and a great place to get a local Oatmeal Stout and a great slice of pizza). Cozmic also having nutritional yeast available on their condiment rack is niiiice. Regardless of the lackluster crowd size, the band played on and seemed to be having a wonderful time trying out some new tunes for us.

The band was/is a sextet from Seattle comprised of Izaak Mills on reeds (sax & clarinet) & flute, Samantha Boshnack on various horns (primarily trumpet), Christopher Credit on reeds (sax & clarinet) and a (mini) trombone, Nelson Bell on trombone & tuba, Tim Carey on bass (upright & electric), and John Ewing on drums. All members tended to throw their hat into the percussion ring throughout the night. They played for just over an hour solid.

The tunes I jotted down that they played: “Eve of Threve”, “Chicken or Beef”, and “Fish Market.” They also played a latin-sounding number, a rabbit/carrot number and few other tunes mixed in. They were fun on stage, cheering and ranting and even walking around the room on the last number. Solid musicianship, great songs, fun stage presence, and adventurous without “gettin’ all Zorn” on us (not that I’d mind that, though). :) Reptet is not smooth jazz*, but rather an adventurous sextet with great sense of melody and playfulness.
*-Thankfully.

After talking to the band after the show, apparently the whole set was new tracks for the upcoming 3rd album. I recognized some of the names of the songs due to downloading them from the Monktail website (here).

Anyway, I fully recommend both of Reptet’s releases thus far… Reptet (2003) and Do This! (2006). Both are available online for a great package price… ie- “a steal.” I also recommend seeing them live when they come around your neck of the woods… they’re playing down the West Coast as I type this.

/

Check ’em out online… Reptet & MCMC…
http://www.reptet.com/
http://myspace.com/reptet (free samples)
http://www.monktail.com/ (their collaborative group/record label… tons of free tunes)
http://myspace.com/monktail (more free samples)

I’m definitely looking forward to Reptet album 3… and more Oregon visits from them. I just hope we [Oregon] show up next time.

Concerts coming up tomorrow… a free jazz show (by the Shedd Jazz Ensemble) at the 5th Street Public Market in downtown Eugene… and then David Bazan (the Pedro the Lion guy) at the Indigo District for $8. Not a bad deal, in either case. Look for a Pedro review later this week…

~Dan – np: Ken AndrewsSecrets of the Lost Satellite Tour