LETTING THE MUSIC LEAD
Basilaris Trio to play at Thirsty Eye Brewing on June 24
The pandemic affected the world. For Scott Jacobsen and Lukas Scarpetta, the two musicians utilized the down time to create a new musical outfit called Basilaris Trio.
After nearly a year of performing together, the pair was joined by Mike Jaramillo, thus rounding out the trio again.
“We had a lot of ideas for songs and we started playing together a couple times a week,” Jacobsen says. “We bounced ideas off of each other and it all seemed to work.”
The Basilaris Trio has performed around town since 2021. The trio will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, June 24, at Thirsty Eye Brewing, 206 Broadway Blvd. SE. The band took its name from the plant, which is a cactus. They describe their music being beautiful with an edge.
Scarpetta says he and Jacobsen started out doing improvisations.
“By the time we had a drummer involved, we had a good set of ideas,” Scarpetta says. “Mike has been with us since the end of 2021 and he’s brought in some great ideas to the table.”
Scarpetta and Jacobsen say it’s difficult to place the trio in a genre.
“If someone had to put us in a group, it would be jazz fusion,” Scarpetta says. “We’re not trying to follow a genre. We’ll go in whatever direction the song requires. We’re piano, bass and drums, with some sax thrown in.”
Scarpetta says the trio recently finished recording its debut album which will be out later this year.
“It’s exciting to be able to create music from nothing,” Scarpetta says.
Each of the members has an extensive background in music.
Jacobsen grew up in Albuquerque, where he started playing piano at the age of 6.
While at the University of New Mexico, he came into demand as a pianist accompanying fellow students for their degree recitals. At first it was playing the same pieces he’d learned earlier on saxophone but he soon diversified his repertoire and now works steadily collaborating with students of all instruments.
Meanwhile Scarpetta began playing music when he was 9 — starting with the trumpet.
He was encouraged to move to French horn by his band teacher and friend, Byron Herrington, and he enjoyed playing classical music in the Albuquerque Youth Symphony Program.
He discovered the wonders of the electric bass one morning in 2001, when he was playing trumpet in the Jefferson Middle School Jazz band, and he has been a bassist ever since.
Jaramillo has toured throughout the Southwest and West Coast. He often performs in jazz, Latin, funk, hip hop and reggae.
“When we’re on stage, everything is nonverbal,” Jacobsen says. “We’re able to communicate with each other without saying a word. We let the music lead the way for us.”