Yonder Mountain’s Jolliff buddies up
The late 1980s were a good vintage in western Oregon. Not wine, bluegrass.
Three of the four members of the Jacob Jolliff Band, a developing side project fronted by Yonder Mountain String Band mandolinist and vocalist Jacob Jolliff, hail from the corridor between Corvallis and Portland.
Jolliff enjoys national prominence with Yonder Mountain, an electrified bluegrass/Americana quintet that crosses over to the jam scene and is a fixture at large halls and major festivals, but relishes the opportunity to step out of the spotlight and gather around a single mike with three of his closest friends.
The material is a mix of original instrumentals and cover songs, often heavily rearranged, culled from pop radio, jazz and the back catalog of the bluegrass/Americana songbook, affording these world-class players a platform for extended improvisation.
“In some ways it’s a more traditional bluegrass band than Yonder or Joy Kills Sorrow, but in other ways it’s the most progressive thing I’ve been part of,” Jolliff says. “I feel really fortunate to have the guys touring with me that I do. They’re about as good as it gets in terms of improvising acoustic musicians, which gives me constant inspiration in the moment and also inspiration to keep on practicing and getting better myself.”
A chance to see musicians of this caliber up close, in their prime and in their comfort zone, is rare. But Bay Area listeners get two such opportunities this weekend when Jolliff, violinist Alex Hargreaves, bassist Jeff Picker and guitarist Stash Wyslouch roll into town for small club dates at San Francisco’s Neck of the Woods on Saturday, Feb. 17, and at San Jose’s Cafe Stritch on Sunday, Feb. 18, part of this year’s San Jose Jazz Winter Fest.
Bandleader Jolliff grew up in the town of Newberg, Ore., about an hour southwest of Portland. His father, Bill, set him on his musical path when he gave Jacob, then age 7, a mandolin and instructions to practice 10 minutes a day. That length of time grew steadily and has become ritual, with practice and work ethic an emphatic refrain in conversations with the two Jolliffs.
By the time Jolliff was 9 years old, he was performing at churches and festivals with his father. “It was my first gigging experience, and I made a lot of friends on the national bluegrass scene going to festivals and playing contests and things like that,” recalls Jolliff.
One such lasting friendship is with Hargreaves, Jolliff ’s bandmate and current Brooklyn roommate, who grew up nearby in Corvallis.
Hargreaves is a member of the Turtle Island String Quartet, an in-demand session player, and in Jolliff ’s words “one of the best musicians I’ve ever known and widely touted as the best fiddle player of his generation.”
After being home-schooled through high school, Jolliff was awarded a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, a seemingly unlikely destination for a bluegrass picker. But the fortuitous arrival of like-minded musicians took on its own momentum.
After graduation and six years on the road with Boston bluegrass/Americana band Joy Kills Sorrow, Jolliff moved to his current home of Brooklyn, where he met bassist and Portland native Picker, renowned on both coasts for his work in the jazz idiom.
“I take a lot of pride in being part of the generation of pickers (including Hargreaves and Wyslouch) that got there when I did,” he says. “... I feel like I lucked out with the crew of folks that I came up with there.”
What Jolliff may not realize is that it’s not luck — he’s the catalyst with just the right combination of enthusiasm, humility, and a tireless and contagious work ethic that has gotten him and his band this far.
Of course, he’ll never take the credit and will insist on pointing the spotlight at his hometown, childhood chums. “The single biggest thing to ensure that you’re progressing as a musician is having peers like that around.” Joshua Zucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jzucker@sfchronicle.com